Oh this tea, the tea I want to love but never quite lives up to my expectations. It is neither chocolatey enough or bergamotty enough for me, and those jasmine flowers listed in the ingredients always tease me but never deliver. Actually now that I brew it at 4 minutes it’s probably chocolatey enough, but I want more of a sense I’m drinking an Earl Grey, not just a chocolate tea with some lemony citrus. Nevertheless, it’s still a perfectly decent cup of tea, and I have no problem drinking it. I just had such high hopes for it!
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here’s an idea…take good quality chocolate, melt in into a pan of whole local milk over medium heat, when melted and simmering, add good quality earl grey (like ROT double bergamot flavored for intensity), dried jasmine flowers, organic orange zest stir it in…turn off the heat, let steep for 4 minutes and strain…..all that might take more time….but then you wont have to buy pre-made teas that don’t live up to expectation :)
That’s probably tasty, but not what I’m going for. That recipe is basically tea-flavored hot chocolate, not chocolate tea (which I prefer not to have actual chocolate pieces in anyway). I think the easier solution would be to take a good quality chocolate tea and a good quality Earl and blend them. Or order a similar custom blend from Ovation Teas, which I am thinking of doing to see how it turns out.
while the definition of tea is loose…and its legal definition is also somewhat subjective:
tea (t)
n.
1.
a. An eastern Asian evergreen shrub or small tree (Camellia sinensis) having fragrant, nodding, cup-shaped white flowers and glossy leaves.
b. The young, dried leaves of this plant, prepared by various processes and used to make a hot beverage.
2. An aromatic, slightly bitter beverage made by steeping tea leaves in boiling water.
3. Any of various beverages, made as by steeping the leaves of certain plants or by extracting an infusion especially from beef.
4. Any of various plants having leaves used to make a tealike beverage.
I am curious how you define ‘good quality chocolate tea’ since no company that i am aware of actually uses either good quality chocolate/single origin/organic/fair traded/varietial as a blending ingredient with good quality Camellia sinensis (and I would define this as tea of organic/fairtrade/single bush/small cultivar/or above FOP grade from a single estate/origin). I know many tea vendors who use chocolate (less than 20% actual cocoa) and low grade FOP (or PF/OP ) as ingredients in blends intended to be made into tea…
I totally respect your view that I could be defining a tea-flavored hot chocolate….but I also suggest that adding a chocolate to a tea is not a chocolate tea…but rather a tisane flavored/scented tea…and I suggested the recipie only because it would be less dissapointing that drinking low grade chocolate mixed with low grade tea…after all…most teas that are ‘flavored/scented’ are usually not of a quality that can be sold as higher quality or they would be… but I look forward to your suggestion of a company that offers a high quality chocolate tea…I would be interested in checking that out …namaste
What I meant by good quality chocolate tea was not a tea with a very high quality black tea base… I don’t know of any companies off hand that have do that. I merely meant a delicious one, which is a signifier of quality to me, regardless of any low origin. I do think that a high quality base blended with cacao nibs and natural chocolate flavoring (not actual chocolate) would qualify, if one existed. I haven’t tried many plain chocolate teas, so I’m afraid I can’t suggest one, but I was speaking more on the hypothetical anyway. Just because I was disappointed with this tea doesn’t mean I would be disappointed with some other chocolate Earl Grey also made with a “low quality” tea base.
P.S., where did that definition come from, and who on earth has ever made tea out of BEEF?? :)
strange i know..the internet is a blizzard of the odd…..it was from an online dictionary…you would think a beef tea would be technically stock right?
Lupicia’s The Au Chocolat is probably the best chocolate tea I’ve had (if you ever decide to go the blending route). Like most flavored Lupicia teas, it’s not overpoweringly flavored (you can still taste actual tea!) but it’s still obviously chocolate. Tasty stuff!
Thanks for the rec! It would be nice to have a great basic chocolate tea in the cupboard!
here’s an idea…take good quality chocolate, melt in into a pan of whole local milk over medium heat, when melted and simmering, add good quality earl grey (like ROT double bergamot flavored for intensity), dried jasmine flowers, organic orange zest stir it in…turn off the heat, let steep for 4 minutes and strain…..all that might take more time….but then you wont have to buy pre-made teas that don’t live up to expectation :)
That’s probably tasty, but not what I’m going for. That recipe is basically tea-flavored hot chocolate, not chocolate tea (which I prefer not to have actual chocolate pieces in anyway). I think the easier solution would be to take a good quality chocolate tea and a good quality Earl and blend them. Or order a similar custom blend from Ovation Teas, which I am thinking of doing to see how it turns out.
while the definition of tea is loose…and its legal definition is also somewhat subjective:
tea (t)
n.
1.
a. An eastern Asian evergreen shrub or small tree (Camellia sinensis) having fragrant, nodding, cup-shaped white flowers and glossy leaves.
b. The young, dried leaves of this plant, prepared by various processes and used to make a hot beverage.
2. An aromatic, slightly bitter beverage made by steeping tea leaves in boiling water.
3. Any of various beverages, made as by steeping the leaves of certain plants or by extracting an infusion especially from beef.
4. Any of various plants having leaves used to make a tealike beverage.
I am curious how you define ‘good quality chocolate tea’ since no company that i am aware of actually uses either good quality chocolate/single origin/organic/fair traded/varietial as a blending ingredient with good quality Camellia sinensis (and I would define this as tea of organic/fairtrade/single bush/small cultivar/or above FOP grade from a single estate/origin). I know many tea vendors who use chocolate (less than 20% actual cocoa) and low grade FOP (or PF/OP ) as ingredients in blends intended to be made into tea…
I totally respect your view that I could be defining a tea-flavored hot chocolate….but I also suggest that adding a chocolate to a tea is not a chocolate tea…but rather a tisane flavored/scented tea…and I suggested the recipie only because it would be less dissapointing that drinking low grade chocolate mixed with low grade tea…after all…most teas that are ‘flavored/scented’ are usually not of a quality that can be sold as higher quality or they would be… but I look forward to your suggestion of a company that offers a high quality chocolate tea…I would be interested in checking that out …namaste
What I meant by good quality chocolate tea was not a tea with a very high quality black tea base… I don’t know of any companies off hand that have do that. I merely meant a delicious one, which is a signifier of quality to me, regardless of any low origin. I do think that a high quality base blended with cacao nibs and natural chocolate flavoring (not actual chocolate) would qualify, if one existed. I haven’t tried many plain chocolate teas, so I’m afraid I can’t suggest one, but I was speaking more on the hypothetical anyway. Just because I was disappointed with this tea doesn’t mean I would be disappointed with some other chocolate Earl Grey also made with a “low quality” tea base.
P.S., where did that definition come from, and who on earth has ever made tea out of BEEF?? :)
strange i know..the internet is a blizzard of the odd…..it was from an online dictionary…you would think a beef tea would be technically stock right?
Lupicia’s The Au Chocolat is probably the best chocolate tea I’ve had (if you ever decide to go the blending route). Like most flavored Lupicia teas, it’s not overpoweringly flavored (you can still taste actual tea!) but it’s still obviously chocolate. Tasty stuff!
Thanks for the rec! It would be nice to have a great basic chocolate tea in the cupboard!