Chocolate Mint Flavored Black Tea

Sip down! Having the last of this today as a latte. This package didn’t taste nearly as delicious as the first time I ordered it, which makes me a little sad. Nt sure what’s changed but ill likely stick to some of the other mint chocolate teas that I’ve tried.

I have been trying to win the 52 Teas Email Trivia of the week since the first week they started it! I FINALLY WON 2 weeks ago!!! I was soooo excited! I ended up choose this tea as my tea that I won…I just got it in the mail today! YAY! And it couldn’t have come at a better time because I seem to be running out of most of my teas in my stash! Oye! Anyhow…upon opening the package I was stunned by a glorious chocolate aroma! Very powerful Chocolate Aroma! It was delightful, indeed! Color-wise it’s a medium brown once infused. After the infusion you can smell both the chocolate AND the mint but neither are overpowering. My first sip confused me as I thought based on the dry smell it would be all about the chocolate but it wasn’t. I wasn’t to quick to form an opinion…I took sip #2 and noticed the pleasant minty freshness. The mint it’s overpower but you certainly know it’s there. It accompanies the chocolate taste, again, neither too overpowering, taste-wise. There’s a bit of a woodsy undertone as an after thought but it doesn’t last long…the mint-chocolate combo pulls thru again at the end and lingers on to the aftertaste. All-in-All I do like this tea. It’s a bit different than I thought it would be but certainly not in a bad way. I like it. It’s tasty and flavorful but not obnoxious. Others have mentioned a Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mint comparison and I can totally see/taste the likeness! I’m sooooooo glad I won this! It’s nice. I will enjoy this often.

This is another of the teas that I ordered in the buy 3 get 1 free deal…

Minty… chocolate-y. Nice. This has more mint than chocolate, and, the chocoholic in me thinks it should be the other way around. Other than that though, it’s a pleasant enough tea.

My first 52teas order arrived yesterday — woohoo!!!!! I was too pooped from work and had so many other things to catch up on that I decided to wait until today to start steepin’ (but you can bet your sweet bippy that I opened them all last night and sniffed the leaves). Yummy!

So, I bet you’re looking at the tea that I’m rating and giving me the hairy eyeball. I know what y’all must be thinking: “but she goes on and on about how she doesn’t like chocolate, and yet she buys a big honkin’ 4 oz tin of this?!?! She cray-zay!” Yes, I am, as I think you’re thinking “cray-zay.” I actually really like Girl Scout Thin Mints — they’re sort of in their own realm of chocolate. But then again they’re not available year round, so that makes them more of a treat. I generally prefer my chocolate mixed with other things such as peanut butter, mint, cookies, caramel, etc (never chunky nuts — blech). But even then I can only do a little at a time and then I’m good for at least a month or more in regard to consuming chocolate. So, I think that my tin of this should last well over a year. Well, unless my Mom steals it from me.

This tea truly is like a liquid Thin Mint. It’s sort of like having a smooth black tea while eating a box of those cookies. Like you’ve just swallowed your cookie and then quickly taken a sip of tea. NOM!

This tea also helped me stop crying after a second mystery Samovar package showed up today. It turned out to be my original order that had been mis-handled. I thought that the original package would be sent to me — apparently not. This original box that I received today (2 days after sending out the Geek Prizes almost a week late) has the super-special prize for the Geek Pride grand prize winner placed in a nice gift box whereas the replacement shipment had everything thrown in and individually wrapped up in TONS of bubble wrap (you’ll eventually see Cait — again I apologize). The boxed item takes up about a third of the space of what I sent out to Cait. I was moved to angry tears because I was so very excited to place my first Samovar order and it has turned into such a nightmare. I don’t plan on ever repeating this nightmare ever again — I didn’t spend this much money to get so much grief. I’m awaiting a response from Samovar to see what on earth I’m supposed to do with this box that I don’t want and I’m angry that I have to deal with it. At least I wasn’t double-charged because I couldn’t afford that (my car payment would have bounced). If that had happened, then you would’ve seen Rabs really really mad.

Sorry for the venting, but it does come back around to my conclusion:

All of this frustration seemed to melt away once I sent off my email to Samovar and I was able to concentrate on this wonderful tea. I’m definitely tickled pink with Frank’s customer service and free shipping. The thought of spending my money (and knowing how much further it’ll go) at places like 52teas gives me hope in my tea future. TG

Backlogging.

