Choco*Latte

sipdown! uh 224. I was enjoying this…immensely as i made it as a latte today – steeped in milk. as i was contemplating my tasting note though, someone shared news with me about an old “friend” of mine. For those that don’t know, i used to play world of warcraft pretty heavily and regularly. (story time now..no more tea comments, move on if you’re looking for those). started when the game launched etc..yadda yadda, was an officer in a guild, pulled 40 ppl through molten core etc but at a casual level i was proud to have gone through things with. None of this raiding 20 hours a week for me. long story short, one of my friends from wow passed away last weekend and the news has trickled over to me tonight. I haven’t talked to “runabout” in a while, but we kept in touch over the years. I honestly didn’t expect news of his death to hit me quite as hard as it has. One of those random internet friends….we met in person a couple times with the florida crew, but mostly we chatted in game and through email, trying to coordinate things. So right now, i’m waxing poetic about the good times we had, drinking my tea and smiling at internet friends. something my parents don’t understand as they didn’t grow up in this generation, but something i whole heartedly understand as our world has become more and more connected through our ability to share with one another. A silly game, yes but one that allowed me to meet some FABULOUS people, that i’m still friends with…i’ve shared weddings and births and other such events…and tonight….the first death. And it’s floored me. good night.

Last weekend I had a craving for chocolate. I searched the tea drawer in vain not believing that I didn’t already own a chocolate tea… not that I ever remember ordering one. So, Monday morning I did A LOT of research into the best non-caffeinated chocolate teas out there and decided that this one must be it. I placed an order Monday morning and it arrived at my PO box on Weds morning!

On to the tea… everything about this tea is amazing and exactly what I wanted in a chocolaty dessert tea. The smell in the bag was like I’d opened up a tin of hot cocoa mix. The rooibos is mixed with large chunky bits of cacao husks and is quite interesting to look at. You rooibos haters stay with me. I didn’t taste any rooibos in this tea. I tasted a thin hot cocoa. I say thin because it’s tea… not a comment on flavor. The chocolate was nice and deep. The whole house smelled like hot cocoa. I think if I’d added some soy creamer to it, it would have had a thicker mouth feel, but it didn’t need it. This tea only held up for one steeping, but that is generally what I expect from Rooibos, so I was not disappointed. If you want chocolate, and nothing else, this is your tea.

I love hot cocoa and never drink it because I can’t take those kind of calories on a daily basis… so usually the hot cocoa comes out for the first snowstorm of the season. Now, I’ll bring out the Choco*late (and a lot more often than the cocoa came out of the pantry).

If you think it sounds like I am in love, you might just be right. ❤ I think this is the first 100 I’ve given out. It’ll be interesting to see if that opinion holds over a few cups.

Sweetened with a bit of agave nectar. 2 heaping tsp to 12 oz.

Made a cup of this one (hot) the other night and left it in the fridge to cool to make “iced tea”… it definitely has that characteristic cacao shell flavour, but now that I’ve had straight cacao shells, there’s definitely too much rooibos hindering the delicious cacao flavour. I ended up sweetening it with maple syrup, which tasted pretty decent, but it definitely wasn’t as good as I remember (and I suspect it’s directly related to having had better teas since, not because it’s a bit older!)

Weird. I’m happy I got a sample of this from VariaTEA instead of buying it because I am not a fan. Nope, nope nooooooo.

I thought I would be too, but it’s just too … huh. I’m not even sure how to describe it. It’s like rotten banana – with that sort of liquorish odor, and it’s thick and woodsy and not chocolate. I’m just going to dump this. (155)

83 is the LOWEST rating for this one here so far. I have been wanting to try this since it was added to steepster. I was lucky enough to receive a sample of it from American Tea Room…so…here goes!

The aroma is that of a semi-sweet chocolate but certainly not over the top intensely scented. By that I mean it doesn’t smack you in the face when you open the package. there are many ‘husks’ within the ‘mix’. The aroma post-infusion seems to be 33.3%-33.3%-33.3% across the board – Semi-Sweet Chocolate and Cocoa combined with Rooibos and with Vanilla.

The taste is very good…smooth and chocolaty with a little woodsy aftertaste. It certainly is one of the better tasting chocolate-type attempts I have tried and it works well with the rooibos.

I think I am in the middle of everyone else’s ratings. Where I wouldn’t give it a perfect 100 I certainly wouldn’t go below the lowest score of 83, either. My fear was, after reading the other reviews, that this one was pumped up too much and I would be disappointed but that is far from the truth! This is very good, indeed!

So I think I am definitely in the minority when it comes to my dislike for Herbal Infusions Cacao tea. The weird thing is, when I first tried that tea, even I loved it and then it went the way of Forever Nuts and for some reason even the smell is now off-putting. So I definitely was not excited when I opened this up to find what looked exactly like Cacao tea. Since I was packaging some up for Cavocorax anyways, I thought I might as well try it and if I didn’t like it, I would just send her the rest.

I brewed myself a cup and for me, this is worse than cacao tea because it has the smell and predominately the taste of cacao but then I am picking up rooibos in the background. I won’t rate this because honestly it’s my issue with the tea that caused me to dump the cup and not actually a reflection of the tea but this is also my first and last cup and the rest is off to Cavo where hopefully it will be enjoyed.

A sipdown, only because I’m sending the last little bit off to someone whom I think will enjoy testing it out. Hopefully there’s enough left in there for a cup!

I still like Coco*Late a lot more, however this is a decent substitute when craving something decaf. The rooibos is way too present for me however to really enjoy it fully, and it’s missing a level of creaminess that I’ve come to expect with a chocolate tea.

i drank this the other morning,
and was gonna make a note about it tonight.
but then i watched the new sherlock episode (3×02)
and now i’m so bittersweet-sad that i can’t bring myself to do anything further.

(… it’s next morning)
i made this cup of tea by steeping the “leaves” on the stove in unsweetened vanilla almond milk with agave added. since i never ever make lattes it felt EXTREMELY decadent. and when i added the herbal tea to the milk the kitchen filled completely with a rich chocolate smell. i sister smelled it immediately from far across the room. the flavor was a little strange to me at first? but i think i could get used to it in a very good way.
the true bonus was just making a latte and being reminded that i really should encourage myself to enjoy them more :) so much yum.

I think this is my favorite rooibos tea ever, and it’s sipdown 94, I think.
Thanks Sil!

This is pretty good. I love chocolate, but usually it’s hard to enjoy in solid form. I think milk chocolate is often too sweet and creamy. Dark chocolate, while preferable, is often too strong to enjoy more than a bit of. It just seems that chocolate is often too intense. Fortunately, this tea allows you to control the strength and sweetness. How cool is that? Very cool.

Smells and tastes very chocolate-y. But the flavor is not too intense so I can drink to my heart’s content. It’s good without sweetener as well, which is how I prefer my drinks. If they are sweetened, I usually get tired of the sweetness at some point and switch to water to wash the sweetness out of my mouth. I know, I’m weird. I got really thirsty when I go to parties sometimes because few people think to stock water since most people are happy to drink juice or soda or other sweet stuff. I should just bring my own water. Is that rude?

Anyways! Tea! Yes, this is good. I have full control of the flavor! This tastes best hot. When it cools, it starts to taste a bit like wood. Is this because it’s made from cocoa husk? Hmm… I had considered trying this with milk, but it’s pretty good without addition, so I’m just gonna keep drinking it. :) I don’t really get much vanilla or rooibos in this, but it’s okay. Still tasty.

Thank you QueenofTarts!