This is the third (and final) new tea from the Autumn subscription box – new, in this case, just meaning teas that released for the first time through the subscription box…
I waited a while to do this tasting note because I wanted to try the tea again – I don’t drink chocolate teas often and it’d been many months since I last tried it. I think potentially even all the way back to when we were wrapping the development for it!? It’s not the first time DT has done a chocolate orange tea. The one I think most people will be familiar with is the Chocolate Orange Pu’erh and then also Mocha Orange Biscotti; although there was more going on that just chocolate/orange with that blend.
I’m definitely in the camp of people who liked Chocolate Orange Pu’erh a lot – I just thought the balance of two flavours there was so good and it was the first ever blended pu’erh that I ever tried (I think maybe the first pu’erh in general!?) so there’s a bit of a special association there. However, I remember selling that tea in stores and a lot of people didn’t like the pu’erh base – it was one of the more earthy and forward tasting pu’erhs that we carried at that time and pu’erh is one of those flavours that definitely doesn’t agree with everyone and I think can take a little adjusting to.
This blend seems, to me, a lot more immediately approachable for the average person. It’s a clear and distinct chocolate and orange flavour, and pretty sweet without sacrificing the body and thickness of the black tea or getting too much of that weird filmy/oily quality that sometimes happens with chocolate blends. I think the orange is stronger in this blend than Chocolate Orange Pu’erh – certainly brighter, at the very least. Part of that is the stevia in the blend – it kind of boosts/lifts those orange notes more to the top of the sip. I don’t personally find stevia off putting but I know a lot of people do, however I think it’s really mild in this blend all things considered & blends quite seamlessly into the orange flavour in my opinion.
Overall I enjoy this blend – I’d rank it higher than Mocha Orange Biscotti but a little lower than Chocolate Orange Pu’erh, in terms of my own preferences. I hope other people enjoy it too!
Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
This sounds delicious. Orange/chocolate is my happy combo.