Peppermint Bark

Backlogging tea of yesterday afternoon…..

I have had a few mugs of this by now, so I feel I can give it a pretty good review. I got it in the first run of Della Terra’s Mystery Boxes. For me, it was an excellent way to get my feet wet for what Della Terra has to offer. I had seen so many great reviews for this company, it had been on my try it list for some time and allure and price of the Mystery Box caught my eye. They were very accommodating in filling my request of only black teas including Earl Grey. I was very pleased with the box, but not sure I would do it again. I am more likely to just wait for a sale and buy specific teas. I am also in the stage of my tea game where I prefer to buy my tea for review. That way I am sure to give as unbiased reviews as possible. Don’t get me wrong in that I love free samples, I just don’t like the pressure I put myself under to review free samples. It is better for me to review a tea that I am in the mood to drink, rather than one I feel somewhat forced to drink in a timely manner. It really is just me……

I have tried 4 of the teas from my Mystery Box. Overall, I do find the tea base kind of on the light side. Really, that just means it won’t be a great breakfast tea option for me. I need something a little heartier for the am. However, they do make a stellar afternoon pick me up. They are very dessert like, and fun. I can tell great care was taken when making the flavor profiles.

For Peppermint Bark, I get a minty, buttery, and chocolate smell. The taste is minty, chocolaty, and buttery vanilla on a light black tea base that allows the flavors to emerge rather than competing with them. I am not usually a fan of chocolate mint teas because most companies completely overdo the peppermint in their blends. Not the case with Della Terra. It is the perfect balance of mint to black in this one. The mint flavor comes in as a complement rather than a majority. I did add just a little more tea to the mug because of the additions. This really seemed to help make a more substantial base tea experience. I will have to try and remember that for the next cup.

Would I buy from them again? Absolutely! (In fact, I have some more heading my way this week!) I think they may be my new favorite flavored tea outlet. Very nicely done.

Usual mug method with just a little extra heaping of the measuring spoon…

My Della Terra order arrived today from my Black Friday frenzy purchase. Just in time really because I had a few Christmas themed teas to try, including this one. My stomach has been a little off recently so mint teas in general have been my go to teas when I stick the kettle on. I’m lucky that mint especially peppermint reminds me of Christmas so ill as I may be at least I can still participate in some Christmas frolics.

Opening the packet I can smell a beautiful candy cane medley with subtle hints of chocolate. A candy cane coated in chocolate ….. oh my! Genius! The peppermint is sweet and thick but also fresh and creamy, definitely candy cane…more so than their (Della Terra’s) actual candy cane tea actually.

It’s nicely balanced in flavour, the peppermint is smoothed out by both the vanilla and the chocolate which gives a sweet, refreshing and rather light blend. More subtle than the scent but still packed with delicious flavour. The chocolate is the most subtle but it does become present in the after taste briefly.

Such a lovely blend, glad I picked this one up.

I got this in a recent swap with Lariel and since I finally have the green light (health-wise) to dive back into the world of tea, I opted for this today.

OMG! Words cannot describe the awesomeness of this tea! I wish it was available year-round! The tea has the right balance of chocolate and mint, with a hint of vanilla. The dry leaves were sticky-looking but smelled amazing – and this brewed cuppa delivers!

Thanks Lariel! I’m hooked!

Okay, this one surprised me. I actually thought it was Teajo’s Raspberry Bark (and posted this there), and then realized it wasn’t. How could I mistake the two? Uh…

Smells beautifully of creamy chocolate bark. Really, it’s bang on. The flavors are pretty mild on their own, however I can taste both cocoa and something fruity in the cup with zero additions. Sweetened with a touch of Truvia, the flavors pop into something creamy and sweet. I get less cocoa this way, but it’s still there in the form of a dark, dry cacao flavor. I’m missing almost all of the black base in this iteration, which is just fine with me. Quite lovely!

Another headache means bust out the mint teas – and I just happened to get this one the other day, so why not try it? Sadly, I don’t see actual candy cane pieces in this blend (unless I’m really not seeing them)… and the candy cane pieces were the deciding factor in getting this one over the other mint blends from DT. Ah well. It’s delicious anyway. The chocolate fragrance is stronger than the flavor from the creamy chocolate chips, while the cooling mint fragrance is lighter than the definitely present flavor. Excellent combination. I just love chocolate mint teas. (I think this is the third chocolate tea I’ve had in as many days – whoops!) Also, the headache disappeared. I could SWEAR headaches only disappear if I drink mint tea. Otherwise, without mint, sleeping and hoping it is gone by morning is the only way they go away. But this tea made it possible for me to write this tasting note at one in the morning and not be sleeping the headache away.

I had a half cup second steep of this one with two other half cup second steeps at the same time.. and a scrumptious chocolate chip cookie! A little ridiculous but I love tea.

It is getting so impossible to pick a book I want to read in all of the books I already want to read. So many choices and every time I finish a book there are more choices. It seems all of the books I want to read are also very long. Right now, I’m reading Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Shirley’ since it is about Napolean’s time and I also wanted to read ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell’ later on which is also about Napolean’s time.. hopefully the Bronte will inform me a bit more on that… but I just love the Brontes anyway.

Thanks jessiwrites for sending me more mint tea!

Minty black with a sweet hint of vanilla.

KiwiDelight sent me a sample of this, and I just received it today! I can’t pass up a mint tea, so I made a cup right away.

I take back what I’ve said about Della Terra blacks. If they are black with MINT, I am a fan. This is quite lovely. I might prefer Shamrocks & Shenanigans, but I think they are basically the same thing. So tasty, a wonderful blend of mintiness and creaminess that work very well together. Thanks, KiwiDelight!

Every single one of these ingredients looks delicious so it is no surprise that I’m really enjoying this sample from the tea of the month club from della terra. I only have 1 month left of it, I think, so I’ll have to decide if I want to continue with the subscription when I have so very many other teas.

I thought I was making Eight Candles until I didn’t see any marshmallows in the leaves. (Shh, my guilty pleasure, I don’t eat marshmallows any other way).

This is pepperminty and vanilla-y and chocolatey and delicious and completely perfect for staying up all night because you can’t sleep because you drank too much tea staying up until 2am waiting for a phone call from a friend that needed a ride home from the ER. Thankfully I live close to her house and the hospital so the transit time is not long. 20 minutes gone and the new kitten was all alarmed at my absence and would not let me pee in peace. Hazards of kittens.

I’ve started a little game with myself to do chores in that if I lack the energy to do 20 minutes at a time or something, I assign minutes to certain chores (2 minutes per package opening/put away/box disposed of),(one minute per cat’s claws trimmed), etc. in order to make those 20 minutes. It is 3am and I have done 4 minutes worth so far by that scale. It is interesting.

I had a few cups without reviewing this, oops.

Anyway… this smells so good. Like these chocolate mint candies I used to like. I rather like the flavour of peppermint black tea now. And this is one of the chocolate teas I like. As much as I do like this tea, I kinda prefer the Shamrock mint/ chocolate blend.

2nd of 4 teas I bought in a sampler pack. I also received wintermint and it was fun to compare the 2 while tasting. I liked wintermint a tad more, it had a better mint flavor. This tea has white and red looking sprinkles in the mix. I can surmise that these additions ruined my really liking this tea. The flavor they added was not something I really enjoyed. I will finish the whole stash, but would not go to this again. Wintermint seemed to give me more of the mint tea flavor I was looking for this holiday season.