Steepster rating is after adding sugar and milk. Note that Tea Forte recommends this tea with milk.
I picked up a Tea Forte black roasted teas assortment box awhile ago and now I’m just trying to finish it off. The Chocolate Rose is not so great without milk and sugar (I wouldn’t rate it above a 33).
After 5 minutes of steeping (maximum recommended by tea forte), the flavor of chocolate isn’t really detectable nor is the rose.. it’s just a strange synthetic flavor.
I added sugar and milk to see if this would help and it did help a great deal. The tea became mild, and I was able to taste more of the chocolate, and something that tasted floral (although I wouldn’t go as far as to say I could identify it as rose).