Valentine's Blend

Thought today would be the perfect day to sample this tea. I was given some extra pink rosebuds to add to this blend so I added 3 buds to my two teaspoons of leaf. This made for pretty equal tastes of chocolate and rose with a mild black tea. I enjoyed this without sweetner, but may try with honey later this afternoon. Yum.

My 1st H&S order! Feb 12th is one of the hardest days of the year for me so I decided to give myself a lil extra tea therapy and bought a sample tin of this as well as sample tins of White Christmas and Holiday Blend. Boy was I surprised when the FedEx truck arrived at 9am! I’ve never had anything delivered by FedEx before so I’m used to things coming late morning/early afternoon.

I decided to try this 1st as dessert after lunch. The bottom of the tin says 1 sachet makes 2 cups so this is perfect. 2 cups is a lot at once for me so I split it w/ my mom. 1 sachet weighs 2.62g which to me seems extremely light for 2 cups, but I’ll try it anyway. 1 sachet/12oz water just below boiling.

Whoa… hello! Can you say “liquid chocolate”? That’s exactly what the raw leaf smells like! Makes me wanna eat it w/ a spoon.;)

Based on the weight I’m surprised at the darkness of the liquor, it’s a dark brown color w/ red tints. The aroma is not nearly as strong as that of the raw leaf which is a disappointment, much more of the black tea base comes thru.

The flavor surprises me as well. It doesn’t taste like liquid chocolate as I would have expected based on the aroma of the raw leaf, but It is a good, substantial tea. The base is strongest followed by the chocolate w/ a hint of rose. I’m going to steep it in 8oz water before making my final conclusion.

I received this one in a swap, thanks to whoever sent it to me! I really enjoy chocolate teas and I’ve been excited to try this one. I normally steep my black teas for about three minutes if I don’t have a particular time for them. However, on the bag was written a recommendation for five minutes. A bit long, but I wanted to give it a go.

As soon as the water hit the tea, a sweet smell floated out. After the five minutes, I finally get to taste it and…it’s bitter. I don’t get any of the flavors, just a bitter tea taste. I added some milk to help cut the bitterness, which it definitely did. I’m still not getting any chocolate though.

As I sit here typing this, and it cools, however, I feel like I’m getting more creamy chocolatey flavor. Yep, definitely chocolate, though not a very strong flavor. I think next time, I’ll drop the time down to four minutes and give that a try. At some point, I’ll also try a cold brew to see if it brings out the flavor any more. For now, I’m not super happy with this tea, but I feel like that may be due to my brewing and not the tea itself

The flavor of this reminds me of Della Terra’s Dubbele Chocolade, but back in its younger days when it was Single Chocolade and hadn’t yet shacked up with more chocolate. It’s less sweet and in-your-face, but has a similar chocolate flavor. But I’m not tasting any rose at all.

The lack of floral flavor is the only reason I didn’t rate it higher, but as a purely chocolate tea this is pretty solid. Thank you whatshesaid for the sample!

So for pre-painting pick-me-up, this tea, some raw chocolate, a honeydate and coconut yogurt.
I wanted to save today’s sugar budget for my glass of iced Garden Aria for pre-painting pick-me-up. I just got some great rosebuds and honey dates, which are apparently used to flavor/sweeten tea and are good for digestion. So three rosebuds and a crushed honeydate with 1 1/4 tsp.
?…!

Oh, and some jazz for your leaf juice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M51UqyWpYko&feature=related

It was a combination of the dreary weather (what summer?) and the spare $7 I had rattling around in my purse, that had me wandering down the road for a treat. It was either this or a log of marzipan. The tea won this time…
Now, I love chocolate but chocolate tea always has that weird sickly sweet artificial “chocolate flavour” taste. This valentines blend was still quite sweet but it’s definitely the smoothest and lightest of the chocolate teas. There’s the sliiiiightest hint of rose, so I popped a few rosebuds in for an extra rose kick.
Drink it plain, its the perfect late afternoon treat (and much better for you than a log of marzipan).

This morning I am trying the sample that H&S sent wth my order.
It IS a good cup of tea for chocolate tea lovers. A full bodied cup of tea and lovely aroma without milk and sugar, but ‘with’ and it tastes like hot chocolate (a bit on the watery side) but enjoyable. I like it. I will have to try it side by side with Metro’s Chocolate before I decide whether or not to switch.

Batrachoid sent me a sample of this one. It’s yummy… like sucking on a dark chocolate bar. I thankfully do not taste the roses. This is a nice tea to drink while sitting on the couch in my pajamas watching it dump snow and watching a movie.

2 tsp/12 oz, and a smidge of agave nectar.

Update: Oh wait, there is the rose. Not too terribly strong though. This is a nice treat, but I don’t think I’d order it.

Hmmm. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this one, I definitely don’t love it! I’ve only had it once so far though. It smells really good in the tin, similar to Florence (but without the hazelnut of course).

I love Davidstea’s English Rose, which is pretty floral but balanced off with the white chocolate. I thought this one might be similar as it is also a black tea with chocolate and roses, but it’s not very flowery at all. I’m also not convinced I love H&S’s chocolate tea, because I was also unsure of the Florence one and will have to try it again. So far my favorite of the three chocolate ones I’ve tried is SoHo.

If anyone wants to swap to try some of this I’m definitely open!
Will update after round two.

A co-worker gave me a sachet of this in a plastic sandwich bag to take home and try. I put it in my shirt pocket. The rest of the afternoon I kept catching whiffs of a bitter, musty, cocoa smell before remembering the tea. The sachet smelled like dark chocolate and that pungent floral smell that the little rosebuds used in tea blends have. The chocolate aroma is definitely dominant over the rose aroma.

The tea under the chocolate here is a smooth tasting black tea (not a sharp, bright, bitter black tea). The bitterness from the tea and the bitterness from the chocolate seem to trade with each other which one is in control. The floral notes from the roses are hard to find. The chocolate is satisfying. I would buy some of this. The chocolate lover in my house thought this was the cat’s pajamas.