From the queue, written March 23rd 2014
Another from the EU TTB, round 2. A handy satchet with a fairly uncomplicated flavouring. That sounds like just the thing for me right now. I’m not sure if I’ve had Adagio’s cranberry flavoured black before, but I quite like cranberry. I just don’t seem to have it very often, with the exception of the Late Summer Blend from AC Perchs, which is vanilla and cranberry and which I am highly partial to.
It smells lovely. All berry-y and RED and juicy and sweet and fruity. I can detect the black base underneath, but not anything in particular about it. That’s okay. So long as I can tell that there is a tea there, I’m okay with it. Flavouring should never be stronger than one can still tell that one is drinking tea and not hot juice. I’m also reminded of the raspberry oolong that AC Perchs have which I loved dearly for years but haven’t had in a long time now. I just sort of reached the point where I didn’t find it any less nommy at all, I just felt… finished with it. For a while at least. I rather think I’ll be reacquainting myself with it again some time.
Anyway, this one is neither raspberry nor oolong, and it’s not from ACP either. But it smells lovely.
I tastes nice too. Cranberry is a slightly astringent flavour and I’m getting that here as well. Just a little bit, but not in the same way that a tea which has been brewed carelessly becomes astringent from unhappiness. It’s cranberry astringency. It’s rather difficult to explain. Just accept my word for it. It’s astringent, but it’s berry-astringent which is not the same thing as tea-astringent. Same sort of mouth-reaction, but feels different.
The flavouring is fairly strong and it feels quite juicy to swallow. Again, as in the aroma, the base is coming through as a sort of ‘default tea’ flavour to it all, so that I know what I’m drinking, but there’s nothing spectacular about it. I’ve seen plenty of people on Steepster write that Adagio’s flavoured teas didn’t really work for them, because they didn’t like the base. I don’t mind the base in these. It’s too anonymous for me to have an opinion either way.
This is not a tea that one sits down and deciphers. It’s something one drinks while logging on to Steam one late afternoon and debates with oneself whether to play Terraria or give that Aquaria game a second try.
Which is what I shall now do. (Any Steepsterites on Steam, do feel free to look me up if you like. Name to search for is Angrboda and I have the same icon as here, so you can’t miss me.)