Chocolate Midnight Black Tea

OMG – LOVE THIS!

When I saw this tea on the Nature’s Tea Leaf website, I had to try it. Just look at all those yummy chocolate curls! My mouth began to water just from me looking at the picture. And the picture does not lie! There are a bunch of little chocolate curls in this. Yum yum yum!

And this is really amazing. The yunnan is a perfect choice for a chocolate flavored tea because of the natural chocolate notes in the tea … as well as the hint of spice notes which accent the chocolate very nicely. The vanilla bean adds some creaminess to the cup without making it taste too much like milk chocolate … this has one of those dark chocolate truffle tastes … like the kind of confection you might buy in one of those expensive chocolate shops (you know, the kind of place where I can only usually afford one or maybe two pieces of chocolate … but it’s OH-so-worth-it!)

Amazingly good. Bravo Nature’s Tea Leaf!

Thanks to Lazey for this sample. I am taking a break from sipdowns (mostly because I have no one-cup sipdowns left) to try some teas I got in recent swaps before I forget who they came from.

They are not kidding when they say there are chocolate curls in this tea. There are tons! And they definitely dissolve and make the tea a murky brown. They do add a certain thickness to the tea, but not quite enough really. It becomes some kind of half-tea-half-hot chocolate mixture. I didn’t really taste the base tea much, although what was there was fine and not bitter or astringent.

All in all this is a pretty tasty tea, but I think I prefer not to have actual chocolate pieces in my tea. A really chocolatey tea doesn’t need them, and they just murkify everything.

I knew I would love this tea! Yunnan black tea! Vanilla! Belgian dark chocolate! It’s the perfect combination. I would pick dark chocolate over regular chocolate every time (you know… it’s healthier anyway… I have an excuse!) The chocolate pieces look like little shavings from a giant chocolate bar. The black tea itself looks perfect, definitely “midnight” as the leaves are very dark. The steep color is more red than a pitch black cup of tea. After steeping for five minutes, the cup certainly smelled like chocolate! I peeked in my infuser and most of the chocolate pieces had melted away. With another steep at boiling, it should take care of the rest of the chocolate! I think even if there wasn’t chocolate included, this is the type of tea that would taste a bit like chocolate anyway. It’s very malty! It has the perfect mixture of bitter and sweet, both from the tea and both from the chocolate. I don’t mean astringency… there is none of that. The vanilla definitely makes itself known too! This was reminiscent of another tea I had… I just can’t remember which one. It might be my beloved Phoenix Pearls from Zen and maybe something else… So so good. I think I might have to order this one when my sample is gone. I’m so glad I got the chance to pick samples from naturestealeaf.com this time around! thank you! A tea like this just makes my day a little bit better. :D

Loose
Appearance: med curl leaf, deep black, paper fine choclate shavings
Aroma when Dry: bittersweet, slightly smokey
After water is first poured: dusty, salty sweet
At end of steep: sweet, musty
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: powder brown
multiple steeps: not likely, did not attempt.
Staple? No
Time of day preferred: evening
Taste:
first notes: flat, bland, and at same time, silky, creamy buttery, black tea chases slight smoke.
As it cools? Gets dustier, nutty.
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No.
Lingers? No.

I think I’ve found my new favorite chocolate tea. This is the most chocolatey tea I’ve had. I really like the creamy texture it has. I was going to add milk but once again we’re out, but this tea is fine without it.

The caffeine level in this tea is really high so I don’t think I’ll be sleeping well tonight…

This is definitely a sipping tea. When I sip it and let it linger on my tongue before I swallow, this is the most delicious of the chocolate teas that I have tried so far. A definite dark chocolate flavour with notes of vanilla in it. I did let it cool quite a bit before drinking and I only let it steep for 3 minutes so not all of the chocolate melted so I’ll try another steep after this. I did add a bit of milk.

The tea did taste weirdly bitter if I drank it at large swallows. I don’t know, the pace of it flowing across my tongue made it bitter or something? And the aftertaste was bad too. Dainty sips for this tea, definitely.

ETA: Second steep, added a bit of sweetener this time to see if it made a difference in the ‘drink fast’ taste and it did! Now it’s super delicious. A very nice dessert tea.

Finally, a tea that has just about enough chocolate flavour! ;-)

I could smell the chocolate and vanilla a little more than I could taste it, and I, too, found a kind of bitter aftertaste, and also something a little odd about the chocolate, maybe. But still, it was a nice flavoured tea.

I’m still finding my way with black teas, and I’m not familiar wtih Yunnan, so maybe it had to do with the flavour of Yunnan. I liked the chocolate curls, and I didn’t mind the murkiness they made in the tea.

I steeped this at 195F for 2.75 minutes, and added sugar and skim milk.

I’ve learned to be wary of chocolate teas over the years. They always seem to promise a lot more than they deliver. Republic of Teas chocolate always tastes artificial and waxy, and Teavana knows no restraint when it comes to sweetness.

Enter a sample of this tea. What’s this? Simple black tea with real quality chocolate curls (I may or may not have tasted one straight out of the packet) and a hint of vanilla? No mockolate flavor? Only 3 simple components? Promising!

This might be one of the best chocolate teas I’ve had. It isn’t perfect; there’s a certain dusty aftertaste that I’m not loving. But the chocolate melts into the tea, giving it a smooth and creamy texture, and the tea and chocolate combine wonderfully. This is not hot chocolate masquerading as tea. This is real chocolate-infused tea, and a very balanced one at that.

I’ve found that adding a bit of milk and cream cuts down the dusty/bitter components. Overall, a great tea for dessert.