Chocolate Tea

Dry, this smells of rich cocoa and black tea. MMMmmmmm!

I tried this at 3 minutes (which is usually my cut off point for blacks) and while I liked it, I chose to steep it for another minute. I was pleasantly surprised, this actually pulls of a semblance of chocolate, unlike other chocolate teas I’ve tried. Not artificial chocolate, or cheap oily chocolate, but rich dark chocolate. I added milk to try to bring out any creamy notes if present, but it overwhelmed the cup.

Next time I’ll try a 5 minute steep or overleafing if I’m planning to have it with milk. Quite nice on it’s own though.

Chocolate is divine. Chocolate flavoured things however, tend to be that weird seemingly token “artificial chocolate flavour”, so I had rather low expectations for this one. The aroma is very much Proper Chocolate, but I having been deceived by the smell of dry leaves before, I kicked my expectations back down again. My poor mistreated expectations really needn’t have been abused so readily, because this my friends, is what all other chocolate flavoured black teas wish they could be. Rich in chocolate flavour and thankfully not artificially sweet tasting, I think this is perfect with a splash of milk and several pieces of buttery shortbread still warm from the oven.

It’s official. I’m at the point in tea over-acquisition where I no longer know what I even have. Scary. Very scary. I forgot I had a sample of this, or I would have tried it before trying the TeaFrog Chocolate and Cream flavored black as a baseline.

In any case, the dry leaves smells exactly like Florence minus the hazelnuts. Really tremendous, deep unsweetened chocolate fragrance that borders on syrupy and is really smelling awesome to me as an after lunch tea right about now.

It diffuses some after steeping and becomes about equal parts tea and chocolate. The tea has an aromatic sweetness to it, a slight sugariness.

It tastes about equal parts tea and chocolate, too, which is a nice balance. The sweetness of the tea is not enough to sweeten the chocolate significantly, but the chocolate is not bitter (it just isn’t really sweet). I’m thinking some milk might make this even more tasty.

I’m thinking this is a reorder and that it isn’t an either/or choice between this and the TeaFrog. They’re very different. The TeaFrog is more tea-as-base-for-flavor, this is more tea-as-part-of-flavor. Which I’d have at any given time would depend on mood, I think.

I do wonder as I start to narrow down the universe of teas whether I’ll start to gravitate toward some teas more than others even within my narrowed universe, but I’m hardly to that point yet.

Thank you to Fairyfli for sharing her Harney Son’s Chocolate Tea with me. This tea has been in and out of my cart at the Harney’s website so many times….and now she has put me out of my indecision! What a relief!

The base seems very similar to Florence, but I can taste more chocolate than from Florence (which is kind of obvious, right? As there is not any hazelnut in this blend…) It does taste like chocolate and tea together, but nothing like hot cocoa. I do like this, but will hold off on a rating for a few more cups since she sent me a healthy trial! The only addition was sweetener. I am finding milk just ruins smooth teas for me. I will have to reserve the milk for the bolder teas…..

I think this is officially my first chocolate chocolate tea? My lovely friend’s mum gave her some of this, because they were sold out of Paris. Nice substitute, but I think I will still give Paris the upper hand here.

Yummy yummy yummy smell. Super strong. Chloë opened the tin, and I swear my brain dissolved. As they say in Chocolat, “Each time I tell myself it’s the last time, but then I get a whiff of…” etc. Perhaps even more so than when I am lusting after someone to a silly degree. BUT. It also had a slight coffee / toasted wood undertone to the smell, which was well balanced, and definitely reflected in the taste.

The leaves are almost black, twisted, and expanded exponentially inside my strainer. Again, it reminded me of coffee in color – a very luscious, dark mocha. My anticipation was growing. I was biting my lip and staring at my glass teapot sideways, begging it to brew faster. The macaroons were prepared to dunk. (http://www.macaroons.com)

As we brewed it (and perhaps it could have sat for a bit longer), I was unimpressed. No bitterness to be found. The chocolate flavor was weak, mostly in the aftertaste, and only mildly strengthened with a splash of milk and sugar. In truth, all I had been searching for was a full-bodied, creamy, chocolate taste. If, however, you seek a tea that harmonizes chocolate with black tea flavors, then I think you will be quite pleased.

I got this one in a tea swap as well! I couldn’t smell chocolate when I opened the bag or even when I infused but as I sit here sipping I can notice it more and more and it smells great! It’s mostly black tea but the chocolate is noticeable! YUM!

Chocolate. Tea. Perfect harmony. Ommm…

When I first started drinking tea I couldn’t wrap my head around the thought of combining these two flavors. I mean, tea is tea and chocolate is chocolate. I decided to try this one after I enjoyed Florence so much. It is VERY GOOD! It isn’t just Florence minus the hazelnut, either. I add milk and that really intensifies the chocolate flavor, and I do add a bit of sugar but that’s just me! If you wanted a great chocolate dessert and didn’t want a lot of calories, this should take care of it!

A great balance of chocolaty, creamy, and tea-y. I love it!

This is a nice tea. It definitely smells like chocolate in the bag. I used 1 heaping teaspoon (after realizing I was only using a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon…oops) and steeped for 4 minutes. It still smells like chocolate, but more faintly. I tried this tea straight up, not adding milk as usual. I like it. I didn’t add anything to it at all, which is highly unusual for me and black teas. The chocolate is definitely there but very subtle. I think I need to just start doubling what the package recommends from the get go. I will try 2 heaping teaspoons next time.

I’m not sure why but I did not really taste the chocolate element in this tea except for maybe a very, very slight hint of it in the finish. It just tasted rather bland, to be honest. I did brew it for five minutes using boiled water. Cream did not seem to help. The aroma was also not very pleasant to me. I wish I could be more precise. It’s not that it tasted bad, just bland.