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Sipdown of this tea, though I’ve never gotten around to putting a tasting note up before. I’m pretty horrible at remembering reviews, or even logging my tea lately.
Mildly spicy, but strongly nutty/hazelnut scented brew. Tastes just about the same. Turned out a bit weaker than I usually make it since I used my usual 12oz of water, but only had a tsp and a half ish of tea. I like using at least two tsp for 12oz but poured the water without thinking, so hence, weaker. But still good. Spicy-esque without a chai sort of spice taste. And there’s enough hazelnut that it’s nicely nutty. I don’t get the berries/fruity taste that I was hoping for because it’s rather overpowered by everything else. Even adding some Truvia doesn’t bring anything else up.
Also I need to remember to use a 2:30 min steep time since it became slightly bitter with the 3min, and I’m getting some astringency poking around as it cools. But nothing I can’t drink through. ^^
Possible reorder for this one day since it’d be nice to have occasionally. But nothing more than that for me.

So I got this as a sample from the creator and I’m now down to my last mug of it. I’m not sure why I haven’t put a tasting note down for it yet. Maybe because I hate being the first note, but with a custom blend like this, I’m not really surprised since Adagio in general doesn’t seem to be one of the more popular brands. So here goes.
This is one of those weird teas that I’m undecided on what I think about it. It’s not really a tea that I can say I like, but I also find myself craving it now and then.
Smell wise it’s vaguely cinnamon-y and green, but not green in the sense of being vegetal or grassy. It’s strange. Kinda smokey green? This is a horrible description but I’m at a loss for proper words. That’s my one disappointment when I’m reviewing. I can never seem to find the right words for what I’m tasting.
Taste wise it’s kinda smokey but not in a lapsang sort of campfire smoke. Just kinda midway between smokey and roasted but without the burnt edge of roasted and missing the beef jerky kind of edge of smokey.
Mild black tea taste but nothing overly notable. I don’t really get any sort of chocolate or caramel notes from the tiger eye aside from maybe a vague smooth/sweetness from it. And it’s vaguely nutty, which is a strange association to have since nothing in this tea should be nutty. It’s probly just in my head. XD

Overall this is kind of ‘Meh’ for me. It’s a nice tea to drink, but relatively unremarkable and unnoteworthy to me. Maybe if I was better able to write down how it tasted to me, this would be more helpful. I wish Adagio did smaller bags (like 1 oz or 1.5 oz) because I can’t see myself going through a full 3 oz of this, but I’d like to have it in my cupboard. /sigh/ If there were more teas in the Zelda sampler set I’d just get that, but that’s another issue entirely. And since I find myself rambling, I’ll go away now. LOL!

Another Butiki tea for the day. I wanted something out of the box so I grabbed this to try. It’s so dark and tightly curled, and after reading the other reviews here, I knew I’d probly be drinking this awhile. So I actually had started this a few hours ago and just got around now to putting the log in.
The dry leaves had a roasty and faintly fishy sort of smell, but I didn’t let that deter me.

1st Steeping – 4min/182* – The leaves are still tightly curled but I’m not really surprised by that. The brew itself has a heavy roasted/burnt coffee smell which nearly makes me not want to drink it. I dislike the smell of coffee intensely, but I’ve made it so I might as well try it. Definitely surprised by the taste which is woody and rich taste. There’s a very faint burnt coffee taste, but not as heavy/strong as it smells (also might be a taste association carryover from the smell). Slight grassy notes that I find if I think about it for a moment.
For as strong as the brew smells, it’s overall a very delicate, light sort of taste.

2nd Steeping – 5min/182* – Same sort of scent to the brew but lighter. Definitely has a greener sort of taste to it. Still roasty/burn-y tasting, but I’m also getting a vaguely fishy sort of taste to it now. Bleh. I didn’t even want to finish the cup.

The leaves are still pretty tightly curled and I bet I could get another couple steeps out of them. But honestly I just want a different tea. This one was good to try but it’s definitely not my thing. At least not past the first steeping. Unfortunate but it’s the swap bin for this one.

Extra note – I tossed the leaves into a jar with some water and stuck it in the fridge to cold brew for the night. So I’ll be interesting to see what comes of it.

First tea of the day. It’s snowing quite a bit outside and thankfully I don’t have to go to work. So today is a stay in and drink tea sort of day.
I was going to make this last night but I read it’s more of a, well, breakfast tea, so I saved it for breakfast. Lol. Glad I did. This was a lovely way to start the day.
It’s milder than I was expecting so maybe next time I’ll use a smidge more leaves or steep longer….or maybe not since this is nice as is. It’s nicely malty and there’s just enough astringency to let you know it’s there but not claw your throat out.
Maybe a vague chocolaty note to it? Though I couldn’t be sure since I’m horrible at picking those sorts of notes out in tea.

