American Tea Room

A bit cigar-tasting but ends with a nice cocoa and chocolate mix…see my previous review on this for more info…

83 is the LOWEST rating for this one here so far. I have been wanting to try this since it was added to steepster. I was lucky enough to receive a sample of it from American Tea Room…so…here goes!

The aroma is that of a semi-sweet chocolate but certainly not over the top intensely scented. By that I mean it doesn’t smack you in the face when you open the package. there are many ‘husks’ within the ‘mix’. The aroma post-infusion seems to be 33.3%-33.3%-33.3% across the board – Semi-Sweet Chocolate and Cocoa combined with Rooibos and with Vanilla.

The taste is very good…smooth and chocolaty with a little woodsy aftertaste. It certainly is one of the better tasting chocolate-type attempts I have tried and it works well with the rooibos.

I think I am in the middle of everyone else’s ratings. Where I wouldn’t give it a perfect 100 I certainly wouldn’t go below the lowest score of 83, either. My fear was, after reading the other reviews, that this one was pumped up too much and I would be disappointed but that is far from the truth! This is very good, indeed!

Good initial impressions. I need to use the rest of the sample and get a few more cups before I make a decision as to how I like it, but it smells nicely of cinnamon and home-made cookies.
Actually, it almost reminded me (in a good way) of caramalized carrots (with cinnamon and brown sugar).

Looking forward to giving it another try.

Came out a little weak tonight, didn’t use enough leaf I guess

yum again. gets better and better. just right combination of flavors.

had this again tonight after dinner – I like it more and more. I haven’t tasted any other “chocolate” teas so I can’t compare it to any others, but this is really tasty. I have to reorder.

really delicious – light but lots of chocolate flavor. yummy.

really nice – not very strong. I brewed it the recommended 5 minutes but maybe I will try a bit longer next time.

I did a taste-off amongst two Milk Oolongs today and this one was the slight winner as I think the oolong base is of a slightly higher quality in this one. I am of the school of thought that some milk oolong are treated or flavored in some way to give that in-your-face sweetened condensed milk flavor and think this might be one of them. However, it is so delicious that I do not care. This is sweet, creamy, milky and downright delicious. It tastes like the oolong was soaked in sweetened condensed milk in terms of flavor and mouthfeel. It also gives up some nice floral and vegetal notes. The Ti Kwan Yin used is not as syrupy as some and a bit more vegetal than many of its cousins. A dowright delicious cup and dessert oolong.

I’ve been drinking this stuff almost every night since Kristin was kind enough to send me some here in language-camp hell. It’s like an adult hot cocoa, and I don’t actually like hot cocoa despite my general love for all things chocolate. I definitely want to try this one in a tea latte sometime. In the meantime, I don’t think it’s possible to oversteep this stuff. It’s good and rich without being sweet. Chocolate tea sounds kinda grim to me, but this is just delicious, and if you dislike rooibos generally I cannot even taste it in here.

Finishing up the last of this sample, and I tried an experiment in the Breville at the same time. It isn’t really set up to make fewer than two cups, but I only had a cup’s worth of tea left, so I filled it halfway to the first line.

It came out fine, though I am a little worried about trying this on a regular basis. Makes me wary of burning out the element or some such disaster. Also, because the measurement was imprecise, I’m not getting as strong of a cocoa note from it this time around.

I must say that the coconut in this one, though not toasted, is delicious. It’s… juicy. The flavor in the finish and afterwards is sweet and fresh tasting. Makes me wonder whether this is a characteristic of this blend or whether the Adagio sample was just a bit older when I got around to trying it. The tea base here does seem richer and to have more character than that of the Adagio, even without as much of a cocoa note as I tasted yesterday.

I drank some more of the Adagio Coconut sample earlier and had intended to try this back to back but got hung up on a phone call and wasn’t able to do it. So I’m comparing by memory rather than by direct back to back tastings.

