The Malt Shop

My mom had her eye surgery, and it seems like it’ll be successful. I say “will” because she won’t be able to see out of it for weeks, and it takes three months to heal. But it looks like all will go well.

I tried this the other day but thought it wasn’t tasting note-worthy because I didn’t add enough leaf. The first cup was a little watery, barely malty. Just that faint classic DTT chocolate taste. Adding 2% milk drowned everything out and I was left with hot watered down milk.

Now, it’s much better. By the way, the dry leaf, to me, is more chocolatey than malty, again, that classic chocolate flavouring in DTT.

This second cup is maltier and more chocolatey. But the good part is that the maltiness puts a damper on the overwhelming sweetness that I personally experience when drinking a DTT dessert tea. I kind of wish it were maltier though. I was expecting MALT. This is a whisper of it. Ok, maybe louder than a whisper. But it doesn’t taste like a Whopper to me, sorry.

But it’s good. Wouldn’t buy it again, but finishing this will be relatively easy.

Another sample from whatshesaid :D Thanks!

So I can definitely see what everyone means about the wet-looking leaf… that is really odd. It’s weird to scoop it up too, because it’s kind of stickyish, almost. Anyhow, this blend smells pretty good, definitely malty and tasty. The aroma from the brewed cup is very much like malted chocolate balls, which I am SO SAD I haven’t had any of in ages, because I failed to purchase myself any malt eggs. Boy do I love malt eggs.

Anyways. While the smell is pretty good, the flavour definitely leaves something to be desired. Yes, I taste maltiness, but I expected more chocolate, especially since a) I saw chocolate chips in there, and b) Della Terra is usually reasonably good about making blends taste chocolatey, even if it’s a bit fake-chocolatey sometimes. There also isn’t any sweetness to this blend, really, which makes me sad, especially after having my cup of Blueberry Crumble! I think I will try my second cup of this with some sweetener, as I feel like that may make a world of difference here, but I’m certainly not unhappy that I didn’t purchase this blend, because I don’t like to have blends around that don’t taste great without sugar!

ETA: Added diluted honey to the last of my cup to sweeten it, and it was much preferable that way. Tasted much more like malt balls. I did successfully re-steep this one, but don’t entirely remember how it was. Decent enough that I drank and didn’t dump it! Didn’t sweeten it, either.

TastyBrew sent me a surprise package! She’s so nice!! This was one of the teas she included. Thanks, TastyBrew!! Btw, she has adorable labels for her tea packaging!!

This was one tea I thought about picking up, but wasn’t having the best luck with their chocolate flavoring, so didn’t. It actually is pretty good. Much better than love in a cup or dubbele chocolade IMO. I’m not in love with it, but enjoyed it. The chocolate was a lot more to my liking :)

i’m in yogaville! basically it’s a place where you can meditate and read and do yoga and eat amazing vegan meals and listen to lectures and drink tea ALL WHILE WEARING YOUR JAMMIE PANTS.
ya know, like, lounge spandex. it’s what i’d live in if i didn’t have a job (or self respect). heehee

this is the one decadent tea i brought. all others i have with are oolongs and puerhs. simpler teas.
http://instagram.com/p/XNPHLKoc2I/

Seriously. this tea is so very good. dark deep cakey chocolate like. similar to dubble chocolade in my little opinion. which is great cuz it’s the one tea i considered buying more of xo

This one smells like absolute heaven. Malty, chocolatey, I want to eat it! Funnily enough, the file name for the image is “Whopper” so the fact that it smells just like the candy is intentional.

However, I think the licorice in my last tea messed up my taste buds (there’s still that weird sweetness in the very top/back of my throat) because I am getting…. tomato broth. No joke, like a malty tomato. Uh… I don’t think that is normal! It’s malty and I can taste the chocolate but I think I am going to have to pop this one in the fridge for later when my taste buds aren’t completely flipping out.

UPDATE: Let this chill out in the fridge and added a splash of cream. No more tomato! Either it was because of the licorice or somehow my brain made it all up. But seriously, I’d swear there was tomato in there at first. Ah well!

Now that it doesn’t remind me of tomato soup this tea is delightful! Very strongly chocolate-y, probably one of the strongest chocolate flavors I’ve tried in a tea. And the malt is so good! But I really think this one would be best off hot so I am holding off a bit on a rating until I can brew it up right. Maybe even as a latte!

“Does this taste like a malted milk ball candy?”

