Name: Chocolate Orange

Brand: English Tea Store

Type: Black Tea, Flavored

Form: Loose leaf

Review: The holiday trifecta of diet doom is fast approaching: Halloween with its mini-candy bars, Thanksgiving with cornbread and candied sweet potatoes and Christmas, which supplies me with enough calories to hold me for a full year. I need some flavored teas to quell the cravings and keep my appetite in check!

The English Tea Store’s Chocolate Orange black tea is inspired by the “Chocolate Orange” candy that is popular in the United Kingdom. Black tea (Ceylon, perhaps?) is flavored with chocolate and orange flavors and strewn with bits of dried orange rind red-orange flower petals (not sure what type of flower, though). The tea infuses to a relatively light bodied, medium amber liquor with a rich nose of chocolate with a hint of orange.

Once I started to sip the tea, however, I noted that the orange dominated, although the chocolate does make its presence known. Neither flavor is particularly aggressive, however, nor is this tea particularly sweet: If you need a bit of sweetness, I’d advise adding a bit of honey or sugar to the brew.

Overall, I was surprised at how subtle this tea is. Many flavored teas are a whole lot of overkill, but the English Tea Store has managed to commission a smooth blend that doesn’t overwhelm the palate. The down side to this is that if you are looking for a candy bar alternative, you may need to doctor the tea a bit to get it to where you like it. The upside is that you can customize the tea to create the flavor intensity you desire.

Preparation Tips: Use a teaspoon of leaf to eight ounces of boiling water. Brew for three minutes for a more subtle cup,  four to five minutes if you plan to add milk and/or sugar.

Serving Tips: This tea is light enough that you could probably pair it with buttered toast for breakfast or plain butter or sugar cookies as a snack.

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