95 Tasting Notes
This is now known as “Werewolf Tea” in my house considering when it’s available. That said, I love both Earl Grey and coconut-flavored teas, so the idea of a coconut Earl reeled me in along with the clever marketing. Woooo, the limited-time tea tempts you, Orphie.
To be honest it’s not quite what I hoped it would be. It tastes a lot like Earl Grey Moonlight, without as much coconut flavor as I’d have liked. The only way I can tease out a bit more of the coconut is to stick closer to a 3-minute steep time rather than the 4-minute time I usually go for; any more than 3 minutes and the bergamot will overpower the other flavors. It’s still a tasty blend, but I doubt I’ll restock more frequently than every few full moons.
EDIT: Under no circumstances should you ice this. What is a perfectly tasty tea while hot tastes like bitter chemical death when cold. I don’t know if it’s Adagio’s flavorings or their finicky base, but I’ve had no luck icing any of their teas lately.
Normally I like S&V’s flavored teas because they’re on the whole pretty good. Since I love coconut, I figured I’d try their coconut tea. Should be good, right? Well…not as good as I thought.
My problem with it is that whatever base tea they used is too strong for the coconut. I don’t even smell coconut in the dry mix or the brewed tea so much as I do a funky, musty cardboard-like scent. Normally I don’t mind tasting the tea along with the added flavor, but not this time. It’s a bit jarring when you get a pleasant, if light, coconut taste…and then cardboard funk. I had to play around with it for a bit to work around that unpleasant base.
My advice to you is don’t let it get cold, don’t steep it past 4 minutes, and for the love of all things good don’t try to ice it. As long as it’s warm and not oversteeped you’ll enjoy it. Let it cool or steep it too long though, and you’ll think you’ve brewed the box it was shipped in along with the tea.
Another one of mine. I’ve been playing (and failing spectacularly at) Bloodborne for the past few months, and so I decided to blend a few Bloodborne-themed teas. I’m a sucker for crows and plague doctor masks, so of course I had to make one for Eileen. To that end I used blackberry, chocolate, and vanilla oolong, adding in ginger and chocolate chips.
The dry mix smells primarily like chocolate and ginger in the bag. Not so much the blackberry, even though it’s 40% blackberry. Go figure.
It tastes kind of like the Valentine’s blend, just with blackberry instead of strawberry. This is not a bad thing in any way. No ginger at all, but I’m convinced the accents are less to add taste and more for decoration sometimes. I assume the chocolate chips helped make it a bit more chocolatey though.
For any other Soulsborne fans out there, you can find what I’ve blended so far here: http://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/group.html?group=9942
No rating, because it’s my blend.
It took me a couple of tries to get this one right; the chestnut overpowered the hazelnut and caramel when I first blended it. It smelled awfully good in the pouch though; there the hazelnut and caramel came out more so I didn’t expect it to be all chestnut, all the time. The cinnamon I added was nonexistent, but I kind of expected that.
With a little tweaking of the chestnut and caramel ratios, I ended up with the kind of sweet and nutty tea I wanted. Still no cinnamon, but that’s alright. I like my tea on the stronger side so I steeped it for four minutes, but since this is still Adagio’s base, I wouldn’t go any longer than that for fear of it getting too bitter.
The second of the two teas I purchased, and by far the better. It’s an incredibly pretty tea with all the pink rose petals and green cardamom pods, and it smells just as nice. A lot like a bagged plum tea I bought once, but much more so, which at least tells me that wasn’t using some kind of fake plum flavor.
It has a good, strong plum/floral flavor more than anything. Since fruit and florals are my favorite kinds of flavored teas, this suits me just fine.
This is incredibly toothless. I’m not just saying that as someone who loves spicy food; for a tea that has cinnamon and crushed red pepper in it, it’s very mild. I’d add more pepper in if I wasn’t afraid it would overpower everything and I’d end up with red pepper water.
There’s a mild chocolate flavor which is almost overpowered by the bitter black tea, and that’s about it. Not necessarily a terrible tea, but not what I was expecting. I’ll probably finish it, but I won’t restock.
I picked up a box of this at Netcost this morning, since they tend to have all sorts of interesting teas to try. My first thought when I opened the box? “Wooow is that rosy”.
Seriously, the scent of the dry mix is an almost overwhelming rose and cinnamon smell. I like rose teas and I was worried that this would taste like shampoo or perfume. I have to keep it quarantined from my other teas for fear of cross-contamination. I shouldn’t have worried since once you brew it it mellows out. Not too rosy, not too cinnamony. Supposedly there’s coconut in there too, but it’s completely lost under the cinnamon and rose.
I wouldn’t really call this “chai” though, as the only spice included is cinnamon. No cloves, no ginger, no cardamom, no anything else. Would I buy it again? Probably not. It’s nice for a bagged rose tea, but not so much that I would necessarily restock.
So I’ve been stocking up nutty and spicy teas for the fall and winter like some sort of caffeine-hungry squirrel. I haven’t ordered from Adagio in a dog’s age, having grown to prefer other companies more, but I do like their hazelnut tea. Figured I’d pick up a couple samples too, and this was one of them.
…it’s not as bad as I thought, from the reviews. It’s nowhere near as good as other gingerbread teas I’ve have, but it’s alright. The thing I learned early on about Adagio’s teas is that you shouldn’t ever steep them over four minutes, or they’re disgustingly bitter. A four minute steep and a teaspoon of sugar got me a mild, cookielike cup of tea. It tastes a little bit like a graham cracker; maybe I’ll add honey next time.
It’s an okay tea, but if I really want a gingerbread tea there’s better options. S&V’s comes to mind most immediately.