The coconut pieces in this sample are huge compared to those in the Adagio. The samples smell different too. It’s funny, today I’m getting a sort of chocolatey note from both of them, and the Adagio is sort of the milk chocolate version of Mounds while the ATR is more a dark chocolate version. The coconut in the ATR is a little more green smelling than in the Adagio and since I thought the Adagio was a bit on the green side when I prefer that toasty macaroon coconut flavor, I’m wondering whether this will hold true after steeping.

The aroma has a dark character with respect to the tea and a green character with respect to the coconut. The liquor is almost a mahogany color. I’m guessing this is at least in part a Ceylon base.

Even though the flavor isn’t exactly toasty, there’s something about it I’m quite enjoying. I think it’s the fact that even though this isn’t a chocolate flavored tea, there’s a definite cocoa note, which makes this taste more like chocolate/coconut than plain coconut. There’s a slight sweetness, especially in the finish, and a pleasant aftertaste.

I prefer this to the Adagio, though I’m still not sure how I feel about coconut on it’s own as a flavoring agent. I tend to like my coconut with something else, be it chocolate, pineapple, coffee flavor, etc. I’d probably buy a chocolate/coconut blend over this, but if that wasn’t available, this would be a rather good substitute.

Another prize from my LA tea spree.

I loved this shop when it had a French name, still the same owners, still the same tea. This was a sample to try in the store, and after one taste I had to get it. Fruity, like real blueberries, smell and taste so much like the fruit. Absolutely LOVE this! I had it iced at the store, and hot with my dinner when I got back to the house that night. SO good both ways! One of my faves and will be on the reorder list for sure!

Randy, one of the owners of American Tea Room, had excellent customer service skills and was just so so nice! He really took care of me and gave me fabulous ideas for teas I already had at home for making my own blends! I have all sorts of ideas running through my head now about blending my own tea! Randy made me more of a tea enthusiast than I already am! And it was so nice to talk to a tea person like I talk to techie people! :-)

Wow this is really good! So pleasantly surprised. I don’t think I’ve ever liked an apricot black tea before. I will admit that the black tea is totally overshadowed by the saffron and apricot, but I’m actually okay with that. The bright fruitiness is really delicious. I’m going to have to nab more of this when I get home and can make iced tea. (Dorm room without fridge is not conducive to the iced tea making- alas, because it’s really hot right now in VT. I didn’t even know it got hot in VT, but I digress.)

Thanks Doulton for this tea sample.

I too liked the name and simply had to try it and I found it to be very yummy. I would say it is smooth in that the blend was well-balanced but not at all creamy. It feels high-brow and complex, rich and sophisticated as I suppose Notting Hill must be. :-). I am enjoying this cup and am glad for the opportunity to taste it.

What a perfect summer tea! I usually enjoy melon teas when paired with a white tea base but the green tea base almost seemed to add some authenticity to the melon flavor. I may have to buy a larger quanity of this to enjoy all summer long. Or wait, I need to drink through some tea first. :/

Still a fav…in large part due to it’s simplicity and excellent tea base.

The tea base on this one is worth the price on the admission and very S-M-O-O-T-H! It is obviously a good quality black tea and you don’t find that all the time. The black tea base pairs nicely with the apricot flavor and the saffron. I stock this one in my cupboard and it is not one that I will likely EVER allow myself to run out of.

Backlogging – I had this tea as a cold-brewed iced tea and I think it might have lost something. It tasted fine but mostly just tasted like a peach tea. No saffron flavor, not much black tea flavor. I probably need to try it hot to compare.

Naturally sweet, slightly malty with the lingering freshness of mint without a strong mint taste.

This is my last cup of this one and honestly, that’s ok. I bought a big bag of this and I’ve kind of gotten sick of it. I think it’s really good, but I need a change. Thankfully, I have two other chocolate teas on the way! I’m sure I’ll turn around and miss this one after it’s gone.

Another excellent cup of pre-snow-storm tea.