I’m obviously in something of a minority here, as this tea was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Let me say first, though, that I put about 1.5 tsp in for about 8 oz of water. I didn’t find it to be weak, the chocolate and the mint were both present and accounted for and not overly subtle in my experience. I didn’t get a lot of the tea, but frankly, that’s become a secondary consideration for me with flavored teas — if I wanted a strong tea taste I’d drink it unflavored, or I’d drink something I knew to have a strong tea base presence. It doesn’t bother me that much anymore, as I have added more and more members to my pantheon of great teas, that some flavored ones are more about the flavor than the tea. Next time I might go to two tsp and see what happens. Maybe that would bring the tea out a bit more.
To me, the mint was very fresh tasting. It didn’t have a candy aspect to it, but it naturally sweetened up the tea and the chocolate so that the tea didn’t whisper to me that it wanted to be sweetened or to have milk added. This in contrast to the Herbal Infusions Chocolate Mint, which seemed to want sweetening.
The aroma of the steeped tea is heavier on the mint than the chocolate for some reason, but it’s still a nice smell. Sniffed in the sample packet, the mint is eyewateringly strong, which seems to me a good confirmation that it is v. fresh and its volatile oils haven’t dried up. It’s got that pretty black/green mix thing going on in the dry leaves. I’m biased though because black and emerald green is my favorite color combo.
This is going on the list for if/when I ever come out of lockdown and place a full order with H&S.
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Interesting, I had a chocolate tea today as well.
It was called Super Chocolate ( david’s tea )
I left a note about it, I found it a little bitter on the chocolate and not sweet enough. Also it was mixed with rooibos and Cinnemon which was okay but I would have liked it better with mint. Judging by what you said about the color, I’m assuming it was black tea and mint but thats a guess.
It sounds pretty solid nonetheless.
May I add that your an excellent writer and I enjoyed this review.
Thanks JonTea! Glad you enjoyed the note. Yes, this is a black tea with chocolate and mint. The black tea base isn’t a big part of the experience of this one though, and the mint is a little stronger than the chocolate, which I think is why some people here were disappointed in it.
I think I might like this tea as I am a fan of morrocan mint tea, which is basically a green tea leaf and a mint tea leaf. Very simple but a classic.
Replacing the green tea with black tea and adding chocolate sounds very good. Did you have it as a desert tea or breakfast tea? I could see it doing both, wierdly…
Neither, I had it at around 5 p.m. A little later than I would ordinarily drink black tea, but I was on a roll with the H&S samples and decided to press on with this one. I think it would make a better dessert, though. :-)
OOH they would send out samples?
Yes, you have to buy the samples, but they’re only $2 (at least that’s true for most of them) and enough for a few cups worth so you can check them out.
Sounds great!
Thanks a lot.
That does sound yummy :)
Interesting, I had a chocolate tea today as well.
It was called Super Chocolate ( david’s tea )
I left a note about it, I found it a little bitter on the chocolate and not sweet enough. Also it was mixed with rooibos and Cinnemon which was okay but I would have liked it better with mint. Judging by what you said about the color, I’m assuming it was black tea and mint but thats a guess.
It sounds pretty solid nonetheless.
May I add that your an excellent writer and I enjoyed this review.
Thanks JonTea! Glad you enjoyed the note. Yes, this is a black tea with chocolate and mint. The black tea base isn’t a big part of the experience of this one though, and the mint is a little stronger than the chocolate, which I think is why some people here were disappointed in it.
I think I might like this tea as I am a fan of morrocan mint tea, which is basically a green tea leaf and a mint tea leaf. Very simple but a classic.
Replacing the green tea with black tea and adding chocolate sounds very good. Did you have it as a desert tea or breakfast tea? I could see it doing both, wierdly…
Neither, I had it at around 5 p.m. A little later than I would ordinarily drink black tea, but I was on a roll with the H&S samples and decided to press on with this one. I think it would make a better dessert, though. :-)
OOH they would send out samples?
Yes, you have to buy the samples, but they’re only $2 (at least that’s true for most of them) and enough for a few cups worth so you can check them out.
Sounds great!
Thanks a lot.
That does sound yummy :)