Chocolate Orange

I probably wouldn’t purchase this tea if I was at a tea house but when I am at a coffee/tea cafe this is a good choice, especially if you are getting tired of having the same selection of Darjeelings and basic greens. (nothing against them but it’s always the only selection!)

This is a full flavor with a taste of orange and chocolate. I am not really sure where the pu erh taste comes in….This seems much more like a black to me.

I have a stock pile of empty sample bags but forgot to put the names of who they came from… sheesh. Anyone else see a reoccurring pattern here? (thanks brain) I worry that by the time I’m in my 60’s everyday really will seem like a new day… but I digress.

It was either NayLynn or Courtney that introduced this tea to me. ;) Thank you!
This tea is delectable. There’s a light orange undertone to the rich black tea with a nice chocolatey flavor. DavidsTea really does a good job of capturing and infusing flavors into their tea.

Just brewed this. I am so excited to try this tea and am waiting for it to cool a little. I brewed it in a paper filter (The ones by Melitta- LOVE them) The dry leaf reminds me of Terry’s chocolate oranges. (yummy) LOL, just tried to drink out of my travel mug….and then realized it was closed. (fail) Wow! That is amazing tea. It’s not overly sweet, but rather a perfect balance of dark chocolate and zesty orange. Will definitely be sipping on this more. And on a less important note, this is my second pu’erh!

Yeah for a TTB that arrived yesterday! So much fun to sort through the box and see what lurks for the tastebuds.

I wasn’t sure what to start with but this seemed to jump out to me last night. I wasn’t sure if the caffeine would bother me so late but decided it would be ok, didn’t have to be up early for anything if it did. Thanks to a couple of people here on Steepster I have certainly come around to citrus in teas, something I didn’t expect, but a good thing.

Dry leaf this smells chocolately orange. Steeped I get mostly black tea with a hint of orange and then chocolate in the background. Thankfully I don’t get a fishy note from the pu-erh, but maybe a hint of earthiness at the end of the sip which is ok. I think I would prefer this as an earlier cup in the day, mainly due to the earthy flavor that I’m not yet used to.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to get this blend, but would drink it again if someone offered some to me.

OMG, Chocolate Cake replacement have I found you? The orange is strong in smell, & in the first cup I had of this it was oddly present, but that chocolate taste I love & miss so much from the discontinued Chocolate Cake is present here! First cup started out orangey, then had the pu’erh taste, then chocolate notes, then orange again at the end. Today it was pretty much all chocolate pu’erh with maybe a hint of orange. No sugar, but did add about 2 teaspoons of french vanilla half & half.

I knew going in that I wouldn’t like this tea. Not because of the pu’erh base, though I admit that if I’m going to go with pu’erh, I really should look for it from a trusted vendor like Yunnan Sourcing or Verdant.

No, I knew I wouldn’t like it because I really dislike the flavour combination of chocolate and orange. There’s just something about it that doesn’t work for me.

Anyways, yeah. This brews up dark and strong, and it definitely smells of both chocolate and orange. However, the orange isn’t showing up in the taste. Instead, it’s just like black, bagged, nondescript tea. I’m not even getting any of the tobacco or leather notes that pu’erh would imply.

Ah well. Just gotta hold my nose and finish this up.

And this concludes my attempts at friendship with David’s teas. :( I don’t smell or taste any orange in this tea. The chocolate is really really hard to pick out. Kind of has the aftertaste of a scratch n sniff sticker. The tea base doesn’t even work for me. It is flat and earthy and leaves my mouth dry. Done.

Sipdown!

I’ve been curious about pu-erhs lately, and this is the only one I’ve ever tried. Actually that’s not true, there was a Creme de Menthe one I used to enjoy also. Anyway, this one. It used to be a favorite of mine and I restocked it several times. I didn’t noticed the dirt or slight fishiness of it until I first joined Steepster and read reviews. Then when I smelled my tin of this I had myself convinced it was fishy fish fisherson all over the place.

I had enough left for one more cup, and decided to make it today.

I like the smell of it dry, not noticing the fishiness this time. Definitely a dirty smell though.
When brewed, it’s very dark, which I like in a tea for sure. And still smells like dirt.

But tastes like chocolate orange, with very earthy undertones. Not unpleasant! Actually the more I sip, the more I enjoy. The flavours go very well together, with this base.

I’d consider buying this again someday. In the meantime I will be trying some plain, quality Mandala pu-erh soon courtesy of MzPriss, which I am excited for, if not slightly trepidatious!

My next pu-erh related goal is to somehow get my hands on some of Lupicia’s Strawberry Chocolate pu-erh, which I hear is amazing, and there’s a Scottish Caramel pu-erh floating around by different brands (Tea Desire is supposed to be great), which I’d love to try before I buy.

I figure all of those things will allow me to determine how I feel about pu’erh right now!

If you’re looking for an easy in, this Chocolate Orange one works just fine as an intro, for me anyway!

Wow, my last note reviewed this as 19! It’s definitely not that, must have been at the height of my fishy dirt paranoia.

I have to bump it up. I don’t love it anymore but it’s much better than 19!

Tried this in the DavidsTea 2013 Advent Calendar. A disappointment. Gives off a pungent, rot-like smoky smell both dry and steeping to precede an equally foul-tasting product. Does not marry the flavours of the popular holiday dessert with nearly as much harmony as the real thing. Might be a creative gift for an acquaintance over the holidays who you know loves chocolate oranges, but has received more than their share in stocking stuffers in their lifetime. Spice it up and gift this tea, but do not drink it.

I got this tea from the traveling tea box. I was a bit disappointed because it really didn’t have a chocolate WOW or even a orange ZING. It lacked.