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230/365

Another from the Game of Tea fandom sampler, this time a blend of Spiced Apple Chai, Cinnamon, and Coconut. I like Adagio’s Spiced Apple Chai, so I was always going to like this one. It’s an excellent pairing with the cinnamon, which helps to heighten the sweetness without becoming overpowering. It does mean that a lot of the other spices get lost, but it still has a nicely earthy background flavour so it’s not too far gone. The downside is that I can’t taste much apple, and there’s no coconut to speak of at all. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was a cinnamon chai – but that’s okay. I can get behind that.
Drinking this one puts me in minds of deserts, for some reason. I think it’s the combination of cinnamon and the earthiness. I suppose that’s fitting when considering the beginning of Dany’s journey with her dragons, but otherwise there’s not a lot that’s dragonish about this one. It’s an enjoyable blend, though, so there’s that.

229/365

Another from the Vahdam chai sampler. This one’s a green base, with cardamom, cinnamon, almond, and saffron. To taste, it’s deliciously sweet and smooth. There’s definitely lots of saffron! It’s also quite nutty, and slightly creamy in the way almond can be when it’s good. It’s mildly spicy, but there’s not much in the way of cardamom or cinnamon. This is mostly about the almond and saffron.

I like this one. It’s kind of unusual amongst the teas I drink, and I don’t feel like I’ve tried that many green-based chai blends in the past. The green tea works pretty well – it’s a little grassy, but subtle and unobtrusive. It allows the flavours to shine, and I think that’s pretty important when it comes to chai. I’m going to say that I prefer black tea as a base for chai on balance, but that’s mainly personal preference. I’ll have no problem finishing up my sample.

328/365

Almost there with the Game of Tea fandom sampler – I’m pretty sure there’s just one more left to try after this one. This one’s a blend of Masala Chai, Almond, Tiger Eye, and Coconut. Initially, I thought it tasted a little bitter – there’s quite a lot of spice, which makes it taste pretty dry. It’s not especially fiery, but there is a pleasant background warmth. I can enjoy that in a chai. The almond is also quite prominent, although I think it might be contributing to the bitterness. This isn’t a marzipan-esque almond flavour, but more like one of those odd rare almonds that makes your lips go numb.

I can’t taste any coconut at all, although that’s not much of a surprise given all the other flavours it’s competing with. There’s not really much caramel from the Tiger Eye, either. I found this pretty average, on the whole. It mostly tastes like a regular chai, but with a little extra nuttiness and a whole lot of bitterness. There are definitely better chai blends out there, although I do appreciate this one for the fandom connection. I just wish it was more…well, dragonish!

327/365

Another from the chai sampler! Some of these combinations strike me as being partiularly odd, and this one’s no exception. In practice, though, it works better than I thought it would.

It’s kinda herby – much more tulsi than chai. If you don’t like tulsi, this is definitely isn’t the blend for you! There’s only a very small amount of CTC black amongst the other ingredients (primarily tulsi, but also some spices – cardamon pods, the odd clove, and a lot of powdered spices). Of the spices, the cardamon is most prominent, which works for me since I quite like cardamon in general. I’m not a huge fan of ginger or clove, but they don’t come across too heavy handed here, which is nice.

It occurred to me while I was drinking this one that it’s more refreshing than I expected. I like it – lots more than I anticipated. It’s always nice to be surprised!

326/365

This one smells absolutely delicious, both dry and once brewed! Unfortunately (and like many teas of this ilk) it doesn’t quite carry over into the flavour. In terms of taste, this one’s pretty hibi-heavy, although it doesn’t look to be when you’re just looking at the dry leaf. There are lots of apple and freeze-dried strawberry pieces, but I suppose as an ingredient hibi is always going to trump those. I can taste strawberry, but it’s really too tart/sour to really live up to its name – especially when brewed hot. There’s not much in the way of creaminess, except perhaps right at the end of the sip. You have to concentrate, though! I’m wondering whether a cold brew would suit this one better, but in general I don’t feel fruit blends are really T2’s strength. Their black blends, on the other hand…

This one’s okay, but I don’t love it.

325/265

Another from the “Game of Tea” fandom sampler. This time, it’s a blend of Green Chai, Vanilla Green, and Gunpowder.

