Chocolate Raspberry Mint

Backlog:

I had this over the weekend of despair (also known as: the weekend when there were no tasting notes), and I was really surprised at how well I liked it. I ordered it because it sounded very intriguing but after ordering it I worried that it would have too much going on to be able to taste anything but possibly the mint, which tends to be a very aggressive herb in blends.

And the first few sips WERE indeed like that. This tea needs a few minutes to cool slightly – I’d say I let it cool about 3 minutes – to be able to realize the other flavors in the blend. When served piping hot, fresh out of the teapot, the mint is really all I tasted. but after that three minutes, I could taste the other flavors come through.

The mint hits the palate first and remains throughout the sip. The chocolate is there too, but it is more of a low note, but it does remain throughout the sip and I really liked that. The raspberry came through toward the end of the sip, and lingered into the aftertaste with a distinct tart-yet-sweet berry taste.

The black tea also comes through, and it is a rich and full-flavored tea although it does struggle a bit to keep up with the other flavors here.

Overall, this is a really tasty blend that certainly lives up to being a Chocolate Raspberry Mint, although, if we are going to go in order of flavors that are tasted, I’d say it should be Mint Chocolate Raspberry.

This was the one tea I bought from Alphakitty that I was a bit worried I wouldn’t like (thanks, alphakitty!) BUT it is delicious!! Fresh mint teas are the best! This one reminds me of Zentealife’s Chocolate mint rooibos that I absolutely love, but this has a black tea base. I don’t think this batch had peppermint pieces, but that is fine with me. The other ingredients are great. There are some cocoa nibs and raspberry pieces in there. I really only tasted raspberry on the first couple of sips, then it gets a bit fainter. The chocolate gets a bit overpowered by the mint but this tea tastes like a mintier thin mint cookie. So this will be my go-to mint teas for morning and the Zen will be my go-to mint tea at night (rooibos). I’m very impressed with this one. I haven’t not been impressed with the many Ovation teas I’ve tried, which just makes it sadder that they are done.

I’m a little bit disappointed in this tea. Maybe my expectations were too high, given what I thought of the other teas in my order, but I thought this one would be better than it is.

Let me start off with the fact that this is a very pretty tea with a lot going on in the dry leaf with the big what look like freeze dried raspberries and the peppermint pieces. The taste is mostly black tea and mint with the barest taste of chocolate in the sip and I didn’t pick up much raspberry at all save a bit of sweetness in the aftertaste. I really wish those flavours were stronger. Perhaps after the bag has time to sit a little. I’ve heard that Ovation teas need to meld a little to get the best flavour. I’m rating this tea based on today’s pot but I’m open to changing it later, maybe in a few months.