Zocolatte Spice Herbal Tea

I am very disappointed. Very. I believed this to be the reincarnation of a Specialteas tea that I thought had disappeared forever. I was wrong. Teavana took the idea of this lost tea and made it something bad…then gave it a silly name. How could you do this to me, Teavana? I feel so betrayed.

The basic ingredients are the same as Specialteas’ Spicy Chocolate, but the proportions are way off. Waaaay off! And even before I compared the ingredients of the two teas, I can see where Teavana went wrong. too much chicory root and not enough cinnamon. I am unreasonably upset. Probably because I had such high hopes. Sigh. My cup smells like medicinal tea. That aside, it is lightly chocolatey and a bit spicy, but mostly, it’s chicory. I think I’ll prepare the tea differently next time and see if it’s better. I used the chai stovetop method this time, which worked on Spicy Chocolate, but not this.

Unfortunately, I bought two pounds of this at 75% off, thinking I had struck gold. Sooo, in light of my stellar reviews, anyone want to swap?

Edit: a lot of sugar and a splash of almond milk makes this palatable. I guess I can drink this…

muppetlove sent me some of this! Thanks a bunch!

This smells like a cross-between or combo of coffee, tea, carob, spice, cream – of sorts.

The liquor has various colors and textures that make-up for a murky medium brown with orange-ish hue.

It tastes like I am sucking on a dull coffee bean. There is a hint of spice but it’s not overly intense. There isn’t much of a chocolate taste, really, but the end-sip is sort of sweet and a tad creamy so maybe that is where the ‘chocolate’ notes come in.

This one is alright…not overly memorable but it was drinkable-enough.

VERY glad I got to try it tho! Thanks again!

TSTTB Tea #3!

I made this last night for our little 2 cup pot of evening tea. There was just two perfect teaspoons left, and my memory of Teavana herbals told me you need extra leaf BUT I went ahead and made it anyway. Sadly it was weak even though I tried brewing it longer than usual to compensate. Not much chocolate or spice. Ah, I knew I should have put a spoon of my own rooibos chai in! I’m kicking myself.

I believe this is the first Teavana tea I’ve consumed; I got it in a trade with DaisyChubb rather than buying it myself. Let’s just say that I have strong moral objection to the company’s business practices so I’ve decided not to give them any of my money – not that I don’t appreciate the tea, Daisy. ;)

This is an interesting mix – chai spices without the ‘chai’ and mixed with chocolate basically, though it smells totally awesome. The result is a little bit light for my tastes, though I could see this going well with a sweet dessert or something similar. I was expecting it to have a stronger chocolate flavour than it actually did, there are some mild bitter cocoa hints but the flavours seem to mostly be from the spices. I swear I’m tasting chicory root in there as well, though it doesn’t seem to be listed with the other ingredients. Hmm.

Zocolatte Spice? I think I love you! At least, while I have the four ounces of you that I have. Chocolately, spicy delicious. I like you better than the Azteca Fire that I tried. As Amy oh said in her tasting review, I bet you taste amazing with black tea. Maybe I’ll try that next time.

I prepared a giant travel mug of this to take with me while I took the dog to the emergency vet, and promptly forgot it. It was still warm when I got home; warm and delicious. The chocolate and ginger were the most prominent flavor notes I could detect, though since this is a backlog, I’ll need to have more to make sure. I remember liking it though. It hit the spot after my vet visit.

Tea #12 from the ‘Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

I made the mistake of reading the reviews before trying this tea, so I was set not to like it. Turns out, though, that this is a decent herbal. The chocolate adds plenty of sweetness, and the spice is there, but it is also fairly mellow. This seems like a great tea for those late nights when I want some chai but I also want to sleep at some point. That being said, I think this would be awesome added to a mid-grade Assam. Seriously yummy.

Hi, this will (hopefully) be one of my last Teavana adventures for a while…

I tried this blend this afternoon at work. My immediate thoughts were: this isn’t bad, it actually tastes like Spicy chocolate as promised. But… it really needed SOMETHING.

So, on my way home I had a semi- intelligent thought. What if I added some black decaf tea to this? I stopped off and got some Decaffeinated Evening Tea from Ahmad Tea. When I mix the two together, I get a wonderful dessert tea.

So apparently I realize now that the secret to making Teavana tea great is by adding actual tea to it???

Goodnight!

ChOTD………

I will admit to pulling the trigger just a little too early on this one. Darn it, Teavana. The allure of the free spoon and sample, plus the super low price on the tea itself sucked me in even with the flat rate shipping tagged on. Luckily, I did not have issues with my shipment like some have recently.

I was hoping it was Mercuryhime’s beloved Spicy Chocolate from Specialteas, but I have since learned it is not. Since I ordered 8 oz of it, I have been trying to decide what to do with it. Once I took a whiff, I had my answer. Chai spice mix. I have some tea that my friends brought back from India that is pretty finely ground. The tea really reminded me of the texture of the Tipu’s Chai I had in my cupboard at one time. So, here is where my 3 Roses tea from India and Zocolatte Spice meet…..to make the perfect chocolatey and somewhat mocha-ish (from the chicory, probably) chai.

For two cups of chai, I used almost a perfect teaspoon of Brooke Bond 3 Roses Tea and 2 perfect teaspoons of Zocolatte Spice. Simmered for 3 minutes in 1 1/2 cups filtered water, added just over a half cup of skim milk and simmered for another minute and a half. Strained and then sweetened. Very tasty….and I am going to try a caffeine free version using Herbal Hot Cinnamon from Harney in place of the 3 Roses.

As a chai spice blend, I rate this as at least an 85…..

