22 Tasting Notes

73
drank Vanilla Oolong by Adagio Teas
22 tasting notes

So, next is Vanilla Oolong. It has a deep bronze liquor. The aroma is just vanilla and tea, heavy on the vanilla. The taste is copper Oolong and a nice minty vanilla. I admit to being impressed. I’m shy about flavored anything, but I had once bought Vanilla-flavored Rooibos and it was truly awful. So awful I don’t even think I logged it on Steepster. It was terrifyingly awful.

This cup of tea, in contrast, is perfectly sip-able. It is, however, very rich and not at all an “everyday” tea. It isn’t at all a “Grapefruit Oolong” or anything like as good(as I thought). As I reach for the bottom of the tea cup, the vanilla is getting on my nerves and the rating has dropped since I started this review. But it’s still a marvelous cup of tea.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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72
drank Berry Blast by Adagio Teas
22 tasting notes

Berry Blast. I cannot tell you how little the name of this tea won my favor. Anything called Berry Blast is not going to be a loud favorite of mine. The best it can hope for is guilty pleasure. That said, I have already another hibiscus tea on here and it was rated highly.

The liquor is…well, I mean, come on, it’s a hibiscus tea. It’s deep red/purple, which is unsurprising when you take into account that it has hibiscus and blueberry in it.

The smell is just awful. It is a terrible sort of fruit roll-up dark blue-raspberry nightmare. The brewed tea is more subdued and bearable.
And the first sip…..

…Is pretty damn good. It’s got a dry sour-pucker that lends itself to a certain sort of mood. It reminds me of a less passionfruity version of Tazo’s Passion.

It’s really quite impressive. I still refuse to openly admit I drink something called Berry Blast, so I’m renaming it. Standby for its new name…
Gummiberry Juice. See? Far more dignified and pop-culture-referency!

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 15 sec

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75
drank Keemun Concerto by Adagio Teas
22 tasting notes

Okay, so I wrote a huge detailed account of this tea as I was tasting it…then steepster decided to crash and it was lost. Much like my first attempt at brewing this tea. I grabbed a cup, not knowing that this cup already had some water and baking soda in it. So the tea was nothing but salt.

I call it quits. The tea was good. It was mild, it was mineral tasting and light. It smelled kind of like tomato soup, tobacco and clay I liked it fine, as a black tea.

That’s all… Wish me more luck with my next tealog.

-Sinny

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 45 sec
Jenny O

steepster has been a bit of a dick today. haha

Sinister

Too true! lol

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87

I love Oolong. I find it a very hard formula to ruin. You take Oolong and you add yet another pleasant flavor, smell, etc… to it and presto! Another hit tea. I think tea companies go to some silly extremes with this, but on the whole it’s a sound concept.

First let me say that this tea, in the bag, smells incredible. The citrus makes my eyes water and I love grapefruit. And that’s what it is, that pledge-strength citric-centric wonderful clean smell. I was disappointed in that the brewed tea has little or no smell whatsoever(either that or I’m suffering from the nose equivalent of snow-blindness).

The liquor is that familiar ole copper-bronze which is Oolong tea.
The flavor is literally the best “flavored” tea that I can remember tasting in recent history. It’s not artificial as so many flavored teas are. The flavor doesn’t destroy the fact that it is, at heart, an Oolong tea. And most importantly it fits well with Oolong. I’m trying later some other “flavored” Oolong teas from Adagio, which I don’t expect to work nearly as well.

In closing, for some reason(and I didn’t see this coming), Grapefruit and Oolong are like chocolate and peanut butter, toast and jam and all those other holy combinations.

