36 Tasting Notes
Not too shabby. I was a bit hesitant to try this one from Rishi because it smelled so fruity and had golden leaves like so many Yunnan teas do, and I’m definitely an assam lover at heart. But I had to at least TRY it since they claim it to be their ‘best’ black. I added milk and sugar to it and my first smell and taste of the brew was like orange-cream…yummy! Wonderful fruit flavor that definitely is as close to a dreamsicle in a tea that I’ve ever tried! Niiiice. Definitely not a ‘wake me up’ black but a nice smooth mellow orange cream tea for any time of day for me. Thumbs up just not waaaaay up.
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And the Queen can do no wrong! Nice medium bold, smooth tasting tea gives a nice round cup. I added milk and sugar to it and it’s even better. I drink all my blacks with milk and sugar and for me its the only way to go. Another good mixture of black teas from Sri Lanka, Kenya, and India…can’t go wrong. Great for a second mug in the morning to get my a** movin! Guess this means it time to do something like shower and get dressed and get on outta here! Ah, well, did it have to come so quickly? I can’t help but practically gulp down my black teas in the morning its like my body went thru withdrawal while I slept..well thats one thing I can be all too happy to indulge in. Til later steepsterites ;)
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Ahhhh the boldness and richness I need in my morning cup! A very light astringency that is knocked out with a lil milk. This tea blends not only assam, but also yunnan, kiambu and nilgiri teas. Very nice…very “wake ur a** up in a mug” tea. Looove it!
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Man do I love these assams! Barbara threw this in as a sample with my last order and is it goooooood! Definitely on the list for next time. I’ve read sooo many conflicting views on black teas vs green for example and just want to know if I’m getting the polyphenols and the theanine etc. from the blacks. Anyone know? I love the pick me up and just savor the maltiness that pours out-yum! Very very good. I’m not one to double steep blacks but I do for all my greens oolongs and whites; I just feel that blacks can only put out one good one…anyone else feel this way?
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Wow I’m back from my hiatus and I feel so steepsterite deprived right now!! Good to be back to the best tea site around:) I am currently indulging on a remarkably better Golden Spring now that I’m adding almost twice the leaf amount to my mug. It wasn’t comparing to the taste of some of the bold blacks I was getting from metropolitan and something had to change if only for the sole reason that I had bought a pound of it from Adagio before my intro to Metro Teas. I soooooo love this tea now again just as much if not more than before! Its so yummy and malty and assamy and just my kinda tea! Yum! Glad to be back! :)
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So I just returned from the gym and a hard core workout that was fueled by some dark Yorkshire Harrogate which I am so in love with. But I needed a green soft tea for my palette and I chose this one because I’m running out of greens and its only 1 of 2 I have left. Genuis I know. I’m very pleased…I let the brew cool more which is what I’ve been working on lately after continuous attempts at sipping it hot and not getting a burnt tongue. Well my attempts were futile to say the least! So now I’m detecting so many different notes with this tea that I’m finally letting roll around my mouth and REALLY taste for a change. WOW! DUH. I thought I just liked everything hot hot hot, but I’ll leave that to The Cure for now. There is such sweetness apparent now! I taste a sugar cookie like taste with this tea and its really good! Subtle and sweet and just plain good. I’ve taken it thru 2 steeps already with great results and am hoping for a 3rd. Yum…just a delicate sweetness of a biscuit and honey…good times. Third times a charm right? Let me go see..
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well……a tea I don’t like from Metropolitan…yes THIS IS IT and I’m not talking about MJ! I think it boils down to the fact that I just dont get much from flavored tea. I think the true delicacies of the tea notes are masked by an artificial flavoring…maybe its cuz my palette is changing, because I do remember one of my first teas from Adagio 3 yrs ago was Valentines Tea and it was good back then. I think I just can’t enjoy the ceylon base with artificial flavorings… I don’t know …I also tried ceylon sonata on its own and was not a fan…hmm. So 2 strikes against this tea and I think I’ll stop trying out flavored teas..yeah. I just might have to surrender to that and stop thinking they’ll produce something they can’t. Anyone want a bunch of flavored teas?
