The au Chocolat

The dry leaf smells like cocoa powder and a little dark chocolate. The tea smells pretty much the same but with an added dimension – which I’m pretty sure is the tea but it isn’t strong enough to pick up on smell alone.

The taste is milder than the smell (not hard as the smell is pretty powerful), but it is definitely dark chocolate. I can pick the tea out a bit while it cools but there isn’t a whole lot of nuanced flavor. It’s just dark chocolate and tea. But it isn’t thick, fake or overpowering so I’m really enjoying this cup. It’s almost like having sipping chocolate but without that feeling that I might go into a sugar coma afterward.

It is smooth with zero bitterness and I’m a bit curious to see how it would be with sugar and milk, though it needs neither. This is is easily the best chocolate tea I’ve had.

^5g/14oz

Short and sweet – this smells like cocoa, indeed! This is one of the DARKEST Teas I have ever seen once infused! It certainly has character! It’s NOT a dark chocolate taste or a bitter black tea with chocolate taste…the chocolate is smooth pairing with the black tea – they seem to be inseparable! This is a delight! Thanks Auggy for giving me the opportunity to try this one!!! How lovely!

I got a bit of this tea from Auggy recently and it is filled with nom.

It’s not terribly complex, but it winningly combined two loves of mine – chocolate and caramel. I think that the caramel might have been a bit of a mistake, but I’m not complaining. Smelling the tea, it smells of chocolate, dark chocolate, which is my weapon of choice.

I’m going to stop here to say that this visually, it is also very texturally interesting. Interesting enough to inspire me to pinch out some leaves between steeps and take a picture. http://bit.ly/ajUpVP

Continuing on, tasting the tea I got caramel on the tip of my tongue, which was a bit surprising since the tea doesn’t tout that in the description. At the back of my tongue, and even more so in the aftertaste, I got chocolate. The taste was somewhere between milk and dark, with just a bit of sweetness. It reminded me of chocolate shavings, or a more powdery form of chocolate because the mouthfeel that occurred in the aftertaste for me had a soft coarseness about it.

In the beginning, it tasted very much to me like something that Auggy mentioned to me – grown up Swiss Miss. A bit later in the cup, though, I was reminded very much of Cocoa Puffs, and now I can’t shake that so this has become Cocoa Puffs tea to me. It’s really quite tasty and it does well on the re-steep, so well done, Lupicia! Not to completely gank this entire review from Auggy, but I must echo: easily the best chocolate tea I’ve had.

This has a strong dark chocolate aroma that is almost on the savory side. It is very yummy and makes me hungry for chocolate. Of course, that isn’t difficult to do.

The flavor is definitely dark chocolate. I am getting a slight bitterness from the dark chocolate taste but it is not unpleasant, it just tastes like … a slightly bitter dark chocolate. There is plenty of sweetness to it too, so it is a nice contrast.

The black tea base is smooth, well rounded. This is a good chocolate flavored black tea. Not the best that I’ve ever had (but I’m biased) but it’s good and I’m glad that I ordered it.

Tea of the afternoon…..

It has been a good day for tea arrivals. I got my February tea (yes, a little early!) from TeaVivre, and an order from Lupicia that kind of replaces my Christmas tea that was a complete bust. Read all about that fiasco here:
http://steepster.com/places/2921-fortnum-and-mason-online-london-greater-london
Anyway, I now have some really good Earl Grey in my house thanks to Lupicia, and a few different grades of Keemun to try from TeaVivre. Take that F & M! (I can and will buy my tea elsewhere….obviously Earl Grey and Keemun were on my order….)

Onto this tea….. I have been wanting to try this one for such a long time. It smells of dark chocolate, and I hate to say it, something kind of like fake chocolate. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it is not good. I am thinking this is a flavor to base mismatch for me. Kind of a big let down in a way, but maybe I am more satisfied with teas that have cocoa notes built in rather than a flavored impostor these days. There are only a few places where I like their chocolate tea. And I think this is not one of them….at least until I try the Chocolate Strawberry Puer. I will give it one more go before rehoming…. Maybe it was the PBJ sandwich I just ate?

Usual teapot method. Not even sure I will finish the pot…. :/

Out of all the chocolate teas I’ve tried, this one smells the most chocolatey by far! Based on my success with the other Lupicia teas I’ve tried thus far, I’m really excited to see how much of that comes across when brewed.

Brewed, it rather smells like hot chocolate with a background of tea. It actually kind of reminds me of the scent of Marco Polo, if Marco Polo didn’t have that fruitiness to it. YUM.

This is certainly a tasty tea! It’s more hinting-at-chocolate than it is tasting-like-chocolate, but I like that. I find that the taste of the chocolate is more spot-on than with the other chocolate teas I’ve had. It’s a bit more cocoa-y. But the flavor doesn’t overpower the black base; it blends with it. Like the other Lupicia teas, this one is very smooth and very well flavored. It’s a winner!! :)

Being the chocolate-lover that I am, I will never stop going for chocolate teas. But, so far, out of the ones I’ve tried thus far, I’m liking this one the best. :)

Mmm… another lovely one from the SororiTEA Sisters. If I hadn’t already tried Florence this would be my favorite chocolate tea. Strongly chocolatey, like dark chocolate, but still tea. A little bitter for me straight-up, but rich and sweet with milk.

Oh so lovely, oh so chocolate. It’s the perfect afternoon tea, especially for chocolate lovers.

Mmm! Smells like dark chocolate!

The aroma of the tea leaves amongst the chocolate is almost surprising. It reminds me that I’m about to drink a cup of tea, not sink my teeth into a Godiva chocolate bar.

Even straight, it tastes smooth and chocolaty. Part of me loves it! And part of me says, “This is so weird! I’m drinking chocolate tea!”

Adding milk and sugar makes it very much like hot chocolate, but nowhere near as thick and sweet. It’s really good!

I wonder if I served this as hot chocolate, would anyone guess it’s really tea?

What? My cup is empty already? How did this happen? Who drank my tea?! :)

Depending on how you make this, this tea is either a very nice black tea with an aftertaste of cocoa, or it is a cup of bitter chocolate (in the good way). I think the depth of the chocolate flavor may also depend on the age of the tea. I swear it was stronger when I first opened the package, and I swear I’ve stored it properly – it even came with a tin!

Anyhow, take 2 generous teaspoons of this, steep for 3 minutes, and boom: bitter chocolate bar. If you let it go for too long, the tea itself does get bitter on top of the chocolate, which I do not recommend. A nice afternoon cup of tea, but I do wish it would keep better.