Chocolate/Orange Rooibos

Optimistically, I was hoping this would be like one of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges but should have known I was setting myself up for a downfall.

I decided to steep this for 10 minutes because I find it really helps with rooibos blends. The flavor here is VERY strongly orange, especially since there are chopped up dried orange peels in the bag. I would say the chocolate is much more of a secondary note, it is present in the background after you get hit in the face by the orange…. :))

It is slightly sweet and better with a bit of soymilk. I didn’t like it as much as I was hoping I would but will probably finish off the bag I got. The good news for rooibos haters is there isn’t an overwhelming rooibos flavor here because the orange obliterates it…

Let me start by saying that I’ve enjoyed a number of the teas/tisanes I received in my first order from ESP Emporium. (Their Ceylon Blackwood, Darjeelings and Monk’s blend were all very good.) However, they don’t appear to do chocolate flavors well.

This rooibos smells strongly of orange peel and that carries over to the brewed product. You can see small chocolate chips but they are simply not potent enough to impart flavor to the beverage. I will say that this particular rooibos was fairly good. It didn’t have the menthol-like breakdown product that is present in some cheaper stock.

This was OK. It didn’t elicit a negative reaction but it won’t make it on the reorder list either.