As the Best Tea Blog on the internet, we receive countless offers to sample and review teas from around the world. Subsequently, I have become extremely selective in my willingness to sample tea. I have one prerequisite however which does eliminate many opportunities – it must be organic. I believe strongly that when we consume something regularly, it should not contain pesticides. No matter how healthy tea is, if it’s loaded with chemicals and pesticides, it’s no longer a health beverage from my vantage point.
It’s no surprise that I LOVE tea – especially greens and whites. My second love is chocolate (followed by my third love which is bread). When I received an offer from Tisano to sample their Chocolate tea, I was unable to resist. Of course, I first confirmed that it was organic and didn’t have any added sugar. Much to my delight, I discovered that they offered a 5% profit sharing with farming communities and the Victor Pineda Foundation which is a non-profit, global disability rights organization. Now I just had to wait for the samples to arrive.
On the day of arrival, I made my first cup of chocolate tea and believe me, it was heavenly. I like dark chocolate, the darker the better, and this 100% cacao tea was better than I imagined a chocolate tea could be. The instructions called for 1 teaspoon of cacao tea to 8 oz of water. Although I was tempted to add a bit more cacao, as most addicts are inclined to do, I felt compelled to brew up the tea according to the recommendations. Heat water to 210 F and steep for 5 long minutes.
The tea was simply delicious. It satisfied my craving for chocolate and it felt like I was drinking my dessert. This will surly satisfy me when I’m trying to reduce my consumption of cookies and cakes. It just hit the spot and left me feeling very happy. I plan to place an order this week as I’ll not risk running out. Once my husband tries it, it will be gone before I blink. Thank you Tisano. You’ve got a winner!
Well I did try it and found it as wonderful and delicious as you did. It was very astute of you to recognize that we would run out of it rapidly once I tried it. In fact, I was so unexpectedly pleased with the richness of the flavor that I decided to expand my horizons and enjoy it in forms other than drinking it straight as recommended on the containers directions.
I have been enjoying this marvelous cacao tisane so much that I decided to experiment. I must admit that I do enjoy a cup of home brewed pour over coffee in the morning occasionally. I thought it might be interesting to add a teaspoon of the Tisano Cacao Tisane to the filter along with my freshly ground coffee. Well, it was a stroke of genius on my part. The flavor of the Tisano Cacao tisane added a subtle richness to my coffee that just made my day. Thank you Tisano.
On another note, although I haven’t investigated it, I am assuming that this cacao tisane provides at least some of the health benefits that come along with eating dark chocolate (other than walking around with a smile on my face all day, of course)
I was able to try this, and loved it. I’ll admit, I didn’t have high expectations, I don’t typically like flavored teas, but this was nice and comforting. I’d be interested in blending it with some black teas to give it a little more body.
Excellent idea. As Sandy found adding it to coffee to be wonderful, I bet you’ll really like what it can do black tea. I too don’t look for blends in general but i don’t think of this as a blend. It’s just cocao.
I once tried mixing a Hershey’s kiss into a tea to see if that would work, based on reading about tea blends that add chocolate, and since I like black teas or darker oolongs with a cocoa element. It sort of doesn’t; the taste isn’t ideal and the texture is all wrong. This would be a really interesting tisane to try, to see how a natural version works out, and from this description it works really well. I don’t drink lots of blends but the potential seems amazing; even fruit mixes could go in different directions, like a chocolate covered cherry.