The Colonel

Such an emotional night of TV for me! Just as Watson finds Sherlock after two years of mourning, Abed loses his best bud Troy! I’m going to miss Donald Glover making me smile! I think he’s just one of the funniest people. What will Abed DO? He better not leave too! I’m just very happy that Community is still on TV at all. I hope Troy visits Greendale once in a while? I don’t even know what to think about Sherlock right now. Too much awesome in an hour and a half.

Anyway, today just happened to be a SHERLOCK tea! thanks so much MissB! I haven’t gotten far enough with the Sherlock books to know who “The Colonel” is…he isn’t on the show… hmm. I was a bit worried on this one, since Adagio’s Thai Chai is one of my least favorites from Adagio for some reason. Luckily, this particular blend is AMAZING. It is really well balanced here. I think the Tiger Eye gives it a lovely sweetness. And there was a flavor here that remained elusive until I realized it was cocoa nibs! A nice deep chocolate flavor, if you realize that is what it is and not just the rustic astringency of the black tea itself. There are coconut pieces floating at the top of the infuser. Coconut, chocolate, caramel… oh my. I could have used more cinnamon though. Who is this Colonel and WHY does he get such a nice blend? I can’t believe how Cara McGee can take a blah Thai Chai and add some things to make it one of my favorite chais! So odd.

let me tell you what happened.
i got this awesome swap from jump62359 and i just started enthusiastically drinking them. dove right in.

however, it seems that 3 teas i picked in a row to try from the swap all had chai in them. chai chai chai. and this tea itself was so kinda dull, that i just kept procrastinating making a note. and then i would brew another cup. and try to pay better attention while sipping. and maybe figure the tea out more. maybe it would click or something? but nope. not this one.

(i would brew it. taste it. taste it some more. i would get bored. it would get cold.)

what i do love about this tea is that it makes me think of Elementary’s Sebastian Moran who i thought was very good and menacing. and still i “felt something” for the man. he was cast very well. (i suspect casting is why Elementary has grown on me so strongly.) (also the show has/had a trans-woman casted and portrayed it and not in any kind of weird or outlandish way, she was written and acted with depth and nuance.) (also all the women on the show (all two of them? hah) aren’t annoying. which is basically unheard of on american tv.)(i ramble…)

the other thing i like about this tea is that Tea Sipper apparently loves it! she has a much more sensitive palate than me. i can say that with confidence and very little background information because basically EVERYBODY has a more sensitive palate than i do!! hahah
i still have a few more cups of this so i will give it a rest for a while and then try again, while channeling Tea Sipper through my brew. i love the learning puzzle that’s sometimes tea.

So I actually picked this up at the Chicago Adagio location after the blender of this tea, Cara McGee, had a tea party there during C2E2. I wasn’t there for the party though. I ended up stopping by about a week later and Adagio still had some blends lurking around, so I grabbed this since it sounded interesting and I had been considering buying it online. I wish it had been in the Sherlock sampler set a friend of mine that was there with me ended up picking up, since I would’ve loved to try this first. Or at least smelled it. If I had, I probly wouldn’ve bought this to be honest.

The dry blend smells of cinnamon, cardamom, a hint of coconut, ginger and very faintly either caramel or vanilla. Not so sure on that since everything else is so much stronger, but it’s faintly there. It’s not unpleasant, but definitely makes you (or at least me) proceed with caution. Lol.
The taste, however, doesn’t come close to having all these great smells present. For me, the Thai Chai completely overpowers everything else in this blend. And specifically the ginger is all I taste. Well, cinnamon versus ginger, with the ginger coming out mostly on top. It’s so strong that it actually made me a little ill and I had to pour out the rest of my cup. If I want a ginger tea, I’d rather drink the Shieldmaiden blend I have instead.

It’s not really a bad blend. If you like stronger, spicy-esque flavors, especially ginger, this is the tea for you. If you were looking for something mildly spicy, or something that you can taste the tiger eye or assam melody teas, you might consider trying another blend. It’s definitely not one of my favorites. Swap bin for this one.

SSTTB: Pick #8

Don’t you hate when you notice that a tea you thought was added to your cupboard actually isn’t, so your number is off? I just had that happen with DT’s Vanilla Orchid. Apparently I forgot to add it when I picked up 50g of it. Logging Long Life Oolong just now reminded me of that… Blerg.

But anway; I made this for work today. I actually have no idea who the character is so this is one fandom blend that really didn’t get me interested because of the character association – I just took a whiff of it and thought it smelled decent for a Chai and was curious.

Is it just me or is The Box very Chai heavy?

It was ok; the base was light and came off smooth so I guess I didn’t push the steep time too much. Coconut was very dominant in the cup, and then a mix of ginger and lemon grass. Those last two are not really favourite flavours of mine but it worked out ok. It served its purpose at the time and was nice enough but I could go without ever drinking it again and be fine with that.

SSTTB

I am not a lover of chais and this box has a lot of chai but this one called to me. The sad thing is, it did so because it was Sherlock inspired. Seriously, these fandom blends are genius because I immediately want to support my fandoms and then have to stop myself from buying teas I KNOW I won’t drink. However, when I get the opportunity, I am still happy to try them out.

Tastewise, I get coconut and caramel with a hint of chai spices. The spices are nicely balanced though so I really don’t mind them at all. Not bad, though not something I personally need stocked. It is worth a try though :)

This sample is from MissB. Not the latest batch, but the batch before!

I quite like this one. Caramel and spices. Mmm. I took it to work with a little brown sugar, and I’m doing a second steep now in almond milk on the stove, to which I will also add brown sugar.

So yeah, I’d consider getting this tea again. In the distant future. Once the trouble with tribbles samples has been taken care of a bit. :)