Pumpkin Spice

Revisiting this tea, and still not impressed. The spice does add to the flavor, but it overpowers the pumpkin, and you just end up with a spicy black tea.

When you smell the dry tea leaves, the spiciness of this tea doesn’t really make you think of pumpkin pie. It’s very ginger-y and clove-y, not so pumpkin-y. But that’s just the leaves. Surely the tea will taste different?

Eh. Meh. The cinnamon’s stronger in the tea, but it’s still a very spicy tea and not at all pumpkin-like. Oh, wait – I can sorta taste the pumpkin at the very end, almost in the aftertaste, but I’m not sure if it’s actually there or if it’s a phantom created in my mind. Hmmm.

It is a nice spiced tea. It’s warming and pleasant. But as a pumpkin-themed tea, it just isn’t working for me.

I’m finishing off a sample of this that Adagio sent from one of my earlier orders. I have brewed it up before, and remember not being very impressed.

I added milk and sugar, thinking that might help. No. Dang, this stuff is nasty.

Though I contemplated reading my Computer Organization literature, I decided to take a break to try one of Adagio’s fine seasonal products. Though I have had seasonal teas in the past, none quite compare to this Black Tea, that which is full of flavor.

I’ll admit, I’m not really a big fan of Black Teas (though ironically it is the type of tea I started on), but I am always willing to try Adagio’s flavored stuff, as it is usually pretty decent. There was that one occasion where I bought their Pineapple Black Tea, which I am still afraid to touch, let alone DRINK! Anyway, I digress.

Right now my window is open a crack (Allegheny likes to CRANK the heat, which is bad when my door is closed), and I can smell the faint sense of Autumn. Leaves are falling and that chilly air is just creeping in, though not as bad as winter, that’s for sure. So, the mood is set for some Fall-esque tea, am I right people?

Steep Method: IngenuiTEA
Normally, when making some tea from Adagio, I use their/my trusty IngenuiTEA steeping mechanism. I figure since they sell it, they’d want you to experience their teas in it. Also, I feel that I get a better, more thorough taste, than with my Zarafina, or some other auto-teamaker.

Steep Time: 3 Minutes, 30 Seconds

I heat the water first and when it’s boiling (about 200° F) I pour it into my steeper, the Pumpkin Spice already in there. Decided to have some fun and use Steep.it for their recommended amount of time for teas. A good thought, but I should have set my own time (3:30 was too short for this black tea).

Sip, sip, sip! Opinion and Reaction

This tea is surprisingly light for it’s type (black) and certainly has that “Fall” attitude to it. The taste is definitely there, a plethora of Vanilla and Oriental Spice-ish taste, as well as some Pumpkin flavoring to it. I’m actually surprised that there wasn’t MORE pumpkin flavor. I swear I need to steep it longer. I’ll try that on the next steep, but man it definitely needs MORE punch! So, Adagio, if you are listening, I am giving you the Thumbs Up on Steepster.com, but for next year (or even your next batch) please please add more Pumpkin flavor! Maybe there is a lot in it, but the Black Tea tastes overwhelms it? If so, use White Tea or even Oolong (my favorite!). It does go well with my mood at the moment, but there’s simply not enough Pumpkin flavor, I expected Pumpkin Pie! It’s more like Oriental Spice with a twist of Vanilla and a little hint of Pumpkins. Just sayin’.

I like it, but I don’t LOVE it.

TeaCast scale: 81/100.

I have to say I don’t really like this on its own. So I tried mixing it with pecan black tea and it was wonderful! It really brings out the flavors and tastes like pumpkin pie :) goodbye to that weird bitter taste it had before!

So, I played an epic game of “enni-meani-minnei-mo” today with my tea and landed on this. Joy. I tried it again without milk, could only taste tannin and mild spices. Now that I’ve added milk, I’m actually getting a bit more pumpkin! But it still has an odd effect on at the tip of my tongue.
The liquor (I for some reason feel uncomfortable with that word) was gorgeous and a rich red-brown and when I added milk it is a touch orange. Very pretty, happy I used my glass mug.
Still unnecessarily bitter and bland.

backlogging…

I made this over the weekend while at my sister’s house. I boiled milk, water, and sugar together with the tea, then let the tea steep for several minutes before straining the leaves out and drinking (what I could remember of takgoti’s chai method posted on Steepster earlier).

It was definitely better prepared that way than when I had done it with straight water, but there was still no pumpkin flavor. It’s just a spiced tea, and I’m not really fond of the spice blend used in it.

322/365

I’m pretty sure I’ve tried this one before, but a long time ago, and possibly as part of Adagio’s holiday/Christmas sampler? It seems like an odd thing to find in a Christmas sampler, so I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. Now that it’s October, I basically want everything pumpkin, so this one jumped easily into my basket when I placed my last order. It would have been silly for two Sherlock blends to travel alone, after all!

This one contains cinnamon, ginger, cloves and cardamom. It’s very sweet, even a little syrupy, which is nice for a couple of sips but quickly becomes cloying. I suspect it would be better as a latte, or even just with milk, but I didn’t have any to hand at work when I prepared it. The flavour actually reminds me quite strongly of cola, which initially struck me as slightly odd…but then I remembered that cola is basically a blend of spices, and probably quite a few of them are in this blend, so it’s maybe not so surprising. The ingredients list speaks of “natural pumpkin spice flavouring”, but I’m struggling to find much that reminds me of squash/pumpkin here. Artificially sweetened pie filling, perhaps…and cola.

As it cooled, it started to verge on bitter, so I finished my cup up fairly sharpish. It’s by no means a terrible blend, but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I’ve definitely got some work to do with this one, although when was making a latte last considered work..?

My original rating for this one was 12, but I’ve increased that a bit because this cup wasn’t super awful…and I think if I added some milk or made it as a latte, it might actually be okay. So.

I dunno, maybe my palate isn’t sophisticated enough. Maybe it’s that I boil the water and pour it over the bag and drink the tea, not knowing the first thing (or caring, all that much) about water temperature and steep time. Reading most of the reviews here, I’m beginning to think that ignorance is bliss.

Yes, it needs more pumpkin. Yes, it could probably use some more spice, too. Yes, it’s way heavy on the cloves, especially if you don’t much care for cloves. It does smell nice, though, and it tastes pretty good. What drops this tea in my esteem is its name. Were I to rip off the label and not know what I’m drinking, the tea’d be fine; it’s just that it’s got that Pumpkin Spice name and, well, that’s not really what you get.

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp
Additives: none
Water: 2 zarafina cups filtered water
Tool: Zarafina Black-Loose-Medium (I should have done light)
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: sweet generic spice
Steeped Tea Smell: cinnamon, pumpkin (MilitiaJim could smell it, I got a weird sweet smell)
Flavor: bitter black tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: more bitter
Liquor: translucent orange-red-brown

Steepster Traveling Teabox Tea

Where is my pumpkin? Where is the spice?

Post-Steep Additives: 1 tsp German rock sugar, hides the bitter, but your getting very sweet black tea, no spice, no pumpkin

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/03/adagio-teas-loose-leaf-black-tea.html