Chocolate Raisin Black Tea

Another tasting from the sample sent to me from Doulton… thank you so much!

As I sit here, waiting for the cup to cool to a drinkable temperature, I am smelling it. I love the aroma – the raisin scent smells so delicious… sort of reminds me of warm oatmeal… and it’s making me hungry!

The strongest flavor when I first sip is that of the raisin. The chocolate develops as I continue to sip the tea. I think that if I were to change anything, it would be the chocolate flavor of this… but I am a chocoholic, what can I say? Other than that, this is really a nice, rich, decadent blend.

I also really like the black tea base that 52 teas uses. It has a nice richness to it, but, it never seems to overpower the flavors that are part of the blend.

Oh, this is such a ridiculous confection that it’s wonderful. The black tea smells like a very serious old-school tea but the raisin and chocolate aroma emerge after a few seconds. Steeped, the tea is naturally very sweet and the chocolate taste is pervasive.

FLASHBACK TO CHILDHOOD MEMORY: I remember, I remember—being 5 or 6 years old and somebody gave me some Raisinettes. I remember pain-stakingly licking the chocolate off the raisins and then discarding the raisins. Those were the days when I didn’t believe anyone should put “food” in the sweets.

52teas are, typically, bursting with flavor and this one is no exception. It’s excellent but does not match the Buttered Raisin Toast—perhaps because that “toasty” flavor seems more difficult to find in a tea than a chocolate or raisin taste. You’ve got to try this if you are a Raisinette fan. And 52teas might want to try more “Cinema” flavors—that would be nifty. Junior Mints. Twizzlers. Lemonheads. Charleston Chews. Hot buttered popcorn. Nibs. Jujubes. Just stay away from Dots—a confection I always found perfectly pointless.

This tea is nothing special plain, but adding a touch of milk made me swoon! Lets add it to my list, shall we?

List of things that make Amber swoon:
1. Frank Sinatra
2. A perfectly lead lindy hop move
3. A devilishly handsome man in uniform
4. Raisin flavoured tea

Raisin is fast becoming my favourite flavour, which is odd considering I don’t care much for raisins themselves. Both the aroma and flavour are heavenly, I wish I could carry this scent around with me all day! And sipping this at work just makes me long to be at home, curled up in a blanket with a pot of this and at least five Fred & Ginger movies…

I’m going to the movies…going to the movies…go…darn it I’m still at work. Thank you Brandy for this one. There is a yummy aroma that wafts from the dry leaf. I see some nice raisin pieces as well. The trouble I’m struggling with in the “chocolate tea” realm is that some of them don’t taste like real chocolate. There is a chocolate essence that is nice but I don’t know if I would say it’s really chocolate. Maybe I’m crazy here. I’m liking this one pretty well though. There’s a nice chocolate flavor but I’m not sure if I’m getting the raisin. This reminds me more of a chocolate oatmeal raisin cookie. Which I like because oatmeal raisin are my favorite! I like it. I continually admire Frank’s creativity. I could keep my nose in the pouch for days :)

First cup – very raisiny. Second cup- can definitely taste the chocolate. But the raisiny grape flavor predominates. As the brew cools, then the chocolate comes out. If you like 52teas buttered raisin toast, then you will like this blend. If it were even more chocolate-y , it would be perfect.

I think that 52 Teas is fast becoming one of my favorite tea companies. They may not have the widest selection but their special blends are a particular delight. As I’m working on writing a tea book and talking about specific teas and contact info. for the companies I can guarantee you that this company will be in the book!

Now, I m 56 years old and while I, like so many others, hole up at home with our Netflix movies these days, as a movie struck teenager and young woman I lived in movie theaters and the 2 things I always loved to buy for the movie were Milk Duds and Raisenettes. SO, when I read a review here for this tea I thought, “Surely, there’s no way it could be THAT good.” BOY, was I wrong!

My daughter came over and we snooped around in the teas and both decided we had to try this tea. We opened the pouch and both went “Oooooooooooooh, Ahhhhhhhhh.” and it smelled exactly like the favorite movie candy. We brewed it with great expectation and it smelled as good in the cup. The only thing that I will say, because it is a delicious, delightful tea, is that I always seem to be disappointed when something smells divine in the pouch and then the cup but doesn’t quite hold up when drinking it. I brewed it the maximum recommended time and the liquor looked lovely and not weak but the flavor itself, while pleasant, just tasted too weak too me. Tasty, yes, but as full bodied and flavorful as I would have liked, not so much.

Maybe it’s just me. I have long searched for the perfect (for me) chocolate tea and while many of them smell divine in the pouch they always taste too weak to me and don’t have enough really toothy chocolate flavor in them (Again, for me, I’m sure many others would disagree!). I don’t know what the answer is. I find that some teas that don’t quite hold up flavor-wise, for me, with black leaves — and black flavored teas are some of my favorite teas — but some of the most delicious flavored teas that really seem to hold the wonderful heady taste that match the aroma wafting up from the pouch are rooibos based and I wonder if the rooibos itself has more holding power with some of the flavors that need a little oomph? And rooibos teas are perfect night-time teas.

In any event, this tea smells divine and is a lovely cup of tea but I’d like a more full-bodied flavor. Definitely worth trying and I know I’ll enjoy the rest of the rest of the pouch. :o)

In fairness to 52teas, I probably shouldn’t have ordered this tea in the middle of the summer when I live in the desert and it’s 116 degrees outside in the shade.

Opening the bag, you could see the big, chunky bits of raisin. Unfortunately, all of the chocolate bits had melted and pooled on one side of the bag. When I pulled the tea for my first cup, I made sure to include some of the chocolate, but the proportions were probably off. The fragrance of the tea was just like a box of chocolate covered raisins and there wasn’t even a hint of tea. As I left my nose in the bag for a bit, it was more like a fine pipe tobacco.

Once brewed, the tea was a decent black but none of the chocolate or raisin flavors came through at first. As the cup cooled, it developed more character. The milk chocolate presented itself in fragrance and the flavor became sweet/tart from the raisin.

I think I expected a dessert tea and this was more of a black with some personality. I’ve heard a lot about 52teas and this is my first try of their offerings. I have three other bags I’m looking forward to brewing over the next few days.

Second tea of the morning after the trusty, over-tea-noted Earl from LeafSpa (which is marching toward sipdown nicely). Having had this yesterday, there was almost enough room to shake the packet (remember to shake the packet, remember to shake the packet). Next time I should be able to get a nice shake in.

I am getting the raisiny fruitiness of yesterday with the same not very strong chocolate. I got some chocolate chips in my mix today so I think perhaps it’s just the balance of this blend. Though I will make a point of trying it after something other than the Earl or as a first morning tea as a test.

I wouldn’t buy Raisinettes at the movies but would take some if they were passed to me during a flick, and that’s sort of how I feel about this tea. It gets high marks for living up to its name and for being a tasty tea that is not at all doing a number on my brain or my stomach. It’s nicely done. It’s just not among my favorites.