Green tea chocolates come in all shapes, sizes, textures and colors—each one distinguishable in its own special way, both visually and on the palate. All photography by Melody Lan.
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These selections were chosen by MELODY LAN, who is on THE NIBBLE editorial staff. |
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June 2006
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Green Tea Chocolate Favorites
Dark & Sweet Antioxidant Duos
CAPSULE REPORT: Green tea and dark chocolate are both lauded as excellent sources of antioxidants, chemical compounds that slow down, prevent and treat degenerative diseases. Many of us have been drinking more green tea and eating more dark chocolate; and America’s top chocolatiers have been creatively combining the two to make help us multitask. At least, that’s the excuse we gave our Editorial Director as we set forth in search of America’s best green tea chocolates. Whether you love the strong flavor of green tea or prefer not to taste it at all, we found something for every palate.
Click here to jump to the recommended chocolates
Before we began tasting, we imagined that chocolates made with green tea would take us on an intense green tea flavor adventure. We were excited that we’d be getting boxes of two of our favorite foods crafted into one luxurious treat. We began to calculate how many green tea chocolate bonbons and bars we could have a day for health reasons. With a super antioxidant fix that nourished our bodies and stimulated our spirits at the same time (remember, chocolate is also a seratonin re-uptake inhibitor), it was only in due time that all our health troubles would vanish.
When samples arrived at THE NIBBLE headquarters, however, it wasn’t exactly a tea tasting. We were introduced to an eclectic group of “green tea chocolates”: with the majority, if we didn’t know they had been infused with green tea, we would have just thought we were enjoying a good piece of chocolate or a lovely truffle.
A couple of chocolatiers produced literal interpretations, but the variety in the group showed us that green tea chocolates are as different as any different chocolatier’s truffles, toffee or salt caramels—and that’s how customers like it. After all, tea manufacturers have gone to all lengths to produce flavored green teas that don’t taste like green tea, because a lot of people want to drink green tea but not taste it. And millions of people like black tea, not as the original Asian tea-drinkers enjoy it, straight, but flavored with milk or lemon and sugar until it tastes like something else completely. So why should green tea chocolates taste like some pre-conceived blend of matcha and bittersweet chocolate (although the one example that does is simply splendid!)
While a few bites of green tea chocolate each day do not substitute for a normal health regimen, their flavors are sure to boost our spirits; any extra benefit from the flavonoids (antioxidants) is added value.
Drinking Tea With Chocolate
While the strong flavors of coffee overwhelm fine chocolate, tea is a good pairing. The herbal flavors of green teas don’t match well with dark chocolate: the oxidized flavors of black teas are required. They do work with the creamier milk chocolates.
 With dark chocolate, try Assam, Darjeeling, Oolong or Pu-Erh. - With milk chocolate, try Darjeeling, Dragon Well, Oolong, Sencha or Yunnan.
- We’ve recommended specific teas at the end of this article.
There is enough sugar in the chocolate, so none is needed in the tea. Try to enjoy the teas straight, without milk: fine tea properly brewed is not bitter (bitterness comes from letting the tea steep too long). Learn to enjoy its complexity of flavors, just as you enjoy the complexity of the chocolates.
Photo of tea and chocolates courtesy of Woodhouse Chocolate. Click here for our review of Woodhouse.
Our selection of green tea chocolates is divided into:
Most of the truffles are included in assortments, but some boxes can be customized upon request. If you have a favorite green tea chocolate to recommend, click here to tell us about it.
To learn about why green tea is good for you, click here to read our review of Pure Inventions Green Tea Extracts. Click here to be be taken to THE NIBBLE’s index page of Artisanal Chocolate for general information on chocolate.
Truffles
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Bissinger’s: Lemongrass & Tea Notes
The green tea truffles from Bissinger’s are as green tea chocolates should be: they taste like chocolate and tea. Only half a bite of one of these gem-like chocolates delivers an exotic lemongrass flavor, moving to the sweet essence of green tea and ends with the bold, rich dark chocolate flavor of the couverture, a truly compatible marriage of East and West. The chocolates are swirled, as shown in the photo, and unlike unlike soft ganache, have a solid-swirled inside to match the outside.
