Adagio Teas - Discontinued

Have you ever had a nightmare so bad that it left you shaken the entirety of the next day and with an overwhelming desire to not sleep ever again? Well that was my night last night. I am quite annoyed at my brain for giving me such a nasty dream, and I didn’t even provoke it by watching something scary before sleep. I got my revenge by being upbeat and cheerful aw much as possible, haha, take that, brain!

Today’s tea is a classic tea from the island of Formosa. For those who do not know Formosa was the name that Portuguese sailors gave Taiwan, the name means beautiful and from photos I have seen it is an apt description. Formosa Oolong from Adagio Teas is thought to be an introduction to Taiwanese Oolongs, and it was certainly one of the first that I tried. The aroma of this tea is sweet with notes of loam, tobacco, raisins, old flowers (think orchids that are not rotten but are certainly on their last legs, smells heady and a little dead) and honey. There is a nice finishing note of smoke which gives this tea a real autumnal feel to it.

Brewing the little pile of leaves, in this case it really does look like a leaf pile! The aroma of the brewed leaves is woody and sweet with notes of honey, raisins, and oak. The liquid is a blend of raisins and honey, all sweet with a very delicate finish of floral.

Tasting the tea, in a way it is like a homecoming, it was not this specific Formosa Oolong that I drank all those years ago, but the similarity in taste really never leaves one’s memory. The taste starts out sweet with notes of raisins and stewed plums. This fades to a leafy and tobacco flavor which in turns fades to gentle honey at the finish. Formosa Oolong is one of those ‘everyday’ kinda teas, there is nothing overwhelmingly special about it, but it is so enjoyable that I don’t mind. I say give this tea a try if you want a comforting ‘homey’ kind of tea or if you are new to oolongs and want to see what the fuss is about.

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/05/adagio-teas-formosa-oolong-tea-review.html

I realized I haven’t reviewed Apple before despite it being in my top 5 teas.
I absolutely despise that Adagio chose to discontinue this tea and I have no idea why they would make such a move. It was highly rated, used in tons of custom blends that were popular and frankly it’s delicious.

This tea with a little cream and sugar makes for the flavor of apple pie in my cup. What is not to love?

That said, I still have most of a pound I bought before it was out of stock forever and I’m drinking some tonight because I decided I wanted to make some bubble tea.
So I mixed up a strong batch (5 teaspoons in my 32 ounce Ingenuitea) and brewed it 3 minutes then let it cool. (I’m pretty sure I accidentally oversteeped it just a bit, but I couldn’t tell in the end so whew!)

I poured about half the cooled tea in my shaker, added more sugar than I’d like to admit (because this is a treat damnit), warmed some milk in a cup in the microwave, added about 8 ounces of milk, and then added about 4 ounces or so of sour apple flavor liquid (like you use in Alcoholic drinks).
Next I shook it up until frothy, then poured it into a prepared tall glass into which I’d drizzled caramel syrup along the sides and especially around the rim.

Voila! DELICIOUS caramel apple bubble tea. Mmm. So refreshing.

Sipdown (116)! So I just saw a post on the tea subreddit on Reddit about how someone bought these teas on a discontinuation sale, but they had arrived already spoiled. That was a not so nice reminder that I have had one of these in my fridge for about forever. The expiration date on the cap said June 22, so I thought I’d just go for it… cautiously. I’m not sure if my tea had gone bad or I just plain did not like it, but I could not drink more than a few sips of this stuff. It had an overwhelmingly medicinal/honey-in-a-bad-way flavor that almost made the tea seem thick? I had to check the bottle again to see that it said “unsweetened” on the side. I probably didn’t drink enough of it to really give a more coherent tasting note about this tea, but it definitely did not seem like a refreshing, simple, “unsweetened” green tea to me. Plus, I’ve been cold brewing tons of green tea lately, so I think I have a good comparison. Anyway, enough confused rambling. Time to go make some more tea to get this “tea” flavor out of my mouth!

