How About Some Chocolate Tea?

I love chocolate; I love tea, so it is only natural that I would want to find a chocolate tea.  And for several years I have tried various teas with chocolate flavor added, with cocoa added, with syrup added to a cup of tea, but unlike coffee, which I enjoy in various forms with chocolate, I still keep searching for that perfect chocolate tea.  This week the quest may have been brought to an end.

Last week I experimented with Maple Tea and thought I would shift focus to one company this week but multiple flavors.  In preparing for this week's exploration of Eastern Shore Tea Co., I went to my local Wegmans Supermarket and picked up a couple of flavors I had never tried.  The Starry Night Tea jumped off the shelf because of the illustration by Charles Constantine as a tribute to Van Gogh; once I read the description, it went in the cart.

I chose a couple more flavors and headed home.  As I put the groceries away, I looked at the other chocolate teas in my cupboard; that was when I decided to do a tasting with all three chocolate teas.

Because I have enjoyed several other Eastern Shore Teas, I decided to try this brand first.  The ingredients are black tea, chocolate, toffee, and hazelnut flavoring, and with the following description, "Starry Night tea is a delicious combination of chocolate truffle, toffee, and hazelnut teas making a perfect alternative to hot chocolate," I was looking forward to the experience.  There was a lovely aroma of hazelnut, which is a domineering scent whenever it is used, with a bit of chocolate.  The taste was lovely and the chocolate taste called for milk, which I added.  Enjoyable but not chocolaty enough...4/5 on this one for me.

Later that evening I tried the caffeine free Chocolate Chai Herbal Red Tea from Zhena's Gypsy Tea.

I originally bought this tea for the convenience of trying several different flavors.  The aroma was a mix of cinnamon and heady with cloves and a bit of chocolate.  I loved the blend of flavors.  The chocolate was not pronounced; I did not add milk and would give this a 4/5.

Finally, this evening I tried the Numi Organic Tea, Indulgent Tea Chocolate Spice.

This black tea is labeled medium caffeine and blended with 40% cacao.  And as the label states, "This melt-in-your-mouth chocolate spice tea blends rich cacao with a host of colorful chai spices.  Ginger and cloves...cardamom...cinnamon rounds off this exotic treat."  And it is definitely a treat: the aroma is stronger than either of the other two with the chocolate a bit more noticeable.  The scents of ginger, cloves, and cinnamon are also rich.  The chocolate taste was stronger and not lost amid the wonderful spices.  I was so quick to pronounce this a 5/5 that I enjoyed a second tasting of each of the other two teas.  But for me this is it.

Starry Night is a good black tea and will definitely be enjoyed again; the Chocolate Chai is a nice caffeine free option, but the Chocolate Spice is just a bit richer.  Are any of them a substitute for hot chocolate?  No, however, they are a lighter substitution.  And after I hit the Publish button, the kettle will be brought to a boil for another mug of Numi Chocolate Spice.

And next week...I will sample several different flavors of tea from Eastern Shore Tea Company.