- Green Tea Ganache Truffles
With Lemongrass
8-Piece Box
$10.95
Bissingers.com
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Bon Bon Chicago: Asian Design
Quite a few of the chocolates we tasted were like those of Bon Bon Chicago: delicious, but with no discernable tea flavor. In Bon Bon’s case, the fan shape evokes the green tea of Asia in a charming way, and there is a tasty white chocolate ganache inside that is tinged yellowy-green, indicating an infusion of green tea. We certainly enjoyed eating it, but the only tea we tasted was in the cups of we drank to counterbalance all the chocolate. Some chocolatiers use a light hand in flavoring—known as delicate versus “flavor-forward.” Bon Bon Chicago’s flavors divide between the two styles, which is instructive: if it important to you, ask the chocolatier about the strength of the infusion (i.e., is it delicate or flavor-forward). This piece is included as part of the Exotic Chocolate Set.
- Exotic Chocolate Set
12 Pieces
$23.00
BonBonChicago.com |
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B.T. McElrath: Silky Ganache
The chocolate shell of these truffles enrobes an incredibly creamy, melt-in-your-mouth dark chocolate ganache. The deep chocolate flavor dissolves into very faint tea undertones. For those who love great dark chocolate ganache and aren’t looking for more than an extremely subtle tea flavor, this one fits the bill.
Hand-crafted with fresh cream and butter from local Minneapolis farms, the couverture is made of 60 cacao from OCG Cacao, a European cocoa products producer. A mixture of green, jasmine and Earl Grey teas are boiled in cream, strained and infused into the ganache. Touched with essences of hazelnut praline, and finished with hints of rhum, the piece is garnished with roasted Earl Grey tea leaves and is included as part of the Epicurean Truffle Selection.
- Epicurean Truffle Selection
5 Pieces
$9.50
9 Pieces
$17.00
15 Pieces
$28.50
BTMcElrath.com |
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Knipschildt: Classic Green Tea Truffle
No guessing is involved with the flavor profile of these truffles—green tea is the first flavor to touch the tongue. That’s because each bittersweet, silky chocolate ganache truffle is rolled in matcha, the fine green tea powder used for the Japanese tea ceremony. Fritz Knipschildt has created the truest interpretation of a green tea truffle, and people who seek an explosion of authentic green tea flavor with their chocolate will do a celebration dance for them.
They arrive in an exquisite, handmade pale lime-green paper box sealed with a bamboo pick. The “treasure chest” that bears the bite-size truffle nuggets is a keeper long after the chocolates are gone. Click here for our full review of Knipschildt Chocolatier.
- Green Tea Truffles
5 Ounce Box
(About 20 Pieces)
$20.00
This item is not on the website. To order, telephone 1.203.838.3131
Knipschildt.com |
Dark chocolate ganache rolled in fine matcha
green tea powder from Serendipitea (click
here to purchase). Below, the lovely
handmade paper box, that can be used
for jewelry or other items when the truffles
are gone.
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Recchiuti: Elegance & Finesse
Like most of Michael Recchiuti’s confections, the Pearl Mint Tea truffle is unmistakably a member of his signature line—an elegant style, never overwhelming. The delicate ganache has an airy, whipped texture and will appeal to those who enjoy restraint and finesse in their chocolates.
Extra-bitter chocolate and fresh cream are infused with spearmint, peppermint and green tea flavors for a fragrant bittersweet ganache. The truffles are then covered in bittersweet chocolate and accented with a milk chocolate button. The piece is available as part of the Black Box and Green Box assortments.
- Black Box Assortment
16 Pieces
$40.00
- Green Box Assortment
8 Pieces
$20.00
Recchuiti.com
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Bars
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Dina’s Chocolate: Fruity Undertones
Dina’s bittersweet green tea chocolate bar yields distinctive red berry undertones followed by an astringent bite and a creamy finish. This bar is for true bittersweet lovers: dark chocolate is the forefront flavor; the sencha green tea that is blended in is inconspicuous, but the deep cacao flavor is its own reward. Without much sugar, at 74% cacao, this could be your new “health bar.”
The bars are made from Dagoba couverture, which is certified organic and kosher, and from organic Sencha green tea powder imported from Japan.
