Chocolate tea can be a decadent latte, or a great dessert-replacement. But most of the chocolate teas I’ve tried, have black tea or honeybush tea as a base, mixed with chocolate chips and chocolate flavors. This tea, Cacao Tea from Mi Cacao, is a completely different chocolate experience.
You may have heard about cascara tea at your local coffee shop, which is a brew made from the husks of the coffee cherries. Similar to cascara tea, cacao tea is an herbal brew made with cacao shells. These shells are the exterior pod that hold the cacao nibs, the essential chocolate-making ingredient. But these shells still have plenty of flavor.
I brewed this once straight, and once with milk. On its own, this tea does taste like chocolate, but it is almost salty and brothy, like a nutty chocolate popcorn tea blend. The blend is enhanced by milk, making the blend feel creamier and sweeter, and more like the decadent chocolate teas with which I’m more familiar.
Do you remember liking the taste of coffee ice cream, but having a strong aversion to coffee itself? But then you tried coffee on its own out of necessity or curiosity, and you came to like the strong brew on its own? Cacao Tea feels like the chocolate equivalent. It’s easy to like sugary, chocolatey hot chocolate, but cocoa tea might be more of an acquired taste. But perhaps as your tastes or moods change, you’ll be looking for a chocolate brew that’s a little less sweet and more potent. That’s when Cacao Tea will be the perfect choice.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Mi Cacao
Description:
Herbal chocolate tea made from the shell of the cacao bean. Cacao Tea is 100% cocoa based. It is completely natural, preservative free, and without any artificial flavors or starches. Sugar-free. Organic. Gluten-Free. Vegan-friendly.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
My Favorite After-School Special: Marshmallow Krispy Treat from The Necessiteas
The Marshmallow Krispy Treat, the staple of after school snacking or easy, no-bake sweet treats. And now, we can taste this simple dessert in tea form. This blend uses a black tea base sweetened up with mini marshmallows and puffed rice cereal pieces. The dry leaf smells sweet and buttery like the crispy breakfast cereal.
When brewed, the blend tastes more caramel than marshmallow. This tea is best with a bit of milk to pump of the mini marshmallow sweetness, otherwise the black tea base takes over the other flavors. This is a tasty blend, but it doesn’t quite match its name or ingredient list. I think this blend might have been better-suited for a genmai chai blend with lighter grassy teas and toasted rice built in.
However, I understand that green teas aren’t for everyone. If you’re a black tea lover this will be a unique dessert flavor with enough bold black tea tannins to suit your preferences. Or if you’re skeptical of a tea with puffed rice, rest assured that this tea tastes much more like creme brulee or caramel drizzle than rice cereal.
Next time, I’ll have to top off my mug with some added marshmallows of my own!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
Description:
Why not take the awesomeness of Marshmallow Krispy Treats and transform them into a tea? Well that’s exactly what we’ve done! The outcome is an incredibly tasty blend filled with ooey- gooey goodness!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Carve off a Slice of Frosted Carrot Cake from A Quarter to Tea. . . . . .
In my experience I’ve found that people either love or hate carrot cake. As for me, with my enormous sweet tooth, I’ll enjoy a slice of carrot cake any day, but that’s not always the case for others. What? Carrots? Cake? Who’s sneaking vegetables into my dessert? I can understand the dichotomy.
Whether you love carrot cake or not, it’s hard to resist trying a tea flavor as bold and unusual as Frosted Carrot Cake from A Quarter to Tea. From the beginning, these tea leaves have a lot going on. This is a genmai cha-based blend, so sencha green tea and gold puffs of toasted rice are available in abundance. Beside the rice there are actual carrot pieces in the blend, as well as raisins, and dried pineapple. Ginger and cinnamon balance out this ingredients list and bring their usual baked-good-charms to the flavor palette.
The most impressive part of this blend is the vanilla frosting element, which actually tastes a bit tart and tangy like real cream cheese. This isn’t just plain-old vanilla flavoring, the specific carrot-cake cream cheese frosting is alive and well in this cup of tea.
This is a green tea, so mind your temperatures and steeps times, no matter how delicious the cake aspects smell, take out the teabag after a few minutes to avoid any bitter undertones. The frosting notes get more prominent as the tea cools.
Believe it or not, this tea does taste like carrot cake, even without sugar or milk, the fruits and veggies in the tea leaves bring enough natural starchiness and sweetness to make this blend feel full and decadent.
If you love carrot cake, you’ll love this tea. If carrot cake isn’t your style, give this brew a chance in the name of good fun, you might be surprised by how tasty carrot cake and tea can be.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: A Quarter to Tea
Description:
A cup of well-spiced carrot cake accented with raisins and pineapple for sweetness and a sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Vanilla Cupcake from the True Tea Club
It’s hard to resist a tea named Vanilla Cupcake, especially on a day when you just need something cute and sweet to brighten your day. This tea smells surprisingly fruity alongside the vanilla cake flavors, reminding me of fruitcake or banana bread. In a world of frosting-flavored, cake-themed tea blends, the amount of fruit flavors and fruity ingredients makes this blend stand apart.
The orange and papaya coupled with the vanilla, make this feel more like an orange-glazed sponge cake. Yum! The banana chips add their own full-flavored sweetness, but there is distinctly less of the traditional “frosting” taste, so if you want the extra creaminess, you should add a splash of milk to give the blend that dessert-like twist.
Because this is a decaf rooibos blend, it would be a perfect choice to brew up for a girl’s tea party. Who wouldn’t want a sip of a tea called vanilla cupcake? You could even serve it with real cupcakes and make a day of it!
In addition to all the fruit pieces in the tea, the leaves have at least two types of flower petals which makes the blend especially pretty to the eye. The bright and varied colors seem especially festive if you imagine this tea blend not just as a vanilla cupcake, but maybe as a “birthday cake” cupcake. This is a great blend for any day that needs a celebration.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Roobios
Where to Buy: True Tea Club
Description:
This Vanilla Cupcake Rooibos provides an exotic and smooth rooibos which provides a velvet-mouth feel. A dash of Banana chips amplifies this infusion into a heavenly status.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Easy as Pie: Black Cherries and Sweet Cream from A Quarter to Tea
It’s getting to be summertime and cherries are in season. You can see them in a glorious, burgundy bundle at the grocery store or the farmer’s market. With summertime cherries on my mind, it seemed like the perfect time to try Black Cherries and Sweet Cream tea from A Quarter to Tea.
The dry tea leaves and the first minute of steeping was all about the cream, wafting sweet waves of vanilla out of my mug. As the tea cooled and I got my first taste, the cherries started to shine. This tea is named for black cherries specifically, and you can taste the dark, full, fruit flavor in the tea. This is certainly not the red cherry flavor of chewy candy or medicine, nor the syrupy maraschino cherry that goes on top of your sundae. This blend truly tastes like fresh black cherries and a dollop of cream. Even without milk and sugar, this blend is smooth and decadent, though it never gets too sweet.
There is a distinct tartness in this brew, both from the natural fruit notes and from a tanginess to the cream. This tartness goes well with the astringent black tea base, matching the bright and sharp tone of the tea leaves. This blend reminds me of the taste of fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt, with vanilla yogurt and burst of black cherries. The vanilla is creamy, but has enough complexity to remind me of true frozen yogurt, or even a slice of cherry cheesecake.
This is a great dessert blend to go with a cherry pie at that summer barbecue!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: A Quarter to Tea
Description:
Luscious black cherries with a medium body darjeeling base, paired with heavy notes of cream and vanilla. Decadent enough to make a magister proud.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!