Adagio Custom Blends

Confession time – on my first journey through the world of tea, Adagio somehow flew completely past my radar. By the time I even heard of them, I was a bit of a tea snob, in fact, and so I’d never ordered anything from them. This time, though, the journey was kicked off by another member of the Gravity Falls fandom, who made a number of unofficial custom blends around characters from the show, all of which I decided I ought to sample all eleven of them. There was only one I flat-out disliked and I considered most of them above average, but only three drew me in enough for full-tin purchases. This is one of those teas.

For those unfamiliar with the show, Stan is the tritagonist of Gravity Falls. He’s the great-uncle of the two central characters, has become their caretaker during their summer vacation in either 2012 or 2013, and is a former jack-of-all-criminal-trades (Sovo Night, who blended this tea, described Stan as “a man who’s held many names and heard his own the least”) turned operator of a tourist attraction, along with hosting the county fair and occasionally dances for the youth of the town – all, of course, in the interests of getting yet more money. He’s a massive personality who I cannot properly describe here – I’m working on a monograph on the subject, actually – and whose tragic backstory is about one-fourth of the reason the show even has a plot, which therefore makes him also quite a lot of the reason why it has such a large adult fanbase despite being, er, originally made for Disney XD.

It’s clear enough how the elements of the tea are meant to reference Stan’s personality. Ginger – he comes across as quite prickly and has an extremely hot temper, so much so that he nearly ends the world by accident due to it. I couldn’t find any references to Wuyi black teas when I was adding the ingredients to this description, but they and Yunnan make up a blend Adagio calls “Mambo” – fitting enough for a guy who spent a decent chunk of his life in South America and also can break out the dance moves every once in a while. Lapsang Souchong could refer to one of two things – either the recurring theme of fire as a destructive force which surrounds Stan in general, or the fact that he apparently liked smoking cigars a lot, before having a couple of twelve-year-olds dumped on him for three months made him feel obliged to give up smoking, drinking, and the freedom to “swear for real” all at the same time – teaching them to be card sharks and run scams, that’s fine, but he wouldn’t want to encourage substance abuse or bad language in children. And as for caramel…‘burnt sugar’ isn’t the worst analogy in the world for the man. Sweet kid, but life put him through it, which both resulted in sweetness sometimes manifesting in a different way than it originally did and also made him a lot clingier.

All that, though, is character analysis, not tea analysis. The flavors seem to work pretty well together as a description of Stan, but do they actually taste good together?

Yes.

I have the vague idea that I have mixed caramel or vanilla with lapsang souchong myself, back in the day, and that it was good, but it wasn’t quite like this. One can just taste the smoke and just taste the caramel, but they come together in such a way, presumably along with the base notes and the ginger, to taste…well, the first thought that comes to mind is that it tastes fun. Fun is not, of course, a proper tasting note, so I’ve tried to analyze it properly and come up with things close to various sweets (I started off on ‘candy corn’ and moved to ‘maple syrup’ before settling on ‘butterscotch’) but the overall impression is just of…fun! Which is good, because now I have five ounces of it.

knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 21
Theme: Sugar Plum Fairy
My pick: Thé de l’Abbaye from Dammann Frères

This was an extra bonus tea that Marjorie sent for today!

It sounded good, but somehow tastes exclusively of musty hay and dirt to me ha ha ha. I feel like maybe I just don’t get along with Adagio’s white base… Anyway, not pleasant lol.

Tried a sample of this little Adagio custom blend: half decalf orange and half honeybush chocolate. As much as I love chocolate and orange together, I expected something swoon-worthy. No swooning, but I was a distracted sipper; multitasking, so it may not have gotten the attention it deserved. Got the orange, got the honeybush, but the chocolate didn’t hold up its leg of the tripod.

knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 10
Theme: Peppermint Twist
My pick: Peppermint Cream from Bird & Blend

Today, Marjorie sent me a custom blend that she made on Adagio! It’s a blend of vanilla rooibos and spearmint, accented with lemon verbena and cute rainbow sprinkles. Simple, but a very pleasant blend. I do think it needs more vanilla, but there’s a soft vanilla flavor, and it’s nice combined with the sweet spearmint. The rooibos, thankfully, is quite mild and not at all medicinal.

Not amazing, but made for a cozy evening cuppa. :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DDa7SXSueLe/

Imagine you’ve gone for a walk in autumn. It’s cool outside, but not cold.

Wrong!

By the time you get home you’re very much chilled to the bone. The moment you get inside you grab your favorite sweater and throw it on. Warmed from the nearby fire, the gentle heat seeps into your skin, aided by the weight of the sweater itself, it becomes the feel of a warm hug from every direction.

This is one of those teas that you can’t really describe with just flavor, it needs the mental image as well. It does taste a good bit like chocolate banana bread, still warm from the baking.

