Thé au Chocolat

Tea of the month! I love that Lupicia sends out samples in their tea magazine! I had this this morning. It tasted like many of their other chocolate combo teas without the combo flavor. I have had their chocolate with strawberry, banana and chestnut, all of which really add something to the chocolate base. I don’t think the chocolate is interesting enough to stand on it’s own as a tea. It is great mixed with other stuff. I have a lavender EG that I have been wanting to try with chocolate, so maybe I’ll resteep this in the morning with the EG. We’ll see if this tea has a place in my cupboard as an additive to other teas.

Kind of meh. I ordered this trusting in all the positive reviews, but I should have trusted my instincts. Usually chocolate flavored things just disappoint me as the taste is generally quite artificial. I’ll stick with the natural cocoa flavors in teas like Laoshan Black. Soooo…now what do I do with this entire pouch of tea I don’t like that much?

I would also like to note that this tea packs quite a caffeine punch. Or maybe that’s just because I decided to skip breakfast? Either way, playing Skyrim while shaking with caffeine jitters is not a good idea.

This was the free sample sachet that was included with my Lupicia order, which is awesome because I’ve been wanting to try it. The tea inside is a dark chocolate brown and the leaf is fairly broken. Apparently there are cocoa nibs mixed in, but I didn’t inspect it close enough to see any. Dry, it smells just like chocolate syrup. I used one sachet for 8 ounces of water.

Once steeped, it still has a strong chocolatey aroma, but now it’s more like chocolate pudding than syrup. To be honest, this tea is less chocolatey than I expected. The chocolate that’s there is definitely completely unsweetened cocoa powder or baking chocolate. I can actually taste the base tea a lot, and it has nice raisin notes along with malt and some wood taste. A touch of sugar would probably help to bring out the chocolate for me, but I’m trying not to add sugar these days. Overall, it’s good but I wouldn’t really consider it a chocolate tea.

Now that the weather is getting cooler, my tea consumption is increasing! I get cold easily and want to be drinking tea more often than usual.. which is good because my tea collection is overflowing at the moment. A chocolate tea is another sort of tea that I’m very picky about. I’ve had chocolate teas in the past that have just tasted so artificial and gross that even the tea base isn’t enough to keep me around. For me, a chocolate tea should be smooth, rich and possibly creamy on its own. It can’t have that artificial note or else down the drain it goes!

This tea smelled brilliant right from the bag. Hot chocolate! The tea base comes forward a bit after water has been added. The first sip of this tea reminds me of a bitter, unsweetened cocoa powder. The tea itself is a little astringent which adds to the darker flavor of the cocoa. As I continue to sip, however, the cup becomes sweeter and softer. The chocolate mellows and joins the black tea’s sweetness. I only wish that it could be richer and with a little more body.. but then again, I have to remind myself that it is a tea and not a real hot chocolate. Even though the tea base isn’t my favorite and is on the verge of being a little too.. earthy/stinky/there’s something about it that I don’t particularly like… this is a solid chocolate blend. I think that this cup would be even better with some milk so I’ll try that next time.

I had a tea bag of this included in my recent order. I thought I should try it in case I wanted to order more before free shipping ended.

It was ok, reminded me a lot of the Verdant chocolate genmaicha tea, probably due to the similar cocoa taste. I didn’t hate it but I also didn’t reorder it.

Wow.
So I have a lot of thoughts about chocolate teas. I’m not opposed to the idea, as I love chocolate, but I’ve never found one that I really like.
This is dark, smooth, and smells richly of coco. Its quite impressive, like a rich dark chocolate.
That said, I sill can’t quite shake my mixed feelings on chocolate tea. Even when they blend well, I’m not convinced it works.
Still, this tea is a fun experience, and I do not regret trying it. I might even give it another whirl, sometime, to see if I can refine my thoughts.
But for now, this is a sample sipdown!

This was a surprising one for me! I noticed that some Steepster users recommend this tea as having great chocolate flavor, so I was expecting it to become my new favorite chocolate tea. And like many of Lupicia’s flavored blacks, it’s smooth and sweet and delicious. But to me, at least, it has a very specific flavor of chocolate. Mostly it smells and tastes like cocoa powder. And while it’s very sweet, it also has a kind of nut-flavored quality? I’m not exactly sure how to describe it.

I’ve tasted Lupicia’s chocolate before, in their Chocolate Strawberry Pu’er. At the time, I thought the nutty taste was from the pu’er, not the chocolate. But as it turns out, that’s part of Lupicia’s chocolate flavor. It’s not bad at all; it still makes for a delightful cup of tea. Very rich and sweet, and it smells delicious. I plan to experiment with this one, try adding sugar and milk to see what it brings to the flavors.

But overall, I think I might prefer my chocolate teas to be more on the aromatic side, instead of having a lot of powdery chocolate flavor. I also seem to like a stronger black tea (to the point that it’s a little bitter). So far, Adagio’s Chocolate tea is my favorite among the chocolate teas I’ve tried. That being said, Adagio’s Chocolate Chip (also delicious!) seems to be more highly recommended, and the Chocolate is generally rated lower on their website. So I think my preferences in chocolate tea might be a little unusual!

This tasted awesome! At first I wondered if I’d need to add more water because it was so dark but it was yummy. Met my chocolate craving for tonight and smelled like I made hot chocolate all over the house :) It’s definitely too hot for tea but I couldn’t resist it, totally worth sweating it a bit in this heat..

This was one I wanted to try because of the scent. It smells like a dark chocolate bar, and also a rich hot cocoa. That is what comes out the flavour- rich, smooth, and creamy chocolate. Will be nice to have chocolate in tea form for the Autumn season.

Got this one in my last swap with mj! Was going to try it like a month ago…but somehow it got lost on my shelf. Finally recovered it while organizing my tea the other day. So finally getting to try it!
Holy Shanghai!!
This is so chocolatey! So much dark chocolate…wow. xD
It’s so strong and rich…Don’t think I had expected it to be this chocolatey!
Definitely a winner!
Thanks again for the sample, mj! :D