This green tea is really interesting! At first the appearance of these dainty little curls reminded me of Bi Luo Chun, and after steeping it, I can say it continues to remind me of that tea in many ways. The first infusion has a very pleasant flavor with notes of green bean, artichoke, and a mellow sweetness… no bitterness at all here. There’s also hints of fresh mint or clove that actually leave a recurring coolness on the tongue. These become more obvious as the liquor cools down. The leaves themselves smell like green beans. The second steeping is a little less sweet. The third infusion is overall more mellow and more sweet than the second. There’s just a hint of dryness at the end, but only by the third infusion.

This tea seems to have a lot of lower reviews than I expected. Make sure when you brew this tea you don’t exceed 80C/176F water temperature or it will become bitter. As for amount and time, I used 2 grames per 100ml in a gaiwan and brewed for 1 minute, adding 15 seconds to each additional infusion. Brewing with the lid off will really help keep this delicate tea from overheating and tasting poor. Really, you probably shouldn’t exceed 1 minute regardless of whether you are brewing this gongfu style or western style. This tea has a lot to offer in a light infusion.

Meh. I’m not getting much out of this one. There is a slight cucumber taste, but it’s really weak.

I really enjoyed drinking this, but I do not think I would purchase a larger size. It is smooth and sweet, and doesn’t taste as “earthy” as I have gotten used to puerhs tasting. It also can be steeped pretty much a bazillion times like others of its type if you do very short infusions. But overall, I think there is better out there for the price. Recommended because it was a quite enjoyable sample.

No. Just no. It is flat with a paper/cardboard sort of flavor going on and I’m having a really hard time even imagining cucumber.

I would love it if someone could explain how the dry tea smells like a cherry and a grape had a baby in a field of newly mown grass.

And the wet leaves smell like more of the above, plus cranberry.

And the actual tea tastes like sweet grass. I was really expecting more of a veggie broth kind of taste.

I’m fascinated and mildly dismayed at the same time. Sometimes I buy berry flavored teas, and there’s nary a berry to be found. I get a green tea with asparagus, and suddenly I’m in fruit city.

I was going through my tea drawer, and there was a sample of this from an Adagio order awhile ago. Being in the mood for something fruity and light, I figured I’d try it.
I can’t finish my cup.
While the orange came forward as my cup cooled, the musty thing going on is distracting enough where I can’t appreciate it.
As I kept sipping, I thought, Hmmm, perhaps this would be good iced….and maybe it would be. But since this is just one sachet, I’m not going to try it any other way.
Maybe my water was too hot (it said ‘simmering water’, so I did 180°F), or maybe it was steeped too long (It said 7 minutes, and since that seemed way too long to me, I did 6), but this was way too tannic and harsh.
I’m dumping the rest of my cup.

This tea tastes very…green, there’s really no other way to describe it. It’s the greenest green tea that ever greened. I’m not getting much of the creamy fruit flavours other people have talked about – maybe there’s a bit of tartness but nothing that screams rhubarb to me. I’ll maybe try it with a longer steep next time.

From the HHTTB2

Adagio hit the mark with this one. The taste is all apple. It’s bright and fruity with a sweet/tart taste that reminds me of a crisp green apple. Yum. The base tea is surprisingly thick and silky. It’s perfect with the apple flavor and makes this tea into a real treat.

Also, I’ve now discovered I like apple teas. I guess this shouldn’t surprise me since I like pear teas, but apple is not a flavor I would’ve gone out of my way to buy when looking at flavored teas. Now I know!

I’ve been curious about the unsweetened iced teas for a while now. I finally got around to purchasing a couple. Personally I do not like unsweetened tea, so I added some sugar to this. I didn’t entirely dislike it but it wasn’t my favorite either. The aftertaste was probably what I liked the most to be honest. At the same time I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I hated it. In the future I might try it again, just to see if my opinion will have changed.

SO glad I decided to spring for a proper big bag of this when I did, as I’d been nursing what little I’d had left of it thinking I may never get to enjoy it again! It’s garden-fresh magnificence, this rhubarby delight, I tell you!