Full-bodied and decadent, it has ‘mouthfeel’, almost like you’ve taken a bite of something. With the natural sweetness and depth of honeybush underpinning the dessert flavorings, the only thing you’ll want to add to this cup of tea is a refill!

For tonight’s round of “Dare Ya to Dairy,” a sample of a custom Adagio blend that is nearly identical in nature to Foxtrot, minus the mint, plus a little lavender. Contains both honeybush and rooibos, although I couldn’t distinguish between them, even before adding milk. If you like your herbals a little more floral, this might be for you.

Nothing fits a One Piece binge like a fandom tea blend based on one of my favourite characters! This is a pleasant lemon tea but the lemon taste is blended with other flavours pretty well. The green chai part of the blend brings a nice warm spice to the lemon. So if you want a loud lemon flavour this probably won’t be for you.. but if you want more of a soft spicy lemon this might be a good one for you.

Strange VariaTEA TTB #38

Still working through some random “one cup left” samples from the TTB that I threw into my desk drawer at work. This one is…odd. While steeping, my office mate remarked that it smelled like the holidays! And it does…the cinnamon aroma is STRONG. But despite the scent, I barely taste the cinnamon. Honestly, I barely taste much of anything. It’s very smooth and slightly earthy with just a hint of that cinnamon coming through and maybe a bit of nuttiness. I don’t really pick up on the strawberry at all. It went down easy and certainly wasn’t unpleasant to drink, but I was expecting a lot more flavor based on the scent and the number of flavored teas included.

I took today off work so I could just bindge Halloween movies and teas all day today, and the first on the list was Nightmare Before Christmas. There are so many Halloween movies I love, but this one is just deeply nostalgic for me. Bonus points that I had the perfect tea to pair with it…

Not typically the biggest fan of EG as I have stated many a times, but I do tend to like the flavour a lot more when combined with spices. So, the combo of brisk and citrusy bergamot with cozy sweet cinnamon and just a hint of almond? I don’t know how much I felt it paired with the movie itself, but I did enjoy the cuppa!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzE927Gulv0/?img_index=1 (2nd Pic)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpUevK17OD0

Realistically, though, I paired this with the entire soundtrack.

Also, I just wanna share what is still one of my all time favourite AMVs – I binge listen to this so hard during the month of October. It’s the Marilyn Manson cover of This is Halloween synced with clips from the anime Soul Eater. Even if you’ve never watched the anime, I feel like it’s an AMV anyone can appreciate. It’s so creepy, and the fact the creator was able to so perfectly find scenes to line up with all the lyrics has never stopped being impressive to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qztch6_Uhuk

Note to self: don’t oversteep this one. Let it go too long and it was like licking a black walnut shell. Honey didn’t help. However, properly attended, it’s a nice choc/vanilla blend.

Another treat that I probably wouldn’t have chosen for myself, but I think will be fun to play with. It’s a custom blend using Adagio’s Irish Breakfast, Vanilla, and Chocolate Chip teas. The dry leaf smells pastry-accurate in the bag.

Took some to work, so that means it really didn’t get a fair first run because (a) I wasn’t thinking about it very hard and (b) the first cup was accompanied by a pretty potent cup of cherry yogurt. However, I think the Ceylon teas in the blend give it the little sharpness you taste in the Boston Cream cream—a nice touch.

CLOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its near the end of the ingredient list, but all I can taste or smell is clove! All the other ingredients looked so appealing.

Ugh, just ugh. At least the orange is imperceptible, so it doesn’t make me think of decomposing oranges.

A unique blend. Good black base with fruity and chocolate notes. Wouldn’t say I would buy this but good to sample once.

Nice golden color with a bright butterscotch flavor. My husband added some stevia and a little vanilla but I like it naked with just the tea. Although, a touch of vanilla is nice.

From SkySamurai a while ago!  Thank you!  A single serving sample which is fun.  The ingredients are intriguing – spices on a green base and the cup is fairly tasty.  Spicy enough, but whatever flavor is here ends up tasting a bit like bubblegum (probably orange flavor).  I liked this cup but I REALLY liked their Citrus Mint Green which is similar but better.  The little guy Cactuar is from the Final Fantasy videogames which I have never played, though I wanted to, but I was a big Kingdom Hearts fan a while ago, and Kingdom Hearts sort of minimally combined with Final Fantasy.  I do miss videogames!  I really want to stock up on so many Adagio blends.  Looks like my tea spending for the year is complete if I didn’t order from Bird&Blend during the sale, so I’d like to pat myself on the back for only spending $57.20 on tea this year.  Pretty good!   
Steep #1 // 40 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 minutes after boiling // 2 min
2021 sipdowns: 154

Very good blend of Chocolate, Raspberry, and Chai, just like the name indicates. The raspberry is stronger when the tea is hot, then as it cools, the chai spices come to the front more. This is a great tea to sit outside and sip while you watch the sun rise. Goes great with a splash of cream in it.

