Art of Tea – Velvet Tea
Name: Velvet Tea
Company: Art of Tea
Type: Rooibos
Cost: $12.99 for 3oz
Velvet Tea does not actually contain any tea. Instead it is a chocolate dessert tea that contains organic fair trade rooibos, organic mint, organic apple, organic cacao nibs, chocolate and natural flavors. And let me tell you this rooibos smells absolutely divine. Completely indulgent. It reminds me of a rich chocolate dessert. There are plenty of chocolate pieces and mint leaves in the mix which in my mind meant I was in for a treat.
To steep this I used 1 teaspoon of the blend per cup of water whose temperature was ever so slightly below boiling. Steep time was 5 minutes and then I poured my cup. The color was a typical rooibos red color and the aroma in the cup was soft and chocolaty. I was terribly surprised to find that when I took my first sip I tasted only rooibos. There was a hint of the chocolate in the aftertaste but this tisane did not taste anything like it smelled. I couldn’t taste any mint which is really surprising considering mint is a pretty strong flavor in teas. And I was pretty darn disappointed. I tried steeping this at 7 minutes as well and found the flavors a bit more pronounced but still nowhere near what I was hoping for. However, there was much more flavor in the aftertaste.
I did add a little bit of sugar which helped tremendously. The sugar helped bring out more of the sweet chocolate flavors but it still didn’t have the punch I was looking for. Using sugar at the 7 minute mark brought out the acidity of the apples which I thought was really interesting. It did not taste bad at all, please don’t get me wrong. I found the aftertaste is incredible at the 7 minute steep mark and seems to be the place this tea shines. However, compared to the aroma the dry tea omits I was expecting a truly wonderful dessert tea. I will need to add sugar any time I drink this but it still doesn’t live up to its tantalizing aroma.
The product(s) included in this post were sent to me to be considered for review by the company mentioned or by a PR agency that represents them.
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