In taste terms, it’s fairly mild – a lot milder than I was expecting, given the name. The green base is lightly grassy but not overpoweringly so. The vanilla adds a soft creamy sweetness, which is nice but a little out of place here. I don’t think soft, sweet and creamy aren’t adjectives that come to mind when I think of dragons. The chai is more muted than I expected, too. There’s a bit of background spiciness/heat, but nowhere near enough considering it’s a dragon blend. I can only assume Rhaegal’s fire has gone out.

Seriously, though, this one’s pleasant enough and easy to drink, but it’s nothing outstanding. I wouldn’t say it captures the spirit of the name particularly well, which is always a disappointment when it comes to fandom blends. Half the attraction is the connection, after all.

324/365

I also picked this one up with my last Adagio order, because I was feeling the pumpkin. Pumpkin everything. It sounds promising enough; cinnamon, cardamon, ginger, cocoa nibs, and…“natural pumpkin spice flavour”. I’m hoping it’s not the same natural pumpkin spice flavouring that was in their Pumpkin Spice blend, because that tastes to me rather more like cola than anything else.

Unfortunately, it is. I get mostly cola, drinking this. The honeybush is nice – sweet, smooth, not too woody. There’s also lots of cinnamon, but the other spices are hard to discern individually. I think I can just about make out the cocoa nibs, but to be honest I can’t get past the fact that it tastes like cola. WHERE IS THE PUMPKIN?

I don’t mind cola flavoured teas; in actual fact, I really rather like them. Cold. In the summer. The problem here is that I wanted, and was expecting, pumpkin…and that’s not what I got. It’s nice, but it’s not pumpkin chai.

323/365

This one came as a free sample with my last Adagio order. It’s one I’ve tried before, although a good while back. I have fond memories. This particular chai blend contains the usual suspects; ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and orange peel. As it’s a vanilla chai, there’s obviously vanilla flavouring also.

I prepared my first cup with milk borrowed from a colleague, because rooibos. To taste, it’s nicely spicy (tongue tingling so!), but with a prominent creamy/sweet vanilla element. The rooibos base is fine with the milk, although my second cup, which I prepared later in the day without milk, came across a little woody and metallic. Milk is definitely the way to go here! Of the spices, ginger and cinnamon are the most noticeable, with the orange and cardamom in the background. The clove is really muted, although I don’t mind that.

I enjoyed my reacquaintance with this one. I should remember to drink it more often!

322/365

I’m pretty sure I’ve tried this one before, but a long time ago, and possibly as part of Adagio’s holiday/Christmas sampler? It seems like an odd thing to find in a Christmas sampler, so I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. Now that it’s October, I basically want everything pumpkin, so this one jumped easily into my basket when I placed my last order. It would have been silly for two Sherlock blends to travel alone, after all!

This one contains cinnamon, ginger, cloves and cardamom. It’s very sweet, even a little syrupy, which is nice for a couple of sips but quickly becomes cloying. I suspect it would be better as a latte, or even just with milk, but I didn’t have any to hand at work when I prepared it. The flavour actually reminds me quite strongly of cola, which initially struck me as slightly odd…but then I remembered that cola is basically a blend of spices, and probably quite a few of them are in this blend, so it’s maybe not so surprising. The ingredients list speaks of “natural pumpkin spice flavouring”, but I’m struggling to find much that reminds me of squash/pumpkin here. Artificially sweetened pie filling, perhaps…and cola.

As it cooled, it started to verge on bitter, so I finished my cup up fairly sharpish. It’s by no means a terrible blend, but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I’ve definitely got some work to do with this one, although when was making a latte last considered work..?

My original rating for this one was 12, but I’ve increased that a bit because this cup wasn’t super awful…and I think if I added some milk or made it as a latte, it might actually be okay. So.

321/365

This was my Friday tea at work yesterday – I needed something to keep me awake, and although I don’t drink coffee, this seemed like a good compromise! I feel like this one’s changed since last time I tried it – the ingredients list is very different now to the one that’s on the tea description page. It’s been slimmed down, shall we say? It’s still a black tea base, but now with only cocoa nibs, caradmon, cinnamon, and coffee beans. Simple enough!

I prepared my cup with milk, since chai without milk seems like the worst contradiction in terms to me. There’s lots of cocoa, which is dark and nicely chocolatey, and it pairs well with the coffee which is also distinctively prominent. It’s definitely still tea, but there is a real mocha vibe going on, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

The spicing is fairly prominent also – cardamon, mostly, but with a touch of cinnamon also. All apsects of this blend seem to complement each other well, and it’s a great morning tea. It helped me to get through Friday, that’s for sure! This is another one I must try and remember not to overlook.