So I got a small sample of this when the maker Aun Juli offered ‘sampler sets’ of her own. And I adore this tea. I’ve actually made it twice but just realized that I never put up a tasting note.
Unsweetened you can definitely taste the blueberry and kinda the vanilla. But with a bit of sweetener the blueberry becomes way more pronounced and the vanilla comes up a bit better. The cream just kinda adds a smoothness to the entire tea.
No astringency or bitterness. I might try this at a lower temp like Andie did, just to see.
I was completely bummed when Adagio pulled this one along with all of the Tolkien related teas due to a copyright violation with the SCZ company. (Who, if anyone’s interested, has nothing to do with the Tolkien estate. They just made those silly Hobbit cartoon movies ages ago.)
Thankfully this blend is available once more. Aun-Juli rereleased this tea under her own brand of teas ‘Fancy Narwhal’s Fancy Tea for Fancy Folks’ with a blueberry inclusion. You can find it here – http://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=46837&SID=2dbb8a5f7bd02cff20c7c97ba3dd08e1
I also just found out that Adagio teas is letting her reopen/repost her Tolkien teas with some revision to the names/labels/etc. so they’re not Tolkien specific. (Which makes sense to me since Tolkien didn’t make up terms like Shieldmaiden or Elevenses). So this blend, along with many of her others, is up again in its originality under the same name, just a different fandom heading ‘Tales and Tea Leaves’ – http://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/group.html?group=2721&SID=1eb52eaf15a99636447ab339f63f7203
That’s good that some of the blends were saved! I just had Bilbo brew and fell in love with that. Maybe she can re-name it. #fingerscrossed