Tag: Black Tea

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Fox Tea Club’s Chocolate Tea

Chocolate Tea by Fox Tea Club
Black Tea / Flavoured
$9.98USD for 2oz

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Fox Tea Club has provided me with Chocolate Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

I will be honest, I was a bit apprehensive about seeing a Chocolate Tea in the goodies that Fox Tea Club sent me, but I’m game to try just about anything as long as it doesn’t contain coffee. Chocolate Tea actually does smell like milk chocolate, which always a good start. I found that I couldn’t smell much of the black tea base, but given the name of the tea and the fact that the smell matches the name, all is forgiven.

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Chocolate Tea is made up of black tea, cacao beans, caramel, foxberry, and sea buckthorn. One curious thing is that the sprinkles aren’t mentioned in the ingredients list at the time of writing, but are very much present in the black tea blend itself. They remind me a lot of snowflakes, so perhaps this an early winter-themed tea review for you all.

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Preparation

There were no steeping instructions on the Fox Tea Club website, but the label suggested steeped in 205°F (96°C) water for 3 minutes and that the tea could been steeped twice. I followed the steeping instructions for my initial steep of Chocolate Tea.

First Taste

Chocolate Tea steeps to a beautiful reddish-brown colour, very much like a regular black tea. There’s small flecks of oil across the top which I’m attributing to the snowflake sprinkles that melted in my tea. The steeped Chocolate Tea stills smell remarkably like milk chocolate, which I am pleasantly surprised by because usually teas that smell like chocolate prior to being steeped don’t necessarily smell like chocolate post-steep.

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I found on first sip, this tea was like a watery hot chocolate. It does taste like hot chocolate, but I can also taste the black tea base which is quite bold in comparison to the chocolate flavours. There’s a nice sweetness to it, which I think can be easily attributed to the sprinkles.

I did add some evaporated milk to this tea, and found that the taste was a lot more to my liking. Straight, I found the chocolate flavour be quite watery. With the addition of the milk, I found the tea to be more of a creamy chocolate flavour and it tasted more like hot chocolate.

A Second Cup?

I did attempt to resteep Chocolate Tea, but found the flavours were lacking compared to the first steep and I didn’t enjoy it. I would say that Chocolate Tea is good for one steep only.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Fox Tea Club’s Chocolate Tea. If I were given a cup of this tea straight, I probably wouldn’t finish it because it tastes like a weak and watery hot chocolate. I would highly recommend adding some cream or evaporated milk into this tea to make it more creamy and it gets to be a lot closer to a hot chocolate flavour. It does smell a lot like chocolate both with the dry leaf and when it’s steeped, which is a nice quality about this black tea blend.

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Grand Tea’s Yixing Black Tea

Yixing Black Tea by Grand Tea
Black Tea / Straight
$28.00HKD for 25g

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Grand Tea has provided me with Yixing Black Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Black teas are one of my favourite teas to have in the morning before I head off to work or just to start off my day. They just tend to put a bit more pep into my step whenever I need a bit more motivation or energy to go and do things. Luckily, Grand Tea sent me a sample of Yixing Black Tea (Yixing Souchong Black Tea on their website).

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This straight black tea comes from the Jiangsu Province of China. The dry leaf has a subtle aroma to it that reminds me of dried apricots.

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Preparation

There were no steeping instructions for Yixing Black Tea on the Grand Tea website, so I followed my usual steeping time for a black tea: Steep in 100°C (212°F) water for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Yixing Black Tea steeps to a golden orange colour, it’s quite beautiful. The tea itself has a soft aroma to it, there’s a mild honey smell and a subtle fragrance that reminds me of roasted cashews. There’s a slight nutty flavour to this straight black tea. The mild honey smell lends itself well to this tea because there’s just a touch of a sweetness to the tea that makes it quite palatable.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Yixing Black Tea three additional times, and added 30 seconds per subsequent steep. I found that the cashew flavour got a bit stronger as the honeyed sweetness faded into the background. By the third resteep, I found the tea to be a bit watery so I would suggest a maximum of two resteeps for this tea before the flavours get too weak.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Grand Tea’s Yixing Black Tea. I enjoyed the different flavours in this tea – the roasted cashews/nutty flavour with the honey sweetness. I do wish that the sweetness held on better with each resteep though, as that was one of the nicest parts of the flavour profile for me. It performs well when being resteeped, which is nice if you want to have this tea again and again during the day. Due to the sweetness in the initial steep, I think this tea would do well paired with either dessert or breakfast.

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2017 Autumn Tea Round Up

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It’s been remarkably warm around here earlier this week, but I’m ready for autumn full on with the crisp leaves underfoot and it being the perfect weather for hot cups of tea and hand knits. Last year around this time, I shared of my favourite teas for the autumn and while I still love all of those, I thought I’d share five different teas that I’m heavily relying on this autumn as the weather gets cooler and I’m more in the mood for snuggling up under a quilt than going for a stroll along the water.

Out of DavidsTea’s Chai collection for the early autumn, I’m crushing on their S’mores Chai and love it at a latte over plain. A lot of stores have sold out of this one, so if you’re wanting to get your hands on some S’mores Chai, I’d recommend visiting your local shop earlier rather than later.

Grand Tea’s Premium Pearl Jasmine makes the list because I love jasmine green teas and this is one that I’ve found myself reaching for repeatedly the last few weeks. It makes such a great cup of tea and when I (accidentally!) leave it a bit too long, it’s still great cold.

For a more ‘normal’ Chai, I’ve been drinking Chai from The Virginia Tea Company and loving every moment of it. It makes for a nice cozy cup of tea with the lovely warming properties of cinnamon and ginger – delicious!

I caved and bought a tin of DavidsTea’s Cardamom French Toast lately and have been greatly enjoying it as a latte. When I take it to work, I’ve been steeping it at home and then adding milk later at work. It helps cool it down (since my travel mug keeps tea way too hot!) and I can instantly enjoy it.

For the days that I’ve actually been at home, I’ve been enjoying Oollo Tea’s Cuiruan High Mountain Oolong. A delight for my taste buds, for sure! It makes for a great at-home tea because of how many times I can manage to resteep this tea and still enjoy it. It’s been a joy to have when I’m at home and just to have throughout the day.

What has been some of your favourite teas to have so far this autumn? (And if you’re in the southern hemisphere, what are you having during your spring?) Share with me below in the comments!