Chocolate Delight

Sipdown! (sample to quote Indigobloom) And it’s a good thing too since apparently two of my swaps arrive tonight AND there’s a third one in the mail already AND uh three more to come eventually. So i suspect that tonight i’ll be back over 300 again sigh

What to say about this? I want more! I suspect that unless the cacao tea sample that i have kicking around is more delicious than this, THIS is the chocolate “in a hot chocolate kind of way” tea that I’d keep in my cupboard. It’s creamy and chococlatey and delicious! I didn’t add any milk to it and it still tasted like a delicious cup of hot chocolate. I’m impressed!

So I finally found the source of the delicious smell in my room – this tea! It’s in a plastic baggie, so that’s probably why. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t taste as good as it smells, although it certainly doesn’t taste bad! While it’s chocolatey, it’s more of a cocoa flavour than an artificial chocolate flavour, which is certainly appreciated, and I can understand why Sil enjoyed this. I wish it had a bit more flavour (I’ll steep it a bit longer next time, I think), but I can see it as a go-to chocolate tea over some of the more heavily flavoured-tasting ones. That said, if I want a chocolatey comfort tea, I’ll be having some of Verdant’s Laoshan Black Genmaicha, thanks.

This is a very comforting tea. I can picture myself drinking it cozied up with a great book and nothing but crackling logs in the fireplace for music.
At first, I didn’t like this at all. There is ALOT of astringency going on. That’s what I was worried about. Ack! Most chocolate teas I’ve tried are naturally sour and require a good dose of sugar for me to consider them palatable. In my head, that sour/bitter note of dark chocolate is transferable to tea so it kinda doubles down on that effect.
Of course, this is no exception. But… the chocolate part is so appealing that I’m willing to look past that. Realistic chocolate at that! I’m surprised, since I see barley bits listed in the ingredients and barley is very hit and miss with me.
Anyhow, milk is optional, though I am sipping the rest of this cuppa ala dairy. I prefer it this way, reminds me more of a hot cocoa. Also, the milk reduces astringency somewhat, as it creates a bit of a milk chocolate effect. So… while I may have come around somewhat about this blend, it isn’t that “perfect chocolate tea” I’ve been searching for. shrugs
Final verdict: Yum yum!

I almost was going to pair a piece of chocolate with this tea, but decided that would take away from the chocolate-y goodness of this tea. I haven’t enjoyed this one in a while, but it’s still my favorite chocolate tea by far. It just has that rich, almost chewy chocolate flavor. I wonder if it’s the barley. Anyhoo, it’s delicious! I was thinking about taking advantage of the 20% off sale and restocking, but I’ve been kinda bad lately, so I’ll hold off for now. ;)

1.5 tbsp used for 375 ml

Very dilute flavour. Mild spice. Black tea tones in background. Reminds me of roasted mate flavour. Slight creamy sweetness. Chocolate notes are detectable.

Thank you to Tealizzy for the sample of this tea. It was nice and I enjoyed two delicious cups plus re-brews. However, I’m not inclined to buy any as I wasn’t sure I really got much chocolate flavor. But I’m always up for trying new teas. This was my first tea from Tealux.

Find myself wanting to eat all the chocolate today. I keep buying all the chocolate, so this is easy to do when I am at home.

I could have sworn I have a stack of chocolate teas for moments like these, but it took me forever to find one. I finally found this one in a cluster of those that I had divied out for Sil—yes, yes, that was three months ago— and was dismayed that this has green tea in it as well as black. In my experience, those green/black blends don’t turn out well, but hey, let’s give it a whirl.

It may be green and black, but steeped, it smells like pu’erh. Like others have noted, it tastes like watered down hot chocolate.

The flavour actually is good, but calling it Chocolate Delight sets up an expectation. Calling it something like Muddied Cocoa would be more accurate and less anxiety-provoking.

Currently eating caramel chocolate to assuage my disappointment.

That said, it is getting better as it gets cooler.