Peace,
-Sinny

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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51

Okay, so Earl Grey Lavender, now. It has a dark prune juice, sherry kind of liquor going on. The smell is almost all vanilla, lavender and bergamot(in that order). And…right off the bat I can tell this is going to be too sweet. I, of course, add no sugar or milk and am referring strictly to the flavor, in terms of sweetness.
I’m taking the first sip now…

So yeah, I do not like lavender teas, apparently. Or to be more precise, I do not like this one. It has a Granny-perfume thing going on, that will just not let my tongue enjoy the vanilla earl grey notes. The lavender does add something in that I’m thinking someone may have spilled liquid hand soap in my Earl Grey.

If you like Lavender teas, I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time reading this as it probably does not affect you. If you think you might like Lavender teas, hell, you actually might. Do I like Lavender teas? I don’t know. It actually is kind of growing on me with each sip, and I do actually love lavender lemonade(I have a bakery on a street in my town that makes it.)

But I still half-feel that lavender should remain mostly in the domain of scents and not flavors. I.e. if you have to make a Lavender EG, this is far too much damn lavender.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Jenny O

i’m a peppery lavender junkie, so this sounds perfect! thanks!

Jenny O

ps- lavender teacakes aren’t half bad you know ;)

Sinister

It’s definitely drinkable, and now that I think on it, my first impressions were a bit overplayed. But there is a lavender sweet smack to it that I’m still iffy on. If you like lavender and EG, then Idk how this tea could steer you wrong.

Sinister

Also, Lavender tea cakes? Hmm… It at least sounds like something I should try. I might really like that lavender flavor /with/ tea, rather than in it. I’ll see if I can find some and give them a go. Thanks for the tip, ^^

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66
drank Darjeeling Tea by Twinings
22 tasting notes

Okay well, been a while, right? But I had a cup of this once I woke up. It’s not my first taste of it. I’ve been sipping this tea whilst doing the morning paper’s cryptograms for about a week now. So I’ve had time to think.

The liquor is a dirty rust color. It has a dry sour taste, plenty of a polyphenols cranking up the astringency. And don’t say I steeped it too long, I did not. I’ve tried plenty of different times. The aroma is tanned leather, sprinkled with cinnamon.

I’m not a fan of black tea. I don’t like weak tea. I do not care for weak black tea. But this is acceptable. I rate this with Irish Breakfast, although I like it almost a tad bit better.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 15 sec

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66
drank Irish Breakfast by Adagio Teas
22 tasting notes

Yet another tea included in a package from home. I’m at a loss of what to say or expect here. I’m not skilled in black teas the way I am in Green, in White or in Oolong. I’m ususually not a fan of these darker teas with the possible exception of Earl Grey. But can I honestly refuse to brew a cup of tea based on it’s color? No. That’s absurd. I’ve found only one tea that I could not stand and that was Twinning’s Earl Grey.

I will say that the tea leaves fresh out of the cannister, smell like a chocolate store to me. But I will forewarn that this may be because the cannister is an old recycled cannister that had once contained Yunan Noir.

When brewed, It has a darker and earthier aroma than English Breakfast. And it’s liquor is dark bronze. The taste is a rich coffee like flavor, but to my ultimate dismay I can’t voice it’s difference from English Breakfast. I can tell that there is a difference, possibly in terms of strength and definitely in terms of aroma, but I can’t describe it.

It’s a great black tea, if black tea is your thing. I wouldn’t dare insult this tea with a lower than sixty rating. And it definitely will not spoil in my tea cabinet. But when it comes time to order another black tea, I will think Yunan Noir before I think Irish Breakfast.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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67
drank Ginger by Adagio Teas
22 tasting notes

It’s been a while, Steepster. Many things have changed and time has past, but here I am. Back again and this time with an Adagio Teas staple. I admit to having never tried this before. I will admit to not liking Tazo’s ginger tea much at all. But this is a black tea, which already distinguishes it from that failure. The aroma from the sample tin is already promising. In fact, if the tea turns out to be undrinkable, I’ll keep the tin around just to open and sniff on occasion.

