Two Friends

Yup, still the best chocolate orange tea ever. This probably comes the closest to satisfying cravings for Terry’s Chocolate Oranges that I’ll ever come without ingesting hundreds of (delicious) calories. I bet sweetening it a bit would make it even more delicious…. but that’s such a slippery slope…

nom nom nom. I keep thinking that i’ve shared this more often than i have. It must be because i hoard this. I love this version from stacy so much :)

I’m taking a cup of this, & a cup of the Naughty Vicar (The London Tearoom) to the bubble bath. I’ve been taking short showers lately, I miss my bubbles. Nothing like a sweet cup of tea to soak with, & 2 cups are even better than one.

I already took a sip, & this is the best cup of this yet, just right. Maybe it’s because I actually followed the steeping parameters? LOL.

I drank this one just before bed yesterday evening. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a stupid thing to do, but I was so tired anyway that the extra caffeine didn’t keep me awake. I think I’m pretty immune anyway, but still. I used 2 tsp of leaf for my cup, and was reminded all over again how difficult it is to measure PTA. The leaves are so HUGE! My measuring spoon was never really in the game, so I just kind of guessed. It worked out fine, thankfully. I left it for four minutes, returned to a kitchen that smelled like melted Terry’s Chocolate Orange, and added a splash of milk just because.

To taste, it’s simply gorgeous. The way this week’s shaping up, I needed a treat and this turned out to be exactly the thing. The orange flavour is the strongest, and while there are the juicy, slightly sharp edges I’d expect from an orange, the overall effect is pretty candy-like. I think the chocolate helps with this, because it adds a smooth, creamy sweetness to the whole thing so that it’s basically like drinking a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. One word: yum!

I’ve tried Three Friends in the past, with the alternate base and additional marshmallow, but I think in all honesty I prefer this version. It seems a little more straightforward (there’s less going on, I guess, so that’s an obvious thing to say), and the chocolate/orange pairing really gets a chance to shine. PTA is delicious whichever way you look at it, so I’ve no complaints there either.

I love this one, and I’ll be sad when it’s finally gone from my cupboard. I know this Butiki sipdown thing is for the best, but it feels pretty grim all the same.

I’m glad I got the chance to try Sil’s adaption at the end; it was on my bucket list for a while! The flavouring is no mystery (hello, chocolate orange), yet is subtler than I thought it would be.

Sipdown, sipdown, sipdown. I’m almost out of paper tea filters here so my mom let us bust out her Nordic mugs that I bought for her last year and they were still sitting in the boxes. She also wanted some of this tea so we christened both mugs with it. I topped both of ours off with Cointreau and mine with some half and half. Now I could taste the orange. Now now, I’m no alcoholic, but the liqueur truly elevated this blend.

Now I’m out of Butiki teas in this household so I’m going to have to wait until I get back to my other home to enjoy the rest.

Tired, sore head, not feeling great. But I feel much, much better after this cup. Chocolate and orange is one of those classic pairings that works so well. When I heard of it being used in a tea, I was very sceptical. Not any more, at least with what Butiki teas has to offer! The dried leaves are long black and wiry. The smell is, for anyone familiar with British confectionery items, is just like a jaffa cake. It’s the first thing I thought when I stuck my nose in the bag. The infused tea smells exactly the same. The taste is the same too. Jaffa cakes! I can see how this tea would be a bit divisive, a lot of folks dislike citrus in their tea, but not me. This is wonderful.

Oooh. I’m soo naughty. I bought this as part of my order from Stacy’s bday sale and am only just now getting around to it.

Does anyone remember those orange flavored chocolate oranges that used to pop up around the holidays? You would just take the ball and smash it against something and it would pop open into slices. I absolutely loved those as a kid. This is what that reminds me off- especially as it cools down. I was expecting milk chocolate, because for some reason all my chocolatey teas lately have been more on the milk chocolate side, but this tea is totally dark chocolate orange slices. Absolutely divine.

(Edit) Ahem. Star date 20150130, from the USS Enterprise NCC-1701… (Should have had an Earl Grey!!)

Oh, I really really like this and I’m sad it’s pretty much gone. Just one more steep when I get home from work.

The flavours are super delicate and I mostly taste the base tea in my travel mug today. But there are hints of dark chocolate and orange and sweetness and malt.

One of the first teas I ordered from Butiki was Three Friends, and I love PTA, so I was excited to see Two Friends as part of the Butiki birthday sale!

Orange is the primary flavoring here, with a smooth chocolatey undertone, of course enhanced by the scrumptious Assam.

I dig it! Good idea Sil! :D