Dubbele Chocolade

Wowwwww. Chocolate. The only problem here is that the mouthfeel isn’t thick enough! This is definitely the most chocolatey tea I’ve had, though. Unfortunately, I think I’m all tea-d out tonight, so it’s not sitting well in my stomach. Consequence of it being, oh, 4am…

Oh, gotta compare this to DavidsTea’s Chocolate Cake. Bonus here is the lack of gross sprinkles, however!

ETA: This is undeniably better than Chocolate Cake in one major aspect: when cooled, it does not become a disgusting, grungy mess of luckiness and sprinkle bits. Flavourwise it may also be superior, but the lack of ick is a major, major plus.

ETA again: Second infusion isn’t bad. It smells delicious, but something’s a bit off about the flavour. It could certainly be that it sat for a day or two before the second infusion, so I’ll have to be a bit quicker with it next time! After this, however, the leaves didn’t even smell chocolatey anymore, so I threw them out.

I’ m in a chocolate mood this morning. I eyed up the cavernous Costco container of hot chocolate mix my hubby brought home a few weeks ago, but decided against cracking it open. Instead I reached for my Della Terra Chocolate sampler and grabbed this one. The balance between the black tea and the chocolate are sublime. I’m drinking it black, but I imagine milk and sugar would also be delicious. Best of all, it’s satisfying my chocolate craving without sugar overload. This one is topping my Della Terra Teas reorder list.

A terrible thing happened today: my dark chocolate went missing. But never fear! After reading Nik’s wonderful review today I knew there was a solution, since DellaTerra so kindly sent me a sample of this with my order.

This tea smells absolutely divine, and I’m not just saying that because I’m tired and just studied for my philosophy of religion class tomorrow. It really smells amazing, like shoving one’s nose into a bag of cocoa. I put an extra teaspoon into my steeper because I wanted lots of chocolate flavor today.

And mmm, completely delicious. This is so close to the flavor of sipping on a cup of cocoa, and I’m sure it would be just like that with a little milk. I really like the teas from DellaTerra and this hits my dark chocolate spot!

My brother doesn’t drink much tea, but he would not take his nose out of the infuser after the tea steeped.

SO MUCH CHOCOLATE. This was perfect with our birthday cake. My brother’s is today, my dad’s tomorrow, mine Sunday, so we sing “Happy Birthday to Us.” The cake was white frosting and yellow cake, so chocolate on the side was excellent. I added a little bit of milk for creaminess, and it’s like a really rich, malty hot chocolate. No more sugar, so much already in my system, and it doesn’t even need any!

A 3 min, 45 sec steep was really good. It’s more like a dark chocolate flavor, a bit bittersweet, and all around tasty. I think I only got this in a sample pack so I am definitely going to need more in the future!

This tea gets a seal of approval of not needing any more chocolate flavor, a rare feat!

Now THAT’S what I’m talking about! This is what a CHOCOLATE tea should taste like. This is even more chocolate-y than my Chocolate Rose Romance was! Yes… I’m saying that THIS is better than my Chocolate Rose Romance. What this one lacks in complexity (my Chocolate Rose Romance was more complex … more layers of flavor) it more than makes up for with MORE chocolate. Della Terra Teas is after my heart here. If only I could get them to change their name. (Sorry… my step mom’s name was Della and I hated that woman, so when I see the name of the company, I just sort of go red, full of rage hatred for a moment).

BUT… I was able to overlook the name to place an order for the fall sampler pack which included this tea and I’m very glad I did. First of all, I’m VERY pleased with the service. I received my order promptly, I got a free sample of my choosing and it was packaged nicely.

This tea has earned a spot in my permanent collection. I will be buying it again as soon as funds allow for it.

This tea’s name always gets “Creole Lady Marmalaaaaaaaaaaade ♬” stuck in my head. I’m not a connoisseur of chocolate teas. I think I may have had one, once, but I’m not sure. It’s possible that drinking a few other chocolate blends will ground me, but for now I’m blown away, flying high on cocoa clouds. Like yesterday with the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie1 blend, I again almost ate this tea. Dear, dear Della Terra, if you keep on like this, I assure you, some such accident will occur at some point. =)

Dubbele Chocolade smells so, so, so good. You know how no one laughs quite like babies? If someone doesn’t understand what I mean by “squee,” just go look at a baby laugh. They all squee. There is so much joy to express that they simply can’t contain it in their little bodies. They laugh like they will burst at the seams if they don’t. Joy is to baby as chocolate is to Dubbele Chocolade: it’s like the packet will start dancing in your hands if you don’t open it and let the chocolate out.

