The pros: Overall, Trader Joe's Black Forest Cupcake Black Tea is tasty tea. It is as chocolaty as can be expected when only adding water. It's a sweeter tasting tea without any added sugar. Nice packaging and has well made tea bags.
The cons: Doesn't fully live up to its name "Black Forest." While it is nice and chocolaty, there is no true cherry aspect and the other strongest note after chocolate was licorice.
The verdict: For $3.99, this is an interesting new product which calls itself Black Forest Cupcake flavored. One can infer that it's a play on the larger cake flavor. No matter what they do here it will never really taste like cake or a cupcake.
It's a sweeter tasting tea, but don't think it will come out like liquid cupcake. Black Forest Cake by definition is a chocolate cake with cherries (and usually these are usually liquor soaked). There are no cherry bits here so you'll have to live with the color and the flavoring of Hibiscus. Hibiscus tea is great on its own but it's more cranberry than cherry.
The chicory root does a good job of highlighting the chocolate taste as a coffee flavor always highlights a chocolate flavor. There was one flavor and smell that, for me, I did not enjoy. There is the flavor and smell of licorice.
Yes, I could have read the ingredients ahead of time and found it there, but I like to enjoy a product based on the same alone. This is not a flavor that is found in most black forest cakes (or cupcakes). A similar licorice flavor is echoed in the sarsaparilla root here. For some the flavor of licorice is polarizing (I'm no fan of it).
So, while a really nice guilt free tea choice in the new products section, just be aware of the one flavor that might not belong. This is either going to be a hit or a complete miss depending on how you feel about the extra flavor here. For me, I'll drink the rest, but won't be repurchasing.
The tin of Trader Joe's Black Forest Cupcake Black Tea:
The ingredients:
How Trader Joe's describes this product and how to prepare:
Out of the package you get twenty pretty triangular tea bags like this:
After being brewed you get:
Would I buy this again? If Trader Joe's Black Forest Cupcake Black Tea would have been a chocolate and fruit flavored tea without the extra flavors here, I would have liked it much better. If you enjoy licorice and chocolate flavors then this should be something you should pick up.
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