Tuesday 5 January 2010

Teavana Tea Infused Chocolate Truffles

Forward: I've recently really gotten into truffles and chocolates. For Christmas, I received a chocolate making book, for instance. However, overall, I'd buy chocolates whenever I could, some Neuhaus when in D.C. or a lot of Godiva. I liked studying how they taste, for better and for worse, and what tasted the best. I finally entered the Teavana shop at the Westfield's Annapolis Mall the other day (always been afraid of store clerks jumping on me--I have a really high fear of that, especially in Godiva, yet I still have to brave that fear every month). Anyways, we were staring at this box of chocolates. Kiwii got pretty excited about these. She's been thinking about tea-flavoured chocolates for a while, and so I bought them. About 30% off. Frankly, I think they're a little expensive. At least until I started making my own chocolates. A pound of chocolate is about $10. Considering that this is tea-flavored, that's a lot more expensive ingredients. I love expensive hobbies. I like to pick them up. It's fun. It means I never have any money.

Anyways, without adieu...

First thing I've gotta say is that these things are BEAUTIFUL. LOOK.

Teavanabox1

teavanachoco3

teavanachoco1

teavanachoco4


Snow Geisha
Tea Type: Snow Geisha White Tea

teavanageish1

Before tasting, I was pretty confused about what this would taste like. Frankly, this is my first Teavana product. I have no idea what any of these teas would taste against these. I have no idea what Snow Geisha White Tea is. So, what IS this? Well, apparently it's rose, cherry, and white tea. I've never had rose flavour before. Usually it seems to be paired with raspberry.

teavanageish2

My first response was how strong the cherry taste was. It wasn't bad. One of the worst things for me was bad or strong tasting cherry. Bad cherry is really bad. However, this was really, really good. The cherry is strong, but... Yet not completely cherry. I believe whatever fruits are in it along with the rose calms it down. The tea flavor is hidden on first taste, but as the cherry fades, you get that tea flavour sneaking in. Very good. There is a bit of a grainy texture, but I don't mind that kind of thing.

teavanageish3

You may not really be able to tell, but there are two layers. One jam and one... Er... I think ganache flavoured with tea. These are hand-dipped chocolates.

Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate
Tea Type: Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate Tea

Mate is a type of tea. Someone explained it to me, but, for the life of me, I cannot understand tea. I like it, a lot more than coffee, but I'm stupid in the tea department. That may be because it's not really my hobby. Although, obviously, it should have a raspberry and lemon taste.

teavanarasp1

My first impression? "Wow, that filling is very runny," then, "Wow, that is a deep flavour." What do I mean by that? I dunno. I guess that it's not at all light. With a combo like raspberry and lemon, you imagine this really strong fruit flavour. But it's more... Musky? It's quite enjoyable, but totally not what I was expecting, which was one of those über sweet and overly bearing herbal teas.

teavanarasp2

But boy jeewiz is it good. And it's a miracle that the white chocolate doesn't overpower everything--a major issue I have with white chocolates. They're always so damned sweet and painful. (Note, my teeth actually hurt from things too sweet. It's really, really painful.)

teavanarasp3

SO. This? It's good. Rock on.

teavanarasp4

Blueberry Bliss
Tea: Blueberry Bliss Rooibos

Rooibos is another type of tea.

teavanablue1

Blueberry is supposed to be a pretty hard to work with filling. It's very watery, which means that it has a lesser shelf life. I've always wondered why I don't like blueberry chocolates. I think that's why--in order to make sure it's not moldy, you have to try strange methods to get the taste, which often seems to run in with failure. And frankly? This isn't a very good one either.

teavanablue3

It's very beautiful. But it's gritty and not very blueberry-like. There's a tea taste, which is fine. But that makes it a little boring, actually. Especially when you're expecting a blueberry hint.

teavanablue5

It's just bland, overall. And... Not really interesting, at all. Which is very disappointing.

[More later]

Product Info