Here’s a surprise: I sipped my tea, unsweetened, and it was…good! (The good wasn’t the surprise, the good unsweetened was the surprise.) Not good enough for me to finish it that way, but hey, ♬ it’s my teeeeacup and I’ll brew how I waaant to… ♬ I added some sugar and sipped again, and again it was good. In a pinch, I could drink this as-is, which wins it some major points (and earns it a slightly higher rating than Oatmeal Raisin Cookie). But since I didn’t have to, I didn’t…

It’s that time of year again, when the seasonal stuff appears in supermarkets that the mean people don’t let me have year-round. One such thing is Silk’s line of specialty soy milk. Since my tea was still “just” good and not zomg-amazing, I added some mint chocolate soy milk. I really had no idea what sort of concoction would result from this experiment. I’m happy to report that it was incredible. So incredible, in fact, that I’d drunk half the cup before I sat down to write this, so now I have to turn around and go right back to try for a second steep. Thank you, Della Terra Teas! Dubbele Chocolade joins Oatmeal Raisin Cookie as a citizen of my Happy Place.

Maybe, just maybe, I’ll try a cup plain or with just sugar at some point. But right now, I am having waaaay too much fun experimenting in my beverage lab. I still have a few finishing touches to put on it, but soon I’ll be able to take some photos and share my pride ‘n’ joy with you all. =)

Tea amount: 1 level tsp/~4.75g
Water amount: 6oz/~175mL
Additives: A splash of mint chocolate soy milk and ½ tsp demerara sugar

1 http://steepster.com/bleepnik/posts/137359

I’ll inch the rating up on this one a bit.

It does well with milk. By “well” I mean that it gets rid of the artificial aftertaste while adding texture. So this was, in effect, a mug of hot chocolate (dark chocolate, even!) without the sugar. I’m more into vanilla than chocolate as a rule, but when I do want chocolate, I’m thinking this will be what I end up drinking!

Hi everyone, at review 490…I finally had Steepster EAT (or DRINK) my whole review of this tea right at the end! %$#@*&!

I’m not going to try and recount the whole review. The last one took 2 hours. I can’t do that again.

Here’s the short version.

This tea reminded me of Black Chocolate by the Tea and Spice Exchange if any of you have had that one before. I liked that tea.

This is very dark chocolaty as advertised. Not creamy in a way that stands out though and I can’t understand why cream flavor was added. I personally wouldn’t drink this without sweetening it, because sweetening makes the chocolate even stronger.
I tried some tea with cream which was the best way to drink it for my taste.

What I didn’t like was the aftertaste. The tea becomes sour.
I know that up front the flavor is good and chocolaty, but after a minute you’re left with an artificial flavor sourness that comes from too much artificial flavoring. BLECH!
Chocolate makes the sourness worse in my opinion.

I’m keeping an open mind and hope the other chocolate tea’s are not as sour.

I had a great meal out with my family tonight, and this was my dessert when I got home. My first review (that Steepster gobbled up) said the same thing about the sourness so I’m not venting or writing this because of a bad mood.

There has to be a better way to flavor Chocolate tea.

I grossly oversteeped this accidentally (around the 10 minute mark) so I had low expectations for this tea, and had planned to dump it. Surprisingly, it held up well to the oversteep, and I’m still getting delicious chocolate flavoring out of it. I’m unsure if it’s my error or the tea, so I’ll have to try again soon, however there is something off in this blend. The chocolate feels, tastes… weird. Something almost chemical about it.

This just may be the most beautiful song on the planet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN4s75Srcos

Chocolate teas always call my name. So, what’s Dubbele Chocolade all about? The dry leaf smells fantastic, like chocolate cream. There is a generous amount of mini chocolate chips in here too.

I like the smell of the steeped tea leaves even more. It’s so so rich, like the creamiest hot cocoa.

It falls a little short on taste though. I’ve mentioned before that many DTT teas have a sort of generic sweetness to them, and this has it, but it’s not as bad. I upped the amount of leaf this time so now the base is a little stronger. With coconut almond milk, the cocoa pops a little more.

Tasty but not my favourite chocolate tea.