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It might just be Ceylon tea that you don’t like since it’s the base in most flavoured teas.
I’d be interested in giving some of your flavoured teas a home if no one else volunteers (shipping to Canada might be a little expensive). Though you might want to wait until after X-mas when I’m due to get a bunch of new teas – then you’ll have a better selection to chose from in my Cupboard. ;)
Flavored teas are really hard to nail, and I feel your pain with the artificiality! It completely turns me off when it tastes SO FAKE.
Some good flavored tea I’ve found:
- Anything Golden Moon. Seriously, all of their flavors have been absolutely delicious and completely natural-tasting. They have some exotic stuff as well, like Coconut Pouchong and Sugar Caramel Oolong, as well as White Licorice. A bunch of us purchased the sampler from there and have been really loving all the flavored stuff. They tend to have a good balance between the tea itself and the flavors.
- SerendipiTEA’s Colonille – Vietnamese black and vanilla. It tastes absolutely delicious! Fake vanilla is absolutely disgusting, and this one is subtle and natural.
- SpecialTeas’ Almond Cookie – Mmmm. If you love the taste of almonds, this replicates an almond cookie taste really well. And it tastes really natural as well.
So don’t give up on flavored tea just yet! Yes, there’s lots of gross flavored tea out there. :( But I hope you can find something you like, and I hope my recommendations can steer you in the right direction. Because NOBODY likes gross and fake-tasting flavored tea!
^ OMG, long comment. Sorry about that!
Well, thats good to know teapls, cuz I have had a coconut pouchong that I’ve liked…so maybe it is the ceylon tea as u mentioned Jillian…Well its good to hear there may still be hope for some flavors!
Kat, I wouldn’t mind trying this one out (maybe others). Do you want to check out my cupboard and see if we can work out a swap? lfinch8@gmail.com
I found this tea works better if you blend it with another flavored Ceylon, or loose leaf Earl Grey. But I absolutely agree, that it does not hold up well on it’s own. It needs a pairing to prop it up a bit more.
I should add that I’ve had great success pairing this tea with the raspberry flavored ceylon, strawberry flavored ceylon teas. Use it to make a chocolate chai, or mellow a russian caravan and whisk a way a bit of the smokey-ness. :)
@Amy hmmmm okay I’ve actually got a chocolate chai and from adagio , do u think that would work? I also have cinnamon, almond, vanilla, and choc chip…Im up for trying blending …Do u put an equal amt of each flav? @Lena, love your profile about your kick ass husband-lol thats awesome…I think I might try blending a few of these and see if that helps. If anyone has any good combos they know of, by all means share, I tried the cinnamon and it was weird alone too. And man that almond has a STRONG ass smell!!
Hi Kat. My gut tells me if you want more chocolate flavor in your chai, just add some chocolate chips to your teapot when you brew. Blending Ceylon (flavor or no) will alter the base note of your tea – including taste, strength, astringency, color and so on. If you are in love with the base, just add some chocolate chips and experiment that way.
Ceylon is one of the lighter teas. So if you’re blending it to a weightier assam, kenyan, or china tea it will remove the robust feel and taste greatly. For flavored ceylon to flavored ceylon blends I blend equal parts. 1 heaping teaspoon per cup for decent strength and flavor. So minimum start would be a 2-cup teapot’s worth of tea. 1 heaping teaspoon of each into the pot. For the chai, do an easy test of one heaping teaspoon of each, and see if you like it. If you don’t like it – it’s probably the ceylon base that’s turning you off, and you’ll know right away. I started out with loose leaf ceylon teas, and my taste has grown more robust and maltier over time. That could be what’s happening with your palette as well.Well, I am currently drinking a blend of coconut/ceylon and choc chip/ ceylon and its not bad…at least I’m gonna drink this one;) I see now the difference in the lighter-ness ceylon teas versus assams for example and I’m partial to the stronger blends. Since I only have little samples of some of these ceylon flavored teas from Adagio I think I’ll make it thru when I want a little dessert-y tea at nite. Thanks you guys for all the rec’s (hugs) and teaplz, Im looking forward to that caramel oolong and the almond cookie u mentioned. I WILL NOT GIVE UP PEOPLE. :)
Oh and I just noticed it tastes a little better and the flavors come thru more when its not friggin scalding hot like I thought I liked…lol
I agree with you about most flavored tea. I used to like the flavored stuff too back when i was younger. But now the more I know the more I realize that there are so many different tasting teas without flavoring, To me that is very fascinating and I do not use anything in my tea anymore because I want to taste the nuances that come with each tea I try. You can taste the quality of the tea master only when nothing is added.
