Salted Caramel & Chocolate

oh man..possibly the last tea of the evening and another from kittenna. I have a bunch of tea inbound, so i need to make a serious dent in my cupboard but i was damn proud of myself for getting through 15 teas this weekend! I didn’t expect to like this one, as i don’t generally like della terra’s chocolate teas. But this one is pretty decent. I don’t get a lot of the “salted” taste, but then truth be told, salted caramel always tastes like normal caramel to me after 1 sec in my mouth. I kinda of wonder how this would taste as a latte…

Ah, boo. I underleafed this one; used only 1 tsp for a 8 ounce cup. I LOVE Della Terra’s samples (I think I maxed out on their sample offerings my first order, and am still working through them). I just wish they had steeping instructions on them.

Having said that, this is DELICIOUS. I seem to strongly favor DT’s chocolate blends and a few herbals OMGsrsly shared with me, and kinda feel meh about pretty much everything else that has that ‘pancake syrup trying to be maple syrup’ flavor to it.

Really though, try this. The salted caramel is bang on, and kinda sorta blew my mind. Reminded me of the gelato I get when I’m on Salt Spring, when I mix their dark chocolate with salted caramel, and get only awesomesauce explosions of sweetness and salt in my mouth.

Another big miss for me. Tastes like the smell of what I can imagine fake chocolate perfume would smell like. NEXT!

Yum. One of my favourites from Della Terra. This tea seriously tastes like liquified dessert. So delicious. Caramelly, chocolatey, and no odd flavours. The black base is definitely not the star here, but it would be weak without it. This will probably be a repurchase (if it’s still around), although I should really try it next to the DavidsTea version beforehand.

Maybe I like this a lot more than the average guy (this is only rated an average 67 on here) because it’s my first tea in 9 days. I’m in Romania and a) I only brought this with me b) I drink a lot less tea when I have a lot of other beverage choices.

Usually at home I drink tea when I’m trying to avoid alcohol or curl up with a book or a movie, neither of which I’ve done here. I’ve been drinking like a fish because I’m on vacation and because it’s cheap and because my family is so high strung you couldn’t possibly relax here. So we drink. Like any good Eastern European.

This tea is better than the salted caramel from DAVIDs. It smells more or less the same — sweet and caramel — but this one delivers on flavour. You don’t have to try and figure out different steeping parameters that might bring out the caramel or the salt or the chocolate. If anything, I’d say it’s a bit weak but I’m not sure I did everything as I should given that I’m not in my normal environment. My mom threw out my leaves before I could resteep so I can’t comment on how good a second steep might be either. In any case, with creamer and sugar this is pretty spot on for me. I taste the a caramel, it is sweet, and it’s a delicious dessert tea. I might even say I’d replace it when it’s gone.

Tonight I’m going to try it with whipped cream and baileys for a super nice treat.

Happy holidays folks!

Holy tea scum! The top of this tea after brewing looks a bit gross, to be perfectly honest. Way too many dissolvable items in this, I would guess. There is a layer of oil droplets and another of some other solids, and when I move the cup they jiggle disconcertingly in different directions.

Honestly I kinda didn’t want to try it after that but I did anyway. It tastes like weak black tea with melted chocolate and caramel in it. It’s not bad tasting, but it’s not really good either. I guess these DTTs are generally not for me. Sorry it didn’t work out for me MissB, but thanks anyway for the sample!

Another one from the gift tin my real life tea buddy sent me. :D We had it for afternoon tea with amaretti cookies. Crunch crunch!

This one has a mysterious element in the smell that goes well beyond DT’s usual creamy chocolate aroma. It’s not exactly floral or musky, but similar. Hard to pinpoint. It makes it seem more like a fancy little grown up salted caramel bon bon than sugary sweet kid candy. I wish I knew what it was! That layered aroma lasts through the entire thing too—at the bottom of the cup it comes back full on, impressive. The taste and body are a little wan relatively, but that’s usual for these heavily fragrant dessert blends. I’m glad I have enough to enjoy this a few more times. Might make it a bit stronger next time and add milk, see what happens.

Another Della Terra sample! I guess I just noticed these blends like to have chocolate in them as well as the other ingredients (caramel, peanut butter in another one). At this point, the chocolate just seems to be distracting from the other flavors. Just like the peanut butter blend, this one didn’t seem to be much different to me than just a chocolate blend. But maybe I’m not getting an evenly distributed scoop in my infuser or something. This seemed like a chocolate only blend to me. So sad! I think the coconut added a creaminess that isn’t usually in the other DT chocolate blends, if that helps. So for not accomplishing what the name of this tea is, this gets a lower rating from me. But maybe my sample wasn’t blended well enough.

This one was a gift from Kaliska after we spent some time checking out Della Terra’s rather unique lineup.

The first thing I notice about this tea is that there are actual little chunks of toffee mixed in. I absolutely love toffee. Also, coconut flakes, which are usually a plus. There’s a lot more to this tea than the name implies. I’m seeing butterscotch listed as an ingredient, too. Yum.

Just like Chili Chocolate Truffle, there is a considerable amount of oil collected on top of the brew. It’s a little cloudy, too. It smells very strongly of chocolate, but not quality chocolate. More like the cheap artificial kinds of chocolate, like Tootsie Rolls or Little Debbie snacks. The rest of the ingredients smell great, however, if you can get past the fake cocoa. I have such a weakness for caramel that I am willing to see past it.

The black tea they used for a base is not very strong compared to all the other ingredients. It’s hardly astringent, and doesn’t do much to add flavor. The strongest thing I taste is chocolate, but in a Swiss Roll kinda way. The caramel, toffee, and butterscotch come next, plus notes of honey. I don’t taste the coconut at all. Overall, I think this tea would be great with everything but the chocolate. I’ll finish the sample, maybe try some experiments with milk, but it’s not something I’d want again.

hi! i need to stay off tumblr because everyone is trying to spoil Agents of Shield for me and NO nope NOPE i think it’s a big episode Not gonna happen! shut it tumblr!

this tea is meh. it smells better than it tastes. and it’s not bad, but just, compared to their other caramel or chocolate teas it doesn’t seem to hit the bullseye. but i liked trying it.