Charlotte au Chocolat

oh man…this one…ysaurella you are the best! She saved the last little bit of this one so that i could try it and i am loving it! I prefer it to florence from harney and sons, and i think i could even get my other half to drink this instead of hot chocolate. This is a great example of a chocolate tea that is really great!

First I need to say I’ve always been suspicious with the idea of chocolate flavor for teas.
Each time I was seeing such a flavor on a package, I didn’t purchase it.
I like to drink hot chocolate with milk and tea + chocolate was little weird to me.

But I am curious and however now we can see more and more chocolaty teas (chocolateas ?)

I decided to taste this one because of the ratings here and because I never had a Dammann Frères I didn’t like.

I really appreciated it even if to me the only flavor I get is chocolate. I cannot pick out the almonds (I regret it because I love almonds so much)

The tea base is very sweet and smooth without any bitterness.

The tea is absolutely mellow and sweet.

Dedicated to the chocolatea lovers.

But between this tea and a cup of real hot chocolate, I would still take the real chocolate…too bad for calories !

PS : my daughter is in love with it (she’s 10 and like to taste my cups of teas)

Chocolate perfection in a cup.

This chocolate blend is unbelievable. Smooth, decadent, sugary heaven! Both the leaves and the liquor smell like chocolate cotton candy. It might sound crazy, but I distinctly smell that “spun sugar” smell. Very intriguing. I tried the tea plain at first, but I just knew in my heart that it needed milk and sugar. I couldn’t have been more right. Haha! It’s not a rich as a cup of hot chocolate might be, but it’s damn close. The almond is slightly present but everything takes a back seat to the chocolate. I had to google “helianthus” to see what kind of flavor it might yield. Turns out that helianthus = Sunflower. I learned something new. I can’t say that I particularly tasted notes of sunflower…unless I automatically associated it with the general nuttiness of the almond. I’m so happy with this tea. Charlotte au Chocolat is masterfully blended. Today was truly a “tea experience”. All of you Florence lovers really need to try this tea.

Thank you so much Doulton!!! What a gem!

This one called to me today, along with the Caramel-Toffee, another from the marvelous Dammann Freres buying group Doulton organized.

The chocolate in the dry mixture has a somewhat less intense nose than does Florence, which is what this seems to be asking to be compared to out of my recent tasting experience. They’re both chocolate and nut mixes, though different nuts and Charlotte has some flowers added as well. While the chocolate in Florence has a deep, dark smell, this one has a lighter, more milky smell to it. I can smell the almond, too. It is also a less intense fragrance than the hazelnut of Florence.

Although I feared that steeping might dilute these more delicate fragrances too much, the tea’s aroma is quite nommy. The fragrance of the tea has filled in any gaps that might have needed filling. It’s a deeper aroma now, chocolate and tea, with a very high floral note and a slightly less high almond note.

I don’t think this is as chocolately as Florence, or as nutty. But that’s ok. This has what, for lack of a better phrase, I keep referring to as that “black tea French blend thing.” It’s very obviously tea, a smooth, deep, tasty black tea, with a sweet, chocolatey taste at the tail of the sip and an almond overlay that sits over the taste from beginning to end. The fact that the chocolate is a less intense part of the flavor profile makes it possible to enjoy this without evening thinking about adding milk.

It’s definitely yum, but it’s not so much a Florence alternative as it is something that can peacefully coexist in a chocolate/nut/tea lover’s cupboard along with Florence.

Thank you to Doulton for sending me a bit of this tea!

My initial reaction when I took my first sip was “YUM!” This is really good. The chocolate is rich and the almond flavor is sweet and nutty and these two flavors meld perfectly with the Keemun tea. This is a yummy, robust cup of tea!

Those brothers Dammann sure know their tea!

I’m enjoying this “greedy blend”. The dry tea smells like dark, rich chocolate. Brewed, it is full and chocolate-y. I cannot really detect the other flavors side from a very faint whiff of almond. I added milk at the end and it tasted like a rich hot chocolate with black tea highlights.

It’s really enjoyable and makes me feel “greedy” as advertised. I might need to reorder this.

I felt terrible for not loving this right away like other reviewers seemed to do. The first pot I made was so strong that I was certain there was Assam in the base. I looked at the review and saw that it is Keemun instead. Ah, that explains it. Though I love Fujian province teas, I have not yet developed a taste for the stronger Keemuns, and this is one of them. I love Harney’s English Breakfast which is 100% Keemun, but I take it with milk and sugar. I didn’t care for their Hao Ya A or B, though I liked Mao Feng. Hao Ya A from Southern Season is very mild compared to Harney’s, and youngest and I like it better, though a Keemun lover would be disappointed in it I expect.

