S'mores

S’mores for breakfast!

I love this tea, I think maybe I could sweeten it just a touch and love it even more though. I don’t think it’s very chocolatey, but the marshmallow and graham cracker is pretty awesome despite that.

I tried this with a 4 minute steep today and it was perfect, definitely a temp to keep in mind for the black teas from Della Terra, I always have a problem with it not being enough in the end.

I selected this as the first tea to try out of my chocolate try me pack. It’s smooth and lovely with no bitterness, but to me the S’mores taste is really taking a back seat to the black tea. That’s not a bad thing; it’s just not what I was hoping for.

Now that I look at my dry mix, I’m starting to think I should have shaken the packet a bit more before scooping out my tea, because it looks like there’s still some obvious settling. Maybe my next attempt with this tea will be more up to my expectations. I must admit that when it comes to flavored teas, I’m partial to ones that are in-your-face. I’m sure my preferences will eventually grow beyond this, but for now I still taunt my flavored teas with: “C’mon, hit me, I dare you” “Is that all you’ve got?!”

Hmmm…perhaps talking smack to my tea is a hint that I should lay off watching ultimate fighting for a while?…nah…

Weird. My sample had a bunch of mini marshmallows in it. The 1oz bag I ordered doesn’t have a single one. But it’s actually much more flavorful than the sample. I also overleafed as I underleafed last time and didn’t want to make that mistake again. I like this. I don’t love it. But I definitely like it. For the second steep, I added a couple tsp of laoshan black chocolate Genmaicha to add some roastiness. Good combo for sure.

I just wish I liked Della Terra’s black tea base more, because the flavor of this is so precisely s’mores. I definitely prefer the marshmallow-y goodness of this one to DavidsTea’s Toasted Marshmallow, but I would much rather drink a David’s black.

Still, this is a very tasty cup, and did the trick as a dessert-y tea for me this evening.

I slept in this morning. I climbed out of my super comfy big bed…put on one of those robes that feels like you’ve been wrapped in a babies cuddly stuffed animal and made a pot of ‘Favored Tea’.

My tea journey began with ‘Flavored Tea’, and gradually wandered down other avenues that at first were mysterious.
Green, Black, Oolong and then…Pu-erh. Each tea variety grabbed my attention and taught me about what was the tea base under all the flavored tea’s that I had loved so much.

I discovered that there is a point where you either have to pull away and choose to only drink unflavored tea or keep in the loop and taste and enjoy what everyone else is raving about without discrimination.

Tea can be very serious, or it can be loads of fun. I saw the same sort of cerebral decision working at the Winery. People got so serious that they no longer fully enjoyed wine. Some refused to try a wine that they assumed they wouldn’t like. “I don’t drink Rieslings”. Well, that’s borish!

I don’t want to be borish! I love my earthy Shu Pu-erh’s, adore my dangerously chocolate Black Tea’s and swoon over dark Autumnal Oolongs.

However, give me some flavored tea’s too! They are FUN!

What was brilliant with this S’mores tea was the use of real chocolate bits and real mini marshmallows and real crushed graham crackers. Just using chocolate, marshmallow and graham flavor would have sunk the tea into a horrid artificial flavor hole.
The natural ingredients seemed to cancel any taste of artificial flavoring. (I was relieved!)

When I first tasted the tea plain I wasn’t impressed at all. It was too bland. I added Splenda and cream which made the tea delicious.
I haven’t had success tasting the chocolate in any of the Della Terra Tea’s. No idea why. A little cocoa but nothing I’d call real chocolate.

What stood out was the marshmallow flavor and graham cracker taste.
Those flavors were rich and creamy, strong enough to make you feel like you were having a satisfying dessert. I had two mugs of this yummy tea!

So far, this and the Chocolate Pumpkin Chai have been delicious and worth having on hand!

Alrighty… guests are out of the house, back to writing about tea!

We bought a sampler pack from Della Terra Teas because Missy really wanted to try the chocolately sampler pack. So we picked it up! And a few custom sampler packs… and there was a promotion that they threw in a Fall Sampler free with two custom sampler packs…

So, even though I haven’t been here posting, that doesn’t meant that I’ve somehow managed my problem. ;)

This tea is quite good, though they had me at graham cracker. It is very chocolately, and the marshmallow adds a nice creaminess to the flavor. A very nice creaminess.

The tea base itself isn’t my favorite though. I’m not sure what type it is (and Della Terra’s website isn’t telling!), but it reminds me a lot of the Hunan black I’ve had in a few blends from MarketSpice, that really just rubs me the wrong way.

Oh well, the flavoring more than makes up for it, and I think this tea will probably stick around. Could it be better? Probably. Is it the best tea with graham crackers I’ve ever had? YES!

This seems to go as fast as it comes in. I am swapping loads of this tea and not drinking nearly enough of it myself, so I sip now. Marshmallowy, chocolatey, graham crackery goodness. It’s smooth and rich without being bitter. It’s a summer bonfire in a grey kitten mug and I love it so much.

Additional notes: This one was haunting me, so I had to have another cup today. It’s rare I drink the same tea twice in two months! I decided to follow the 2-3 minute steep instructions this time. I don’t think I did last time. I think the flavor ended up the same. There are slight marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker flavors here, but they are LIGHT. I’ve tried a bunch of Della Terra teas since I first tried this one… and I could be wrong, but it seems like this black tea blend has a stronger black tea than their others. It still isn’t a very strong black tea, but I think it’s just noticeable enough. I think Della Terra would have the perfect S’mores blend, if only the flavor was stronger!

I won this in a contest on Della Terra’s facebook page, they frequently have these giveaways so I would highly recommend that you guys check them out.

I went into this with low expectations, but a lot of curiosity. I love s’mores but just wasn’t sure how well it would translate into tea. It really exceeded my expectations. With a little sugar, it was a rich chocolatey brew with hints of marshmallow and graham cracker and a little hint of smokey spice. Frankly, this was delicious. I went into it with low expectations but I came out of it with a new tea on my shopping list. You should check this one out.

We had this one a while back for afternoon tea and I forgot to log it. The smell and front end of the sip is uncanny in its resemblance to no-frills s’mores—I get everything, the waxy cheap meltable chocolate, graham cracker (yes!), and sugary bag o’ cheap marshmallows. Husband and I were both like “wow, that IS a s’more!” But it turns out I don’t want to drink standard s’more flavor as tea…it includes the pinpointy plastic afterbite of cheap chocolate and Kraft marshmallow, and drinking that is overload. Alas. This is a case where the tea does what it says on the tin (ha) and kudos to DT for that, especially given it’s a rather tricky, odd synthesis of flavors. I just don’t want that particular flavor profile as tea much (see: Cherry Cola and Cake). But yeah, good job Della Terra, and sorry this isn’t for me. Luckily husband likes it enough to finish off the sample.