Elven Nectar

“…but no sign of age was upon them, unless it were in the depths of their eyes; for these were keen as lances in the starlight, and yet profound, the wells of deep memory.”

So I’m a bit of a Tolkien fanatic. It has been my fandom baby for forever and a bit longer. I have all the History of Middle Earth books, and I’m totally that person when it comes up in conversation.

When I was in high school, I spent a good amount of free time learning Quenya. It’s actually how my moraiwe handle came into being. I used to sign letters to my friends with it so they couldn’t be traced back to me (and they had their code names too (but one was Star Trek Voyager related and the other Harry Potter related. We were pretty awesome, what can I say?)

Fiance thinks I’m a bit mad, but I get a gleeful enjoyment when someone asks about my gamertag on XBL. It usually goes like:

“How do I say your gamertag?”
says name once or twice “But if you call me something that vaguely resembles it, I’ll probably respond”
“Err. So how’d you come up with that?”
“It’s Quenya for blackbird”
silence
“It’s one of Tolkien’s Elvish languages.”
“Oh like in the movies?”
“No, that was Sindarin.”
silence
“Hey. At least it’s not Telerin”

It’s way more fun when they ask where Tol Galen is.

This tea is actually pretty remarkable though. I was surprised at the depth the caramel offered when paired with the apricot and peach. The peach is mildly candy-like, but that’s offset by the dark caramel sugar notes, and the little bit of cinnamon that peaks midsip. The peach flavor lingers quite long after.

I couldn’t say quite why, but this tea is conjuring images of Celeborn and Thranduil meeting in the former Mirkwood after the fall of Dol Guldur and renaming it Eryn Lasgalen (The Wood of Greenleaves).

This is totally working for me.

Thanks again for your generosity in the samples Shmiracles!

the dry leaf blend smells pretty amazing. peach city!
steeped and plain, the tea falls SLIGHTLY flat for me, but i bet if i add just a touch of agave it’ll kinda fill out. i’m also going to try different steeping times and leaf quantities. it’s one of those occasions where the good outweigh the unsure qualities, and with just a little experimentation the tea will reach it’s proper potential. (i’ll keep ya posted.)

but in the meantime, does anyone here make their own adagio blends? if so, what method do you use? do you buy sample sizes of different teas and then measure out tiny half teaspoon ratios? and the brew them each in a tiny cup? or do you just think really hard and make a blend on the website and just go for it?
i really wanna be able to at least make one blend i feel good about, but i’m afraid i just might not have the knack for it…

Thanks to Shmiracles <3 I get to try SO MANY FANDOM TEAS !!! Nightvale, Teen Wolf, Black Butler, Hobbit, Sherlock. I’m drinking Stiles & Derek this afternoon, and for breakfast I get Elven Nectar tea, which is a beautiful little tea. It tastes like forest springtime, apricot & marigolds. Like golden fruit flowers nectar – just like the name. I’m excited to try more teas but I knew I wanted to get up this morning and drink this first. Yay Friday!

Probably one of the last teas from shmiracles tonight!
Finished my midterm (flat 80%. Ehh I’ll take it) and now time to study for philosophy tomorrow!

Smells super fruity dry. I almost never go for fruity because upon first smell, they tend to take the medicine route and it’s just not good to me? But alas, this was the first thing my hand picked up in my packs so Elven Nectar it is!
Fruity teas always smell weird to me dry, but steeping they always smell soooo good!
Peach, apricot and caramel blend with apple, marigold and cinnamon. Sounds good to me! The smell reminds me a bit of a darker version of Cara’s Elrond, but with a hint of cinnamon.

hmm. Nise and fruity! Definitely no medicine taste :) I get almost no caramel notes though, just the peach and apricot. I’m totally cool with that though, since I had Adagio’s caramel alone before and… no.

Swap Sample Sipdown! (42)

From VariaTEA! I think this is a fandom blend from Adagio that the designer has since started selling on their own website? Which seems a bit disingenuous to me since the website doesn’t actually specify whether or not they blend their teas in-house. At least the price is somewhat reasonable, at $11 for 50g compared to Adagio’s price of $12 for 85g.

I will say, to me an elven-inspired blend should be a green, oolong, or herbal base. But that’s okay!

Mostly this just tastes vaguely peachy with a hint of cinnamon and perhaps some caramel or vanilla. The base is extremely generic and doesn’t taste like much. It has a slight mustiness.

So anyway, it’s okay but I wouldn’t call it “good”. But that’s what I generally expect from Adagio teas (though this once isn’t specified as being an Adagio blend).

This tea seems to be very highly rated and perhaps it is because my mug cooled quite a bit but I just don’t understand why. Like so many other adagio black teas, this is quite bitter and astringent and has a slight dirt quality to it. It has a stonefruit flavor which is nice but that bitterness just overshadows it. There is some sweetness that could be caramel but again it is being drowned out. Perhaps I need to try this hotter to get the love?

I’ve drank several teas today, but didn’t really get around to posting about them.
This is my last tea of the day,
It’s another one from Sil, sent to her from Schmiracles.
This is a black tea with peach flavor, & it’s not bad if you add a bit of sweetening, though it does get bitter as it cools.
Another sipdown!

Keychange is talking me into an adagio order so I’m going through a few more samples to decide what I’d like to get! This is another one from shmiracles!

It’s a nice black tea with peach, and peach, and apricot and more peach! This might go on the list. It makes me think of spring. Those elves, they know their stuff! The base isn’t quite as good as some of the black teas I’m used to but the fruit is nice, and so long as it doesn’t get bitter as it cool, I’d say it was a winner!

Ok. It got a little bitter. Good but not insta-buy good.
(Sipdown 182)

Thanks Schmiracles for sending me this tea! Had this one last night before bed. I mainly got the peach, but there wasn’t definitely some apricot as well and some sweetness that could have been the caramel. I forgot about this and over steeped it so I will make the remaining cup of this on the weekend and see if I can pick out the caramel a little more.

So this brings me to 140. In March. So there. neener neener lol I’ve been sipping on this since i got home, trying to figure out what i need to do to get my other half to get his darn tax info to me so that i can file for him….what needs to be done for work tomorrow and what the heck i want to do with my hair tomorrow. CHOP CHOP CHOP!

I’ve been sick of peach teas lately..but this one isn’t overly cloyingly peach because the base comes through a bit more. Also, i think the caramel in this one helps…or at least i think that’s caramel. It’s not in your face either. mostly…just a good cup tonight for what i was puttering around with haha