TasTEA Time! Adagio's Valentine tea (chocolate and strawberry)

 

I used to hate desert teas because they were never properly flavored, and although this is a mix of fruit and chocolate, a lot of the sweet spices tend to overwhelm the tea.  However, I've been turned and realize that there are a lot of great sweetly flavored teas that aren't flavored with fruit.  Prestogeorge has a bunch and I've even wrote about Adagio's Pumpkin Spice.  But I love chocolate-covered strawberries.  They're like caramel apples in that you can pretend that they're healthy, but they're not and they're delicious.  A good thing about tea is that you should be able to get all of the flavor without as many calories.

Outsides:  I got this as a sample size from Adagio, which does make a decent amount of cups (I'd say about 8).  It was in a foil-lined bag which is resealable.  The tea was made using less than boiling water and steeped for about 3 minutes.  It's dark golden orange and smells very chocolatey with a hint of strawberry.  I then added cream, which I will explain in a bit.

Insides:  This tea needs to be rinsed or to be mixed with some milk/cream/soymilk because it is a bit too bitter and that bitterness masks the flavors.  However, milk really brings out the chocolate and strawberry so I'm willing to forgive.  The tea actually does a good job replicating the taste sensation of eating a chocolate-covered strawberry since the smell of chocolate is stronger but the two tastes balance out in the end.  Sadly, this is not the most versitile tea out there although it is fine without sugar.  It needs some sort of cream when cold though, but ultimately tastes better warm.

Overall:  I like it and would recommend people trying it.  Plus, it's nice having a tea that is flavored after a desert and actually tastes like it.

My Rating:  Try!

So, if you're in the US then you know that it's Black Friday.  This is good news since Adagio is having free shipping on any sized order (so you can get 5 samples for $10).  I think it's going on until Cyber monday but it might be only for today so get that tea!  And as always, first-time customers can get 5 dollars off their first purchase by getting the coupons I tweet at @teaandpolish.