Candy Apple

So, I logged back into Adagio the other day and realized I had wracked up enough points there to get some free tea! Like a kid in a candy shop, I picked four sample sizes and paid $1.75 total for it. Love! And this was the first tea I selected.

The first time I reviewed this tea, I was talking about the bagged sample version. Now I’m trying the loose leaf and it does taste a little different. The mouthfeel is much heavier, but otherwise, it seems about the same. Still can’t really taste the cinnamon. Hmm. Also, the apples taste like baked apples, not fresh. I don’t believe I mentioned that before.

I JUST got my Adagio Shipment MINUTES ago! Is it sad that I get THIS jazzed about tea, seriously!? Do I have a problem? :) Anyhow…Candy Apple. It’s Black Tea with Caramel and Apple scents. After steeping it’s scent morphs to something that seems a little bark-like but just a little, not overbearing. The longer it steeps the longer the bark smell…loose leaf-wise NOT actual liquid…thankfully. The After Steep Scent of the liquid is a medium black tea smell. I can taste a caramelly-type taste but it seems like it’s interrupted but something else and I cannot figure out what…but it’s not apple. Just like “Gotta Have More Cowbell” it’s “Gotta Have More Apple”. It’s okay but I was hoping for more apple or a different type taste. It’s not bad, just not really what I was thinking it would taste like, I guess.

Probably my last pot of tea before bed. I got the ‘Adagio Holiday Cheer’ gift set from my husband for Christmas and since we have been drinking bagged tea all day (for a change) it made sense to try a sample from the set. I let my husband pick a tin at random and he chose Candy Apple which sounds very good. I can’t remember the last time I actually had a candy apple/toffee apple.

The pyramid bags are rather clear and I can note finely chopped black tea with a few pieces of dry apple in each. Not quite how I imagined it would taste but alrighty then. The bags have a sweet and slightly spicy (cinnamon?) apple scent. Score :) I just checked the back of the tin and it does say cinnamon.

Once steeped the tea is dark brown in colour with a sweet and fruity scent, not quite candy/toffee apple but more like apple pie. That could be because of the cinnamon, I have never had a candy/toffee apple with cinnamon on/in it before and I cannot see why they have included it in the ingredients.

In flavour this has a strong black tea base which counters a lot of the sweet toffee flavour and the apple is being over taken by the cinnamon. So it’s malty, smoky, spicy and a little fruity.

Oh Adagio, this is far from candy apple. Seriously, why the cinnamon? It’s similar to the previous tea I drank (Dilmah – peppermint and English toffee) in that the black base is just too strong and it ruins the flavours that you would expect it to have.

I’m not saying it’s undrinkable, I can finish the bags that I have…but it’s just not what it says it is in my opinion. Such a shame.

113/365

It’s been years since I tried this one! My last sample was tea bags from the Christmas sampler, and I judging by my rating (50) I didn’t like them all that much. I think that might partly be an “in comparison to the other teas in the sampler” rating, though, because there were some good ones! I can remember Chestnut in all its glorious goodness even now! This time, I have a loose tea sample of this one which came as a freebie with my last order. I’m happy to have the chance to give it another go.

Dry, the scent is hopelessly artificial and slightly on the bitter side. It doesn’t fill me with optimism. Brewed, though, it’s quite a different story. The immediate problem is the black tea base, which is a bit obtrusive. Adagio’s base never was their strong point, though, so I feel like I can set that aside. More so since the candy apple flavour makes it all worthwhile. It tastes, to me, exactly like those sugary red fairground confections – very sweet, with just a hint of caramel, and an undertone of apple. If I’m going to be picky, I’d say the apple perhaps isn’t quite enough of a contrast – I’d really like it to be stronger and a little sharper. It’s definitely a floral/floury red apple kind of flavour, though, which I like in this context. It works well with the general level of sweetness.

I’m going to increase my rating of this one a little, because 50 is a fairly indifferent score for me and I do actually like this one. I’d not go out of my way to keep it around all the time, but it’ll be a nice addition to my cupboard for a while.

I received this with my most recent order from Adagio (last week). I kept forgetting it at work. This worked in my favor this morning as I wanted something different and not something we had in the shop. First off i wish there was some kind of a string on the pyramid bag (didn’t have anything to fish the bag out with at work…fingers were not a good idea).

Dry the tea smells of apples and caramel. The scent of both gets stronger as the tea steeped too. So I was excited…this was going to be good! Well, until it wasn’t. Instead I’m getting a strange mix of the apple, cinnamon (didn’t get that until I tasted the tea) and caramel. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t good either. I think what it needs is a tad more apple and caramel flavoring and less cinnamon. Bummer.

Same story here, got this as a sample with an order from Adagio (I think my tea of the month club, actually). I forgot my tea mug at work yesterday and wasn’t feeling ambitious enough to make tea and find a different mug this morning so I figured I’d just dip into my bag stash in my desk. I used the keurig in my office to get hot water but I have no idea what temperature it reaches. Plopped the bag in and wha? There’s no string?!? Um, ok, that’ll be interesting in about 5 minutes.

5 minutes, one stirer, and a few scalded fingers later I tried the tea and there’s something off about it. I did add some sugar substitute, generic, from Target, which can sometimes give my tea a different flavor (I find splenda or another natural one works best) but I’m not sure that’s it. I get just a tiny hint of apple and then this other flavor. It kinda makes my face mess up for a second after swallowing but I keep drinking it so take it for what you will.

Like others, I received this tea as a free sample with my recent Adagio order. This tea is pretty average. I can’t taste much cinnamon, which I’m thankful for. I agree with others that cinnamon is not something found on a candy apple.

So, what do I taste? Mostly black tea and caramel. I’m not getting hardly any apple at all. In fact, I think any apple in this is wishful thinking on my part. There’s no bitterness I could find, but I did add a little skim milk.

It’s not a bad tea, but there’s something off about it. It’s either the black tea base or the heavy, cloyingly sweet, caramel flavor. It was nice to try, but it’s not something I would crave or buy.

I’m impressed by this tea, but not in a good way. Any tea that can manage to get bitter in two minutes impresses me.

In times of stress, we all fall back on those bad habits we try not to indulge in. It’s been an incredibly stressful week, and my bad habits have been junk food and sodas. I was looking forward to curling up with a good tea to bust the stress and feel better about what I was putting in my body…I should not have reached for this tea.

The front of the sip is stomach-wrenchingly bitter, though the flavor does come through after that. Still, not enough for me to want to finish the cup.

I just don’t get candy apple from this blend. Specifically, the apple is lacking. I can taste something sweet, like maple or caramel. It’s a heavy, sticky sort of sugar layered over black tea. But never apple. I wonder if milk would enhance the flavor and bring out the latent fruitiness?

I got a sample bag of this in my most recent tea order. I wasn’t sure I’d like something so flavored, but then I loved it! The smell was great, the taste was fun, and I found myself wishing for more. Very clever, Adagio… very clever.