Overall I really liked this. I think I might like the Black Lotus (English Breakfast) better, but I’ll definitely finish this batch off instead of trying to swap it.

Edit – One steep wonder for me. Second steep turned almost sharp and pokey….Which I know doesn’t make sense, but I’ll fix it later. Lol!

New tea #2 since the last was such a bust. And I’ll keep going through tea until I find one I can sip at while playing Diablo tonight….Then again, that might just take all night. I hope not though.

The leaves for this are gorgeous. (I never thought I’d say that about a tea. Lol) They’re wiry with gold fuzz on them, but some are kinda silvery. And damn are these hard to measure. Definitely on par with Caramel Vanilla Assam to measure. So I’m not even sure if I got the right ratio for this cup. There needs to be a gram measure instead. Lol.
Anyway, I get a sweet hay/grass sort of scent when I put my nose really close tot he dry leaves. But’s not not an unpleasant smell.
The brew I get that same sort of hay scent and the color is this nice golden tone.
Maltiness and a vaguely fruity tone. Also sweetness, though it’s very light. And a mild hay sort of taste though it just adds to the rest instead of being an unpleasant focus.
It is rather astringent to me, but I’m wondering if that’s something left over from my cold or just how I am right now, since I’m getting a strong dry sort of sensation in the back of my throat. And now that I’m pondering it, I get a strange fuzzy sensation at the top of my mouth and tip of my tongue. It’s similar to the sensation I remember getting if I bit into that brown stuff that pecans have around the meats when you’re cracking them yourself to eat, but without the horrible bitter/sour/UGH! sort of taste. (That stuff probly has a name, but I can’t remember it. Lol)

Taste wise overall it’s a bit watery, but I had a feeling that would be the case. So next time I’ll measure out more leaves.
I’m surprised that this was a white tea. But then with the color of the leaves and the name I guess I should’ve realized it.

Overall it was a nice tea past the astringency. I’ll most likely give this another go later on to see if it was just the remnants of the cold, or actually something I didn’t like.

Got this for Christmas and figured now that the cold is gone I could start drinking new teas again. So this was my pick from my new Butiki stuff.
I definitely get a sweet cheesecake smell from the dry leaf so I had high hopes for the brew.
Unfortunately I didn’t get that same wonderful-ness in the brew. My first impressions were bitter and strong astringency with a sharp-ish sort of grass sensation. It’s so astringent that the back of my throat is fairly clicking each time I swallow. I vaguely get what might be a cheesecake taste after adding some sugar, and this strange other taste that I can’t really identify. Maybe that’s the ‘Irish Cream’ taste, though since I’m not sure what that tastes like by itself, I have no way to verify.
So this one’s a no go for me. I’m not going to give it a rating though because I did add a smidge more leaf to the pot since I was using just over 8oz of water, so maybe that would account for the bitterness. But I can’t imagine that it would count for the astringency.
So into the no bin this goes.

Wanted something light today since I’m shaking off a nasty headache this morning so I actually opened my bag of this. Not to mention I’ve been craving it lately. Lol.
I might’ve used too hot of water on it because it was a bit more ‘green’ than I remember, but it’s still delicious. Adding some truvia and it turns into a creamy blueberry muffin sort of taste. I’m not sure the blueberry inclusion in this version (Fancy Tea: Afternoon Tea) really did too much to the overall flavor. At least, I didn’t notice any difference from when I drank just the straight Elevenses. /shrug/ Except maybe some clumping in the bag from where the leaves stuck to the blueberry pieces.
I’m so glad that this was released again. So delicious. Always a reorder.

Made this earlier today and it was tasty. Roasty (but a lighter roasted flavor) and kinda almost nutty. And fruity, which was nice. Added just a bare smidge of sugar which made it delicious (for me at least because I can’t seem to have a tea without sugar in it yet. But I’m working on it.) No astringency that I can tell, or just a little bit if I think about it.
I wasn’t able to finish it because I had to go help my Mom bring her Christmas stuff down from the attic. But when I got back home, though it was stone cold, it was still drinkable. But I definitely prefer it hot.
I also gave steeping the leaves another shot. About 175* for 6 min with just a little more than 8oz (Originally I had measured 2 tsp-ish for 12oz of water). I vaguely remember that the first time I had made this, the second steep wasn’t really drinkable (to me) and that I poured it out. This time it was definitely drinkable. Overall a bit more toned down from the first steep, with more of an emphasis on the roasty-ness and now with a woody note to it. But it’s definitely drinkable.
Actually I may just be moving this to my ‘occasionally reorder’ list rather than have it on my ‘finish off’ list, I’m enjoying it alot more than I did the first time.