Three Friends is a black tea with orange, chocolate and marshmallow flavoring. This tea is from Butiki Teas.
Okay, I am slightly biased here. I love Terry’s Chocolate Oranges. I’m homesick for Canada and my family, so the smell and taste of chocolate oranges bring me back to spending time with my Dad. He always gave me a chocolate orange for Christmas. The first time I got one, I was insistent I break it myself – but I was a pretty weak of a kid. Heck, despite all my brazilian jiu jitsu, my upper body strength is kinda crap. Dad always smashed these oranges just perfectly! Totally a Dad thing!
I bought this tea a couple months back and didn’t try it. Oh, I’ve opened the tin and smelled it many times, but couldn’t bring myself to drink it. Recently I decided to dig into this tea. Extra home sick?
DRY LEAF: Dead on Terry’s Chocolate Orange smell. A strong orange smell that penetrates all other smells followed with a snuggly dark chocolate smell.
The appearance of the dry leaf is very nice – goldy brown fuzzy leaves with a black tip, mixed with chocolate drops and orange peel chunks! The leaves almost remind me of crunchy fall leaves.
STEEPED: Still smells exactly like it does dry – chocolate orange! As I poured in the hot water – wow – the entire room smelled like chocolate orange! /swoooooon
I steeped Three Friends with boiling water for 3 minutes, as per package instructions.
TASTE: Orange and a dark chocolate flavor upfront, with a lovely earthy black base supporting the dark chocolate. I love the base here, it works very well with the blend, so expertly chosen! I’m getting some marshmallow flavor and sensation and I get I bit of creamyness texture on my lips. FYI, there is no bitterness or tart or sour in this tea. I preferred Three Friends piping hot – about a minute or two after the steep was perfect flavoring for me!
/burp. Mmmm, a tea burp of orange.
Sweetened, the marshmallow really pops out much more. Bit of a illusion of fluffy fullness added somehow with the marshmallow. The orange moves to juicy range and the chocolate softens a bit. The tea is also cooler at this point and the base has lost its powerful back up ability and is wavying with the other flavors. I prefer this tea unsweetened to enjoy the dark chocolate flavor more.
BONUS NOTES: I had a few steeping times that were off due to impatience or not paying attention. I accidentally oversteeped it by 30 seconds and the marshmallows really popped out. The marshmallow was interesting, but I preferred a weaker marshmallow flavor. I found at the 3 minute steeping mark you get a good balance of the chocolate/orange/marshmallow. The 2:45 minute mark there is very little marshmallow flavor in the first steeping.
RESTEEP: What, this tea is still amazing? The orange is a little softer, the chocolate is still present – still dark chocolately and the main flavor. The base pops a bit more at the end. I do get the cuddly marshmallow flavor now at the middle of my sip and as an after taste. Overall, a little mellower but still pretty good. If this resteep was my first steeping, I’d still be pretty happy!
As this tea cools, the base starts to taste a little watery and teeny bitter finish. This supports my statement that this tea really hot is best.
COMMENTS: Three Friends is liquid Chocolate Orange without the weird aftertaste and sick stomach of eating too many chocolate slices. No smashing required!
DavidsTea’s Chocolate Orange is a similar tea, which I also quite like, but I prefer Butiki’s Three Friends black tea base instead, it’s less strong as DT’s pu’erh choice, and shows off the flavoring much better. Sorry DT!
It is awesome having food queue up memories – always really strong memories with me. Three Friends, first steeping, is like christmas morning for me. The resteeping of Three Friends is like hugs during christmas, from the snuggly marshmallow flavoring. YAY!
3 snuggly chocolate bunnies?
Butiki Teas‘ Three Friends is now a total favorite of mine! You tea cuties out there should try it if you love chocolately black tea blends!
