Chocolate Mint

I’m obviously in something of a minority here, as this tea was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Let me say first, though, that I put about 1.5 tsp in for about 8 oz of water. I didn’t find it to be weak, the chocolate and the mint were both present and accounted for and not overly subtle in my experience. I didn’t get a lot of the tea, but frankly, that’s become a secondary consideration for me with flavored teas — if I wanted a strong tea taste I’d drink it unflavored, or I’d drink something I knew to have a strong tea base presence. It doesn’t bother me that much anymore, as I have added more and more members to my pantheon of great teas, that some flavored ones are more about the flavor than the tea. Next time I might go to two tsp and see what happens. Maybe that would bring the tea out a bit more.

To me, the mint was very fresh tasting. It didn’t have a candy aspect to it, but it naturally sweetened up the tea and the chocolate so that the tea didn’t whisper to me that it wanted to be sweetened or to have milk added. This in contrast to the Herbal Infusions Chocolate Mint, which seemed to want sweetening.

The aroma of the steeped tea is heavier on the mint than the chocolate for some reason, but it’s still a nice smell. Sniffed in the sample packet, the mint is eyewateringly strong, which seems to me a good confirmation that it is v. fresh and its volatile oils haven’t dried up. It’s got that pretty black/green mix thing going on in the dry leaves. I’m biased though because black and emerald green is my favorite color combo.

This is going on the list for if/when I ever come out of lockdown and place a full order with H&S.

Thank you to TeaNSympathy for this great sample! I admit it….I am a huge fan of peppermint tea, so I was really looking forward to this one.

The aroma is so soothing, with a good mint and chocolate combo coming through. The mint was slightly more dominant, but the chocolate aroma wasn’t shy either. The wet leaf aroma was even more fragrant, with a good balance of aromas filling the space around me. In the cup, I detected more of the chocolate aroma, but of course the mint was not to be denied.

The flavor is delicious! My palate was filled with minty/chocolatey , and chocolatey/minty goodness! Such a good balance of flavors too. The tea base was there, but the flavors were somewhat stronger than the base tea. In this case I don’t mind it, because it is a dessert tea after all. It tastes like creme de menthe candy, or Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark squares.

I remember quite a few years back, getting this tea for my sister, because she likes Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. She said it was delicious….and she is right! It is very delicious, and a perfect anytime treat! Thanks again TNS for such a tasty sample! :))

Cupped: Friday & Saturday, March 9-10, 2012.

Reviewed: Monday, March 12, 2012.

This is an even mix of bright green mint and dark choppy tea leaves. It smells just like a York Peppermint Patty but slightly heavier on the mint side.

The light copper colored tea smells of mint but no chocolate. In flavor, the mint is initially subdued. I can’t fully describe the initial taste but it’s not chocolate; instead, it’s just a flatness. The lingering mint aftertaste is typical of any other mint brew.

H&S does so well with the chocolate flavor in Florence that I would have expected a greater presence in this tea. It was really just a mint tea with a little something extra.

Happy President’s Day, American Steepsters! I hope you’re enjoying your day off from work!

Anyway, I booted up Mass Effect this morning and spent about an hour trying to come up with a halfway decent character build, that had some of my features. This turned out to be nearly impossible. Well, at least she’s not super-ugly: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/SinderellaxD/IMG_0855.jpg Poor, poor Shepard.

Anyway, after taking forever creating my little space marine-ette, I decided to brew some tea. And why not chocolate mint? I’ve been in the mood for chocolate since yesterday, when I received a big box of Godiva dark chocolate. Mmm. Dark chocolate > milk chocolate in every situation.

Harney, hats off for delicious-smelling tea, because this smells amazing. Like rich, quality chocolate mixed with fresh mint. Something Godiva or Lindt or Ghiradelli would put out. Mmm. I could inhale the perfume coming from my little sample bag all day.

But let’s get on with the review, before I start going off on tangents about the joys of mint chocolate chip ice cream and candies. The leaves here are fairly small, and they blend nicely with the peppermint leaves. I steeped this one up, and the infusion smelled… interesting.

Okay. It smells kind of like black tea, but a weak black tea, without a strong chocolate or mint smell. Both the chocolate and the mint are present only when I inhale really hard. Then they come up in the tail end of the inhale.

And the taste… definitely does not live up to the smell. This is sort of hugely disappointing. The front end of the taste is a fairly weak black tea profile. It’s not really robust or spicy. You can tell it’s meant to play a supporting role to the star players here, which is fine, except the star players have vacated the premise. The flavor that I’m mainly getting is mint in the aftertaste. It’s nice and cool and lingering, but the chocolate? Nowhere to be found.

I mean, there’s a sweetness that’s somewhat chocolate-like in the end note of the flavor, but it’s nothing compared to that magical chocolate/hazelnut combo in Florence.

