The Best Chocolate Teas
By: Janice Harper
Published: April 6, 2011

A hot steaming pot of freshly steeped tea (loose-leaf, please) and a bar of artisan chocolate just may be the next best thing to a trip to the spa.  But even better is a chocolate tea to accompany that chocolate bar (purists be damned, chocolate isn’t just for dissecting with a glass of water se served at room temp!).  Unfortunately, many chocolate teas taste like Lipton brewed with Swiss Miss.  Fortunately, for anyone with the internet and a credit card, some of the most delicious chocolate teas are just a click in the cart away.  Here are some of the best ones:
1. Harney and Sons Teas makes consistently delicious tea and their chocolate teas are among them.  Their Florence blend is a black tea flavored with chocolate and hazelnuts, and their Chocolate Mint is another black tea blasting with dried peppermint and a rich flavor note of chocolate.  Another excellent chocolate flavored black tea is their Valentine’s blend, which is chock full of whole rosebuds.  
Teavana has several chocolate infused rooibos blends, and of these, the Haut Chocolate and Cocoa Praline Tart are nearly addictive.  The Haut Chocolate does not quite smell like chocolate until after it’s steeped, then the chocolate comes to life enlivened by spicy ginger and cardamom notes.  The Cocoa Praline Tart has a more subtle chocolate flavor, with more prevailing notes of fig, pear and macadamia nuts.
Talbott teas has a number of chocolate teas, including their Cocoa Cardamom Seduction blend, a delicious black tea flavored with cocoa nibs, cardamom and toasted almond.
Revolution’s Orange Chocolate Green tea, a tea sachet found in many supermarkets, is lovely and light with fairly strong notes of orange and chocolate that should satiate any chocolate craving.
And if you can’t wait to get one of these luscious teas, you can always drop some chocolate shavings or chips straight into your tea strainer along with some rich black tea or a spicy rooibos steeped in hot water and milk – once you do, you just might make a habit of it.
Photo by Quinn.Anya