Oolong Choc Chai — T2

Unfortunately, for me at least, the weather has turned hot again 😥 and tea drinking hasn't really been at the top of my list of things to do (nope, I still haven't yet tried making iced tea either, but I might have a go this weekend). 

When I have been drinking tea I've generally been sticking to Oolongs as they're nice and light - Milk and Milk Caramel are still the best. However, I have managed to sup a few mugs of a rather unusual Oolong made by T2, who are a nice modern tea company with lots of bright square packaging, called Oolong Chocolate Chai.

Ingredients: Oolong tea, cocoa husk, ginger, cinnamon, cardamon seed, cardamon husk, clove, chocolate chips (sugar, cocoa, lecithin: E322 soy*), black pepper, flavouring
*contains soy products

They describe it thus:

“A chocolaty, cinnamony, gingery, oolong combination laced with pepper. An intriguing sweet, bright and spicy flavour.”

I think I was still reeling from the revelation that I didn’t like Camellia Tea House’s Chocolate tea when I went on my relatively recent tea shopping spree, as I bought this, along with another — Choc Chip Chai also from T2, as well as Chocolate Mint tea from Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Co. in an attempt to assure myself that it was ‘the coconut what done it’, and not that I don’t like chocolate tea (this has, sadly, been a growing suspicion having recently tried another couple of teas, that I haven’t yet got round to reviewing, containing chocolate and I wasn’t overly impressed with any of them on first taste).

However, I am absolutely delighted to say that I can’t even begin to describe how much I adore this tea. It is everything I wanted it to be and more, as it is the ideal combination of Chai flavours, with the ginger and black pepper giving it a slight kick, and the taste of chocolate coming through to give it that final perfect twist. The only possible downside, from my point of view, is that these distinctive flavours completely overwhelm the Oolong making it indistinguishable where a black tea might have put up more of a fight.

This isn’t really a problem, though. In fact, if anything I rather like that you don’t have a strong tea presence fighting against the Chai spices, as is normally the case with Chai, as it means I’m more likely to be able to drink it without getting a headache. I just love Oolong and want to be able to taste it in every mug I drink.

This tea is perfectly drinkable on its own, but for me and my sweet tooth, I need some demerara to give that glorious sweetness that cuts through the spice, yet somehow also manages to enhance it. I found it to be even better with milk as it turned it into the quintessential creamy Chai that I love, with the gorgeous aroma of chocolate and spices that assail the nose before you even get it out of the packet (it also made the packing box it arrived in smell absolutely amazing). It smells every bit as good in the teapot and in the mug and each sip gave me a hugely satisfying feeling.

Yep, I love this tea, and make absolutely no apology for shouting about it.