Chocolate Orange Bliss

It’s been a few hours since I arrived back from my long weekend in Eastbourne/Brighton and I’m absolutely knackered (British slang for exhausted). We had a nice time, luckily the weather held for the most part and I even managed to find a gorgeous Crown Derby antique cat to add to my ornament collection (even if it did cost £80 it was worth it).

I got this tea out to pack it as part of a tea exchange and my husband asked where I was hiding the Jaffa Cakes because he could smell them :) This tea has such a strong scent, it’s gorgeous. Fooled him anyway.

In appearance it has good sized orange and chocolate pieces along with large yellow petals and finely chopped black tea leaves.

Once steeped the tea was dark brown in colour with a rich chocolatey aroma.

Flavour is very chocolatey and tastes like a thin/watery cocoa drink. The orange is not strong but subtle citrus and fruit tones are noticeable. Amongst both the orange and the chocolate there are slight velvety, smoky and sweet tones that blend well together and make a delicious chocolate based tea.

This is on the upper end of the scale when it comes to chocolate tea but only reaches average grade for orange tea, purely because it’s overpowered by the chocolate. So what I am getting at is that this is more of a chocolate tea with a hint of orange rather than being a chocolate and orange drink or even an orange and some chocolate drink.

It’s nice and a shame that Ovation closed down so I can’t get any more but I have a feeling it could be fairly easy to replace. Still a nice warm welcome home treat.

Okay, colour me impressed. This is one from my box o’ teas from LiberTeas from forever ago that I thought I wouldn’t like. It doesn’t have the smell contamination that others do (I finally realized that it is the packaging – the ones in the thicker plastic have no smell contamination but there were some in small sandwich style bags and those ones shared smells. Voila!) but chocolate orange is not a flavour I enjoy. The smell is okay but they just aren’t for me. Another side note: Terry’s now makes a chocolate mint which is fabulous. I bought one as a treat and wish I had more!

Anyway, the aroma of this was very strong and true to the name, I conjured up images of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges right away. Even when steeped both the chocolate and the orange are present, though the orange comes through more as rind at this point.

Apprehensively, I took my first sips. Wow. No bitterness (from the tea or the orange rind) and the chocolate is actually sweeter than expected. I believe it has cacao nibs rather than milk chocolate but there is some sweetness in there that gives more of a milky taste. Accurately it is more of a dark chocolate orange and it is good. Way better than the chocolate.

Speaking of the chocolate, this doesn’t have any nasty artificial taste to it the way many chocolate teas seem to do. This tastes very authentic and natural rather than chemically reconstituted chocolate. Nice!

I continue to be impressed at how smooth this one is. I really expected some bitterness but the base tea on this clearly is quality tea. I thought I may have over-steeped a bit, but it’s holding up well. Very nice! I just checked and am sorry to report that Ovation teas is going out of business…I would manage to finally try their tea after it was too late. If there’s any of this in their closing out sale and you like chocolate orange things, I highly recommend picking some up.

Since I was born and raised in Buffalo I have a sweet-spot (pardon the pun) for Orange Chocolate. And since the name of this flavored black contains the word BLISS which is not only part of my screen name but my real name…I was intrigued on many levels!

This is tasty! Straight-up!

The Black Tea and Orange stand out a bit more than the chocolate and is smoother in the beginning of the sip…by the time you get to the end of the sip the ‘chocolate’ taste comes forward more and is more like a darker chocolate than a sweet milk chocolate.

Regardless – this is a nice blend of flavors and one I would certainly suggest to others who enjoy and appreciate the featured ingredients! I will have a longer review over at Sororitea Sisters in the near future! :)

Cheers!

this tea smells amazing! intensely orange and rich chocolate. oh sweet honey pow!
i brewed it at home and brought a new teacup to work to enjoy it in. :) my standard process is, i brew the tea in my timolino, and then pour a few ounces at a time into my desk teacup as i drink. keeps it hot!
i’ve been using a melamine teacup and saucer for months and months. this is because when i came to my current job 3 years ago, i had my favorite thrift store cup and saucer all ready to take with me to my new job, and dropped it on the kitchen floor moments before i stepped out the door. shattered into pieces. first day at a new job in a new city and i was all nerves and anxiety. i was so sad. it was MY CUP! there was nothing special about it and i loved it! so after that i used the blue melamine cup, cuz melamine doesn’t break. hah
(but melamine does tend to stain so if anyone has any advice for removing the stains i’d love to hear it!)(i did try the denture tablets 2 times already but it didn’t seem to make any improvement.)
so hello new cup!
welcome to my desk!
this is a nice smooth chocolatey tea. interestingly enough i still find the scent of the tea, both dry and steeped, to be much stronger than the actual flavor. if i was trying to be critical i might say i wish the orange was stronger i guess? but the orange is great to just add an edge and tone to the airy chocolateness and teaness. it’s not a deep broody chocolate tea, it’s a festive chocolate orangey tea!! great for a sunny morning!

thanks so much Shadowfall for letting me try this!! i’m glad to have more to brew too, cuz this MAY not have been the most accurate brewing i’ve ever done. in which case i will update my notes. whooten whooten!

Yum Yum Yum! This is so good.

Rich, creamy chocolate and sweet, tangy orange. The black tea is pleasantly mellow.

I am off to write a review of this tea for SororiTea Sisters!

This tea has a nice strong tea base and a very tasty citrus presence. It is perhaps because of the rich tea base and full flavor profile of the zesty orange that the cacao is much more of an afterthought. It does show up more in the finish/aftertaste. However, in order for me to fall in love with it then it would need a stronger cacao/chocolate presence. Still an enjoyable cuppa though.