This tea is one of the strangest experiences I’ve had from Adagio. I got the holiday sampler pack in the little tins and while the tin is adorable I did lose a teaspoon full of tea trying to open it (my fault, but the tin lid spat tea everywhere!)
Admittedly this left me slightly grumpy. My doubts about this tea increased when I opened it to see, not chunks of candy cane like the reviews led me to believe, but tiny puddles of melted sugar with bits of black tea stuck to them. Strange, but the parcel had been left in the post room for a while – it was probably too warm in there and melted the sugar.
Then, I brewed the tea according to the directions on the tin. The smell was unbelievable, and not in a good way. Not at all like candy cane or any discernable black tea, more like melted butterscotch mixed with something bitter.
Ignoring my nostrils, I took a sip and immediately regretted my choices. This tea tastes of a bitter, astringent, cheap black tea mixed with chemical. No peppermint, no sweetness, just cheap flavouring. I gave this one to my husband who also pronounced it ‘undrinkable’, despite loving flavoured teas I’ve not been able to get on with.
I love their chestnut tea and I buy my daily drinking genmaicha from Adagio, so I found this extremely disappointing.
Flavors: Bitter, Butterscotch, Chemical