I decided to reduce my steeping temp just a bit to around 205 degrees and reduce the time to 3 1/2 minutes. Now I have something I can drink even plain! It has less body, but is still quite bracing.
I have a good friend who comes over for tea who is probably going to love this one. It reminds me of coffee, and she is a former coffee drinker.

Youngest found it too sweet, but then she has never had a chocolate tea that she liked, and drinks very little flavored tea at all, preferring lapsangs and Assams.

Had this tea in the afternoon as suggested by DF. Certainly a perfect way to celebrate the end of my workday-excercise hour…Very chocolatey. Of course, I added milk and sugar which made this even more like a sweet treat. I could not detect the almond flavors but instead detected caramel?

Big big thank you to lori for this one.
I have been waiting anxiously to try this tea.. and happily, I did this evening! I tried the tea without any milk or sugar just to see how it was on its own. Delicious. I love the flavors! It seemed to be a smooth black tea taste with just a bit of natural sweetness and almost a bakery-type flavor at the end. The black tea was not overpowering or bitter (even without sugar!). I’m sure it would be even MORE rich with milk and sugar. I almost don’t want to spoil it with additions! This cup was like nothing I have tried. It has a really mellow and complex taste. Very yummy. Definitely excited to drink this one again and again. I’ll have to purchase this!

This is my first tasting note and it’s making me strangely nervous. I am still working out what kinds of tea I like (but then – isn’t everyone?) AND how to prepare them properly/to my liking, so I don’t feel quite ‘qualified’ to be assessing a tea, but here we go!

I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago and raided Mariage Freres. I only found out about them because of Steepster, so – thank you Steepster. Then I had to wait for 3 days before I could try any of the teas, since I couldn’t boil water at the hotel. Now that was a mild form of torture. Oh, by the way – does anyone know why tea is so expensive in Parisian cafes? It tends to be around 5-6 (or more) euros per cup.

I absolutely loved MF’s De-stress tea (green & flowery/herby) and Confucius (smokey oolong! the joy!), but while I was decently happy with both Marco Polo and Pleine Lune, I wasn’t over the moon about them. [sorry, couldn’t resist.] I’d always been drawn to flavoured black tea, but with the exception of a whole lot of variations of chais and Earl Greys/citruses, I hadn’t had much luck.

Then I read someone’s comment here about how Dammann does flavoured blacks better than MF, and went ‘Sh&&&&&&&t! And I just got back from Paris!’. Well, turns out there was no cause for alarm, since Dammann ships to all of Europe for free for orders of 40 euros or more, so I notified a couple of tea-lovers-in-training and we ordered ourselves a package.

The package arrived 4 days later, i.e. 20 minutes ago. First thought – getting a package full of tea is BRILLIANT. Second thought – Charlotte au Chocolat!!

THIS BE WHERE THE ACTUAL TEA REVIEW STARTS

This tea smells amazing. Clearly chocolatey, but somehow ‘deeper’. After steeping it smelled even more chocolatey, and still completely lovely. As for the taste, that’s what’s got me here and typing. First of all – it’s delicious. I tried Tesco’s chocolate tea as a first attempt at chocolate teas, and it was actually quite tasty. But this one is nothing like it. It’s much less obvious and much more complex. There was a slightly bitter note, but not in an unpleasant way. There was chocolate – really yummy chocolate – but not in a hot chocolate kind of way. More in a hot cocoa with no milk way, but better. [I actually love no-milk hot cocoa. With tons of sugar, naturally]. And then there was – FIG. Lots of fig.

I couldn’t remember anyone mentioning anything figgy about this tea, just almonds and sunflowers. So I double-checked, and sure enough, no fig mentions. No fig in the ingredients. I even for a second thought I might have accidentally received one of Dammann’s fig teas, but then I remember the strong chocolateness of the smell [and taste] so that wasn’t possible. A tea mystery. But, seeing as I absolutely love fig, all of this just ended up making me very very happy. Especially since the fig flavour is pretty much exactly how I would have hoped a fig tea would end up tasting. A successful flavoured black tea experiment with a fig bonus! Joy.

I first tried the tea plain, then got the craving for something a bit sweeter and creamier and not-at-all bitter, so I added first sugar and then also a bit of milk. Tastes marvelous in all incarnation. Must try this tea again. But before that – I hear Everglad (green tea with pink grapefruit) calling ;)