White Chocolate Peppermint

So I mainly shop Davids as I have one in town and its what first got me into tea about a year ago! I had only recently noticed Teavana and clearly don’t have one near me therefore have never purchased. Well when planning a day trip (about 2 months ago now) I made sure to take note that a Teavana was near and would make my way there to give it a shot. I have to say I LOVE that they have so many samples in store (one thing I wish Davids would add… more samples!!!). Anyways!! I smelt it and i tried it and it was amazing! Alittle sweet, however I remember hearing that Teavana likes to overly sweeten their teas in store. Keeping that in mind and the fact that they had a deal at the time to buy 2 tins of their winter collection teas and a steeper, I was sold!

Fast forward holiday craziness and this being hidden in my cupboard I didn’t open the tin until tonight – face palm – So I opened the tin and made myself and my father a cup. Mmmm delicious. Creamy, chocolate-ly and minty. AND not as sweet as I remember from in store. Nothing needs to be added to this tea what so ever! I was quite pleased! BONUS: My father also enjoyed his cup!

I have to make a side note for those who compare this to DT white chocolate frost. I feel there should be no comparison. In my opinion these two teas are both amazing and for their own reasons. This is a dessert like sweet tea, whereas DTs WCF well it hits the sinuses with a bang because of the peppercorn making it more minty and pepper like, not so much dessert like.

Overall verdict: delicious dessert tea, perfect for a sweet tooth craving :)

I tried a small amount of this in stores today and I’m really not sure where to begin reviewing it.
It was overwhelmingly sweet. I think the must have added like twice as much sugar as they should have so it was very hard to get the flavours to come through. But I did notice the mint. That managed to come through. It was good. I wish the rest had had a chance to really shine instead of getting beaten down and away with the amount of sugar. Oh well… what can you do?
I wish there was a way to order samples from Teavana instead of committing to a full 50g!

Teeny Tiny TTB Round 2

I only have four more teas to try, and they’re all caffeine-free. Two of them are only single servings anyway, so I’ll probably save those for tomorrow evening unless I feel overly rooibos-inclined tonight. The other two, I need to try tonight so I can send the box off tomorrow! So this is the first of those. Now, I normally stay away from Teavana teas, just because they’re been pretty much exclusively disappointing to me. But I figured I’d give this one a try, since the concept of a white chocolate and peppermint rooibos sounds yummy. So here we are! There are a ton of white and milk chocolate pieces in this blend along with a ton of cacao shells. What there’s very little of is the actual rooibos. Dry scent is really strong peppermint, but I can also smell the chocolate if I keep my nose far enough from the opening of the bag.

The steeped tea smells quite good, it’s a nice balance of minty and creamy (though there’s quite an oil slick on the surface from all that chocolate…). At first I thought there was stevia in this, since it is quite sweet, but I think it’s actually a combination of the melted chocolate and the licorice root. Overall, it’s not bad. It’s a little bit thin for me, but the peppermint flavor is nice and mellow, while the chocolate adds creaminess. I definitely can’t taste the rooibos, but that’s not a surprise for me. Not something I would buy, but not bad!

I’m forever looking for the perfect decaf/non-caffeinated tea to drink in the evenings when I’m most in need of a pick-me-up. This tea is actually pretty good, if you’re into dessert teas. The peppermint and chocolate flavors both show through pretty well. It’s the kind of tea you can sniff forever and ever.

The caveat is that being a dessert tea that has lots of bits of actual chocolate in it, this tea does get a little oily. It’s not unpleasantly so, and the oiliness really adds a creamy mouth-feel to it, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re using certain kinds of tea brewers, because you can’t just rinse and repeat with this tea. I brewed it with Teavana’s perfect tea brewer and had to scrub the oily film off the plastic when I was done. I imagine if you’re using Breville’s One-Touch Tea Maker you’re going to have to scrub the inside or run it through with vinegar/citrus after, so maybe easy-to-clean or dishwasher friendly infusers are best with this tea.

Tastes great with a splash of milk and a little bit of sweetener, but is good without.

Well, it finally happened. I found Teavana tea I actually liked. Went by the store here to kill time while waiting for the bus. They had Winter teas, but it was only Halloween. It smelled nicely minty, with some chocolate. While I know they sweeten the teas, this one tasted like peppermint bark (similar to the one put out by Ghirardelli). There is apparently the dreaded licorice root in this, but I didn’t really notice.

So I Get that teavana has acquired a poor rep in the past for having pushy customer service, but we’re not all like that at all. Some the the garbage that out reps used to use was scripted and pure crop, but I hate when people throw us under the bus with all the other crappy service moments they have had and assume that everyone must be a pushy assholes. Anyways….
I love this tea and I hope everyone else did too because I may have heard a little birdie (my floor manager) say that it will be making a triumphant return even after the rumors said otherwise. Sorry I vented, and thanks for listening.

This tea smells like Christmas! Such a rich, sweet peppermint scent…and it tastes ALMOST as good as it smells. I really don’t notice the rooibos flavor at all, just LOTS of peppermint balanced by a bit of sweetness and depth from the white chocolate. The only thing I don’t like about this tea is that it leaves an oily residue in my infuser and mug that necessitates a good scrub with Dawn after drinking. Otherwise, it’s great!

An employee offered me a sample of this tea in store and I was eager to bring some home with me. Seeing as it was a chilly Minnesota winter the warmth of the holiday season resonated with each sip. The ‘chocolate’ was mild and not choking like some cocoa based teas and the peppermint was wonderfully warm. I found that this tea tended to lean towards the ‘thin’ side if steeped too high and the peppermint became a little unsavory.

I would definitely recommend this if they carry it again in the winter months for when you don’t want dense hot chocolate.

I ran out of this a while ago and realized I never wrote a note for it – oops!

I love this one. It needs the tiniest bit of sugar, but once it’s sweetened, it’s fantastic. Very minty with the chocolate adding sweetness.

T&C TTB Tea # 6 – Backlog May 23

Sorry to everyone for this huge influx of reviews. Problem is that I haven’t found the time to sit down and enter all these, so it ends up being a ton at once.

This tea smelled amazing in the bag. I was sure it would end up being one I would want to yoink out of the TTB to keep for myself. WRONG-O.

Once brewed up it was oily, and had this weird filmy fake taste to it which reminded me of another Teavana tea I’ve had, actually the only other one i’ve ever tried…. Cococaramel Sea Salt. Another one that smells good and tastes nasty.

All I was getting was some kind of chemical/artificial sweetener type of note…. with chocolate mint but not in a natural or delicious way.

bleh.