Only after the cup cooled down significantly to the luke-warm range did chocolate appear. It was a nice chocolate taste, and it mingled rather well with the peppermint, but the black tea was sort of drowning it out. The entire thing overall was just very weak. Weak-tasting.

I’m probably more disappointed than anything because the smell vs. taste here is so different. Ah well! Definitely drinkable, but I can’t see myself ordering any more of this after my sample has run out!

I purchased a tin of this in sachet-form from The Red Bird Tea Shoppe in Brockport, NY, while on vacay. (Review of the tea house to follow soon.) My grandmother and I enjoyed a cuppa or two.

This is a great marriage of flavors: chocolate and mint. (Aptly named, then.) Not much more to say about it, although I did leave the bag in the cup for the length of the cuppa, and the flavor stayed throughout. I couldn’t reinfuse but that wasn’t expected with a tea sachet, after all.

I love lifting off the tin top and breathing in the rich aroma of the bags, though. Delish!

It’s a happy happy day when a co-worker (chris_s) brings me samples of Harney’s teas to try. The first one I’m trying is this Chocolate Mint. It smells absolutely fantastic and after smelling it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it until I got up and made a cup. Once brewed, the cup is very chocolately and everyone in the office can smell it. The mint is mostly present in the sip. It tastes like Andes Candies in a mug. Sadly, I don’t think I brewed it quite right as it is a little weak. It still tastes great even weak. I used 2 tsp for about 3 min at what I thought was boiling water (hard to tell at work with microwave as a kettle). Anyone have recommendations for amount of tea per 12 oz mug or steeping time?

PS – he also brought me Harney’s Spiced Plum, Harney’s Vintage Silver Tips, and Man Teas Maple Bacon… so you can look forward to those reviews coming soon!

Since I love chocolate, mint, and anything sweet, this has been the most highly anticipated item on my list of teas to try since I first heard about it. Many thanks to ashmanra for sharing her stash with me!

The unbrewed chocolate mint aroma of this tea was so strong that I could smell it through the double wrap of the sample’s packaging. Instead of tea, the aroma was more like an imported fine candy bar.

I brewed the greenish leaves for five minutes at 212 degrees. The result was a golden brown liquid.

I could smell the mint with a hint of chocolate as I began to sip it. The taste was smooth and minty with the chocolate flavor in the background, but still quite recognizable, much like the blend of chocolate mint ice cream. The balance of mint and chocolate was perfect.

I have tried other mint teas before. What sets this one apart from the rest is that this tea has a nice refreshing quality. It reminds me a bit of the mint juleps that were once so popular here in the South.

As I guzzled more and more of this tea, I enjoyed the aftertaste almost as much as the actual experience. The chocolate mint flavor echoed on my palate minutes later with zero bitterness.

This is a phenomenal tea that more than lived up to my expectations. I am currently enjoying it in the morning but I can also see it in my future as a fantastic late afternoon and Summer tea. It will also be wonderful to bring this selection out for those special occasions with friends and family. I am greatly looking forward to sampling other Harney & Sons blends!

Thank you ashmanra for this tea!!!

We had this as a dessert tea with milk and sugar. I liked it quite well – it was sweet and naturally minty – herbaceous, not mint oil. The chocolate was more a depth than an oooooh chocolate type taste.

Now that I know that it has a Chinese tea base, I’m going to try it next without milk – maybe a little sugar. I bet it will be even better this way. More refreshing and a stronger tea presence. Will report back!

This is very close to the Mint Chocolate Rooibos by David’s tea, but the flavor isn’t as intense. It isn’t as minty or as chocolatey (this is shaping up to be a very sophisticated analysis, eh?) But it IS caffeinated, so I guess that will be the determining factor on which one I’ll reach for in the future.

It was supposed to be partly sunny today, but I haven’t seen a single peek of sky through these clouds! (Better than last week when there was a tornado four miles away though!). I am STILL working on our Excel program – which I loathe doing – so I decided to treat myself to a cup of one of the new teas I ordered.
Chocolate Mint would perhaps be better called “Mostly Mint”. I like it, don’t get me wrong, but the tea taste is greatly subdued and the chocolate is definitely waaaay in the background. The mint really lingers…and lingers. I am drinking mine sans additions and the bright flavor is going a long way toward keeping me awake and keeping me out of the doldrums. I made a cup for hubby, who does NOT like chocolate and mint together, and for him I added a lot of sugar and a bit of milk. As expected, he did not care for it. No surprise there. But I tasted it with sugar and milk and found that it acts much like Florence – the sugar amps up the dessert notion and the milk brings the chocolate a bit more to the front. I don’t regret buying it. It will be a nice change of pace! I will probably continue to take mine without milk and sugar, but if you like a nice dessert tea this could be it!

Since there are so many peppermint leaves, I think I may add more leaves than usual next time so there will be rhe right proportion of TEA leaves to water. That may bring out the tea and chocolate flavors even more.

