TE13: Chocolate Earl Grey

When I placed my last Upton order, a sample of this went into my cart. But wait! It’s almost sold out (so I bit the bullet and added a tin to cart). Did I make a mistake? Hmmm, that’s on my mind as I test this tonight.

Sniffing the tin, it does indeed smell like those chocolate/orange cream candies that are popular around Christmas-time (name escapes me). After steeping, I did a little testing because I suspected this would need sweetened, and it did (added 2 tsp. raw sugar to 15 oz.). This black tea used is STRONG and a bit too strong for me. I’m not getting much chocolate (or orange for that matter). Tasting like coffee (eeeeeek) to me. Added 1 T. (or so) of Coffeemate “Natural Bliss” Sweet Cream. Sip. Sip. Sip. Mmmmmmmmm. NOW this is great. I’m getting that chocolate-covered orange cream candy impression. The tea itself has mellowed, and it is as described. I must have missed that this had flowers when ordering (brain focused on the chocolate part…go figure), but I’m not getting any hint of flowery’ness in this. I wished I had bought a whole tin of Creme Caramel yesterday, but am not regretting the “risk” of getting a whole tin of this one. Yum (and perfect for a cold snowy night…brrrrr).

I am sadly still not getting the chocolate flavor in this tea :(! I’m tempted to doctor it with a chocolate bar piece. Don;t get me wrong it’s still good tea, but I was hoping for more chocolate goodness. Will try a re-steep once this cup is done….

Thank You Doulton for allowing me the chance to try this tea

I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It is delicious, slightly sweet, light on bergamont, mildly chocolately. Just very yummy! It smells great before and after. Gorgeous flavor!

I bet if Captain Jean Luke Picard wanted to change it up a bit he would say….“Chocolate Earl Grey…Hot!”. This is one I will be buying when I run out.

Fake chocolate scent and flavor :( otherwise a nice EG. I’m going to have trouble getting past the fake flavor though. Maybe my friend might like it …

backlogging
And more thanks to Sandy Stith for this one as well! :D

I was a little hesitant at first because I haven’t really had a chocolate tea that I’ve loved (yet!), but I honestly needn’t have been worried at all. Slightly malty, it was like drinking the product of a union between EG and hot chocolate. Surprisingly good, though I’d have liked to taste the bergamot just a little bit more. That being said my husband is in love with this tea and has decreed that I buy a tin the next time I order from Upton! :)

OK, so take this with a grain of salt because I don’t like earl grey/bergamot which smells like men’s cologne… why does anyone want that in their tea? Anyway, Lizbet sent me a sample of this (a tiny sample since she knows my feelings on earl grey) and I’m actually surprised by this one. It’s not great, but it’s not sink worthy either. I barely taste a hint of chocolate and a hint of lemon, and maybe if I try and think about it hard enough, I might get a hint of bergamot. Mostly, this one just tastes like black tea to me… with something. Thanks Lizbet for adding an exception to my earl grey rule.

Dry, brewing, and in the cup this has a weird unpleasant aroma I can’t quite place. It’s gross to say this but it reminds me of that sort of urine-y aroma some rooibos has. The chocolate only comes out enough to notice in taste, not aroma, and it’s behind that other gross mystery element. Needless to say this is sadly not a keeper for me—too bad because dry it’s lovely, studded with gold.

The longer it sits: I think the smell might be a synthesis of lemon with the dark chocolate? Because now I can taste the lemon, it gets stronger and more distinct. But initially, the way it combines with the other elements it translates weird, a little chemical-y like Pine-Sol plus something else—>urine. Hmm. I will say that as it cools the weird offputting element recedes (or maybe I just get used to it?) and welcome flavors of chocolate and lemon come in, but even then I’m not crazy about it (and with so many delicious EGs out there that’s not really a problem!).

EDIT: Just looked at Steepster reviews for this. I seem to mostly be an odd man out, eek, but one person described it as like chocolate-coated wet nap. Yes! Perhaps that’s where I’m getting my urine/Pine-Sol bathroom-y evocation from.

EDIT 2: And now I see lemongrass is on the ingredient list, along with artificial flavors. I adore lemongrass (Thai’s my favorite cuisine probably) but I have a feeling that might be what’s grossing me out here, because sometimes stale or off lemongrass can remind me of pee.

I got this in the discounted Valentine’s sampler. I finally got around to trying it this morning. I was pretty excited by the tea in its tin. I looks great, and smelled heavenly. I could pick out several unique scents in the dry tea.

But, when I got to sippin’ I wasn’t as impressed. This is pretty good, but the Earl Grey doesn’t really come through for me. There is so much going on, I think, that it just tastes a little murky. I do like it and will definitely take another shot of it soon, when I have more time to enjoy it, but I wasn’t as taken with it as I thought I would be by two things so great as chocolate and EG.

I missed you, Upton.
I fell prey to the temptation of the delicious looking Earl Grey sampler, and I’m glad I did… I’m trying this one without any additives first to see what I think. The ingredients list is just amazing, and this manages not to taste artificial and cloying. It’s definitely an earl grey, but with a definite touch of cacao. I didn’t expect to like this one out of the otherwise appealing sampler options, but I do. I don’t love it, but I’m going to finish off the tin for sure!

I’d like the smell of this a lot. It’s got a very good aroma into it, nice and chocolately and hints of the bergamot in the Earl Grey. The taste is very, very lightly Earl Grey. Mostly just kind of a medium chocolaty taste that’s relatively good because it’s not overpowering. The Earl Grey flavors are not prominent enough for me so it kinda falls into a chocolaty tea with Earl Grey notes. But for a chocolaty tea this is probably my favorite so far.