T is for… Tea of Kindess!

I’ve been waiting for a good excuse to steep this tea up – it’s inspired by Ken, from the second Digimon series. He’s probably one of my favourite characters from any Digimon series, and if you were to treat the digi crests the same way that people do Hogwarts Houses then I would probably most identify with his crest – the Crest of Kindness.

I’ll save talking about whether or not that I think this blend is a good representation of his character for another time though – right now I just want to focus on the flavour of the blend. There is a lot going on, and when I was reading through the ingredients of the different blends it’s made up from I fully expected it to be a chaotic clusterfuck of either muddled or competing flavours.

So, I was pleasantly surprised to really enjoy the taste of this tea! Despite all the many things happening, the one flavour that really jumps to the top of the pile and makes itself known is the blackberry. It’s bright, it’s sweet, and it’s distinctly blackberry. I recognize it from some of the other blends I have from Adagio that are blackberry flavoured, and I’m realizing now that it’s probably one of my favourite flavourins they use.

Aside from that, I actually also tasted the cocoa a lot more than I had expected to, creating what was overall a really nice light but jammy and sweet medley of blackberry and chocolate flavours. I’ll be interested to see if that flavour can be recreated consistently, but I just thought this was delightful!

A sample from SkySamurai!  Thanks so much!  The book I was reading kept mentioning Earl Grey today, so thought I’d try this.  It’s quite a mixture of things on a decaf black base: bergamot, lavender, strawberry, orange, lemon balm…  It’s quite a muddle, much like the Mad Hatter would prefer it!  For some reason the lavender seems green and raw to me, though I doubt that is even possible.  I don’t think this tastes anything like Adagio’s lavender earl blend.  The bergamot seems slightly different.  I can notice a bit of bergamot, orange, strawberry and lavender… but not sure if I like all of these flavors together. It’s a bit floral overall, maybe a bit soapy some of you are sometimes talking about.  I definitely can’t tell this is a decaf black.  It has enough flavor and isn’t drying but I’m starting to suspect that decaf black tea might be the most dehydrating of any teas.  The second steep is also tasty.  Might be a worthy iced tea.
Steep #1  // 23 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  3 minute steep
2021 sipdowns: 24 (This + Teavivre’s Lychee black)

Sipdown!!
This tea was just ok, orangy, creamy, with a hint of cranberry and vanilla. I do like a strong cup of tea, and when I brew this strong, it has a slightly burnt taste. As a dessert tea, it was adequate, but not so yummy that I’ll be purchasing again.

Geek Steep S1E19 – Frankenstein (Novel)

I mentioned just now in my tasting note for BLT’s “Body & Soul” that I explored two different paths with my tea pairing for this novel – this was the first one, and arguably the most obvious choice as well: A Halloween themed tea.

By pure luck, I actually ended up getting my copy of the novel and an order of Halloween themed teas from Adagio on the same day so it was just fortuitous timing. However, since Frankstenstein’s monster is such a PROMINENT part of Halloween culture (despite there being no in novel tie in to Halloween at all) it just seemed like the most fun route with pairing would be to chose a Halloween tea. DT’s Monster Mash was something I considered (and ultimately what Marika chose!) but I kind of wanted something a little “heavier” and “darker” tasting.

I picked this one because it’s primarily Hojicha – something we know I have a soft spot fo. However, it also has roasted mate, black tea, and a very “red hot” cinnamon flavour that comes through super clearly and distinctly in the cup – creating this very roasted/toasty and comforting profile that not only feels like Halloween in a cup but also like an Autumnal hug, but with backbone. It’s also the first Pumpkin Seed blend I’ve ever seen and I just think that’s such a cool concept and I love it way more than all the generic Pumpkin Spice profiles that pop up around October. Yes, this is spiced, but it’s more about the roasted quality of the mix of base teas.

Ironically, if you disregard the fandom blend I included in our “Top Teas of 2020” holiday special, this is the FIRST fan blend from Adagio to be featured on the podcast – and it’s not even a fandom blend in the sense that it’s inspired by a TV show/movie/comic/etc. I just think it’s funny that Adagio is the company probably most well known for their fandom teas and not only did we wait until the penultimate episode of the first season to feature one but we also didn’t really feature one that highlights what they typically represent…

Ultimately I did really like this pairing though, and it feels like the best way to approach Frankenstein using a flavoured tea to me. However, I preferred my other pairing and if I was going to reread the novel I would be more likely to choose something similar to Body & Soul than I would be to repeat this one.

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