Let me update you with my setting before I take sips of this and review. I’m sequestered in the third story of my Residence Hall at Western Kentucky University. Outside is a good 4-5 inches of snow. It’s finals week and I just recieved a care package loaded with tea. Here we go, I need something soothing and warm, let’s see if Adagio delivers…

Liquor is a dark brown. The smell is, of course, ginger and strong ginger too. Hanging my face over the mug is therapeutic itself.

Wow… That’s… Hang on, I need a few more sips. This is a character study of ginger. It has the base notes of a normal black tea. But taking point, are the strong peppery notes of ginger. It’s hard to convert ginger’s citrus and sweetness to tea and I understand that. And although it lacks those, we can’t fault it for that and it’s perhaps best it doesn’t have them anyway. The aftertaste has what I’m forced to call a cooling mint flavor.

All things considered, I like it. Not as a tea to be drank daily, but perhaps as a seasonal tea?

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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95
drank Gunpowder by Adagio Teas
22 tasting notes

Desperately needed something for chapped lips and cold hands. My choices are limited these days. I accidentally spilt all my Earl Grey. The Yunnan Noir is past it’s due date. I’m not in the mood for Jasmine tea. Blood Orange tea is too sour for right now. The others were all samples and have been summarily drank. That’s really okay, because Gunpowder shines in moments like these.

I’m going to break a precedent and try and analyze Gunpowder’s character. The liquor is Orange-Red. Smells like good tobacco, smoked herbs and orange peels. It has a thirsty smoke taste. The slight vegetable notes that you can catch are very dry. It feels fantastic on chapped lips, I can tell you that. Has almost a scotchy taste. Yep, yep, that’s it, I’m done. I’m comparing it to scotch… And you have to understand that this cup of tea is so perfect right now, that I really don’t care. Regards.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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1
drank Earl Grey by Twinings
22 tasting notes

I edited this tea so that I could backlog it, specifically to warn. I don’t just like Earl Grey tea. Let me acquaint you with my impressions of Earl Grey tea. It was the first blend of tea that I had heard of and had exposure to, early in my life. To fully establish my geekness, lets say that I loved Star Trek the Next Generation. (fellow fans are already seeing where this is going.)

I would watch it non-stop when I was really little, instead of most cartoons. The great diplomat and my then-hero Jean Luc Picard drank this tea in times of severe emotional duress. It soon symbolized a refuge and an ultimate soother to any challenged hero.

I pleaded my parents to buy me some in the most heart-plucking manner. They did so. They bought me…Twinings. I hated it. Didn’t just hate it. Couldn’t stand it. And disillusionment spiraled in my poor head. THIS was what Jean Luc drank? How was the actor able to maintain composure for the camera not to mention to convey the general impression that his character liked such a horrible drink?!

Years later I understood when I tasted Adagio’s Earl Grey Bravo, that Picard wouldn’t wash his cup out with the watery slurry that Twinings tries to pass off as Earl Grey. He would gag at the horrible mildness. He would recoil in horror at the missing bergamot notes. He would shake his hands in fury at the now sullied name of Earl Grey and bitterly cry “KHAN!!”

I’ve geeked this post out beyond good judgment. I need to leave before people try and track this IP to my house.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
tease

Haha, your geekitude is beautiful. I feel your rage, but will respectfully sip it every so often when in need of Earl Grey.

LENA

Hey man, I feel ya. I have to admit it was the, “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” that made me give Earl Grey a go. Nope, no geeks on this site.

kaypendragon

My husband’s default request for tea is Earl Grey for this very reason. You are not alone in your geeky-ness.

Dravistich

Gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble, ONE OF US! ONE OF US! WE ACCEPT YOU, WE ACCEPT YOU!

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Profile

Bio

I mean well, despite being a finicky tea snob. That said, I don’t usually traffic outside of Tazo, Adagio and the odd brand. I only drink tea when I can afford the best and I’m not too adventurous. I have an Oolong pallet, but, also, I have an opinion on everything. So sit down, boil the water and have a cup of tea with me.

Location

Kentucky

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