Yes, yes it does, although the very small amount of skim milk I added may have helped with that. Man, I haven’t had malted milk balls, or malt eggs, in ages- not since I was well under five feet tall. I never liked them as a child but this tea somehow makes me look back fondly upon them. This tea is somewhat tangy (another thing I associate with malt eggs), as well as creamy and smooth.

I’m getting next to no chocolate in this; it is as watered down as the crummy skim milk I added. I’m grateful for that though because I wasn’t looking for a super chocolate tea this morning, and didn’t realize it had chocolate until I had already dumped it into the strainer.

While not as sweet smelling as some of the other teas Cavocorax sent my way, this still has a subtly sugary taste (Edit: and not so subtle dry leaf aroma; my nose is malfunctioning badly). I had low hopes for this one but it completely surprised me with the sudden burst of nostalgia and calming flavour.

“Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being ‘round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won’t you please, please help me”

Why do I have Help by The Beatles stuck in my head? I have no idea, though that particular song suggests that perhaps I am stressed and need help. I think I know why I keep replaying that song. I’ve been cash stricken lately and very low on funds. It’s my mothers and my husbands birthday tomorrow (5th November) and not have I had to ask my hubby for money to put into my mothers card but I have no money of my own to buy him a gift. I feel like the worst wife in the world. I agreed to pay for a tattoo for him when I have the money to compensate for the lack of a birthday gift but it’s killing me to think of him not opening anything for his birthday. It’s not like anyone else buys him anything, the only other person that buys him anything is my mother and he’s already been given those gifts. ….Woah that was a lot to get off my chest. Moved on to Let It Be by The Beatles now and it’s got me in tears. Perhaps I should move on to the tea review. Lord knows I need something chocolatey right now.

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This tea certainly smells chocolatey, not cocoa like or nib but actually chocolatey. Also malty but it’s not as strong as the chocolate.

It tastes sweet, chocolatey and malty. The sweetness is very strong and dominates the malt too much for my liking. Not that I like strong malted drinks (like Horlicks) but more would have been nice in this blend. The chocolate tastes almost artificial even though it smelled like pure, indulgent chocolatey goodness. Maybe not artificial chocolate but the cheap chocolate that you may try at one time or another and it leaves a filmy feel in your mouth? Well it’s like that. Dry and filmy in the after taste.

It’s ok but I may struggle to drink the large pouch full, it’s much too sweet for my usual moods.

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I also want to apologise for my rant/break down at the start of this review. My husband will have to settle for a 2 tier chocolate cake (home made), a 3 course Italian meal (home made) and the promise of a tattoo in the next couple of weeks.

sipdown! meh. this tea should be better. it smells delicious but the taste is lacking in my opinion. it’s like a watered down chocolate o or something to that effect. it’s not BAD..but it’s not delicious and wonderful and probably never needs to be restocked. But that’s ok because i’ve tried it, and i’ve got others from della that i like. There just happen to be better chocolatey teas out there. :)

I thought I loved Whoppers (the malt chocolate balls, not the burgers…I love those too though) , but maybe I don’t love them enough to drink a whopper flavoured tea. I’ve had this twice now, once with milk. It’s VERY malty. Very chocolatey and very malty. I enjoy it, but not sure I needed a 2 oz bag!! So fresh it almost looks wet in the bag. Smells really good, just possibly TOO malty for me. That’s not going to stop me from drinking it though!

Edit to add – It’s almost a little bit BITTER. That was my second steep. I assume it’s the malt flavoring making it bitter rather than the tea base (because I also assume that DellaTerra probably uses the same black tea for all their blends??) but yeah. Definitely not my favourite offering from DellaTerra. Still decent though. Bumping my rating DOWN some because of this new revelation. In the interest of full disclosure, I had eaten a maple sugar sucker a bit beforehand. I still think the tea was bitter though, there was something off tasting about it even the first time I tried it, now I have pinpointed it!

Steepster ate my note again. Who forgot to feed it?? :/
So long story short? SUPER strong start. When hot? Holy malt balls this is great!! and then as it cools? Holy fail?! Gross. Licorice and something that tastes like stevia. Me no likey.
I’d have scored this much lower than the already somewhat abysmal score I’ve bestowed, but those initial few sips were so gloriously yummy.
Also, it occured to me that whatever it is that I dislike in here is very similar to whatever it was that rankled me in Lime Chiffon. I should go look at what common ingredients they have…
Anyhow, sorry I haven’t been reading everyones notes asides from a few today! I miss catching up. Tomorrow!!