Blood Orange Chocolate Red

I picked this up on my last trip to World Market. It was with the Holiday teas, so I’m going to assume this is their special holiday blend for the season (I very well could be wrong, and if I’m missing something good, someboday please tell me!).

The taste is similar to the Year of the Tiger tea, though this one is stronger on both the chocolate and citrus fronts. You can also taste the difference in the citrus…this one is definitely blood orange rather than a regular orange flavor. It’s stronger on the citrus than the chocolate, and if you’re looking for that elusive chocolate-covered orange tea, this one still isn’t it.

That being said, it’s still rather nice and will be a very good tea to cuddle up with on a cold winter’s night.

Feeling a bit stuffy and draggy (is that a word?) this am, so I added a dash of cayenne to get the blood flowing. It’s kinda not bad. More for medicinal purposes than pure drinking pleasure, but at least it’s helping me build a tolerance to spice/heat too.

I always get my hopes up with Republic of Tea. Maybe it’s the fancy circular casing, or the endless promises of SUSTAINABLE INGREDIENTS and RICH BURSTING FLAVOR. Or even just the fact that the blood orange art on the case reminded me of a wagon wheel. I always WANT to like Republic of Tea.

Unfortunately, I just never do. While I’ve only tried a handful of their teas, they are always disappointingly bland and musty. I snagged this one 50% off after the holidays so it was less of a price gamble, but I really should have learned my lesson being disappointed by their chocolate strawberry tea last year. I just don’t think that Republic of Tea handles chocolate flavoring well.

See, this is really where the problem is. I could be satisfied with this as a slightly bland and musty blood orange rooibos. Really, I could. But for me, every sip is overpowered by that artificial, waxy flavor that might be considered chocolate in some universe. That universe would be inhabited by people with only one taste bud on their tongue, but I could buy it. For me, however, it tastes like chocolate lip smackers, and I’m going to leave THOSE in the past where they belong!

This tea smells amazing, but the flavor could be stronger, definitely. Bit of a letdown to take a sip and not really get as much of the orange and chocolate flavor as I’d hoped. But, still pretty enjoyable.

I steeped for the full 7 min for a stronger flavor. I love the blood orange flavor in this tea. I don’t really taste the chocolate as much. I think it’s a tad on the weak side though. I would enjoy a fuller, richer flavor.