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“YUMMERS! See previous notes…I will share the rest…” Read full tasting note
“I’ve only tried a few chocolate mint teas, and this has been my favorite so far. I’m afraid to go out and try others when I have this security blanket good tea! It smells like a minty snickers bar...” Read full tasting note
“A big thanks to Azzrian for this sample! I kind of have a love/hate relationship with chocolate mint tea. I really, really like chocolate mint, mint is easily the second best thing you can pair...” Read full tasting note
“Yay Steepster is back up! Tonight we are trying another sample from the generous Azzrian. Thank you! Chocolate and mint are mixed pretty well here. The mint is a tad bit pushy but not enough to...” Read full tasting note
Country of Origin: Sri Lanka
Region: Nuwara Eliya, Dimbula or Uva districts
Shipping Port: Colombo
Grade: OP Orange Pekoe
Altitude: 4800 – 7600 feet above sea level
Manufacture Type: Orthodox
Cup Characteristics: Fresh lovely mint combined with full flavored chocolate tea that is wonderfully reminiscent of an after-dinner mint. How decadent!
Infusion: Bright and Coppery.
Ingredients: Luxury black tea, Peppermint, Blackberry leaves, Natural flavors.
Information:
A perfect dessert tea that is wonderful with shortbread cookies. If you want a ‘little something’ without sugar, try this, a chocoholic favorite! This tea is a lovely combination of mint with the earthy, irresistible aroma of chocolate. During its long history, chocolate was originally drunk, not eaten, with its origins being traced back to the ancient Maya, and Aztec civilization in Central America. The Maya used cocoa beans as a form of currency as well as a special ingredient in their drink. For the Europeans, in the 1600’s and 1700’s, there existed a hefty import duty on cocoa, resulting in chocolate becoming an item that only the wealthy could afford to enjoy.
What type of tea do we use, how do we flavor the tea and why do we use natural flavors?
Firstly… we only use high grown teas from the top 3 tea growing regions of Sri Lanka – Nuwara Eliya, Dimbula and Uva. These three high-grown districts produce flavorful teas that have classic ‘Ceylon’ tea character which is noted by floral bouquet and flavor notes, touches of mild astringency, bright coppery color and, most importantly – perfect for use as the base tea of our flavored teas. (We have tested teas from various other origins around the world as base stock for our flavored teas, but none of these teas made the grade.) Dimbula and the western estates of Nuwara Eliya have a major quality peak during Jan/Feb, whereas Uva and the eastern estates of Nuwara Eliya have their peak in July/Aug. This ‘dual peak period’ allow us to buy the best for our flavored tea blends several times during the year, ensuring top quality and freshness.
Secondly… we use flavoring oils not crystals to give the tea drinker an olfactory holiday before indulging in a liquid tea treat.
Thirdly… we specify natural flavors. High quality tea tastes good and natural flavors do not mask the natural taste of the high grown Ceylon tea. (The norm for many making flavored tea is to use overpowering artificial flavors, which can be used to hide lower quality tea). Natural flavors do not leave an aftertaste giving the tea a clean and true character. It should be noted that natural flavors tend to be somewhat ‘soft ‘ and the flavors slightly muted, but for many this is a refreshing change and one of the desired attributes of our naturally flavored teas.
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I’ve only tried a few chocolate mint teas, and this has been my favorite so far. I’m afraid to go out and try others when I have this security blanket good tea! It smells like a minty snickers bar when dry. I wish the chocolate was a bit stronger than it is, but otherwise, this is a delicious dessert tea.
I made up some for my mom and I. This is one tea that she always likes. I give her plenty of teas to try, but I think most of them she just goes along with because she’s my mom. But this one she really does enjoy. I think I’ll leave the rest at home when I go back to school for her
Hahaha, my mom will try anything I put in front of her too. It’s difficult to tell sometimes which she really likes, although she’s vocal when she finds something offputting!
I have to have my dad tell me when she really likes things, otherwise I can never tell if she is being nice or not
A big thanks to Azzrian for this sample!
I kind of have a love/hate relationship with chocolate mint tea. I really, really like chocolate mint, mint is easily the second best thing you can pair chocolate with (Vanilla being the first, and a lot of people don’t quite consider that fair).
Now, take this tea for example. It’s quite tasty, the flavoring is good, the chocolate is well done and has a definitely chocolate liqueur taste to it, with the mint flavoring coming in afterwards to cool everything down. There is a smooth black tea flavor that comes in just slightly at the end, but it isn’t strong enough to really play much into the beverage experience. Definitely a solid tea that I could keep around, if I wasn’t such a snot.
But I am, and here’s why: just chop up some mint leaves and put them in the darn tea already. Flavoring is fine and dandy, and really I don’t pick sides on the whole natural vs artificial flavoring thing, as long as the taste works out. But for me, with mint, it never really seems that the taste does work out.
Small detour: I wanted to talk about the weird mint flavoring here, and why it didn’t taste like, you know, mint-mint to me. But my enter key got stuck, and was inserting a billion new lines into my review. So I did what any sane, rational thinking man would do: grabbed the nearest metal thing and pry it off with brute force. This worked well, and my enter key popped up with a nice, satisfying snap and a solid propulsion arc… directly into my tea cup. Seriously, this is comedy gold.
Anyway… plus, mint is so much prettier, and seems to meld in with the tea flavors a lot more than mint flavoring does. This is quite likely psychosomatic, but it seems that I’m much happier with my mint experience in tea if there’s actually shredded up mint leaves, as opposed to mint flavoring which has been applied.
That’s probably enough out of me tonight folks. Have a good first of July ;)
When I want really minty chocolate tea I just throw cocoa powder (the kind you bake with, unsweetened) into the steeper with some Moroccan Mint!
First of July = Canada Day! Also, how did that enter key-flavoured tea work out for you? :P
I think all future reviews should be videotaped. Sounds like we have some YouTube gold going on that we are missing out on!
LOL sounds like the stuff that happens to me. Thanks for the chuckle! :) Oh and your welcome and I agree with you on mint!
Yay Steepster is back up!
Tonight we are trying another sample from the generous Azzrian. Thank you!
Chocolate and mint are mixed pretty well here. The mint is a tad bit pushy but not enough to hide the chocolate. The base is smooth and quite mellow. This was a good dessert tea.
Was Steepster down again today? I wasn’t trying to access it for a few hours, but did notice a lack of comment emails.
I know I clicked like on a number of posts and just got the spinn-y thing over and over.
It was down for me a few times. That may be my impatience with loading times though.
The dry tea smells just like a Peppermint Patty. This tea is a tasty confection that leaves my mouth feeling fresh and satisfied. It’s more subtle on the mouth, but as Culinary Teas notes in their description: "It should be noted that natural flavors tend to be somewhat ‘soft ‘ and the flavors slightly muted, but for many this is a refreshing change and one of the desired attributes of our naturally flavored teas. "
Keeping that in mind, I appreciate the tea more. There is no hint of anything synthetic or unnaturally brassy. It’s a very nice marriage which, like the delightful York’s Peppermint Patty, tends to draw out the peppermint with the chocolate as a supporting player. So far the best peppermint/chocolate I have had.
Yummy!
The flavors here are very well-balanced. The chocolate is not as strong as I would normally want, but, here it works well, because it is well matched by the level of peppermint and black tea. It has a very harmonious taste to it that my sweet tooth and the chocoholic in me are both responding to very positively.
Delicious.
