Adagio Custom Blends, Christa Y

The most desserty tea I’ve had in a while. My friend Kim has fallen for honeybush and ordered several blends from Adagio. I had the pleasure of enjoying a cup of this today along with a delicious buckeye that took me back to my college years. Very nice blend!

A very nice sweet blueberry flavour! I had a cup with a bit of sugar and it’s very refreshing with a touch of vanilla.

Another winner from the Traveling Tea Box! I think I’ve been fond of every tea so far from this box with the exception of the Butter Truffle, and even that one wasn’t too terrible! I wasn’t sure what was in this Jane Austen Mafia blend, but I had read many favorable reviews of it, and decided to give it a go. I was happy to discover that it is blackberry, vanilla and cream. Adagio’s cream is one of my all-time favorites. The dry leaves smelled like maple syrup to me, but the tea itself is all heavy cream with a hint of berry sweetness. The flavor of this one is absolutely perfect – juicy blackberry with a sweet cream finish. The strong aftertaste is of blackberry and vanilla and it lingers nicely. There are also delicious malty undertones that keep me wanting to take just one more sip! This one is definitely going on the to-order list. Thank you, Traveling Tea Box, for making my wish list that much longer! :)

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs with pieces of green blackberry leaves.
-Dry leaves smell of cream and maple syrup. Tea liquor aroma is of heavy cream with a hint of berry sweetness.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark reddish brown color.
-Juicy blackberry flavor with a sweet cream finish. Strong blackberry and vanilla aftertaste that lingers. Delicious malty undertones.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Excellent tea. Perfect blackberry and cream flavor with a note of maltiness.

Backlogging from yesterday.

Hubby stayed home yesterday, so I used the free babysitting to do my grocery shopping in peace. Coming home I knew I needed a cup of tea, and offered to make some for him as well. I’m determined to get him to a point of asking for tea, rather than me needing to ask him. He said he wanted “something fruity or sweet.” This fit the bill. I made three cups’ worth and we had the first two, but I made myself wait until I finished cleaning the kitchen before I let myself have the last cup. Now there’s some motivation!

I’m sitting here in the hair salon partaking of a ritual I don’t get to do as often as it is probably needed. About four or five times a year, I make up a travel flask of a sweet tea, pick up a croissant or something else from the bakery, and get my hair done. It’s not the most genteel way to have a tea named in honor of Jane Austen, but the “mafia” part does lend a sense of “What you lookin’ at?” In any case, I don’t have to take care of anyone for a couple hours. I get to sit down and let someone take care of me.

I made this with 5.6g of tea to 500ml and steeped it for half a minute longer than I normally would. But since I “splurged” and used whole milk this time, it could have handled steeping for longer still. The blackberries aren’t as evident as they were last time because of the richer milk, but the tea isn’t masked as much as the other flavours, so it’s far from a loss. The addition of raw sugar has given it a little more of a treat feeling, when I would normally use Splenda. (Insert your gasp of horror here.) Now that I’m done writing this, I’m going to sit back with my tea and croissant and do a bit of reading—not Jane Austen as you may think, but Anne of Green Gables. Love returning to a childhood favourite!

I’m suffering from a bad cold that’s left me with a very sore throat and virtually no voice. So while I’m sure there are teas in my cupboard better for “curing what ails” me, I just want something that feels like a treat. I do think I chose well. This is my second time with this tea since my mom sent my Adagio order from the US. At first you feel juicy blackberries bursting on your tongue, then a smooth wave of vanilla and cream rounds it out as the blackberries linger. On a day when I feel less the need to spoil myself, I may go without a little raw sugar and spot of milk, but not today. This hits the spot and I’m already starting to feel a little more like myself.

I realize I might be in the minority here. This particular blend did not make it into my home because I love, like or even really know much of the work Jane Austen has produced. I’m not a literary buff, let alone much of a novel-reader. Sadly, I just don’t have the attention span. I do love a good blend and if it combines vanilla, cream and some kind of fruit, I’m in!

Second tea of the day and I’m hoping for better results.

The leaf smells promising – My nose is quite happy with the blackberry and creaminess of vanilla. Yum! I already have plans to dirty up this blend, latte style.

Brewed up the regular black tea route (boiling, 3 minute steep), using 4 tsp. for 8oz. I know I used quite a bit of leaf, but I do plan on putting half and half and simple syrup in it. I did taste it pre additives. It’s quite bitter, but not in a spine-tingling way. The blackberry is less noticeable, but the creaminess is still there. I imagine I’d like this without the additions, but with less leaf.

Post additives, it’s decent. I lost some of the blackberry. It’s still there, but more subtle. The creamer and sweetener added to the creaminess of the tea. This version is really comforting.

