I was supposed to get a package of tea in the mail today, so I held off on drinking my evening tea in the hopes that it might actually show up. Which, it didn’t, so I dipped into my collection looking for something special to raise my spirits. I went with Chocolate Strawberry, because it was one of the flavours I was most excited about when ordering this previous batch and because it’s caffeine free and it’s approaching midnight.
Upon opening the packet, there’s a strong smell of dark chocolate. That’s the overwhelming scent I’m picking up on. I’m not really sure which are the cocoa pieces listed on the ingredients list, so I’m not sure how much is actually in there vs how much it smells. Maybe the smell has seeped into everything in the packet so it all has a taste of chocolate to it, I don’t know…
One thing I did notice however, was the clump of very large strawberries sitting on top of the tea. I decided to do some surgery on them since I didn’t want to use up the entirety of the strawberries in a single cup. So I pulled out the clump, pulled apart the 6 strawberry slices that had merged into a single lump of greatness, and then used my kitchen scissors to chop them into smaller bits that I then stirred back into the loose tea. It seems much more evenly distributed now.
For the preparation, I used my standard 0.75 tsp of tea per 12 oz of water, but looking at it in the basket, it might be a little low. It’s not like there should be any overwhelming flavours or bitterness in the mix and I’m not sure how flavourful a fruit tea is on its own. (The suggested serving was 1.5 tsp per 8 oz). I otherwise followed the directions, opting for a 5 minute steep at boiling of the suggested 3-5 minute steep time.
The tea after steeping was a muted red, but pleasant to look at. I think I can faintly smell the chocolate and strawberries by sniffing the hot vapors coming out of the mug. Sipping it however, it tastes more hibiscus tang than chocolate strawberry. The chocolate strawberry is kind of there, but it’s taking a backseat to the hibiscus and comes off mostly in the aftertaste.
As for the sweetness factor, it’s definitely sweet enough on its own. No need for sugar. I was thinking I might need to add some due to the strong dark chocolate smell, but the bitterness of dark chocolate isn’t at all present in this tea.
Cup count from 8g sample pack: 1 (still plenty left for experiments)
Would I buy this tea again? I don’t know. It’s definitely drinkable and one of the better ones I’ve tried, but I still need to do some experiments. I think I’ll up the tea to 1 tsp next time and see how that goes. This is flavorful, don’t get me wrong, but just not the flavour I was quite expecting. Maybe with a larger scoop I’ll get a more even distribution of the ingredients.
Flavors: Dark Chocolate, Hibiscus, Strawberry
