Chocolate

Sipdown no. 26 for the year 2014. I forgot how much I loved this.

In looking back at my first note, I believe I was chintzy with the rating. Particularly after now having tasted many other chocolate teas, some of which were much too subtle with their chocolate flavor for my taste (I’m not naming any names but it starts with a K and ends with an i). This is a really stellar example of a chocolate tea in my book. No other flavors, just chocolate, and a very chocolatey chocolate at that. (Even given the age of the sample, which was open though ziplocked!) Bumping the rating accordingly.

holy whoa.
i had a cup of this yesterday. it was nice, but not notable. i kinda forgot about it right after drinking it.
then i came here and read Miss Starfish’s mention of steeping longer and thought that was a good idea.
so this morning, after my 5 minute steeped cup, i was WIRED! and it was delicious! or maybe that’s the caffeine motivated positivity talking.
who knows. who cares!
when i place another harney order i’ll probably throw a sample of this in again. i don’t need 4oz of it, but an enjoyable cup or two is definitely in the ‘do want’ column.

oddree and i were too tired to watch Sherlock on Sunday night, so we watched last night. and i’m not gonna say any spoilers. but episode 3 was kinda bonkers. all over the place. and i SERIOUSLY need to re-watch this whole season. the show is so fast paced that i get TONS of new things from re-watches. (i feel like the creators know that and have made each season even more complex than the previous one for this reason.)

Dry, this smells of rich cocoa and black tea. MMMmmmmm!

I tried this at 3 minutes (which is usually my cut off point for blacks) and while I liked it, I chose to steep it for another minute. I was pleasantly surprised, this actually pulls of a semblance of chocolate, unlike other chocolate teas I’ve tried. Not artificial chocolate, or cheap oily chocolate, but rich dark chocolate. I added milk to try to bring out any creamy notes if present, but it overwhelmed the cup.

Next time I’ll try a 5 minute steep or overleafing if I’m planning to have it with milk. Quite nice on it’s own though.

Just back from seeing Avatar. My heart hurts! I needed something extremely comforting and chose a double portion of this. I love the way you still taste tea as well as the chocolate – I bet it’s not easy to achieve that balance (and something I feel Harney & Sons is particularly good at with all of their teas).

For a chocolate-and-nothing-else flavored tea this is pretty good! The smell is excellent dry, steeping, and finished. But as is true with most chocolate teas, it leaves one a little wanting not because it’s a bad specimen but it’s just…it’s not just good ol’ straight up chocolate. You know? (And then you’re like well, duh.) Still, nice cup. While it has a slight raspiness to let you know there’s tea in there, the tea is certainly not the star, just a ho-hum backdrop for lots of milk chocolate aroma. I have a feeling the chocolate mint’s going to be an improvement, as I can practically hallucinate peppermint right into this cup with a lovely tingle on the tongue, yum. Smells like a thin mint.

ETA I resteeped this for 5 minutes and it was quite good, smoother and still very chocolate-y. I’m digging it! Nice caffeinated option when I don’t want the intense richness of cacao tisanes or saltysugarbombed packet-y Choco-Late. The first tea that tastes like the liquified coating of yeah, Thin Mints. Not quite gourmet truly intense cacao drink nor fake sugary wax either, but the coating on mainstream bon bons. Nice.

I served this tea last at tea party today because I didn’t want the chocolate flavor of the tea to compete with the chocolate dipped strawberries. This is good but I think chocolate flavor in tea just isn’t a favorite thing for me, though I adore tea that has strong cocoa notes that are natural, like Emperor’s Red or Fengqing Dragon Pearls. I liked it, I drank it, but when it is gone I really can’t see myself reordering it – not because it is bad, but because I would rather have plain tea with real chocolates than chocolate tea!

Chocolate is divine. Chocolate flavoured things however, tend to be that weird seemingly token “artificial chocolate flavour”, so I had rather low expectations for this one. The aroma is very much Proper Chocolate, but I having been deceived by the smell of dry leaves before, I kicked my expectations back down again. My poor mistreated expectations really needn’t have been abused so readily, because this my friends, is what all other chocolate flavoured black teas wish they could be. Rich in chocolate flavour and thankfully not artificially sweet tasting, I think this is perfect with a splash of milk and several pieces of buttery shortbread still warm from the oven.

The is the last untried chocolate tea in my cupboard (I think….).
The is also one of the last Harney samples I ordered. This is perfectly servicable, but a little light.
Not compleatly overwhelmed. I find that there are other chocolate teas that I like more.

Thank you to Fairyfli for sharing her Harney Son’s Chocolate Tea with me. This tea has been in and out of my cart at the Harney’s website so many times….and now she has put me out of my indecision! What a relief!

The base seems very similar to Florence, but I can taste more chocolate than from Florence (which is kind of obvious, right? As there is not any hazelnut in this blend…) It does taste like chocolate and tea together, but nothing like hot cocoa. I do like this, but will hold off on a rating for a few more cups since she sent me a healthy trial! The only addition was sweetener. I am finding milk just ruins smooth teas for me. I will have to reserve the milk for the bolder teas…..

I got this one in a tea swap as well! I couldn’t smell chocolate when I opened the bag or even when I infused but as I sit here sipping I can notice it more and more and it smells great! It’s mostly black tea but the chocolate is noticeable! YUM!