Every time I drink some of this, I get really sad because I DO NOT WANT IT TO END EVER :( I cold-brewed this one for work (and to my line manager who says it looks like compost, I say DON’T BE A POOP, IT’S DELICIOUS) and it’s got such a creamy texture when you brew it this way. I never want it to be gone ever. I’m tempted to hoard it, but my stash is already bursting. SIGH.

Ok, I REALLY need to get a proper big bag of this stuff before it’s properly gone, because I love rhubarb. Indeed, if anybody has any other rhubarb teas they love, I’d be happy for the heads-up!

I decided, because I’m a rebel, to completely disregard all tradition and tea-making wisdom and ADD MILK TO A GREEN TEA. And you know something? It’s actually really nice. It adds a creaminess behind the lovely rhubarb flavour, backed by a pleasing whisper of green. It probably shouldn’t be good, but it is. Too darn bad. Good Gosh, this is pretty.

Hello new job anxiety, my old friend!

Apparently, in order to start at my new (extremely part-time, temporary, seasonal, decidedly doesn’t even begin to cover my rent) job, I have to send some ID and proof of address and my original qualification certificates and a bunch of forms to head office in London. I’m wary enough about the idea of being without my passport for however long it would take them to receive it and post it back, as it’s my primary form of ID and I just KNOW I’m going to need it as soon as it’s gone, and my visa’s in there and I don’t know how replaceable those things are and I need it to be able to keep living here. And my degree certificate’s in storage back in Canada, and even if I can get my folks to unearth it and send it to me, that’s going to take a while. No no no, I don’t like any of this. Now I’m having an anxiety flap and trying not to cry and there’s nobody here to talk me down. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I’m just going to funnel rhubarb tea into myself until I can move from this spot where I’m sat, petrified with fear.

Rhubarb tea is good. I’m sad it’s being discontinued. It’s sweet and tastes like rhubarb and rhubarb is my favourite thing. It’s refreshing and lovely and green. Nothing about it is overbearing. It’s softening my headache. I’ll miss this tea when it’s gone.

Not a bad cup

I really love this tea. To me, it is a nice bridge between Japanese and Chinese teas. It has a medium body with slight grassy notes. It is very mild in overall flavor, so I would suggest this for a beginner. Also evident are some woody, floral, and smoky flavors. The first 2 steeps are great, but it tends to quickly decrease in strength on the third. Great afternoon tea on a cold, snowy day!

Thank you BrewTEAlly Sweet for this sample! I like this one – a nice black base (always love Adagio… well mostly) and an apple flavor that is kind of like fresh bright green apples but a little bit like Jolly Ranchers. I’ve had worse apple teas. There is some sort of tiny leaf that looks like strawberry or raspberry leaves but they aren’t in the description. Doesn’t seem to affect the flavor anyway. Plenty of apple pieces in the blend as well. Tons of apple flavor, whether it’s from the apples themselves or some sort of flavoring (probably both). This would probably make another nice iced tea. I’ll enjoy the remaining couple of teaspoons I have.

Sipdown no. 124 of the year 2014. Back to the gaiwan for the final serving because not enough leaf left for the Yixing.

I still feel somewhat intimidated by pu erh and I’m not sure why. I think I just need to drink more of it. Desensitize myself to my fear, so to speak.

I hope this will have provided me with a good baseline for a higher quality, unflavored shu as I sally forth into the pu erh world.

Steeped this in the little Yixing this time, which leaves just a tiny amount for the next serving. Not even enough for the Yixing.

It’s interesting to compare what I remember of the taste when steeped in the gaiwan with this. It is a much rounder flavor out of the Yixing, as though any sharp edges have been filed off. It’s also a bit less flavorful overall, which I take to be a sign that the little pot is still leaching flavor from the tea and hasn’t reached its saturation point. It’s less like a tree and more like a mushroom this time. Still earthy but not in a green or barky way. I’ve put it through three steeps so far after a rinse.

Yikes, I didn’t realize it was so late. I hope it doesn’t keep me up.