Certified Organic
Certified Kosher By KSA
- Green Tea Dark Chocolate Bar
Pack of three 2 ounce Bars
$10.50
Box of 12 Bars
$37.80
DinasChocolate.com |
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Torn Ranch Splendid Specialties:
The Joy of Jasmine
The green tea chocolate bars are strongly flavored with jasmine green tea, which in its unbrewed state, here resembles blueberry. (Interestingly, though unrelated to tea, blueberry is a flavor often found in the rare and highly acclaimed Chuao chocolate of Venezuela.) Some natural flavor is added to emphasize the jasmine flavor of the tea. In the Green Tea Dark Chocolate Bar, one can feel the tiny grains of ground tea that are mixed into the chocolate—a pleasant sensation and a most interesting and delicious green tea bar.
For a sweeter version, opt for the Jasmine Green Tea Milk Chocolate bar. The blueberry flavor of the dark bar carries over to the creamy milk chocolate, although the graininess we liked in the dark bar is barely perceptible (which some people may prefer). This bar is only available for purchase in the Exotic Tea Trunk, which also includes a 1-ounce bar of Imperial Chai Tea Chocolate bar, Orange Blossom Tea Chocolate bar and Emperor’s Ginger Tea Chocolate bar (and is a charming gift for a tea-lover).
Both the milk and dark chocolate bars are made with jasmine green tea, pure vanilla and all-natural European chocolate.
- Green Tea Dark Chocolate
2-Ounce Bar
Suggested Retail
$3.50
- Exotic Tea Trunk
Small
Four Assorted 1-Ounce Bars
$15.00
Large
Four Assorted 1-Ounce Bars and
Four Canisters of Bite-Size Pieces
$32.00
TornRanch.com
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Above, Green Tea Dark Chocolate bar;
below, Jasmine Milk Chocolate bar.
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Have Some Tea With Your Chocolate
A tea selection from SerendipiTea, a producer of fine teas including blends that taste like chocolate! Each four-ounce box makes about 50 cups.
Teas For Dark Chocolate
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| Assam. This single estate black tea grown in Northern India is robust and malty. It tastes delicious at any time of day, with or without milk. $12.00. Click here for more information or to purchase. |
Darjeeling (also serve with Milk Chocolate). Grown high in the foothills of the Himalayas, this single-estate Darjeeling tea has a nutty note, pronounced greenness and strong character. A perennial favorite. $16.00. Click here for more information or to purchase. |
Oolong (also serve with Milk Chocolate). White-Tip Oolong, a fine Formosa oolong with distinctive nutty notes, intertwined with a subtle peachiness. A great value, oolong can be steeped three times! $14.00. Click here for more information or to purchase. |
Teas For Milk Chocolate
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| Dragon Well. Grown in the famed Hangzhou District, a gorgeous, Chinese flat leaf, pan fired, smooth, aromatic and intriguing. Considered the standard-bearer for Chinese green tea and one of the few to pair with chocolate. $14.00. Click here for more information or to purchase. |
Sencha. A sweet, delicate varietal from the famous Fuji district. A lightly steamed sencha. Well worth each sip. Click here for more information or to purchase. |
Yunnan. A full-bodied tea from the Yunnan district of China, robust with a chocolatey finish. Considered one of the finest varietals on the globe. $12.00. Click here for more information or to purchase. |
Chocolate-Flavored Teas
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| Buccaneer Chocolate Tea. A calorie-free dessert in a cup: coconut, chocolate, vanilla, rooibos, black tea and bits of almonds infuse into a heavenly brew. $12.00. Click here for more information or to purchase. |
Chocolate Tea Box. Assortment of 12 chocolate tea & tisane blends including Chocolate Tea, Buccaneer, Slim Mint, Currantly Cordial, X-Chai, Chocolate A-Peel, Pagan Alms, Cocoa Loco, Once Upon a Tea, Ambrosia, San Jose & Faux Cocoa. $55.00. Click here for more information or to purchase. |
Slim Mint. An after-dinner mint in your cup: chocolate, vanilla, rooibos (red tea), mint, black tea and bits of almond. $12.00. Click here for more information or to purchase. |
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