Chocolate Tea – Camellia’s Tea House

Today’s tea is Chocolate Tea sold by Camellia’s Tea House. This tea was one of the black tea options on offer when I went for afternoon tea at the Corinthia Hotel a couple of months ago. Although I didn’t try it at the time, I did get the opportunity to smell the tea when we went through the sample box and I thought it had an absolutely divine aroma — just like rich, dark chocolate.

Sadly, Camellia’s don’t regularly do sample sizes which make it a bit difficult to buy a tea just to try it, but as I’m sure you’re all aware by now I really love chocolate and was so convinced I was going to love it that I had no qualms about buying a full-size packet of the tea and didn’t even bother to stop and read the ingredients list first (which, as it turned out was a big mistake).

Ingredients: Chinese and Ceylon black teas, chocolate chips, coconut.

Unfortunately, I’ve discovered this tea really isn’t to my taste despite the wonderful chocolate aroma, which is every bit as powerful once the tea is brewed.

Before I go any further, I have to say that I really wanted to love this tea and I have given it every chance — I’ve drunk it 5 times now, which I think is more than sufficient for something I’m not keen on. In fact, every time I’ve tried it previously I’ve put my distaste down to not being in the mood for this particular type or flavour of tea because I couldn’t dislike chocolate tea, right?

But today I really wanted chocolate tea and I still don’t like it very much. Having belatedly looked at the description on the website while getting the links for this post, I think I’ve discovered why – it contains coconut.

They describe it thus:

"The unmistakable flavour of chocolate without all the calories! A medium bodied blend of Chinese and Ceylon black teas that has been combined with chocolate chips and coconut to produce a wonderfully light black tea with a strong aroma and undertones of chocolate."

This isn’t to say that it isn’t a good tea. It is a good quality tea and there will be plenty of people out there that will enjoy it far more than me. But despite the wonderful aroma, particularly in the bag, the taste isn’t what I expected of chocolate tea. While the coconut isn’t immediately obvious because the chocolate disguises it, it is enough to sully the taste for me and really stops my enjoyment of this tea (my dislike of coconut is only beaten by my utter hatred of pineapple – no Mai Tai’s for me, thanks).

For most people, the tea would probably be sweet enough on its own as it contains chocolate chips. Being so sweet-toothed I needed sugar still, however, the heaped teaspoon of demerara I usually add made it far too sweet, even for me. One level teaspoon seems about right but brings out the coconut flavour more than I can cope with. 

Adding milk dulls the flavours a little and makes it more drinkable for me, but the way I’ve enjoyed it best is when it’s cold with milk and sugar because the taste becomes even blander (and, to be honest, probably because I can drink it quicker). It still smells just as lovely and chocolatey when cold.

I feel a bit mean giving this tea a less than positive review because it’s not its fault that I was so eager to buy it that I didn’t bother checking that it didn’t include ingredients I don’t get on with. But I guess that’s part of reviewing. I’m not always going to like everything I try and why should I only review the teas I like?

Let’s face it, it would be a strange and boring old world if we all liked the same things and although I wasn’t keen on it, it’s entirely possible that someone out there who doesn’t have an aversion to coconut might find out about this tea for the first time in my blog and like the sound of it and decide to try it.

Despite not liking it myself, I would definitely recommend that anyone who likes chocolate and black tea and doesn’t care about/likes coconut give it a try. It really does smell gorgeous and if you like them, I’m sure the flavours would make for a deeply satisfying cup of tea.