Three Friends (Orange, Marshmallow, Chocolate)

Steeped a few cups of this today. It’s such an interesting blend… I love the idea of an orange-chocolate tea, but I haven’t tried many yet. The orange in Three Friends is delicious, very sweet—but with just enough sharpness to make it stand out among the other flavors. I can smell orange and chocolate very clearly here, both in the dry leaf and once it’s steeped. They smell “real,” if that makes sense—no artificial sweetness, which makes them feel richer and more present.

The taste has a lot of orange flavor, with chocolate notes beneath it, and a sugary creaminess from the marshmallow. For me, the black tea base has strong honey notes, with a touch of malt. It seems to be on the lighter side, for a black. (I was a little surprised I didn’t get any cocoa notes from the tea itself, for whatever reason… Might explain why I found the orange flavor to be stronger than the chocolate.) This is a really sweet tea, even without anything added. For my second cup, I let it steep for four minutes. The honey notes became even more prominent, giving it a kind of orange/honey/cream flavor. Delicious, even though it’s not quite the balance of orange and chocolate that I expected!

Surprisingly, I think I prefer this tea with honey or sugar—even though it’s already so sweet. A little extra sweetness seems to help all the different flavors blend together. This is a fun tea, really unique and delicious. I’m sure I’ll enjoy the rest of my tin.

Hooray! I’m having this tea in celebration of getting my cupboard down to under 100 teas. As of right now, I’m at 99! :D I am expecting a few teas but I will continue to sip down some things, so hopefully I’ll still be under 100 when those get here!

This tea is so yummy. I’m having a really hard time not adding sugar, since I know it would really push the chocolate flavor over the top… It’s an addiction. :P Holding strong though!

Wasn’t sure if I’d like this tea because of the orange, but I decided to request it as a sample. It’s pretty good. The orange is definitely there, which is why I probably won’t buy any of this. But the flavors of marshmallow and dark chocolate put me on the fence about it. There’s so much marshmallow and dark chocolate tastes in this-it’s amazing! I love that part of it! Just the orange isn’t for me…so yeah, kinda on the fence. :S

This smells phenomenal, like orange peels and chocolate. Mmm, definitely a good sign. I can stiff this all day. The smell mellows a bit after steeping.

When I first took a sip there was a slight bitterness, which could have been from the orange or could have been I added a little too much stevia, or maybe the combination of both. The front of the sip is mostly orange, which melds into sweet chocolate by middle of the sip and the two marry together by the end of the sip, and leaving an almost fluffy creamy taste and feel. This is very yummy. I don’t get too much marshmallow and I’m fine with that.

Backlog

I’ve been waiting to try this for quite some time and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. I’m usually not a fan of fruit and chocolate together in anything really, but maybe the marshmallow made this a win. I LOVE marshmallows. I remember seeing a lot of tasting notes that said that the marshmallow did not really come through, but I thought it was so obvious. As it cools down, the beautiful marshmallow loveliness tones down and disappears though. The orange notes are much more zesty than juicy and what is more of a dark chocolate taste when the tea is hot tones down as it cools down and seems to melt in with the marshmallow notes to create a yummy milk chocolate flavour. This is most definitely a re-stock.

A good morning tea when you’re craving something sweet. I made the mistake of not putting the timer on so I think I may have over steeped it because the orange was a tad bit bitter and overall the tea wasn’t as sweet as I remember it.

The base tea is nice and brisk to me and helped me wake up.

As a side note I love the tin it comes in. It really makes it feel special.

Method: 1.5 tsp, 8 oz, 208 degrees, 3 minutes, French Press

Dry & Brewing Aromas: Both smell strongly of chocolate and orange. The dry tea is beautiful, with little bits of orange and chocolate chips among the black and golden tea leaves.

Flavor: I pick up the chocolate and orange, which are lovely and very prominent. There’s a light sweetness, which I am guessing comes from the marshmallow. I drank this with no additives a few days ago, and I liked it very much. This AM, I added a little sugar and almond/coconut milk and this makes a lovely breakfast tea. Next time, I will try it with just a little sugar because I usually don’t drink tea with milk.

I’m really happy with this one and I know I’ll get more of this with my next Butiki order. Yum!

From the Teeny Tiny Traveling Tea Box.

The base leaf looks very pretty – little black tea leaves, slightly twisted, half dark brown and half golden. Chocolate dominates the dry leaf aroma, but both the chocolate and the orange stand out equally in the wet leaf aroma. Smells just like those orange-shaped chocolates you pound to separate the slices. Yum!

I brewed the leaves twice. The second was much better, taste-wise. The first, while still hot, was bitter, and the chocolate and orange began to appear only after the tea cooled to warm/warm-hot. For the second infusion, I let the leaves brew 7 minutes. After that time, the tea was lukewarm and the flavors and additional ingredients tasted their strongest at this point, particularly the orange zest. Full-bodied, brisk. No marshmallow detected either times.

Yeah, I don’t know why I ordered this tea. I like those chocolate orange thingies, so maybe that’s why. Or the tin. I’m not sure. This tea is not really doing anything for me.

The dry leaves smell absolutely lovely. Amazing. And they look so cool. The infused tea still smells great, honestly.

The base tea is stronger than I would like. It’s not a base tea I would normally pick for myself, which is why I wonder why I ordered this one. Why do I do this to myself? I also don’t get marshmallow at all from this, which is disappointing. Adding a little sugar helped as it’s now milk chocolate, and the orange tastes more…orangey?…and the base tea is a little muted. But still no marshmallow. :( I’m feeling defective this morning.

I know that someone after me in the TTTTB has this on their wish list, so I’ll be adding this tea there. I hope it finds a good home.

It’s been a while eh?

Thanks are owed to Stacy who sent me this sample with my most recent Butiki order. I love how each sample brews one cup—there’s no fussing about with measurements and such, which is a relief for sure. I was eager to try this one, not only because of the rave reviews, but also because I’ve tried (and loved) sil’s two-friended version of this tea, and wanted to see how the two compared.

I have to say that I think I prefer sil’s blend with PTA as the base and no marshmallow. I actually couldn’t distinctly identify the marshmallow in this blend, but I also felt that depending on what temperature the water was, the flavours felt a bit overwhelmed by the base, which I didn’t find to be the case with the other blend. The other blend seemed to be a bit more “in your face” Terry’s chocolate orange, whereas this one seemed to be a bit more subtle. Still quite tasty, but if anyone wants to put together a mass request for the other blend, I’d be up for it (or down with it? ha) anytime.

Thanks again, Stacy!

Sipdown!