As far as smells go, this tea is a winner. The dry tea smells so rich and chocolaty; it’s perfect. This tea has everything from cocoa to roasted carob to white chocolate. And of course, what would a cake tea be without sprinkles? There are loads of white candy sprinkles!
I’ve noticed that this tea has an oily residue on the surface. If you let it cool down for too long, the residue becomes even more prominent. Regardless, the tea smells great. Smelling the steeped tea honestly has me convinced that I’m about to indulge in a delicious hot chocolate. This would be great in the winter!
Maybe it’s because I was hoping for a hot chocolate taste, or maybe because I love rich chocolates, but this tea is a little weak for my liking. The smell has you expecting an explosion of chocolate, but I’m tasting more of a watered-down chocolate. That aside, it definitely does remind me of chocolate cake batter. But unfortunately, this tea is more woody and bitter than the other two cake teas.
The tea is plenty creamy without milk, but I’ll add some just to see what happens… And what a great decision that was! The milk makes the tea creamier, brings out some of the chocolate and in my opinion, makes it taste more like the hot chocolate I was hoping for.
So although this tea has a rich smell that promises a deep, chocolate taste, it ends up tasting a bit watered-down. Milk improves the situation a bit, but I still think this is my least favourite of the three cake teas from David’s Tea.