Cynthia Carter Send Message

Adagio must have heard my cry for help when this went out of stock, because it is back, and just as good as I remembered. Light apricot fragrance and flavor that blends very nicely with chamomile and mint. I don’t taste the rooibos in it, or see it in the color, which is a pale yellow green. I need to try steeping it at lower temperature.

Delicate, but very rich flavor. This definitely goes on my list of teas to reorder.

I decided to ignore the instructions on the box, and brew it at a lower temperature as for other green teas. It does improve the flavor quite a bit. Still, it’s rather – meh. If I needed extra room on the tea shelf, it might very well wind up on the compost heap.

It took several tries to get a good-tasting steep from this tea – it definitely does not benefit from oversteeping, and it is well worth while to time the steep and pull out the leaves after no more than 5 minutes. Oversteeping will result in an astringent aftertaste. It might benefit from a shorter steep with more leaves.

This looks like a black tea, but brews up very light and delicate. I added more leaves than I might for a Darjeeling or other black tea. During brewing, the smell reminded me of spinach – a strongly vegetal, mineral aroma. Even after adding more leaves, it brewed up a very light amber, with a light floral aroma. Once I got the steep right, I tasted a smooth, flavorful tea with a definite sweetness.

I like it very much, and think it is worth keeping on hand, even though it is a bit fussy to brew.

This tea has an overwhelming lemon taste. I drank it plain – no sweetener or milk. I don’t get any real impression of the tea. I don’t think I’d brew a whole pot of this – it leaves a rather sour aftertaste. It probably would taste good if I had a cold, when I seem to crave lemon, the more the better.

I tried brewing this at a lower temperature, and also added some peppermint leaves. The lower temperature does improve the flavor a lot, and the peppermint is a nice addition.

Using up the last of my sample of this tea. This time I used about twice the number of leaves, because I am discovering that I am too stingy with leaves in general when brewing. I also steeped it just a little less. Gorgeous, dark, fragrant, fresh tasting tea. I think I am discovering a preference for indian teas.

I tried this again, steeping it longer and at a lower temperature. This time, the spice is mellower, and the tea flavor shines through a bit better. It definitely upped the yummy factor a lot.

Dang. This is not making my next tea order any smaller.

The jasmine scent does not overwhelm the delicate oolong. It reminds me of warm humid nights with the scent of my night blooming jasmine wafting in the window.

One thing Adagio does well is their chai blends – the spice is always rich and well balanced. This green tea is not my favorite of their chai tea blends, because they are all awfully good, but it is well worth drinking.