Rocky Road Black Tea (52teas)

All of us have favorite ice cream flavors. Some of us enjoy chocolate or cookies & cream. My mom loves rocky road, and this rocky road inspired tea from 52teas provides the sweet delicious essence without the calories!

Rocky Road is one of those ice creams I find over the top sugar-wise. I prefer simpler flavors like vanilla, cookie dough, red bean or green tea. But on occasion I’ll venture out and try something new.

Rocky road combines chocolate ice cream with marshmallows and nuts. The texture differences combine for a very sweet treat for your tongue. But it does make me wonder how good a tea based on this idea could be.

Frank over at 52teas is renown for his adventurous flavor ideas. I’ve found many of his teas/tisanes to be exciting crowd pleasers even if those into more “pure” teas wouldn’t like them.

This Rocky Road Black Tea which Frank put together combines a hearty Keemun Chinese black tea with chocolate chips, cacao nibs, almonds and those tiny marshmallows you find in Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix to bring us an exciting dessert flavor fans of this ice cream (or chocolate) can enjoy.

The dry leaf aroma is overwhelming with chocolate sweetness. Hints of marshmallow and a more bitter cocoa are present. The liquor brews a dark amber gold and appears a bit cloudy with infused sediment. Once brewed the aroma becomes more subtle. More bitter chocolate with light sweetness becomes the transformation here.

Puckery and astringent, this brew dries the tongue the way a dark bitter chocolate might. It’s sweetness mostly left behind in the aroma, your “Rocky Road” ends up having more hints at chocolate and marshmallow than providing a hearty milk chocolate flavor.

I would recommend this blended tisane for fans of rocky road ice cream, dark chocolate lovers and anyone who likes those tiny little marshmallows in their hot cocoa.

EDIT: As noted by Frank from 52teas in the comments, a tisane actually includes no camelia sinensis byproduct. This can be confirmed with a copy of Mr. James Norwood Pratt’s Tea Dictionary. Thus, my reference to this tea as a “tisane” in the final paragraph is incorrect.