Cococaramel Sea Salt Herbal Tea

I got sucked in by Teavana’s emails featuring this blend. And I think I saw a few reviews on here that intrigued me enough to buy the minimum 2 ounces to try it. It smells amazing in the bag but I found it to be a little weak in the cup. Now to be fair, I did make this as a latte and it is my first latte that I’ve ever made at home with my new milk frother. I was also trying to make enough for 2 cups of tea, so that could be why it’s weak. The flavor that it does has is pleasant and I will enjoy trying it as a regular cuppa, sans the latte. :)

So I finally tried this as a regular cup of tea, and I don’t know what to think. The tea is really cloudy and greasy on top, it kind of grossed me out. Without sweetener I took one sip and hated it, it was really thick and nutty tasting without any sweetness to it. With sweetener it’s better, and I can taste a little of the caramel and chocolate. I don’t really notice any sea salt flavor, but I am obsessed with salt and like a ton of it so maybe that’s why? I tried sprinkling a little sea salt on top to see if that enhanced the flavor at all, and it does bring out more of that salty-sweet flavor. I don’t know, though, I’m just not loving this tea. Being completely honest, the look of it is really throwing me off. I’m a CNA and about to go to nursing school and the color and consistency of this reminds me a little too much of a certain unnamed bodily fluid (am I allowed to say that on Steepster!?) I’m sad because I really really wanted to like this tea so much, since I have a big love of sweet/salty things. I really can’t even finish the cup, so into the swap pile it goes. :(

-Dry blend looks like a small trail mix of chocolate and nut pieces, little red berries, large coconut flakes and small yellow, orange and red petals.
-Dry blend smells salty and nutty with a hint of sweet chocolate. Tea liquor aroma is of toasty nuts.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy dark yellow color with an oily sheen on top.
-Weak nutty flavor with a light caramel chocolate finish. Faint salty aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Poor tea. Weak flavor with a thick greasy consistency.

Thanks whatshesaid for the swap!

So apparently I need to stop being a wimp, and I should just go into Teavana and try some teas out because this is pretty good. I wonder what their minimum is – 2oz?

I can’t believe this is herbal. It sorta tastes like I’m eating a salted chocolate bar. Or something like that. I love salt and sweet flavours mixing together so that’s part of why this mix works. I’m tasting a lot of chocolate, nuts, and maybe a bit of licorice as well? It’s actually not as thin and watery as other chocolate teas that I’ve tasted which is impressive. And it’s unusual enough that it’d be a nice one to stock up. I wonder how much sugar is in this? :O

Too bad this has so many mixed ratings. I’m actually quite pleased with it! I think it’d be great when I’m feeling ‘snacky’ but am trying to avoid excessive munching.

I wish I had tea ESP. You know that feeling when you get an order in, and once you’ve tasted all the teas there are some you love you didn’t get enough of, and some you really don’t love that you now have too much of? That’s what happened with me and Teavana’s Heavenly sale. I should have gotten, like, a pound of this. It’s heaven.

Going by other peoples’ tips I decided to do this stovetop with 1 cup milk, 1 cup water and a teaspoon of sugar. Simmered for about 10 minutes the same way you would a chai, and yes, this really is like hot chocolate. Rich, decadent, with creamy caramel, toasty nuttiness and a tiny hint of salt. It’s better than any hot chocolate I’ve had, and that’s saying something because usually chocolate teas have me reaching for the hot cocoa mix with their distinct lack of richness.

This, though, is just… it’s perfect. There’s so much complexity, and it’s an herbal! It’s like someone took perfect hot chocolate, drizzled caramel into it and added a shot of hazelnut syrup (which I’m assuming comes from the nuts in the mix) and then finished it off with a sprinkle of salt. FINALLY I have found the chocolate tea for me! Too bad Teavana’s base prices are so high, but I will definitely pay retail price for this gem.

6 oz water, 6 oz milk, and a heaping tablespoon of this tea, simmered on the stove for about 10 minutes. Melt that chocolate! Definitely reminiscent of hot chocolate but less like drinking sugar. MUCH better this way than just made with water…it needs a heavier liquid to hold up to all the stuff in here.

