Chocolate Orange

I do not like chocolate tea, and I really do not like chocolate oranges. So I am going to try to give an unbiased review, but it will most likely be biased.

The dry tea has small little chocolate chips in it and smells like chocolate and oranges.

The brewed tea smells like chocolate, but also has that pu-erh fishy smell. Shudders.

On immediate sip, the brewed tea tastes like semi-sweet chocolate. I would say it is more like cocoa powder than an actually piece of chocolate. Then I taste candied oranges. Then I taste the fish/seaweed pu-erh. It is almost like I am tasting 3 different teas. The tastes do not really mix, they come out at different points in the sip.

I did not like the taste of this one, due to my taste preferences, but it is a weird blend otherwise.

Tea #22 from Another Traveling Tea Box

This is likely to be my last tasting note for a few hours, I’m going to have to really scrub my ingenuiTEA out after fixing this. I anticipate the chocolate getting stuck in the mesh, but it’s probably due for a good deep cleaning anyway.

I made a cup of this for after lunch since I was having a massive chocolate craving. I’m still looking for the perfect chocolate tea that will kick my cravings, but I haven’t come across it yet. I was really surprised by the flavor of this tea, while I’m not a huge puerh fan yet, I thought it went well with the chocolate and orange. While this isn’t a tea I would generally order for myself, it was nice to try.

I did find the oil slick at the top of my cup a bit off-putting, but that could have been from the chocolate, although I notice it with a lot of DAVIDsTEAs.

Another special THANKS to Steepster Bonnie for sending me this sample! The title of this tea had my name written all over it. Chocolate Orange Pu’erh! Well, that’s not really my name…though…Stoo C. O. Pu’erh…hhmm…it does have a bit of class!

Anyhow, this tea sounded like it had all of the ingredients that I love, in tea, or anything! Chocolate and orange are a great combination. I was extremely psyched to brew this baby.

I steeped it at 212 degrees for six minutes. The instructions said 98 degrees celsius (208.4 degrees fahrenheit) but my one-touch tea maker isn’t quite that versatile. No matter, what’s 3.6 degrees between friends?

The aroma that emerged from the steeping brew was interesting. I could detect the somewhat fishy aroma of the pu’erh mixed in with a sweet orange attribute.

The color of the steeped blend was light brown with orange hues. This is what I would expect if I put orange juice and pu’erh tea in a blender.

At first taste, the pu’erh flavor comes roaring through like a freight train. Then, the orange caboose begins to bring up the rear. As I guzzled more and more, I could discern the orange/pu’erh hybrid qualities of the flavor. The taste is smooth, sweet, and fruity, with the pu’erh presence complementing it perfectly. Bitterness is completely absent.

This is a fantastic tea. I’ve already enjoyed pu’erh with coconut. I now know that orange also is a great mate for it. I am looking forward to trying more pu’erh combinations in the future!

These two flavors are actually a great match. Besides tea, this would be a great selection in a box of chocolates. Are there any mad scientist chocolatiers out there? :-)

So my day at work today wasn’t anywhere near as cold as yesterday (I got to spend my day in a little booth with a heater that somewhat works…), but I decided I really wanted to try my girls out on a tea latte – and what better way than with a tea that smells like a Terry’s X-mas orange?

I made the tea latte the same way I did last night with the Chocolate Chili Chai – which was how I watched the girl at David’s in Guildford Mall make one – adding some agave syrup to the steeping tea.

So here goes…

I love the smell of the tea once brewed, and in the Latte? Delish! This is one amazing latte! I’m sitting here waiting for my girls to try/drink theirs; cause if they don’t drink them I sure will!

This tea is a definite keeper for me – I will be picking up some more very soon (sorry wallet)…

I’m now wondering how to make the other Terry’s Chocolate orange flavours with my teas…. any suggestions of some combos to make with the Oh Christmas Treat tea?

I LOVE this tea…it is a great substitute for hot chocolate, it is the taste of dark chocolate with a rich fruity orange taste…add a bit of almond milk and it is simply divine…I even steeped it a second time and it had a bit less chocolate taste, but the orange was more prominent. A good tea, I will keep it in my cupboard especially during the long Canadian winters.

One of my favorite things on the planet is the combination of orange and pu-ehr. Alas, the blood orange pu-ehr is being discontinued on David’s (I think?) so I decided to try this blend. Chocolate could only increase the deliciousness, I assumed.