Next time I’ll try this a little less dirty…

EDIT: As my latte cools, the blackberry is peeking out more! :D

The dry leaf smells good. Once it is brewed, it seems to lose a much of its fruity aroma and smells much more like black tea. I think I may have steeped to long, it is a little bitter. Or this might just be strong black base I have heard of. Not going to rate until I have a chance to steep at a different temp and time and when I have regular milk instead of vanilla coffee creamer. See full review at http://akoalateablog.teatra.de/2012/03/01/10-the-jane-austen-mafia-by-adagio/

Normally, I enjoy the Adagio custom blends because they somehow manage to divert the attention of the really harsh black base that Adagio uses. However, that isn’t working with this blend. I taste subtle hints of blackberry and creamy vanilla, but mostly what I’m tasting is that black tea – it is harsh. It tastes brassy and course.

I apologize sincerely to the creator of this blend. I won’t be rating it numerically, because I don’t want to hurt any feelings. But, I can’t even finish the cup.

Beware! This tea will give you an uncontrollable urge to read Little Women!

(Just kidding. Sorta. I’m itching to go blow dust off my copy right now.)

Thanks to SimplyJen, I have just been introduced to what could be one of my favorite fruit teas ever! I’m getting more of a blueberry scent and taste than blackberry, but the cream/vanilla punctuation makes this really outstanding.

Hoping I can muster up the self-control to ration enough of this to try a small batch chilled.

I’m looking at placing another fandom Adagio order so I thought I would enjoy another cup of this to remind me of the blends that I enjoy. I may need to restock this one. It’s smooth and fruity and relaxing.

ILU Jane Austen Mafia.
I’m almost halfway done my bag because this tea is from Adagio, which means it’s rare to spot up here in the Great Wild North. It’s silly that the idea of ordering from Adagio is in the same category as ordering from Fauchon or Mariage Freres because of crazy shipping fees.

So I will enjoy this cup… I could maybe go for reading an Austen book right now too. I love P&P and S&S (and S&S&Sea Monsters) so much that I haven’t branched out enough to her other books.

Oh, I’m rambling. If I haven’t said it already, Happy Turkey Day to those of you in the South! :D

And now, time for a tea I’m not looking forward to sipping down at all! Good think I still have 2+ oz of it. :)

Yes! Somehow this makes everything better. <3

Maybe I should find some P&P fic or something to keep this good mood going! I wonder how long fanfic has been around, and if P&P fic was one of the first?

So I was trying to do 5 things at once on the internet, as I usually do, and then I took a sip of this and had to DROP EVERYTHING.

This tea is just great. It’s sweet, slightly tart with the blackberries and oh so creamy. And I was wrong – it’s different enough from the TARDIS blend so I’m very happy I have both.

I don’t know how I’ll ever get sick of either of them, but I’ve got 3 oz of this and 6 of the other so, who knows?

Oh snap. I think the Jane Austen Mafia is going to come after me.

Everything started out fine. The water was hot. The leaves were carefully measured and placed in the basket. But then…. one coworker and then another came up to me and distracted me with inane questions. And there were issues to deal with. And before I knew it, my tea had been brewing for 8+ minutes. I don’t even know how long.

Maybe the J.A.M should go after my coworkers!

Anyway, thank you Kittena for the sample/sipdown. (152) This tea is only slightly bitter even after I abused it horribly, and I’m enjoying the blackberries and vanilla. I’m certain that if I were to place an order with Adagio, that I would snag some of this. But they’re sorta awful with customer service. So I don’t know if I ever will get my Adagio order in.

Yay for getting through tea samples! I’m gonna have a lot of time for that now. I hurt my shoulder and have a two week leave from work. Lots of tea and movies!
Thanks Shmiracles for this sample. It’s a nice blend of berry and cream flavors. It’s very relaxed and not in your face. The berry and cream are pretty equal and blend well together. Thanks again!

So! My alernator died in my car Wednesday (which was just a horrible day for me in general, but this was kind of the cherry on top). I had just finished up a really awful consulting job that ended up taking far longer than it needed too because of repeated hang ups, and I stopped at my parents’ house. My dad’s on business, so it was just my mom and the dogs and almost 9 pm, so I left after maybe 60-90 minutes.

I get in my car and it seems to start okay, and I get about 2 miles from my house and everything just goes south. First my ABS brakes disable, and at this point I’m like. ‘Well. That sucks.’ Then my dash lights start dimming just little by little. Then my airbags disable and my air conditioning flips off. Then the radio. And at this point I’m not quite panicking, but I am bargaining with my car. “Rememeber all the fun drives we’ve had together? Just a little further, baby.” “I’ll get you that fancy oil you wanted if you get me home. I know you can do it.” Then the headlights just die. From there I’m driving down a county highway, no headlights, keeping my fingers crossed I both don’t get pulled over, and make it home.

I didn’t realise I was holding my breath until I was parked and the car was off. Needless to say, it won’t start now.

I’ve been on an iced tea kick since Wednesday now for whatever reason. I probably have about six thermoses lined up in my fridge right now. It’s pretty awesome.

So, backlogging from yesterday.

I finished off the sample shmiracles sent me of this as a cold brew. And I think I like it better this way. I added a few points onto the score, as well, because I didn’t expect to enjoy this cup as much as I did

I really liked how strongly the vanilla and cream came though. It had a definitely vanilla flavor with almost a milky-flavor quality. The blackberry is really syrupy and it didn’t need any sweetener.

