Charlotte au Chocolat

Tea #14 from HHTTTB2

This is a really nice chocolate tea. And it’s very clear that it’s blended quite masterfully. I’m letting this one go, only because I know Short Sorceress is looking for the perfect chocolate tea!

There is definitely a pretty potent element of roastiness/smoke from the Keemum as well as a solid dark, unsweetened cocoa note. There’s a very slight element of almond present, but everything takes a back seat to the chocolate/tea flavors. Everything is smooth — no bitterness, no astringency — and it’s very mellow. I really like the kind of bakery/pastry note that seems present at the end. Yum.

Picture:

http://bit.ly/18eVN0w

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’ve been wanting to try this one for a while!
And now I have two samples yay. Even more important because at the moment I’m a little holiday drunk.
I drank the dammann Christmas Tea. Then a white russian imperial stout beer named after The Dude in The Big Lebowski. And now I’m drinking my Tony Stark tea as oddree and I watch Pacific Rim and I also read Avengers fic. (Multitasking!) And earlier we watched the original Total Recall.
It’s been a really busy day yo.
I’m having a great time!

Tea #32 from the Here’s Hoping TTB

I generally have a love/hate relationship with chocolate teas. I want to love them, but end up hating nearly all of them for a variety of reasons. This tea really stood out because it wasn’t trying imitate hot chocolate like so many others do. You can clearly taste the chocolate and there is a smoothness about it that reminds me of the texture of chocolate, but overall the flavor is much more subtle, with a hint of nuttiness. What really impressed me is that this was a keemun base, which I don’t normally care for. I’m not overly fond of smoky teas, but the added smoke from the base only improved on my experience with this tea.

I may have to pick some of this up when I go to Paris this June. At the rate I’m going the list of tea I want to bring back is going to be huge!

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!

I can smell a faint chocolate scent in this dry tea. It is still faint when brewed as well. It tastes lightly of chocolate, but there really isn’t any kind of wow in this tea either.

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 ;)

Hardly been reviewing, I am trying to drink through my stash, so nothing new interesting to talk about.(just been followed a lot by spammers on steepster. Steepster and spammers of all things). But this is a rare new purchase and worth writing down my opinion.

It smells fantastic (which was what sold me), like boozey chocolate mousse. It is priced extremely surprising (17.50 euros for 100 grams!), but I was in a Thé du Loup craving mood and I risked buying 50 grams. And it is nice but can’t help feeling how “thin” the Dammann teas taste, how the scent is not there and can end up a bit like drinking scented tannin water…

This is not bad, just a bit disappointing. Particularly for the price!