Adagio Teas - Discontinued

Having so much fun trying so many teas from Teabox B — thank you everyone! I like this one — a bit of smoke with burnt chocolate flavor. Just enough smoke flavor that a keemun should have. Not my favorite “burnt chocolate” tea though. The leaves are black with little specks of gold. A really dark steep color but nothing astringent even after a five minute steep.

Slightly hotter water, slightly shorter steep. Just about the same results as the first time. Slightly bitter first brew, tame second brew is incredible aftertaste, and several subsequent brews clinging to corporeality. Definitely stocking this.

This tea just lasts forever! And while the taste isn’t mindblowing, the value is. I think I’ll stock up on this; it will make a fine fallback tea if I can’t decide what to drink. And the aftertaste really is very pleasant. A great tea to drink slowly… I could easily make 2tbsp of leaf last all day. But I worry if buying this means I’ll neglect my other teas. :)

Never really took green tea seriously or cared much for it. I figure young, unopened buds would give a gentle flavor I would hope would open my eyes to the world of green teas. Resteeped well, and despite bitterness in the first brew, I find myself enjoying it. The flavor is a bit lackluster but the aftertaste is spot on.

I like this…actually i think it taste more like a black tea then a green tea.

It is good. i would get it again.

From the HHTTB

I have toasted sesame oil in the fridge, which we use often in cooking. I kind of thought this would taste somewhat like it, but I didn’t really get much of a sesame taste from it.

From the HHTTB

I sipped this while teaching, & it wasn’t anything memorable to me.
Not bad, just not memorable.

Chocolately, pungent aroma, very thick and savory. Broken leaves mean only get a second steeping, but it makes for two very different mugs, both savory and tasty.

I really need to take inventory. This isn’t showing up in my stash, but I just finished it up. I am also missing the Laoshan black that I had this morning. I think the database must have burped some of mine out awhile back. Oh well.

Nice enough tea, I don’t think I will reorder though.

Tea #23 from Traveling Tea Box C

The dry leaf here smells really really funky. And not in a good way. Like a rotten fruit in the sun kind of way.

But surprisingly it actually makes a pretty awesome cold steep. I was worried when I cracked open the thermos I was steeping in and got a whiff of the wet leaf again, but the tea itself doesn’t really have that same pungent aroma. I definitely get strawberry off it. And some caramelized sugar type notes. It kind of reminds me of lychee with more citrus.

I don’t think I’d like this at all as a hot cup, but I’m actually really enjoying this iced.

Ceylon tea is usually the only black tea I will stay away from but I think perhaps I will give it a second chance. I had to with this tea. Soursop seems too interesting to pass up. It’s a very unique flavor indeed! The soursop must give it the tropical flavor while the ceylon gives it a very earthy flavor. The mix of both works well together. So far I am liking it better hot.

There is one thing, however, that I do not like and that is the dry smell. I almost decided not to drink it just because of that but any good tea drinker knows you can’t judge a tea by it’s dry smell.

After drinking about half of the cup I wanted to be a little adventurous with honey. So I’ve put some raspberry and blueberry honey into the tea. Interesting! Brings out the soursop a bit more. The ceylon is almost mute now. Odd. Think I like it better without the honey.

Tea #17 from the traveling tea box.

I had no idea going into this what a guanabana was, so google to the rescue! It is a tropical fruit that isn’t imported to the US fresh because it can’t be picked green and doesn’t travel well when ripe. You learn something new every day.

Honestly, I almost skipped this one just based on the smell, I think it smells terrible. After drinking it I was left wishing I had skipped it, it tastes just like it smells. I’m not even sure how to describe the flavor, it reminds me of fruit that has gone bad. It’s very sweet tasting, but just doesn’t taste quite right to me.

I don’t normally dump my tea out, but this one just had to go. I wonder if I would feel differently about this tea if I knew what a guanabana was suppose to taste like?

A very light green tea that is sweet with a bit of a light floral nature that is not overwhelming. Easy to drink but a flatter tea that one can become easily bored with so I do not see this one making a good regular tea.

Ah poop. I really hate it when work gets in the way of my steep timing. Like with this one. I ended up having to take a few phone calls, and before I realised it’d been steeping for around 12 minutes. Its ended up quite bitter, but just drinkable when I first sip it, but after a minute the sweetness comes through. So there is great potential here when I’m not distracted and can manage a better steep. I’ll rate it when its brewed correctly.

And this is another from my swap with Michelle, that this morning I realised I’d not sampled yet. Dearie me Michelle you’re generous! Still need to finish the box!

We are up to sample # 16 from TTB-A
Leif was really curious about this one. I thought it would be boring.
Turns out, we both enjoyed it. :)

I could die right now, I’ve been freaking out that I wasn’t going to get the grade I need to finish macroeconomics, convinced I had to have gotten like a 30 on my exam, I actually got a 78.33, which means I really don’t have to worry. I hope. I still have to worry about a stupid science class because I don’t go to the lab and I’m pretty sure that’s unforgivable but it physically pains me to do busy work.

I should do something about it but blah blah anxiety blah blah hide and don’t do anything welcome to my world.

I was worried about this one because my first and only experience with an Adagio white was reminiscent of a slice of bread coated in dust.

This one isn’t bad at all, I drank some of it hot then wanted to try it cold…not as good cold at all, there is a weird aftertaste to me. Hot, however, is oddly refreshing and works for cucumber, which I wouldn’t really expect. I quite like the Tazo cucumber white, but this one tastes like a floral cucumber at times.

So this is pretty similar to Darjeeling but I like it a lot better than first flush Darjeelings. It seems to be even fruitier and then it also has a bit of butter to it. It definitely has a lot of green tea-ish notes to too.

I didn’t get much in the way of astringency from it. It was very sweet, and I drank it way too fast to notice much else than what I already said. It was that good.

My first impression of these long blades, after their distinctive appearance, came from the aroma: strong and… citrusy? A dried out bouquet? This is the first loose leaf to remind me of Lipton tea bags. That might not be a compliment.

The flavor is nondistinctive. Not bad but nothing special. It’s smooth, though, which I like. This is a good backup tea for when I run out of the good stuff. I wouldn’t buy it again, but I won’t throw it out.

Sunday Sipdown #2

Okay, when I first started drinking tea, Adagio was my GO TO spot. Everything tasted AMAZING to me.

Now, everything tastes bitter and gross. I’ve deduced it’s one of three factors:
1. Before, I didn’t use quite boiling water, as I mostly microwaved the water
2. I’m steeping too long or with too much tea leaves?
3. I’ve just gotten used to better quality tea.

So, this cup, I tried steeping shorter time (1min 30 instead of 3 minutes). Still bitter. Dumped that cup out and did a 1 minute steep with the same leaves. Still bitter, now just watery. I’m going to try again after this watered down cup with less leaves and not so hot water.

I REALLY WANT TO DRINK ALL MY ADAGIO TEAS I GOT LAST YEAR FROM TEA SUBSCRIPTION, BUT I CAN’T GET ANY OF THEM TO TASTE GOOD!!!!!

Advice?!?!?!?!

Feeling like crap. Nauseous from vicodin. I’m drinking this and watching hamlet.

Details:
Kettle: ProctorSilex 1L Kettle
Brew In: Beahouse Tea Pot, 22oz
Temp: Boiling
Steep Time: 3:00 min
Type: Black Tea, Loose