Suzi Send Message

Fantastic.

Adagio’s White Peach was #2 favorite from that company, after their WONDERFUL Blueberry black tea. However, I think it’s been bumped down by the Gemini blend. Mixing in White Monkey and White Peony tones the fruitiness down without weakening the flavor…does that make sense? It becomes more subtle and sophisticated, i think, instead of screaming “I am a peachy piece of peachiness!” to your tongue.

I don’t usually pay much attention to astrological signs, but this tea blend suits me so wonderfully (yes, I am a Gemini) that I might have to start reading horoscopes every morning :-p

I’m a little disappointed with Adagio’s Blackberry Tea.

For starters, the blackberry flavor is really light. I could hardly taste it when the tea was hot; as it cooled the flavor became more noticeable but it never became the focal point of the beverage. It remained a subtle hint of blackberry in the background of a standard black tea. On the plus side, it was definitely blackberry – not raspberry or strawberry.

The tea was also pretty sensitive. I over-steeped it by a minute, a minute and a half max but that was too long. It was quite bitter.

I am glad I bought the tea, because I think it’ll be good for experimenting. It may yet make a decent iced tea, since the flavor seems to come out more at a cooler temperature.

I associate muscat flavoring with gummi candy. Don’t know why. Wait – yes I do. I used to eat tons of Japanese candy as a kid, and their grape flavor isn’t that weird syrup nastiness found in American candy, but the muscat flavor. That must be the source of the association.

So this is very sweet. Almost cloyingly so. But the black tea tempers it well and prevents the brew from being overwhelming. Like other people have commented, sometimes it can make you think of bubblegum. Definitely has an artificial ring to it.

To me, this is an incredibly relaxing tea. I was first introduced to it – as were most of its fans, I think – at one of Aveda’s retail stores. You walk in, and the first thing the sales associate does is offer you a cup of this tisane. At the time, I was very unfamiliar with herbal teas, so the sweetness of this really surprised me. I mean, I could recognize the peppermint “tingle” but the other herbs were completely new to me at the time.

This is a great blend for relaxing. The licorice stands out as the dominant flavor, but it is pretty well blended into a sweet, refreshing brew. Not sweet like sugar, but a more natural form of sweetness. Very smooth, very nice.

This is interesting. Good sleepy-time tea. The chamomile is definitely the dominate note, and makes for a mellow brew. But then the ginger comes sidling up to you and makes your tongue tingle, but just as you become aware of its spiciness it’s neutralized by the light sweetness of apple.

So I looked on the SBS Teas website and couldn’t find this tea, and my (admittedly half-assed) attempts to locate a description didn’t turn anything up. Oh well. I mean, the name’s fairly self-explanatory, right? Strawberries and Kiwis. Fairly fruity, I should think.

The dry leaves smell strongly of strawberry.

You know how some teas age better than others? It seems that way in my experience; the tin of jasmine tea I bought in Chinatown tasted the same as the day I bought it when sampled several years later, but my favorite Valentine’s blend from Adagio often loses much of its flavor over the course of a year. This ‘Strawberry Kiwi Tropicana’ falls into the latter category; as I drink it hot and fresh I can’t taste anything remotely kiwi. Heck, I can barely taste the strawberry.

As it cools the fruity flavor becomes a little stronger. It’s strawberry, but a tarter, greener berry. It’s like those orange strawberries that just aren’t ripe yet but pickers hide them at the bottom of your box.

It doesn’t taste bad, it’s just pretty meh. I think that’s simply because the flavor’s never strong. I’d rank this at a ‘weak teabag’ level.

For what it’s worth, the image/ingredients list of this tea mentions that there will be dried peach pieces in the tea, and in my bag of it not a peach bit appears.

This was a very vegetable-like peach tea. By this, I guess I mean that while there is a note that would definitely be peachish, it’s not a sweet tea. It reminds me more of an extremely mild asparagus or broccoli, with a bit of peach juice dribbled on the side.

I haven’t tasted a peach tea like this before, so in a way it’s nice. ‘Peach Oolong’ from SBS Teas doesn’t taste like the syrupy sweet tea you get pre-bottled from the major beverage companies (‘enhanced’ with mountains of high fructose corn syrup) or the lighter, fresher flavor found in Adagio’s blends. Trying new flavors is good, right? But it’s not what I was looking for, either. So I feel somewhat disappointed by that.

I received a teabag of this stuff in a traveling tea box (not the one currently circulating Steepster) and it fills me with dread. As a kid, I never liked bitter melon, and the idea that someone would grind one up and use it for a tisane grosses me out. But, since childhood I have learned to enjoy broccoli and to tolerate squash, so perhaps this won’t be as bad as I fear.

(Note: Supposedly this stuff will help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. Not that mine are abnormal in any way, but I thought I’d mention it. I only have the one teabag so I wouldn’t be able to monitor long term effects, anyway.)

Smells kinda like roasted rice. Hmmm. Unexpected.

Tastes kinda like genmai-cha, but without the green tea. So toasty rice. I can taste the ghost of the melon I so dreaded as a kid, but the dehydration process seems to have tamed it. It’s not nearly as gross as I expected.

That said, it’s not pleasant or tasty, either. It leaves an almost…dusty? aftertaste after I swallow. This isn’t something you drink for the taste, but for the health benefits. But to be honest, if I was worried about my blood sugar I’d find a tastier way to fix it!

This is a very interesting blend of tea. (Tisane to you herbal-free purists.) Every sip seems to reveal a new flavor. My first sip, when the tea is piping hot, is very creamy. The strong almond flavor makes me think of marzipan. It feels very smooth on the tongue.

As the tea cools, the hibiscus in the blend (nearly invisible at the beginning) grows in strength. It’s as if it floats to the surface, for it remains a top note, the tangy tip of the flavor iceberg. The middle notes are chocolate, that lovely almond, and the hint of something fruity. Perhaps the apple or the pear?

Now that the tea is cold, the blood orange’s citrus tang rises to the surface with the ever stronger hibiscus presence. Interesting.

“The base teas are Assam and Keemun; the addition of Chinese Lychee tea…and small amounts of Lapsang offer a hint of smokiness.”

HINT of smokiness my @$$! (I felt bad cussing in my review.)
My quest for lychee once again goes awry. This blend sounded like it had the potential to be very interesting, with the fruitiness of lychee and the other black teas to mitigate the terrifying Lapsang Souchong, but unfortunately the smoky flavor dominates the cup.

This will be jumping into that traveling tea box whenever it finally makes its way to me, for sure!