TEA REVIEW: CHOCOLATE MINT

 

In Which I Tried New Tea!

I do not shop often in the current climate (not that I shopped often before...), but every so often, I am invited to pop downstairs and tag along with my mom when she's heading out. this time, we went to one of the great local chains that really hasn't updated its inside look since about 1999 (which I view as a 100% positive feature), and we picked up some gifts for the niblings (gender neutral term for the children of siblings, if that hasn't crossed your vocabulary yet!) and eventually wandered down the tea aisle.

We weren't in the mood to dilly dally, obviously, and I was limited to one box of tea, so when it came down to the wire, my choices were for a lemon tea and a chocolate mint tea. A close third was a holiday themed chocolate tea, but I wasn't sure about "chocolate with lavender and mint", so I stuck to the other two. In the end, I knew that I could find a lemon tea in a local shop or just... order it easily off of Amazon or something, so I chose the chocolate mint tea!

The Tea in Question

I brought the tea home (along with a cheap pound of packaged mill ends of yarn for Christmas present creation) and immediately decided to make a cup.

The first thing I noticed was how heavy the teabags are compared to my chamomile tea bags. The second thing I noticed was that you get two less bags than with the Bigelow chamomile, which... bummer. The ingredients are nowhere near as simple as the single-ingredient chamomile, either! This tea contains: oolong tea, cocoa powder, peppermint, natural chocolate flavor, and carob powder.

It smells... divine. It smells like Andes' Candies or Thin Mints.

I was so excited to try it that I slammed the kettle on and grabbed a mug. I could've run upstairs for the teapot, but... I just wanted it that badly. I chucked the bag in the mug and that's when things got... spicy.

The cup and the culprit

Turns out, the tea smelled so good to the cat that all she wanted to do was bat the tag around! I couldn't take any more pictures because she was going bananas over it and I had to hold the string against the cup lip to keep the teabag from being yote across the room by an overstimulated tabby. It was in this flurry of movement and stressful time that I may have made an error.

The steeping time recommended for this tea in 8oz of hot water is between 3-5 minutes. I have no idea if I let it sit in the water too long or not long enough, but... well... despite having a rich dark hazel color (dark brown shading to almost a greenish brown along the edges - the mint?), it was quite faintly flavored. At first.

You see, after removing the bag and leaving it for the cat to buffet around, taking the mug of tea upstairs, and then getting into an in-depth conversation with someone, I had let the tea cool a bit after that first sip. My second sip was a bit more flavorful, so let me tell you how a slightly-cooled cup of this tea tastes.

You could tell there was chocolate in this tea because it smelled like chocolate and there was a faintly bitter taste I recognize from cocoa powder, but there was also an odd sweetness that I think came from both the "natural chocolate flavor" and the peppermint. It wasn't bad at all, just a strange taste. I could taste the oolong, which had its odd, round, vaguely herbal essence, and it all finished with a gentle, cooling sensation from that peppermint.

I was, of course, slightly disappointed that the chocolate flavor wasn't more pronounced. I don't need it to taste like a Hershey bar, of course, but a touch more chocolate punch would've been appreciated. I have to wonder if the subtlety was caused mostly by me either not steeping it properly (I did not check the temperature of the water, did not heat the cup first, and didn't time the steep!), or perhaps it requires milk to be added to have the full chocolate effect?

I will have to investigate this tea further, much like the Morning Thunder.

Thanks for dropping by to hear me blather about tea!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

ps: the "something" this week is... possibly the best advertising for tea ever?