I’d heard great things about this tea, so I pulled it out yesterday to inject a bit of cheer into my weekend. I tried my first cup black – 1.5 tsp of leaf (oh so cocoa-y dry, like opening a fresh tin of hot chocolate) left for three minutes in boiling water. No additions. It smells wonderful, but I have to say that I found the taste a bit of a disappointment. It’s one of the more chocolately chocolate teas I’ve tried, but it was still somehow watery and thin tasting. I know the mouthfeel is never going to resemble actual chocolate, but something seemed amiss. It reminded me of Teapigs Chocolate Flake, which also smelled wonderful but was similarly weak to taste.
This got me thinking about how I could improve my experience. With the teapigs, I used two bags and a longer brew time. A tea that smells as chocolatey as this one has to have something about it, surely? So, for my second cup, I used 2 tsp of leaf and left it for four minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor was fairly dark, so I added a splash of milk.
Suddenly, it’s all so much better. I can taste chocolate! It’s rich, creamy, very decadent. It tastes like milk chocolate to me, so it lacks a little intensity, but it’s still deliciously comforting. The black tea base is detectable underneath the chocolate, but it works well with the creamy, hot chocolate-esque flavour. It’s a good reminder that this is, after all, tea.
I do sometimes feel that I expect too much from chocolate teas — if I want the mouthfeel and the intensity, I should probably just drink hot chocolate. As a tea-person, though, I have to say that this is one of the better-tasting chocolate teas I’ve tried. It’s never going to be “just like the real thing” because that would be impossible, but it’s a good effort. Definitely worthy of a place in my cupboard.
I just had this this morning as well and found it the same. Too light on the flavor. I didn’t bother finishing the cup. DT is very hit or miss for me.