Recipe: Chocolate Tea Bark

Teas can be steeped, infused or sprinkled into the recipes that you already use, or you can utilize teas you already have at home by adding tea into your culinary celebrations, traditions and rituals.

:: Chocolate Tea Bark ::

• 1 pound/455 grams of finely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
• 2 tablespoon tea leaves of your choice

We enjoyed using Green Dragon, Qilan Oolong and Blossom.

Green Dragon contains green tea leaves, calendula flowers and ginger. Qilan Oolong, is purely roasted tea leaves, then we added a dash of our own dried rose petals. Blossom pairs of green tea scented with Jasmine alongside a white tea, plus rose petals. Did you know that you can eat tea? Referring of course, to Camellia sinensis, the one and only tea plant (from which all black, green, white, oolong and puerh teas are made).

If you have a question about which tea might pair well with chocolate, feel free to send us an email: hello@westholmetea.com. We would also love to hear about the combinations you try and enjoy!

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In the top of a double boiler set over just steaming water, melt the chocolate slowly, stirring frequently. When about 3/4 of the chocolate is melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir until all the chocolate is melted. The chocolate should feel just warm to the touch.

Pour the majority of the chocolate onto the prepared pan and spread it about 1/8 inch / 3 millimeters thick. Sprinkle the leaves onto the melted chocolate and drizzle the remainder of the melted chocolate onto the tea leaves.
Let the bark set at room temperature until completely solid, about 4-6 hours. When it is set, break into pieces. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Pictured is a dark roasted oolong: Qilan (then we added our own rose petals). You can also use other large leaf teas such as Green Dragon, or Long Jing Dragonwell. Also try Guranse Black Tea, White Peony White Tea, Magnolia Blossom Fragrance Oolong Tea, Yunnan Gold Tips Black/Red Tea.