Chocolate Almond Allure

I’m not going to lie: I’ve been avoiding Steepster. I’m just not having the fun with it that I used to. There’s a lot of nonfunctionality, and a lot of people complaining about nonfunctionality. That and I’m just not as tea-obsessed as I once was. I hardly looked at it over the holidays. Sorry if I missed anything major. I did come back to find that the cupboard sort feature is working again, so that’s awesome.

I did come back because I promised myself that I would do a taste-through of my cupboard from oldest tea to youngest. It helps me assess whether some old teas still have enough flavor to keep around, and also reminds me of everything in my cupboard, some of which I rarely get around to drinking. I am going to log notes on them to keep track. I did this at the beginning of last year, and it was fun (it also took me a really long time). The oldest tea in my cupboard this year is the same as it was last year, though looking back at my notes there are definitely a lot of old ones I sipped down last year.

So here it is, the oldest tea in my cupboard (#106). It’s probably… 3 years old? It’s hard to say. It still smells amazing while it’s brewing. It tastes pretty good. Not as good as it did when it was young, but pretty good. I have a decent amount of this at home still, and I will have to remember to brew it strong with milk and sugar, I think, to really get some flavor out of it. The almond-chocolate-caramel of this was always delicious, although I obviously don’t reach for it as frequently as I should if it was going to be a restock/cupboard staple.

ETA: Now that I think about it, this tea has got to be closer to 4 years old, or at least 3 and a half. I’ve got some ooooold teas.

OMG! I think I’m in LOVE…or at least great ‘like’!!!

This smells totally wonderful! The taste is great too! Its perfectly advertised chocolate almond scent continues being the rock star it is in taste as well! It’s a flavored black tea so you can still taste the black tea with the chocolate and almond notes added in. I think the almond is more noticeable but it’s still a wonderful treat. Too bad I only had 1 sample…I’m going to have to purchase this at some point!

sipdown! (191) I’m not focusing on sipdowns during the week but i am happy to take advantage of wanting a particular flavour and being near a sipdown :) This is a pretty tasty tea, although it’s not something i need in my cupboard all the time. I like the blend of the chocolate and almond in this one, smoothed out by the caramel taste. thanks dinosara!

Tea of the afternoon…..

Another long one. If you just want to read about the tea, you are more than welcomed to skip to the end………

In reading reviews of this tea, I knew it was one I wanted to try. I perused Talbott Teas website, and saw this was $12 a 2.25 oz tin. I was not shocked, yet, until shipping calculated out to be about $9 to get to me. Then I started looking for places that sold Talbott’s Teas near me. And I was in luck because Dillard’s (a local-ish department store) sells them. I knew I would be heading to the mall in about a month from that time to help set up for a Girl Scout Mall Overnight, and figured I would check then. (And I need a good perk to get me through this scout activity…the girls love it, but I don’t like the mall much on a normal day….)

I was really lucky! It turns out that this is sold at Dillard’s in a gift set containing a tea spoon, honey sticks, 35 fillable paper filters, and three chocolate teas. Chocolate Almond Allure, Caramel Sundae Escape, and Chocolate Strawberry Temptation are the teas. The retail cost of the set is $40, but it is on clearance. I scored it for $16 and some change. So, being the weakling that I am, I bought 2 sets. (I also scored three awesome LeCreuset Stoneware baking dishes at near 75% off…so incredibly thrilled about them…..almost more than the tea, if that is possible!)

This is really good! Dark chocolate notes with a touch of almond. Really worth what I paid for it, and I can’t wait to try the others! Such a happy tea day!

Usual mug method.

I used a teaspoon of this, and a teaspoon of Vanilla Comoro to make a “half-caf” type evening tea. It was absolutely delicious – nutty vanilla chocolate! – but oof. I was tossing and turning and tossing some more! When will I EVER learn?

Thanks Rachel (iHeartTeas) for the sample. I smell the chocolate in this one and it is nice, but the almond in showing through as the big player in this cup. It certainly is a mini alluring moment in my work day.

This is superb. Cocoa and almonds aside, the tea itself is very excellent, now add in the perfect amount of cocoa and almonds. The cocoa is extremely mild and smooth- this doesn’t really taste like chocolate as much as you’d think. The almonds are very subtle and are merely there for miniscule nuances as a high note- nothing more, nothing less.

All in all, the tea leaves are ultra superb, the cocoa and almonds are in excellent ratio- what more can I possibly ask for? Nothing. Instant 100.

I got up this morning thinking I wanted something chocolatey, something almondy, but what? What almond tea do I have that would blend well with a chocolate tea? I started looking though my teas and remembered the sample of Chocolate Almond Allure that Dinosara sent me. YES, that will do wonderfully!

I was reading over my notes for the chocolate strawberry by Talbot and decided to try steeping this tea at a lower temp and for a shorter period with a little more tea than I normally would because I want it iced. The result was pretty wow! I’m getting a really deep chocolate flavor, like dark chocolate with that bitter edge to it. There is definitely almond flavoring in there, but I can’t pin down exactly what kind. Not roasted. Maybe raw? I don’t know, but I’m spending way too much brain power on trying to suss that out when I should just be enjoying this cup!

I’m thinking it is going to be mandatory to have a chocolate almond tea kept in stock in my cupboard from now on and am hoping my local grocery store will start carrying this flavor!

Pass the stash ttb. What a delightful tea! It smells wonderful and the flavors balance so nicely. This one is better hot.

I got a sample of this tea from mj and after having some brownie I decided that I would have this tea.

It’s really deep, dark chocolate in flavor. Not quite enough almondy goodness for me. Ah well. I wonder how this would be with milk, but I don’t have any here at work. I will take the rest of this sample back home and try with milk.