This is a very nice smooth tasting assam…mmmm. I added milk and sugar and its a perfect blend. I taste absolutely no astringency or bitterness to it which is good because I hate those two characteristics!! I love assams but some of them can have too much of a bite for me. Doesn’t even compare to the assam harmony and assam melody I’ve had from Adagio. Another win for Metro Tea! I’m happy. :)
Preparation
Mmmmm, yum. Haven’t had more of this tea in the last week until now….I forgot how good she is!! Hail to the Queen!!! Nice blend of blacks giving me my ideal malty and fruitful notes. Added a little milk and sugar and voila – Niiiice! Really delivers a wonderful tasty mugfull. I bumped my original rating up a bit to where it should be! :)
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I’ve been living on this tea in the mornings now and it is stronger than I first thought. Maybe I’m putting more leaf in I dunno but it is a very strong yet still smooth black. It has replaced my Adagio’s golden spring for the last 5 days and yesterday I had some golden spring in the afternoon and it just didn’t seem up to snuff. Oh no this can’t happen because I have a HUGE 1lb. unopened bag of this from Adagio! Yikes! I hate when that happens. I’m just getting used to the strength and robustness of this Yorkshire Harrogate and I just can’t stop!! Well, there’s definitely been worse things in life I’ve been addicted to!:) I love how this tea wakes me up with one nice mugful too- gets me groovin in the morning…this is a good thing too because my gf gets up at 5 am for work and our dogs deem this a very good time to wake their other mommy up to feed them!! I’m one of those peeps too that once I’m awake in the am its very hard to get any more zzzz’s cuz my head just starts runnin at full speed and of course its first obsession is “Yay! It’s tea time again” Thank God for small pleasures.
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Slowly moving away from Adagio seems to be the going trend. Welcome to the club. I might have to try the Metro Tea Company out next…they seem to be getting some rave reviews lately.
Yeah, I have been having some fabulous teas from Metro Tea Co, u gotta take the plunge-you’ll be hooked! If you go through jollygoodteas.com she is sooo nice and carries metro teas…she’ll also throw in a bunch of samples for ya that are free and so far all of mine have been excellent. I had some probs with the website so I called her directly and that turned out to be great cuz I got her recommendations too…VERY FAST SHIPPING too which shocked me – it got here in 2 days!!
Yay – I’m glad you recommended a vendor for this one. I had just looked them up and saw that their website only sold to wholesalers. I was thinking maybe I wouldn’t be able to try them out. So thanks!
SWEET! I’m off to check the site out. Thanks!
Finally placing my order from www.jollygoodtea.com for the metro tea yorkshire harrogate today. I went back to my other breakfast blends, and there just isn’t the strength there that I experienced with the yorkshire harrogate. My tea “donation” bag is starting to fill up with teas that just didn’t make the cut…
@LENA ~~ I think I’m going to benefit from Steepster by skipping the Adagio step and going straight to other tea companies. Although, they have so many teas in sample size. I heart samples. I heart continuous diversity in teas.
@ chrine – oh yes, I’m a big fan of samples. I wish they were all the same size as Adagio’s. I think their sample tins are a perfect size to try out.
My only complaint about Adagio sample tins is that I can’t seem to get my spoon in them without spilling. (Couldn’t possibly be user incompetence.)