I could definitely see myself picking this up down the road.

So, I might have realized today that with my samples factored in, I have very nearly 350 different teas floating around. (342, to be precise). So. Um. Yikes.

That said, I decided to dip into my samples from Shmiracles today! All her stuff came pacakaged in little resealable bags with neatly printed labels so I feel like a total scrub with my exchanges :p

The first on I pulled out was this one. The Jane Austen Mafia. Which is a fantastic name for a band. And a tea.

So, in honor of Jane Austen, I’m going to write my review with as many titles as I can. I’m going to count each piece from the Juvenilia volumes as a different title!

Dear Reader,

If it helps, you can view this review as a little bit of fun and quirkiness coming through in the form of A Letter from a Young Lady who happens to be passionate about tea.

I may not be able to create A beautiful description of this tea, but I can say that the scent of the dry leaf (blackberries, vanilla, and cream) appeased all of the Sense and Sensibility I have in the area of comforting aromas. It certainly didn’t take much Persuasion to get me to dive in and brew my cup.

While I found that the blackberry was the strongest of the aromas present in the leaf, I think the cream flavor came through the most. But where did my blackberry flavor go? I was determined to solve The Mystery here! The solution became clear when I added a tiny bit of Truvia and popped the juicy fruit flavors.

The mix of teas here work really well together and I’m enjoying this as an after work cuppa. This would make a fantastic latte. I’m still not certain I’m the biggest fan of Adagio’s black base, but that might be A Tale for another time.

With Love and Freindship sic

moraiwe

(I had way too much fun writing this review)

i feel tired and nervous and wrong. off and wrong and i want to go lay in bed and be sullen. i oversteeped this tea but the berries and vanilla are still there. thank you thank you. i want this tea to comfort me. but it might be too tall of an order on such an overcast and drizzly day.
(i think i’m just too hungry and tired and it’s making me feel wrong. i ran 14 miles this weekend,didn’t eat enough last night to fuel my tired muscles, and stayed up until 1:30am because i made lunches for the week and tried to paint our renovated bathroom too late. also i’m out of my protein powder.)

Tea #4 from the ’Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

First, I love the name of this tea. It makes me laugh, and it makes me want to read Sense and Sensibility (which, at times, also makes me laugh). Second, blackberry vanilla cream tea? Why yes, please. I think that would be lovely.

This is another tea with a strong black base tea. I find I really enjoy this in flavored teas. I want to be able to taste all of the flavors, but I want to feel like I’m drinking tea, too. Any edge that might have been in the tea is smoothed out by the cream flavor. On top of that is a mix of blackberry and vanilla. Neither flavor is super strong, but they are both present in such a way that it makes the tea easy to sip and enjoy. I don’t have to stop and “look” for the flavors. Everything is there and in balance.

This tea is going on my shopping list and will easily find a place on my pantry shelf. I can see this being a delicious iced tea this summer.

This is one of the few green teas that I really like. The lemongrass is mellow and the strawberry gives it that PERK of fruit but doesn’t overwhelm everything. It is a soothing cup of tea, suited for summer, but it is always good to drink something hot on a cold day.

Long time, no tea-logging. Same old busy song.

I’ve been on a chocolate-raspberry flavor-kick for awhile. Thus, in pursuit of said kick, I threw a chocolate-raspberry blend together, one in which my craving could hopefully be satisfied without excessive caloric interference. And because chocolate should really not go with raspberries — cocoa-milk and tart berries, whaaa?! — and yet they do go together, and in fact they go together so well, I named this blend according to two other things that should not go well together, and yet when you let your crazy English-Literature-meets-Film-Studies mind wander over them, they do — these two things being, of course, Star Wars and Hamlet.

(See label and description for more information on this seemingly inane mash-up, yo: https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=23221 Why be a broken record, eh whot?)

All long-winded introductions aside, Something Rotten in Darthmark wound up giving me exactly what I wanted: sweet raspberries, dark chocolate, and a nonsensical, pop-culturey chuckle each time it emerges from the cupboard. With a pinch of my usual milk and sweetener, it becomes a chocolate-raspberry truffle in liquid form, one that surely would have kept Ophelia from her seemingly purposeless madness and prevented the Vader family from shouting negative exclamations for no ultimate purpose.

Take it away, closing tea-haiku:

Join the dark sweet cup,
choc’lit raspberries! (Don’t let
your uncle have some.)

As Mr. Darcy would say, “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love….” this black tea with blackberry and vanilla. This is such a soothing tea and has equal tasting of the berries and the vanilla. I have to admit that it would have been impossible for me to dislike this tea simply because it carries the Jane Austen name and if Jane Austen novels were the only books left in print, I could happily continue to read them in succession knowing what conversations were coming and being excited to read them again! But I actually loved this tea from the time I opened the package and the aroma caused me to relax in anticipation of the tea I would enjoy. I needed only a tiny amount of sweetener (Stevia) because my southern sweet tea roots insist on tea satisfying my sweet tooth. I also loved that the second steeping of this tea was as smooth and enjoyable as the first.