The Jane Austen Mafia

As Mr. Darcy would say, “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love….” this black tea with blackberry and vanilla. This is such a soothing tea and has equal tasting of the berries and the vanilla. I have to admit that it would have been impossible for me to dislike this tea simply because it carries the Jane Austen name and if Jane Austen novels were the only books left in print, I could happily continue to read them in succession knowing what conversations were coming and being excited to read them again! But I actually loved this tea from the time I opened the package and the aroma caused me to relax in anticipation of the tea I would enjoy. I needed only a tiny amount of sweetener (Stevia) because my southern sweet tea roots insist on tea satisfying my sweet tooth. I also loved that the second steeping of this tea was as smooth and enjoyable as the first.

I’m a huge Jane Austen fan, so when I saw this blend I jumped on the bandwagon and ordered. I’m glad I did — it’s a wonderful blend. It does strike me as the sort of tea that would go best with food of some kind, so I drank it while eating a croissant, and the two went together perfectly. I think it would be equally good with toast, a scone, an English muffin, or any other typical tea accompaniment. It does need a bit of sweetener, IMO, but once that’s added, the flavors come out and they are well balanced. It’s not too fruity, as some blends can be — you can still taste the black tea. Looking forward to drinking this with breakfast tomorrow!

Another Adagio tea to try…another lukewarm reaction from me.

I didn’t pay too close attention to this while I drank it, admittedly. But I’m finding a lot of these Adagio blends are starting to taste the same to me, probably because of the base, which I’m not a huge fan of.

I’ve been holding out on trying the Tardis one, really hoping to like it based on the reviews, but not wanting to hold my breath. I will try it next though!

Thanks again, Cavocorax!

Fandom Tea Day – Tea #1

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” (One of my favorite Jane Austen Quotes)

This tea is lovely! I am so thankful that cavocorax sent this as part of our swap! I think I might have to think about keeping a stock of this from time to time.

Blackberry hits my taste buds first, followed by a lovely vanilla finish. The black tea base is mild, and never overpowers. YUM.

Some more backloggin. I decided to try this since cavocorax and I (possibly along with variaTea) will be placing a group order with adagio, and I figured I’d better start trying some of the samples that steepsterites have so thoughtfully shared with me. This one comes to me via shadowfall, so thank you!

I was really intrigued by this blend. Not necessarily because I’m an Austin fan (I’ve only read one of her books), but because the combination of flavours seemed to be fail-safe. Blackberries, cream, black tea? Sadly, I didn’t pick up on much in the way of berries either in the scent or the brew, even after I added my requisite milk and sugar. Keep in mind though that I tried this tea while my taste buds were a mess and my throat was living in the pits of hell, so that might have affected my ability to pick up on much. Mr. Keychange had a sip though and also couldn’t pick up on much in the way of berries. I’m going to try it again though, hopefully under better conditions. It really did taste just fine as a black tea; I just didn’t get much more out of it than that.

A sample from Shmiracles. I think this is actually the first Adagio custom tea I’ve tried, although I have a few in my stash. This is one I wouldn’t have got to try if it wasn’t for Shmiralces, so many thanks to her for sharing this with me!

It’s an interesting one. Dry, I can smell mostly chocolate, and while brewing I mainly pick up Adagio’s black base. To taste, though, it’s a different story. Blackberry cream, with just a hint of chocolate, and a pleasantly robust, slightly malty, base. I could happily drink this for a good long time — it’s one of those teas that’s easy to sip on and easy to like. A very tasty treat! Hopefully Adagio expand their custom range in the UK soon. If they did, this is one I’d definitely look to restock.

I get apple, I get something berry-ish (kind of?), I get a hint of caramel more in the aftertaste and how it blends all together, and I get a decent black tea base. A truly unusual blend, one that’s got me cocking my head to the side and going, "Hmmmm?

Having said all that… like many of the teas I’ve brewed today, I oversteeped this as well. Which blows because I had just enough for a large Timolino-full, and it was a gift from the lovely Cavocorax. Sigh. Well, I am very, VERY grateful I got a chance to try it, so thank you muchly for that!

A very nice sweet blueberry flavour! I had a cup with a bit of sugar and it’s very refreshing with a touch of vanilla.