I dunno why this tea is rated so mediocre-y, it’s one of my favorite decaf blends. I mean, it’s full of coconut, cardamom, pink peppercorns and cacao nibs or something! It’s kind of an ugly, murky color, but it has such a wonderful scent, like mexican hot chocolate or cake. Tasty on its own, delicious with milk and sugar.

Not bad, not bad at all to me. This tea would be great to cook with, like a marinade for steak or chicken. Hmm….

I’ve had this tea in my cupboard for a while; I was so excited to try it. I was expecting sort of a spicy chocolate, which really does describe it, but it’s lacking something. Theres no real depth to it. I steeped it for 5 minutes, and it smells great. If only it tasted like it smells! This tea is much better with milk, I think.

Experience buying from Teavana Online http://steepster.com/places/2822-teavana-online-atlanta-georgia

Appearance and aroma of dry leaf: Lots of light and dark brown bits, with a delightful splash of red color from the peppercorns; strong smell: like chai, but with chocolate notes.

Brewing guidelines: four tsp tea, four cups water; six-cup ceramic teapot, tea in large, metal tea-ball; stevia added.
……….1st: Off boil, slightly warmed pot; 2’
……….2nd: Boiling, warmed pot; ~4’
……….3rd: Spot on boiling, warmed pot, 7’

Color and aroma of tea liquor: light brown; I though it would have been darker; smells strongly of clove (even on third steeping).

Flavor of tea liquor: My wife and I both like the taste of this tea, which tasted somewhat like a chocolat-y chai, but lighter tasting; still some flavor on the third steeping.

Blends well with: For those that like chocolate, I would think this tea would be a great addition to any chai.

Value: Great at 50-75% off the regular price (it’s $1.70 for 2 oz at 75% off).

Overall: My wife and I both enjoyed this tea from start to finish. I think it may take more than one tsp of tea per cup of water to give it as strong a flavor as we would like, and that’s why I wouldn’t want to pay full price for this tea; still, I look forward to brewing up this no-caffeine tisane on cold evenings throughout the winter!

The smell is very rich- I thought it was a mix of cocoa and cloves, with a hint of cardamon. After brewing, I tasted it without sugar. It wasn’t bitter, though it missing something. I added a bit of organic cane sugar (1tsp) and a splash of milk. This helped but it was still missing something. My first thought was black tea, so I’m glad to see other reviewers feel the same.

It was still quite pleasant. I really liked that little bit of kick in the after taste. I didn’t really notice it right away, but when it hit, I was pleasantly surprised. I look forward to trying this tea again (and since I have 4 oz, I will be trying it again soon).

I got this one as a Christmas gift from a friend, and just got the chance to try it.
I must admit, the first smell of this one steeped, I was very unsure of it. The first steeping I did, I only did a few minutes, as I didn’t want it to be too strong or go bitter (forgetting this is a herbal tea). My first few sips, I was so unsure. I added a sprinkling of sugar to it, and it really made this tea pop! It became a sweet chocolately treat.
Second steeping, I actually forgot about it for like 5 to 10 mins or so. Maybe longer, I’m not too sure. I was sorta worried that it might have gone bitter or too strong for me to handle, but after adding another sprinkling of sugar, it was pretty good! But it was missing something. I added a splash of milk to it (which normally I would NEVER do with a herbal), and it made this tea come alive for me! It transformed into almost a smooth, chocolatey chai tea. I say smooth, because it didn’t have the same punch that a chai normally has; it was a softer chai taste, but still had that little extra to it. The second cup was inhaled!
I could see this one holding up in a latte for sure, if you make it strong. I must try it! I’ll update this when I do.

This is a bit like glorified hot chocolate. Really creamy, sweet, and chocolatey, but without any real backbone because it’s an herbal. Blending this with some straight black tea would probably help immensely. Otherwise, it makes a great dessert/evening tea. The dry leaf smell is pretty spicy and strong, but the spice doesn’t really come through for me in the brewed tea. I’ll finish what I have, but don’t care for it enough to reorder.

This tea is such a disappointment to me. In the bag and in the cup it smells absolutely heavenly, like the spicy chocolate bar of my dreams. Think Theo’s coconut curry chocolate bar, it smells a lot like that tastes, just blissful. But it honestly doesn’t taste like anything much. I’ve tried making it according to Teavana’s directions and it was so insipid I couldn’t finish my cup. Making it much stronger (one tablespoon of tea to one cup of boiling water steeped for 10 minutes) makes an infusion that I can finish, because it smells blissful, but that is still a sad disappointment. Next time I brew it I think I will follow a suggestion I read here and brew it alongside some decaf black tea to give it some actual flavour. But I’ll never buy it again, it’s just not worth it.

I really couldn’t tell this was supposed to have “chocolate” in it. This is like a spicy mild coffee to me. Almost like a chai, but not. As a herbal tea, it doesn’t really have a base. I think it would have been much better with a black tea or something with it. I might try steeping it with some black tea at some point. I haven’t actually seen red peppercorns and green cardamom seeds in a tea before, so that was fun. I like spicy chai, so this wasn’t bad. For a tea with so many ingredients, it does seem like something is missing though.

I’m pretty new to tea drinking, particularly loose leaf teas. I don’t think this Zocolatte Spice Herbal Tea is half bad. I’m not the biggest chocolate fan in the world and the mild flavor is great for me. Adding half and half makes it like a spiced hot chocolate. Next time I’ll try what a previous reviewer suggests and add almond milk.

When I need my fix of chocolate and spice I like to drink this. It has a very smooth taste with every sip. It tastes like a spicy hot chocolate.