Actually, the problem I’m having is that the chocolate seems to be “pooing” all over the pu-ehr, so I can barely taste the delicious tea. I’m definitely getting orange and chocolate flavor when I sip, but there might as well be almost no tea in the mix. It’s a good orange and chocolate– definitely a nice dessert tea– but I think I’ll go back to my simpler pu-ehr blends after I finish this bag. I’ll also try doing a shorter steep and see if that helps.

It’s after me! really it is! coconut!!!!

This tea is orange and puerh not coconut. So what’s the big idea?? It smells chocolatey and earthy. The first taste is a cheery orange. And then. . . it happens. The mysterious coconut goblin finds me and messes with my tea (or my taste buds). It’s that same most awful coconuty aftertaste that is supposed to follow after a sip of coconut flavored tea. Hear that coconut goblin??? You’re hanging out with the wrong tea!

I really don’t know where it’s coming from, maybe it’s hiding in the artificial flavors somewhere. Ugh.

Thanks again Shmiracles for sending me one of your favorites. So sorry that it wasn’t a match for me.

Sipdown. I finished this one up as a latte today. I only had 1.5 tsp left though, so it was on the weaker side but it was still good. I am surprised how well this tea stood up to time—this tea is from November 2014.
I usually like to brew this one for 4 minutes but for lattes, I usually brew for 5 minutes.

Resteep 7 minutes.

I bought Chocolate Orange as a sample from David’s Tea when I went on my trip in Ontario. It was nice to be able to go into the store for once! I was able to buy a bunch of samples that I’m still getting around to. The dry smell is great, though the flavor was a bit lacking for me. I like the earthiness of the Pu-erh with the chocolate orange though! Though it’s nice, I don’t think I would buy any more after this runs out.

So when I first went to DavidsTea, after the girl brought down a bazillion tins (not really but it felt like it), I got a few teas to bring home. So did my Mom. When I was checking out, I think I mentioned to my Mom that if I was ordering these online I’d be getting some free samples, but this was so much nicer to be able to get smaller amounts. The lady then tossed a bag of this in with my stuff for free just because, which was awesome. It had been one of the ones I was considering getting, but decided on some fruity oolongs instead. Lol.

That was months ago and I finally decided to try this one today. Mostly I was putting it off because I had an awful experience with the last chocolate orange tea I tried (burnt orange, yuck). But I was going through my swap bin and realized I hadn’t yet tried it. So I figured what the heck.

This would also be the first puerh that I’ve ever tried, though I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t use it as a comparison for what a puerh should be. At least I hope not.
Anyway. The tea in the bag was powdery with little chocolate curls and orange pieces. I think it was so powdery because of the chocolate, or something. I can’t imagine it was the tea causing it. I measured out a tsp and a half-ish into my steeper, poured boiling water over it and waited the minimum 4 min.

The wet leaves had that orange-y smell that I was expecting, but it didn’t assault my nose or smell burnt like the other orange chocolate tea I’ve had.
The brew wasn’t bad. The orange wasn’t overpowering, but it was definitely there. It had almost a spiciness to it that I wasn’t expecting, but it wasn’t strong. Just kinda a faint note at the back of the sip. I didn’t really get a strong distinction of chocolate from this, which I’d expect something given how much was in the mix. But I think it added maybe a richness to the cup and helped to tone down the orange. I’m not sure what a puerh is supposed to taste like so I couldn’t exactly pick it out of this, but it certainly didn’t adversely affect the brew.

I went for a second steep since, from what I’ve read here, puerh can take multiple steeps, usually this is encouraged, so I figured what the heck.
I should’ve stopped at the one steep, and certainly not tried to drink the second one. The wet leaves had a fishy smell to them, which I’ve heard sometimes a puerh will have. It also had a minty smell to it. Actually, it reminded me alot of the chiclet gum my Mom chews for her heartburn. (Just to note, I don’t think her gum smells fishy, just that these leaves reminded me of that. Lol) I scraped the leaves out of my steeper immediately before adding baking soda and hot water to it, since the steeper stank of this. Hopefully it’ll go away. Lol.
The brew had the same fishy smell to it, and the taste. UGH! Like fish. And mint. And orange. BLECH!
Maybe the third steep would’ve been better, but I didn’t even want to try it since what’s the point if you can’t get through the second steep?

Overall, for me this is a one steep only. But I’m not really planning on keeping this around. Maybe I’m doing something wrong because it seems like other reviewers for this have gotten multiple steeps out of it. But it’s just not for me I guess.
I won’t let this spoil my interest in trying puerh teas though. I’ll still, eventually, be giving that section of teas a try one of these days.