S'mores

This little dude came in the mail today and as soon as I opened the bag, I started salivating. You just don’t get how much I love marshmallows. The texture, the flavour, the shape, the feel : everything! If you ever want to make me super happy, buy me tea or handmade artisan marshmallows. I swear. I love them.

My cup smells of gooey melted marshmallows, and it makes me smile. But taste wise, this fails. Black, there may be a bit of marshmallow in there. Maybe. Then I added half and half and sweetener to try to make it more marshmallow-y and although it did help, it really wasn’t what I expected. Chocolate? Where?

Don’t get me wrong, I mean, it is a pleasant cup of tea. But would I have named this tea smores? No. I would call it black tea with KIND OF marshmallow. But I guess that’s not really good marketing now is it?

I got a sample of this tea in my swap with Ost. It was one that I have no idea why I didn’t choose when I made my Della Terra order – I guess because I’m kind of wary of chocolate teas. The dry leaf is generic small black tea leaves mixed with mini chocolate chips and little pieces of marshmallow that look like they’re covered in graham cracker crumbs. It smells yummy – like sugary sweet marshmallows mixed with carob and a touch of graham cracker. I brewed a very heaping teaspoon for 4 minutes.

This is one of those teas that smells far better than it actually tastes. The aroma is all melty sweet marshmallows with just a touch of cocoa. I can also smell the black tea in the background. Sipping this, I taste the sweet marshmallow taste, but it comes nowhere close to the smell. It’s a more transparent marshmallow, closer almost to vanilla than actual marshmallows. I definitely get a bit of the cocoa flavor and it also shows up as an aftertaste. For some reason, I get a definite tang out of the black tea base and it’s not at all harmonious with the flavoring. Even using more tea than is recommended, this tea is a bit weak for my tastes. Not bad, but not great.

After a nightmare morning I decided to drink some tea in hopes it would relax me. But this tea just made me feel more sad. It tastes exactly like hot chocolate. It’s ridiculously chocolatey to me. It’s a nice tea but I just keep wanting to put marshmallows in it since it’s like hot chocolate to me. But…I don’t think that would taste too good…Maybe I’ll try it one day xD Either way this is a pretty good tea! The equivalent of hot chocolate to me :P

It’s a little cold this morning so I thought I’d try this one. I bought it from Shadowfall’s sale. It smelled yummy and tastes good. I don’t get graham cracker and marshmallow but the chocolate tastes good. Not one that I’m gonna buy later though. My sister bought dill herb dip and the smell is permeating the house! so I’m nose deep in my cup inhaling the good smells. Not that I don’t like dill but the constant smell is irritating, don’t like herby smells that much.

It’s difficult – I like this tea but I don’t like this tea, does that even make sense? There is something about this tea that just doesn’t sit right with me (although one of my colleagues at work loved the cup I made them)… sigh! I wish I could put my finger on it! Guess I’ll just sip through this bag (or give it to my colleague) and be done with it.

I have terrible news! The Pokemon Challenge is in danger! Ok, not really danger, I have just almost run out of dark grey and black meaning I will have to stop until I get more, and I have no idea when that will be and it frustrates me. Good thing I have other crafty things to keep me occupied until I can get more perlers. On a more positive note, this morning I had Dim Sum and spent the day hanging out with Ben, celebrating his Spring Break, yay!

Today’s tea is a tea themed around a dessert (or is it a snack) that just screams ‘time to go camping!’ S’mores by Della Terra Tea is a blend of Black Tea, Chocolate Bits, Chocolate Flavor, Mini Marshmallows, Marshmallow and Graham flavoring, and finely crushed graham crackers. Yeah, this tea has all the ingredients of a S’more without the needed campfire, which is good because I can’t have one in my house. The aroma is primarily marshmallow’s sugary sweetness that fades to chocolate and finally graham cracker. There is a faint hint of malt as an undertone that ties the other aromas together. The aroma is crazy sweet and smells just like a s’more. Delicious!

Once the tea is brewed and the delightful bits dissolve into the liquid the liquid loses a bit of its marshmallow intensity and is replaced with lots of chocolate. The aroma is richly chocolate, like dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate. The liquid is primarily creamy chocolate with hints of marshmallow and malt. The aroma is very rich and evocative of the dessert (snack) that it is named after.

Tasting this tea the first thing I notice is the lack of sweetness, which was surprising with all the marshmallows. It reminds me of dark chocolate with graham and marshmallow essence that fades into a mildly sweet aftertaste. I decided to go for all out decadence and add a bit of cream and sugar and boy was I glad I did, it transforms the tea into liquid s’more! The sugar highlights the chocolate and marshmallow and the cream adds the touch of silky creaminess you expect from popping a melted milk chocolate bar in your mouth. There is not an overwhelming amount of graham cracker or the base tea’s taste, but overall this tea is a good imitation of an especially sticky snack (dessert).

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/03/della-terra-teas-smores-tea-review.html

So, I was amazingly excited about this tea. And when I finally got my sample, opened it up, inhaled, it smelled INCREDIBLE.

But unfortunately for me, I didn’t really like the flavor. Something about the flavor had a sort of plastic feel, and coated my tongue strangely. I actually had trouble finishing my cup. This may simply be an issue of me realizing I dislike heavily flavored teas?

It did have flavors of sugary marshmallows and chocolate. Perhaps the Graham cracker gave it the strange flavor I couldn’t identify? Not a happy cup of tea for me.

See, because everyone posted good reviews on this tea, I decided to try it.
I made it exactly like suggested on this site. It smelled absolutely amazing. But as my lips met the brim of my mug, and the liquid settled onto my taste buds, I honestly didn’t taste what I smelled. It just tasted like a plain black tea. I’m obviously going to try it again and again and maybe make it in different ways, but for now I am really disappointed in this tea.

I discovered this sample in my cupboard and was surprised I didn’t get to it sooner! There was a lot of marshmallows in the bag, but I was still hopeful that other flavors would shine through. There is a hint of chocolate, but the primary flavor is marshmallow. Maybe I need to add more leaf next time. I think the one note this tea is missing for me is a bit of smoke that you get with a toasted marshmallow. I may have to experiment with this one for a bit before I have a definitive opinion of it.

a really good desert tea. i went through my first batch of this really quickly, but then i think that is because i am stressed out