Thé du Loup

The wolf, the big bad wolf is as sweet as any golden retriever and a perfect gentleman, oh I do love it.

It´s chocolate and hazelnut tea, on itself a wonderful idea, but not a sickly sweet combination, more like dark chocolate type. And magically the underlying tea can stand up to the flavor, without being bitter, tanninic (or since I experimented having it at night, not too much caffeine I think). And it is one of those magic flavored teas where I can be so careless when brewing it, it is not fussy about temperature or steeping times. I love this wolf tea, and everybody who I have served it to seems to love it as well, this is not going to last very long here. A re-buy for sure.

thank you so much cteresa for sharing this sample with me.
You’re definitively right : this thé du loup is a fantastic tea …and you know I ’m not a chocolatea lover…
The scent of the liquor is really chocolate (almost like Charlotte au Chocolat of Dammann Frères) but tasting it, I get the hazelnuts !

The tea base is not too strong finally and I was expecting a stronger black tea that’s why I didn’t steep it very long but I think I should try with a longer steeping time.
Anyway I like it very much but may prefer a more bodied tea with chocolate.

Thé du loup for sure is a masterpiece and deserves the high rates given here on Steepster.
A tea to recommend to chocolatea lovers – would you be my valentine dear wolf ?

I recieved a very generous sample of The du Loup today when buying yet another tin of Theodor. I’m starting to feel like some kind of repeat record, but what a great tea! Considering that I have never liked a chocolate tea before, that’s saying something. Somehow this blend just works.

With other chocolate teas my overall feeling always used to be that it tries to substitute hot chocolate (the: this-is-good-for-your-diet-and-if-you-could-only-believe-it-preferable-to-the-real-thing). With this tea I don’t have that feeling. Of course it’s has a strong chocolate flavour and – especially – smell and isn’t ‘the real thing’, but it has such an own identity that I don’t feel cheated by the fact.

I’ll definately be buying this one!

I must say that Theodor at present is my favourite brand for flavoured teas.

My 300th tasting note? Really? Man, they accumulate fast. Lol.

Clue No. 4 [This would have been the last clue, if Rabs hadn’t figured out my mystery with only three! Awesome!]

Surprised I’m the first to write a note on this as it appears to be the flagship tea of The O Dor.

As a fan of Harney & Sons Florence, I was particularly curious about this tea as it’s also a chocolate and hazelnut flavored black.

The leaves smell different. The Wolf smells more like what I’d expected of Florence and been pleasantly surprised not to find: Frangelico and chocolate. Florence has a true nut smell, rather than a liqueur. But the liqueur of the Wolf is marvelous smelling in its own way. There are large nut fragments visible in the tea.

Steeped, the tea produces a truer nut smell with a chocolate undercurrent.

It’s a different taste than Florence. Though I’m not doing a side by side tasting, from memory I’d say it’s subtler, with less pronounced chocolate. That is both a minus and a plus, as it is naturally sweeter prior to milk and/or sweetening additives than Florence is and makes a really delicious drink plain — but the trade off is that it is less chocolatey overall.

I’m still liking Florence in the top spot, but this is a strong contender and one I think can coexist nicely for those times a straight up chocolate/hazelnut is calling.