This is another sampler that came to me a few summers ago from Meowster’s cupboard destash, so thanks Meowster! I honestly don’t have the highest expectations, though. For one, because it is a pu-erh, the one type of tea that despite me trying again and again, it just always taste like dirt or swampwater to me and I can’t quite understand why it’s considered the “fancy coffee” of the tea world and be a “true tea connoisseur” you should be drinking expensive puerh and nothing else… when it tastes like dirt or swampwater. I’ve been okay with a few flavored puerh blends I’ve tried, but that leads to my second point… the only other Adagio pu-erh I’ve tried was their Pu-erh Chorange, which I personally found awful, like a very fake, artificial-tasting orange was dropped in a pile of dirt. So… ya. Maybe the sheer age of this sampler at this point may have improved it?
So, this one falls into the “swampwater” realm. Again, not really a flavor I enjoy, but I suppose it is slightly more preferable than the “dirt” ones. It’s like a strong, vegetal, marine/earthy taste. It isn’t undrinkable and actually very smooth for what it is. There is an earthy taste that lingers in the aftertaste, as well as some minerality. It actually is better than the Pu-erh Chorange, since it doesn’t have that awful artificial orange flavoring smothered over the top of such a conflicting flavor. But it still isn’t really a flavor that is for me. I wonder how many pu-erh samples I’ll try, trying to convince myself to “like” this stuff because proper tea-drinkers are “supposed to like it”…
Flavors: Earth, Marine, Mineral, Smooth, Vegetal, Wet Earth, Wet Moss, Wet Rocks
Preparation
Comments
I feel the same way about Earl Grey. I feel like I really need to like it to be a well-rounded Steepster, and I try, but it’ll never be my favorite.
Adagio has the WORST puerh I’ve tried… at least years ago anyway. So I doubt it’s the age of the sample.
@gmathis : I actually went through a phase when I did not like bergamot at all either. And it lasted for quite a while. Something in my palate changed, and I started to like the flavor over time, but it was still more gradual than a sudden change. I started by having flavored EGs that were a lot lighter on the bergamot, and even now I tend to not like the ones that are really harsh bergamot bombs or ones that pair bergamot with a strong Ceylon base which tends to come off a little too citrusy too me. But I definitely went through a full-blown “don’t like EG” phase before my palate changed and the flavor grew on me (I still don’t like grapefruit, and find bergamot “similar” to it, at least to me, which makes me wonder if one day I’ll start liking the taste of grapefruit, as well…)
@tea-sipper: Well, they say pu-erh “gets better” with age, hense why I wondered if it being old would’ve actually done it some favors in this rare case.
Yep, I have similar feelings toward pu erh. I don’t really get it.
I feel the same way about Earl Grey. I feel like I really need to like it to be a well-rounded Steepster, and I try, but it’ll never be my favorite.
Adagio has the WORST puerh I’ve tried… at least years ago anyway. So I doubt it’s the age of the sample.
@gmathis : I actually went through a phase when I did not like bergamot at all either. And it lasted for quite a while. Something in my palate changed, and I started to like the flavor over time, but it was still more gradual than a sudden change. I started by having flavored EGs that were a lot lighter on the bergamot, and even now I tend to not like the ones that are really harsh bergamot bombs or ones that pair bergamot with a strong Ceylon base which tends to come off a little too citrusy too me. But I definitely went through a full-blown “don’t like EG” phase before my palate changed and the flavor grew on me (I still don’t like grapefruit, and find bergamot “similar” to it, at least to me, which makes me wonder if one day I’ll start liking the taste of grapefruit, as well…)
@tea-sipper: Well, they say pu-erh “gets better” with age, hense why I wondered if it being old would’ve actually done it some favors in this rare case.
@AJRimmer we may have to change your outlook on that.