Wizard's Grey

come on Wizard! work your magic!
i have lots to do today!
wave your staff!
look angry!
swish your beard!
fire and brimstone!
make it happen!

Earl Grey… ah, I get it now. And here I thought it was referring to some copyrighted gray wizard…

It’s earl grey with blackberry flavor – what’s not to like? Everything else about this week. But nothing about this tea.

Home – 4:30 PM

Well I finished tasting all of the teas from the Wicked Teas sampler, time to start on Tales and Tea Leaves! I just watched one of The Hobbit movies last night, so this is perfect timing.

In theory, this tea sounds like a tasty combination! Earl Grey cream, chocolate, and blackberry. Unfortunately I’m not generally the biggest fan of Adagio’s teas and only get these samplers for the “cute & fun” aspect so I’m not expecting greatness. ;)

Meh, it’s okay. The flavor is very muddled – I can definitely pick out bergamot and chocolate, but it’s definitely a cheap and waxy chocolate. Perhaps there’s some bitter cocoa as well.

I feel like I never like any tea that combines bergamot with berry – they all taste chalky to me and remind me of Tums chewables. Needless to say, not a great association. I do like Kusmi’s St. Petersburg, but I suppose that’s red fruits which isn’t necessarily the same as berry.

Anyway, it gets a meh from me.

Tea for wizards who like earl grey, so I HAD to try it. The scent very nice and mostly bergamot. There is also a little chocolate, and berry. Blackberry, chocolate, and earl grey make for a very nice flavour. Pairs well with certain fantasy books.

As far as chocolate teas go, I like this one. It isn’t one that I will need more of or anything. Really can’t see myself reaching for it, but that is just because I am not a huge chocolate fan. I do highly recommend cold brewing this one. I read on someone’s review recently that they cold brew Adagio’s black teas to avoid that muddled flavor they often have when hot brewed. After trying this method I completely agree! I have a ton of signature blends that I’m excited to try now. Ones that I tried different methods of brewing, but the flavors were just blah. These flavors popped when cold brewed. The only flavor I didn’t pick up was the blackberry. But for what it is, not a bad cuppa.

http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/05/14/tea-of-the-day-wizards-grey-from-adagio-tea/

Second one out of the sampler.
Nope. Can’t get past the bergamot in it. Just totally not for me. I’m also skipping the ‘White tea of Kings’ tea in this set for the same reason. Just can’t get past that taste.

black tea, cocoa nibs, natural chocolate flavor, natural blackberry flavor, orange peels, blue cornflowers, blackberry leaves, natural vanilla flavor, natural bergamot flavor, natural creme flavor
I tried this hot with a bit of agave.
I do not have the most refined palate, however this tea tastes like straight black tea, I don’t get any blackberry or chocolate flavor in my cup. It smells deliciously chocolatey, but I just do not get this or earl grey, maybe with a bit of milk.

My fiance and I have been working on our apartment recently. Specifically, we’ve been unpacking and finding homes for everything. We actually moved in together last October and had originally planned to make the move in a month-long get organized extravaganza.

Yeah … so that didn’t happen at all. The closest we came to settled was putting our clothes into the dressers and unpacking the kitchen stuff. And – fun bonus – our apartment is seriously lacking in storage space which means there really isn’t a place for everything to go.

To resolve this problem, we bought a hutch for our dining room and, since it finally came in, I’ve been on a bit of an organizational bender. Also a tea buying bender seeing as hutch = more places to store tea = I can stock up.

(My fiance, feeling guilt over his third!!! fishtank, is surprisingly supportive of this. Hmm.)

Anyway. I got this as part of a fandom sampler from Adagio and made it yesterday to take to work. With a little added sugar, it’s not bad, but it’s definitely a bit biting — I’m not sure which of the ingredients is causing that. I tried again today with some milk and sugar and it’s quite tasty. The berries aren’t as prominent and I don’t get any chocolate, but it’s a nice tea to wake up to.