For the fifth tea of Christmas, Frank gave to us Chocolate Mint Flavored Black Tea.

When I opened this sample packet, at first I got alcohol, followed quickly by mint – real strong mint ~cough, cough ~, then chocolate – dark chocolate. I do have to say that Frank nailed the smell on this blend. I’ll confess that I’m not a chocolate mint fan at all. The husband is and occasionally I’ll want a spoonful or two of his ice cream. The dark tea leaves have visible chocolate bits and bits of mint leaves.

Steeped, the tea still smells distinctively of chocolate mint and is a color that we’ll call standard tea color. I did a butt load of dishes while and after this tea had steeped so it was not piping hot when I first tried it. The taste is mint tea with dark chocolate. This is good, but definitely not a favorite of mine. I’ll have to see what the husband thinks when he tries it. As I finish drinking this tea, I decide a like it a bit more and raise my initial rating five points. I definitely get the Thin Mint comparison that others have made. I did not attempt a second steep because I did not want anymore chocolate mint at that time.

I’m rating this tea a 67, which is on the high end of my nice range (60-70).

I let my daughter taste this tea and she said, “hmm, it’s okay. I mean it’s pretty good.” Seven times out of ten her response is, “tastes like butt.” I’m pretty sure it just got the okay comment because I don’t take as much sugar in my tea as she likes in hers.

I liked this one better as it cooled down. I felt the flavors came out a little better. Perhaps an icing is in the future. Smooth and a bit malty are my first impressions. Maybe the chocolate makes it malty like. The mint is very natural, naked mint. I keep pushing my tongue up to the roof of my mouth, where I taste the mint the most.

Chocolate and mint, where can you go wrong?

I picked this out for my morning tea today and I would say that it went surprisingly well with my spicy bell pepper omelette – the mint is helping to soothe my mouth after adding a bit too much hot sauce.

Tastes like a peppermint patty, or should I say peppermint pat-tea? I never used to love the chocolate mint combo when I was a kid, but it has recently really grown on me. I’m drinking my leftovers of this from my morning steep while watching a rerun of Fresh Prince of BelAir…ahh… good combo! My taste in flavors may have changed, but I still like my old-school teen sit-coms. They just don’t make ‘em like they used to.

Ok, so does this have roasted mate in it?! Or malt flavouring? Because I’m getting a strong association to the super tasty Malted ChocoMate. In fact, that’s why I chose this sample from the awesome package sent to me by Missy & Dylan! Thanks you guys :)

So yes. This smells much like a minty Malted ChocoMate. Interesting.

Sadly, once steeped, I’m smelling the dreaded peppermint :( There’s something about mixing mint with hot water than I’m just not fond of. Apprehensive of tasting now but hey, I’m pretty sure I requested this one from them, so I had better do it.

Umm….. wow. This is much, much better than I had anticipated. I’m not really getting too much chocolate, but I’d chalk that up moreso to an inability to differentiate flavours than to a lack of chocolate in the blend (or cocoa nibs, in this case). The mint somehow blends wonderfully with the maltiness that I’m familiar with from Malted ChocoMate, and is rather lovely. Odd – I just thought about how this is a similar combination to Verdant Tea’s Chocolate Chamomile Curiousity Brew. Although that one smelled like cinnamon toast. I think they may have tasted somewhat similar…

I seem to be getting a bit of a scratchy throat from this one (or maybe I’m only just noticing it now), so that’s the only downside.

I’m still not fond of mint in teas, but this blend works really well. Thanks for the sample, Missy & Dylan! I used it all up in one generously-leafed cup (I think that’s what I requested?) which makes me happy as I get to tick off another tea as ‘sampled’ yet add nothing to my cupboard! This tea didn’t even make it out of the kitchen :D

Sip down sample!

I was eating some thin mint girl scout cookies and decided I should have a minty tea. Weird, but I miss the Canadian girl guide cookies. Yeah, theres like 2 kinds, but I dunno.. these american ones don’t taste as good and not as sweet. Made my husband go crazy as I eat Korean rice cake sweets, and those aren’t really sweet! Ehhhh, maybe I just miss Canada. Man, I need those “Dad’s Cookies” in that yellow bag. Too bad shipping to Canada sucks, I’d trade for cookies! I’ll have to wait until family or friends visit from Canada again.

Anyways, I did this tea as a latte, unsweetened cuz I’m too lazy to do anymore. Pretty good – much better as a latte!