It is 9 am, and time for tea. And I need a minty punch to kick my butt into gear. Since getting up (late) this morning I have accomplished the sum total of this: 1. Decided I needed some tea (1.5 seconds); 2. Chose Chocolate Mint and heated the water (5 min.); 3. Selected my Teavana Tea Harmony tumbler from the cupboard (5 seconds); 4. Discovered the infuser had not been stored inside it and disassembled entire kitchen looking for it (22 minutes); 5. Found it! (But will not be able to find anything else in here ever again, in the wake of my infuser search…); 6. Made fresh heated water; 7. Logged on to share my agony.

If you have stayed with me this far, you have probably had similar moments. I really need this tea break!

As for the tea itself, the aroma is already bringing me out of my sleep-fog. Mint just shakes me into consciousness, and it is the prominent aroma. It is also the prominent flavor, which is why I add some Half & Half — the milk seems to bring the chocolate into focus and balance everything out. No sweetener for me, though I know many do like this tea sweetened.

Now maybe I can decide on what to wear to work and get on with the day. Thanks for listening.

I love chocolate, can just manage mint and absolutely loathe the two flavours together – so I was really bracing myself for this one. The smell is deceptively rich, you get a perfect mix of both chocolate and mint and it was like burying my nose in a box of after-dinner mints. Fancy after-dinner mints mind, not those crappy chocolate mint biscuits Arnotts put out.
Unfortunately, the peppermint completely overwhelms all the other flavours. I couldn’t pick out the tea base, let alone the chocolate. This made for a very strange cup…

Heavy on mint, light on chocolate = a bit thin for a dessert tea. It’s not Florence…

Chocolate mint is one of my favorite combinations. I love mint tea, but I have to say that chocolate teas have yet to impress me. I wasn’t expecting much from this tea, but I had to try it after reading the mixed reviews.

The leaves smell awesome – just like chocolate mint candies! I have enough experience now with chocolate teas to not expect them to be really strong, so I expected the mint to dominate the finished brew (mint is like that… I once had a friend give me a selection of mint liqueurs, and it ages to use them up, as everything I put them in turned to MINT in big capital letters.

I steeped in boiling water for 5 minutes (2.5 tsp of tea for 14 oz of water… I thought it would need extra due to the mint. I was right I think.) The initial taste had a strong blast of mint (as expected.) I smelled the tea, and I could smell the chocolate in the background. I added milk, having read reviews here that said that brought out the chocolate. I’m happy to say that it did! The addition of a little sugar helped to tame the mint as well. The result was really lovely – sweet and lightly minty with chocolate and caramel notes. This is a nice dessert tea, though I confess that a little more chocolate might be better. I’m not sure it rates buying more after my sample runs out, but I did enjoy this cup!

Yummy! I love mint and that is the main tone of the tea with subtle chocolate flavors.

Okay so after reading Cait’s review I thought “Yeah why not have dessert tea for breakfast!?” So I looked in my cupboard and discovered this Harney and Sons sample just sitting there staring out me it. It was as if it was saying Hey Lady if your going to go for a dessert tea you might as well give me a try! :) So I accepted the offer.

I open the package to discover it smells like an Andes Mint or the cheaper version (junior mints) and so I start to think about the smell while I let it steep and realize it smells like Adagio’s Cocomint.

I would normally pick a Harney and Sons tea over an Adagio tea any day that’s just me though. So back to the review so steep’s over and the tea still smells like an Andes mint I say Andes because it smells richer than a junior mint. I take a taste after letting it cool a few minutes and the first thing that hits me is MINT, WHOA! It’s like it shocked my tongue into wake up mode and not necessarily in a good way not bad but not hey that’s really good. I need more let’s at it to my shopping list good more like if I was out somewhere and someone offered it to me I would probably accept it but I probably wouldn’t offer it to you if you were visiting that’s unless of course you said hey I want a mint chocolate tea and even then I probably steep you up some Cocomint. :))

It’s a pretty good tea while I don’t really taste the chocolate I know it’s there it’s not the main character though the mint is definently the Angelina Jolie of this tea. It’s a good tea not better than Adagio’s even though it smells a little better than Adagio’s it’s not better just a little stronger in mint flavor.

A lightly flavored tea. Not much body to make it stand alone, but the light mint would work very well as accompaniment to a heavy or creamy dessert like ice cream or cake with frosting. The strength and flavor of the mint and chocolate reminds me of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. In my opinion, definitely to be served with dessert… perhaps strawberries with fresh whipped cream.

I LOVE this tea, It’s my personal favorite. The aroma and flavor are exceptional! Thanks, Harney & Sons

An absolutely delightful tea. Smells heavy of chocolate, but doesn’t taste it (long steeps may add a very slight chocolate taste.) A very comforting tea, and a very tasty mint. So far a hit with everyone I’ve served it to.

I wanted to try something different from Teavana’s Cacao Mint Black, & I really like this Harney & Sons alternative. Nice chocolate/mint pairing, lot of body but it wasn’t overpowering to me like I found Florence to be.