S'mores

Oh YUM! Thanks to Bonnie for the sample, this is delicious. The marshmellow and chocolate flavors really come through. The graham flavor is a little understated, but still it very clearly reminds me of s’mores. Given that I am a little on the chubbier side, I can’t exactly eat s’mores ever five seconds. But now, I can drink them :)

My first order from Della Terra arrived yesterday & this was the tea I was most intrigued by. Being English, I’ve never had the pleasure of having real s’mores so I can’t really make a comparison to how this tea compares!

Steeped for 4 mins with boiling water, sugar & a splash of milk. First impressions were not that great if I’m honest- the tea seemed very thin & although tasty, I couldn’t really pick out the individual notes. Chocolate tea with an extremely smooth aftertaste, which I’m thinking is the marshmallow. I tried a second steep & held off the milk, which did seem to allow the flavours to come through a little better. Hmmm. I guess I’m a little disappointed, but I’m putting it down to my tea making inexperience & novice taste buds. Looking forward to trying it again!

I really like the fact that Della Terra use real ingredients in this blend. It doesn’t taste artificial. I’m sure that other people could create blends which were more focused on making the tea like a s’more rather than a flavoured tea.

This tea looks like exactly like I imagined from the ingredients. The white mini marshmallows and cracker bits stand out against the dark tea and chocolate background.

There is definite chocolate in there, but it isn’t overpowering. It seems to form the base of the cup alongside the tea, with the marshmallow on top. There is just a hint of the graham flavouring coming through, although it might be nice to have a bit more. It’s not a sickly sweet cup, that would ruin it. The tea in the background is pleasant, but this blend could maybe use something a bit stronger. I’m very pleased overall though. I’m gradually getting in to flavoured teas, and it’s nice to be getting experience of Della Terra first because I think they make proper flavoured tea instead of anything artificial.

This was a good tea, but not amazing. Very smooth black base, not a whole lot of astringency. I’m not getting a complete s’more profile out of this though.. maybe more of just the chocolate component? This is like a subtle cocoa/chocolate tea, imo.

I did drink this straight, so next time I’ll try it with a bit of sweetener to see if that brings the s’more flavor out more. This was a solid flavored black and I would probably drink it again.

Thanks to Eva for sharing this with me!

I’m beginning to think I might not like marshmallow root. Or at least not in tea. That’s the one ingredient this tea has in common with another one I didn’t enjoy. Anyhow, I couldn’t figure out how to finish even one cup of this. I tried less tea, more tea, less time, and more time.

Such a shame, because I love s’mores, and this smelled so good! Even though I couldn’t see any mini marshmallows, I did see the little chocolate bits and some graham crackers. Funnily enough, this tea tasted better to me the longer I let it steep, even though I tend to dislike strong black tea, so while the black base is present, it’s not astringent. Tasted a LOT better to me with milk and sugar, but still. Not my favorite.

This is pretty good, much better than I was expecting since actual pieces of graham crackers in a tea caused a few strange looks. I definitely get the marshmallow and a little bit of the chocolate, but not the graham crackers so much. Not as sweet as I was thinking it would be, so I added a bit of sugar and it was much better.
Next time I might try this with a little cream too, possibly add in a bit of Adagio’s Chocolate Chip to see if I can boost the chocolate flavor.

I’ve never had s’mores, being from the UK, and I don’t totally know what they are, though I have an idea. I definitely have no idea what a graham cracker is supposed to taste like! Not that it really matters, because all I taste in this tea is marshmallow (and tea). Don’t get me wrong, it’s an impressively accurate marshmallow flavour that I’ve only experienced one or two times in tea form, but there’s no chocolate that I can taste, or anything else which might be ‘graham cracker’. That being said I’ve really enjoyed it each time I’ve had it, and I’ve had it a few times now, from both Janelle and VariaTEA. Thank you, ladies! It’s a good sweet treat, and it always amazes me how accurate the marshmallow is, even though I wish there were more of the other elements noticeable in the sip. The tea is robust enough to add a maltiness to the cup, without adding any astringency, which I appreciate.

Though Della Terra has gone out of business now, I know their supplier is still around and several other companies sell the same blends. So, eventually, I will probably try to find this from another vendor. For now it’s a sipdown (202/399).

I went diving into our sip-down drawer for a flavoured black and came up with this blend from the now-defunct Della Terra. i haven’t reached for it before because I remember it being heavy on the cinnamon. I was clearly making things up because there is no cinnamon at all. Ooops.

I tried a longer steep to tease out some more of the creamy chocolatey tastes, and I have to say that it worked! The black base held up without getting bitter, and I got some nice chocolate and cream flavour. The graham crackers were present in the smell, both dry and brewed up, but disappeared on the tongue. All in all, a very pleasant cuppa.

Prepare for some backlogging – I’ve got a bit of catch-up from the week to do. I’ve become a recent convert to the habit of bullet journaling, and I record tea in that as I drink it. The long-hand notes don’t always make it into Steepster in a timely manner.

Unfortunately for me, Della Terra is (apparently) no longer in business as this is one of my favorite teas. It offers just a slight sweetness blended with black tea. The scent is delightful and gives you that just-in-from-the-campfire-with-an-ooey-gooey-smore feeling.

Here’s Hoping TTB (round 5)

Dessert teas :)

How descriptive was that tasting note?
Anyways, when I get my tea smoker (if I ever do) I already have a plan to make ‘Golden S’more’ by smoking a golden tea from Yunnan with 20-30% strength in mind which means I will get to play with it a lot.

P.S. did you see the smiley face above? It means this tea is good; just thought I would reiterate that.