Chocolate Orange Rooibos

Rooibos is such a good choice for this flavor. It’s a warm, drinkable chocolate orange. So good!

12 Teas of Christmas: Day 10

Finally catching up on my notes, a few days late! I remember quite enjoying this one — the chocolate flavor was nice and robust, as was the orange. They played really well together!

10th Tea of Christmas 2022

Still not a great lover of rooibos, but it’s nice to have something so unabashedly chocolate orange in the evening. Also pairs well with actual chocolate!

Probably going to use the rest up in a latte, later tonight. Should be good.

Adventaggedon Day Twenty Three – 2/6

This was the first tea I steeped up today before the fact I was sick had really set in. My throat was a bit sore and raw, but I wasn’t really stuffed up yet so I didn’t have any issues with tasting. I really liked this tea – it was very much like the classic Terry’s Chocolate Orange you eat around Christmas but with a little more brightness from the orange – especially in the lingering aftertaste.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmhsXY6ut-w/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCQKikKN-6Y

This for an “Orange Tea” on this month’s scavenger Hunt prompt. I recently came across a box of teas that I had stashed away – so this one has been hiding from me for a few years (in this case, few = almost five). I’m pleased to say that the flavor is still pleasant & strong. I was a little worried because it’s been a while – but since the package was sealed, I kept my fingers crossed and am happy it’s still a tasty tea.

Nice orange flavor, pleasant chocolate notes. This was exactly what I wanted from a chocolate orange tea. The red rooibos works nice with this flavor combination.

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 305)

There’s a bit of chocolate, no orange, and loooots of yucky rooibos flavour. I’m not sure if I disliked this or Butterscotch Custard more last night. Probably the latter, because chocolate.

From 2017, still sealed. Worked through a terrible migraine all day and just need some desserty-tea therapy tonight.

The chocolate is coming through surprisingly well, with a bit of a creamy, fudgy quality I taste mid-sip, with the orange hitting late in the sip and leaving a lingering presense of zesty citrus. It’s a very spot-on chocolate/orange flavor combo. The rooibos base is fairly strong here though — perhaps because whenever red rooibos is paired with something fruity/citrusy, medicinal notes seem to come forward on my palate which hide from me otherwise. That is, perhaps, the only thing bringing this tea down. There is still a nice nuttiness to the base that I believe the chocolate is really bringing out, and just a hint of a vanilla sweetness.

Solid.

Another non caffeinated 52Teas favourite: chocolate, orange, and a hint of cream. The rooibos nicely underscores the flavours.

Yesterday, I had one of my very favourite ice creams in the city—roasted marshmallow— and as I was making my way through my two scoops, I made a note of mentioning it to Anne because boy oh boy would it make a fab tea. I don’t know how one would get that slippery sticky marshmallow flavour in a tea though. The smokey crispy marshmallow bit, I think are manageable, likely with a lapsang but that gooey centre part. And then, the ice cream creaminess. Oh boy. Just parking it all here.

I predict another visit to that ice cream parlour in my near future.

Latte and plain tea sipdown (236)

I used the entire sample of this to make both a latte (after asking Sil if she thought this would curdle and she said no and was right) and a plain cup. Then I got distracted by instagram and the internet and the 10 year challenge so everything is just warm and not hot. Oh well.

The steeped tea smelled like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange (which is good or bad depending on how you feel about those…I am fairly neutral). When I drink the latte, I get milk mostly at the forefront but the end and after taste is Chocolate Orange…with some earthiness from the rooibos and cacao and a touch more brightness from the orange. It is like if someone tried to make a Terry’s Chocolate Orange at home but added a touch more orange zest and cacao instead of the more processed milk chocolate. Again, that could be good or bad depending on your feelings for those things. Personally, I don’t love them and adding that to my neutral feelings towards chocolate orange in the first place, this latte is good but one is enough for me.

The plain tea is a lot less Terry’s Chocolate Orange than the latte. It lacks the creaminess from the milk so instead I am getting cacao and orange. Not chocolate orange but cacao and orange. A seemingly minor distinction but one that makes a lot of difference. Cacao is more earthy and dark chocolatey and it stands out from the orange which is a little sharper without the creaminess of milk. The two flavors are distinct from each other as well instead of working together to create the beloved chocolate orange profile.

This one just is not a favorite. I think it is a nice enough latte but I wasn’t much of a fan when it was plain. Mostly I found myself missing Butiki’s Three Friends which is the chocolate orange tea that got me enjoying the chocolate orange flavor profile.

This is freaking delicious. The scent of the dry leaf truly smells like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange, probably more than any other chocolate orange blend I’ve had. Even more than Butiki’s Three Friends? I swear.

With 2% milk, I pick up on the orange notes more so than the chocolate, but it still works. That orange note reminds me so much of Cointreau, and takes me back to when I bought a bottle of it nearly ten years ago for a dessert, didn’t know what to do with the rest, and ended up getting into the habit of making hot cocoa with Fry’s, milk, and sugar, then topped off with Cointreau. I was initially wary of the rooibos in here thinking it was going to take everything over but this was a rather mild rooibos, not too woody in flavour at all.

I shared the last mug with my boyfriend, who also highly approves, and we agreed that this deserves an 85 rating. I’d love for this to be remade so that I could grab a full size. The taster just wasn’t enough.

EDIT: Whoa, the full size is currently available after all. Uh oh…