The Good: Environmentally decent teabags, Taste is not horrible.
The Bad: Not strongly flavored of peppermint or chocolate, Not caffeinated.
The Basics: I got excited to start reviewing teas again and discovered that the Republic Of Tea’s Cuppa Chocolate Tea Peppermint Chocolate tea left me entirely unimpressed.
As one who very much loves all things chocolate mint, I was quite enthusiastic when my wife and I were out at the store and discovered the canisters of The Republic Of Tea’s Peppermint Chocolate tea from their Cuppa Chocolate Tea selection. While I fluttered my eyes and told my wife we didn’t need it, she stuck a canister in our cart and presented it to me on Valentine’s Day. Since then, I have been drinking this tea and trying to come up with a way to phrase how I truly feel about it.
At the top of my list of adjectives for the Peppermint Chocolate tea would have to be “disappointing.” It saddens me to write that because I was so excited about this tea when my wife gave it to me and I do not dislike it. But from the moment I first sipped it, I knew I was drinking a rooibos (red) tea. That should not be my first impression of a tea called Peppermint Chocolate.
Basics
Peppermint Chocolate Tea is a rooibos tea from Republic Of Tea’s Cuppa Chocolate Tea line. Rooibos is a red herbal tea made from a rooibos plant, as opposed to actual tea plants. Republic Of Tea Cuppa Chocolate Tea recently introduced its Peppermint Chocolate tea , so it is unclear how long this tea will be available on the market.
Peppermint Chocolate comes in Republic Of Tea Cuppa Chocolate Tea's standard stringless tea bags. The tea bags are round, loose and come in a canister without any problematic wrappings or strings. The canister of Peppermint Chocolate tea comes with 36 tea bags.
Ease Of Preparation
As a red tea, Peppermint Chocolate is ridiculously easy to prepare. A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea and could be reused and make a second cup of Peppermint Chocolate, albeit with a bit less flavor. This is not the worst tea to resuse the teabags from. The second cup often comes out about 1/2 or 5/8 as strong as the first, provided the first steeping was not over the recommended time. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works well, though in this method, the second brewing is about half strength.
To prepare Peppermint Chocolate tea, bring a pot of water to a boil and pour it over the tea bags. This tea takes five to seven minutes to steep according to the directions. In my experience, it gets no stronger after five minutes and never seems as strong as it is dark.
Taste
The Peppermint Chocolate tea smells delightfully like mint. This has a strong underscent of rooibos, so there is a scent hint of the chocolate flavoring from the outset. The mint aroma is not so powerful that it opens the nose up, though.
As for taste, the Peppermint Chocolate tea is a little weaker than I would have hoped. The rooibos flavor is stronger than the mint flavor, which is bound to please tea drinkers, even if it leaves those who love chocolate and mint disappointed. Unfortunately, the flavor of chocolate mint is surprisingly weak. This tea has more of a mint aftertaste than a real flavor. This tea leaves the tongue slightly numb as a result of the mint flavor. The chocolate flavor is also understated, so while it cuts in the mint flavor, it hardly dominates the tea.
With sugar, the mint flavor comes out a bit more, but the chocolate flavor pretty much dies. The aftertaste quickly becomes that of red tea, rather than either chocolate or mint.
Nutrition
The ingredients to this tea left me baffled as to why it did not have a more rich chocolate taste. With the primary ingredients being rooibos, carob, and cocoa kernals, I felt the tea ought to be more richly chocolate in its flavor. There are no ingredients in this tea that cannot be pronounced.
In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar), no fat, sodium, or protein. There is also no caffeine, as the Republic Of Tea Cuppa Chocolate Tea canister clearly points out that rooibos teas are caffeine free.
Storage/Clean-up
Peppermint Chocolate tea is very easy to clean up after, provided one does not get it on fabric. The tea bags may be disposed in the garbage, or composted if you have a good garden and/or compost pile. The tea itself will stain a mug a faint brown if left there for days on end, but otherwise it may be cleaned up easily by rinsing out the vessel.
Peppermint Chocolate is a medium-dark tea and as a result, it will stain any light fabrics it comes in contact with. As a result, it is highly recommended that one not let it linger on anything they wish to protect and not have stained. It may be cleaned off if the spill is caught quickly, but if it lingers, it is not at all easy to wash out of clothes, linens or other fabrics.
Overall
Peppermint Chocolate is not a bad tea, but it is a bad peppermint or chocolate tea. Instead, it is a fairly generic red tea and that left this chocolate enthusiast disappointed with the overall product.
For other Republic Of Tea or other tea reviews, please check out my takes on:
Earl Greyer Tea
Orange Ginger Mint Tea
Archer Farms Chocolateberry Earl Grey
4.5/10
For other food reviews, please check out my index page!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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