This one is so good.
I wrote an awesome review, but my computer ate it earlier…So this will be the short version. Dry, this smells exactly like rocky road ice cream; no kidding. It smells divine when steeped and tastes even better! I’m not really thinking “caramel” when I drink this. It reminds me a bit of chocolate flan stuffs. I really love the chocolate flavor in this one because it is just, so much more natural tasting compared to other chocolate teas that I’ve had. This one is just as good as, if not better, than the slimful chocolate decadence one I think. The liquor itself looks very scary actually; lots of floaties all over the place. If my cupboard wasn’t already so full I’d say that I should get a whole bunch of this one! It is excellent.

Josie Jade (thanks!) sent me this because she hated it and I really enjoyed it, from what I recalled the one time a girl at work brought some in and let me try.

Drinking it now, I find it really weird tasting, not necessarily BAD, but artificially sweet, and definitely oily, and it’s leaving a weird fake taste in the back of my mouth.

Here’s what’s good…. The smell of the dry blend. Period.

Ughhh it’s soooo fake sweet, what IS that???

I don’t know what’s happening in my mouth right now but I don’t think I like it.

Sad face.

I got this one today, in a swap from irishgirlieknits. I panicked a bit, when I saw it. Totally not expecting peppercorns in this blend, and all I could smell from the bag was chai. It really threw me off.

I brewed it up anyway, and anxiously waited while it steeped. I didn’t see brewing instructions anywhere, so I tried a four minute infusion.

I tasted caramel from the very first sip. So good! And there’s a bit of heat, from the peppercorns, that gives this herbal tea a bit more depth than I had anticipated. The caramel flavor got more intense as the tea cooled, and I am just sitting down for a second steep now. I am really looking forward to drinking the rest of this sample, and could see myself ordering this in the future. It’s nice to have a delicious, caffeine-free evening treat.

Another one off the shopping list courtesy of momo!

This one certainly smelled like a buttery caramel dry, which is funny because all the different components (coconut, red peppercorns) making up the leaf wouldn’t seem to yield that result. Steeped it develops that greasy film that flavored teas sometimes do, which I really wish could be avoided. It kind of looks like chicken broth which is hard to stomach when you’re smelling caramel.

The tea itself was not worth drinking plan. It was caramel without the sugar, with an extra bonus of a slick, thicker texture. The addition of milk and sugar turned this into a more accurate representation of salted caramel. In fact, I think it’s probably the most accurate salted caramel tea that I’ve had (which makes what, two total? So that’s not saying much haha).

Still, the David’s tea salted caramel was more toffee than anything, so I have to rate this semi decent for at least matching it’s description. I’m glad I got to try it without buying the full two ounces, too!

This sample is from a swap with Mitch.

I mixed this up with some cold milk and it made a pretty fine “not quite hot chocolate” beverage. Teavana tends to be a bit of miss with me but this tastes like my favourite Himalayan pink salt chocolates in liquid, low fat form. It’s got a chocolatey, gooey center and salted exterior that lingers. This isn’t something I’d order for myself (I’d rather eat all of the listed ingredients outright), but I’m quite happy to drink it here. The last bit of this is going to become a proper latte.

I’m a little nervous to try this tea because it looks like it has some things in it that I might not like. It’s mostly all about the pink peppercorns.. but I’m hoping that they won’t be too prominent. Peppercorns and I don’t go well together.

Sipping… It’s very sweet at first and actually fades into something a little bit buttery. I’m not sure that I taste sea salt or caramel — just a messy sweetness. The flavors are all muddied together and I can’t seem to pick anything out. There is something very artificial about this cup and it makes me want to stop drinking. I wish that there was something more natural about this blend, because the idea behind it is fantastic (I love caramel and sea salt… or really anything salty and sweet at the same time). It would also be nice if I could distinguish each individual flavor note… but this means that I can’t taste the pink peppercorns at all, thankfully. I won’t be finishing this cup, but thank you to Yssah for a sample of this tea!

Tea to go today, before Friday Night Dinner Group…

Looks and smelled really nice, which is usually a good sign since I don’t like the smell of a lot of their blends. This one did brew up cloudy, but that doesn’t bother me much, so long as it tastes good.

I can say that brewed, it still smelled delicious. The first sips were good, though as it cooled, I had a strange taste in my mouth and I thought to myself, is that anise? I’m tasting something vaguely licorice-like. Sure enough, when I got home to look at the full ingredients, but anise seed and licorice. Boooooooo! I would like this tea much better without that taste.

the scent! very strong upon opening..but it was bliss…
the “tea” – very weak…i would add more next time

the treat – it has no tea leaves. but it smells so good, i could eat it up before even steeping it! and guess what..after steeping, i did eat it all up! ^{______________}

i like momo’s suggestion to boil it for 10mins…might get a bit stronger. will try that next time!

