Orange Chocolat

Sipdown! WOW. This is bitter. And strangely flavoured… not your typical orange, and I’m not really getting chocolate. This is an interesting tea though… I wonder if I just need more water here…

Either way, I guess this is the first time in a while that a 1-cup sample burnt me, because I totally ruined this, heh. Thanks for the sample, Sil – I may have to nab another one at some point to give this a second shot, since I so royally messed it up this time, apparently!

(I drank the tea in spite of the massive bitterness, and really am intrigued by the flavour… bleh why did I have to wreck it… :( )

ETA: Re-steeped this last night and am drinking it cold now – it’s actually really tasty! Orangey, chocolatey, and clovey. Definitely need to give this a second shot.

nonononononono

bitter oranges. No thank you. Going in to the swap box!

1 tbsp for 375 ml

Overall light flavour. Dark chocolate taste with a hint of orange close to the end of the sip. The orange flavour is slightly bitter.

Thanks Sil for sharing!

Thanks Sil for the sample!

I tried it side by side with Bluebird’s Terry’s Tea to see which was the best chocolate orange tea. The answer: Not this one.

I steeped it for 3 minutes and the result was very bitter. Each sip left a tacky aftertaste, and it felt like my teeth were coated in… something? Not pleasant. It was simliar to that feeling you get when you eat super cheap chocolate and it’s waxy.

After the first few sips it got a bit better, but not enough for me to bother finishing the cup. Guess I’m not the only one indifferent to this one, so no hard feelings!

This tea smells really really good when it steeps – like a rich cup of cocoa with a faint hint of orange (flavouring). But you can’t really taste much chocolate or orange in the liquor – I can only get cardamom out of it. Overall this mildly bittersweet tea is not unpleasant, but it can be rather disappointing once your expectation is raised by the lovely aroma.

*edit: as it cools the orange flavour becomes more salient – reminds me of Grand Marnier!

I have discovered I am not such a fan of chocolate in tea, nonetheless I am drinking this because I bought some! It does not really have much of an aroma at all. The flavor is not too strong, just a mild orange black tea with a hint of cocoa. What really makes this kinda special for me is the cardamom, I am a cardamom freak. I would probably not go out of my way to buy this again but it certainly is a good, pleasant dessert tea.

When I first started drinking this, I found it extremely bitter and overpowering. But after some time the taste started to grow on me. I still prefer it mixed with soy milk, but even alone it’s okay. It’s basically the tea version of eating a chocolate orange.

Before Steeping:
Scent-Very orange like,with a suttle hint of Chocolate

After Steeping:
Color- Dark Orange- dark black
Scent- Nice mix of Chocolaty orange

Taste:
Nude- like a Chocolate Orange candy. No taste of black tea
With Sugar-Boosts the flavor of the orange

*a great desert tea, with flamboyant flavor

This tea has been my morning cuppa on those mornings cool enough for hot tea. It has that same strong CTC base that most of Lupicia’s black teas have, which is malty and tends toward astringency even with a shorter steep. The flavoring surprisingly holds up pretty well given Lupicia tends to be a bit lighter-handed and their black base is really strong; the chocolate is similar to that from the “Chocolate and Strawberry Pu’erh” I just finished off, lacking that “liquor” taste and instead adding a sort of fudgy quality to the black tea without tasting particularly chocolately. The orange stands out a lot more; I like it a lot more than I usually find orange flavorings, but my main issue is it has a sort of bitter quality to it that really makes the astringency of the base stand out. I get a sort of coating, drying sensation on my tongue. It’s not bad (at least prepared hot, but I found the tea downright unpleasant once the cup had gone cold), but I definitely prefer Lupicia’s chocolate+strawberry or chocolate+raspberry to this.

If this is oversteeped even a tiny bit, it turns very bitter. Or maybe the oranges are just bitter themselves. Either way, I would pass on this one and go for some of the other Lupicia fruit flavored teas.