Got some of this during the heavenly sale for under $2/2oz. Wishing I had added more than my sad 2 little 2 oz pouches.

My husband and I have very different tastes in tea (he likes unsweetened greens, I like flavored, sweetened blacks) but he asked to share a pot of this with me tonight and we both love it. About halfway through his cup he looked over and asked how much of this I had ordered.

I get quite a bit of caramel and chocolate, but like others said, the sea salt is a bit lacking. I may add some myself and see what happens. The liquid is a bit scary due to its murky quality but hot damn, this is a yummy tea. I’m currently 5 months pregnant and the baby seems to like it too. I get a little rumba in my belly after each sip.

Thanks to Jackie T, I’m finally getting to try this one. (I’ve been curious about it for a while now.)

First impression (dry): Holy cow, this has a LOT going on! I don’t have access to an actual ingredient list (Teavana’s website is so unhelpful), but it looks like there’s peppercorn, dried cardamom pods, cocoa pieces, chopped-up nuts, a tiny bit of rooibos, coconut flakes, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t recognize. Smells good. Like, really good. Chocolate and something a little bit minty? Not sure where that’s coming from, but it smells a tiny bit like a mild Read My Lips, almost.

First impression (steeped): Still smells good. Not getting that odd mintiness anymore. The liquor that this makes up is, well frankly, gross looking. It’s pale and murky – almost looks like dirty, scummy fish tank water. That’s not doing much for my appetite… :/

First sips (no additions): Whoa, that’s sweet! Almost sickeningly sweet. When I was searching for an ingredients list, I read a review that said to add Stevia. Ugh, I can’t even imagine how bad and overly sweet that would taste! Glad I tried it plain first. Seriously, it’s got that whole tongue-tingly feeling I get when I eat frosting or something heavily sugared. It doesn’t taste like a naturally occurring sweetness, so I wonder what they added to get it that way. Sadly, I’m getting no salt.

(Adds milk) Now it tastes more like chocolate. Sweet milk chocolate. And I’m getting a light caramel flavor – like the kind of caramel you get chocolate bars, rather than the thick, slightly burnt, stovetop caramel that I love. Ok, that “minty” smell I picked up before must actually be anise, because I’m tasting crazy licorice, especially in the end of the sip. Still no salt (sad face).

I’m glad I was able to try this one without purchasing it. It wasn’t really what I was hoping for – a thick, dark, chocolatey caramel tea with a punch of salt. Mmmm…if anyone knows of a tea like that, let me know!

Thanks jessiwrites for sending me this to try out :)

This tea is fascinating. The dry mix looked bizarre – like some sort of holiday spice mix you’d use for the dressing. I made the first cup for the fiance while I enjoyed Watermelon Mint Chiller and he said it tasted like spices with a saltiness at the end.

My take is that the caramel is there, the chocolate is there too. And the salt. The salt is there. And that’s what’s making me not fully enjoy this cup. It’s so good up until the end of the sip and the salt comes out. I keep drinking it, hoping the salt will go away, but it’s not leaving. Gah.

I’d say the name of the tea is perfect, and if you like sweet offset with salt, this would be amazing. Evidently, I’m not that person. I’m glad I got to taste this to see what it’s all about though.

This is my most favorite tea EVER. It is so smooth and rich. Chocolately caramel and yes, you can actually taste the sea salt flavouring.
The only downside is that you have to use more than the recommended amount per cup to get the proper flavor.

Awesome tea. I was worried it would be really weak as some of their herbals tend to be. I kind of wish it was a little saltier. It seems like the salt floats to the top and then for the rest of your cup it’s not very salty at all. I still really love it though!

Delicious flavor with this one. I have to agree with some of the other posts, there wasn’t much of a sea salt flavor but the coco caramel is well complimented with cream and sugar. I was not disappointed with this one.

I expected a lot from this, and I enjoy this for the most part. The only part I don’t enjoy is the liquorice root. Those notes tend to disappear when I blend this with another tea.

This is warm, liquid dessert! I made this as a latte with some sugar and it tastes like a creamy caramel treat. It’s smooth and more caramel than chocolate, although the chocolate flavor is definately there. The sea salt keeps it from being sickeningly sweet. Instead, it’s drinkable dessert heaven. Yum!