192 Tasting Notes
Been drinking this one over the last few days as an attempt to clean some of these samples out of my stash.
I had a thought. This might be a good starter black for those who have only had store bought tea bags and are turned off by their bitterness and/or astringency. It really is smooth and seems pretty forgiving of longer steep times and full boiling water. Smooth enough with a hint of sweetness to not need any additives, but strong enough that it could hold up to them in moderation.
The sample packet was open, so I must have tried this before but looks like I dind’t make any notes.
Its not bad. Its mild, no harshness that I can detect. Maybe a teeny bit of an odd aftertaste if it goes cold, but otherwise a rather basic nothing special, inoffensive black tea. I’ll happily drink what I have, but unlikely I’ll buy more.
The dry leaf smells like the plastic packet the sample came in.
The wet leaf smells like . . . I’m not sure what. It rings a bell somewhat but I just can’t seem to identify it. Nothing like tea or ginger however.
In the cup there is a faint scent that you might call ginger if you knew to expect this to be ginger. The taste is a little ginger like, but again, if I didn’t know it was supposed to be ginger, I might not actually identify it as ginger.
Honestly the cinnamon I tried was pretty similar, but it was more pleasant while this not so much. Its not bad, but feels underwhelming. I was hoping for a little more punch from the ginger. Its also not as smooth like maybe its conflicting with the base maybe?
I have found that the tangerine flavor is just a little too much all by itself. Instead I take about a quarter of one of these and toss it into my pot along with a plain black tea. The flavor still dominates, but it tones down the sweetness a lot and I find I enjoy it more.
This is surprisingly good. Its definitely not the red hots cinnamon that seems so common, but instead nice and smooth and mellow. Its also lighter in flavor, not trying to dominate but more complementing the tea which I enjoy. Sometimes BIG flavors can wear on you after a while.
I’m not sure if this is something I’d be willing to buy in quantity, but as long as I make Adagio orders (and I have a whole bunch of gift card left) I likely will pickup more sample packs.
And maybe one day I’ll figure out my idea for a custom blend.
Hard to describe this one. First steeped it had a more mild flavor, though one I can’t quite described. In some ways it just reminded me of a kind of generic tea flavor with a little something extra. As it cooled down however, it just got really astringent.
Second steep seemed to skip the generic tea realm and just went for astringent.
Sip down!
When I went to make myself some today I realized there was just a little more than I needed, but not enough to make more at a later time, so I just tossed it all in my pot. Its a bit stronger than I like but still not bad.
Another that I suspect got missed in the move chaos and I suspect why.
I am not fond of this at all. It feels harsher than I would desire. Plus I really can’t detect any of the aromas or flavors that are mentioned in the description.
Maybe its my steeping parameters. Maybe its just the way this is and I can’t detect what others can.
Either way, this just isn’t for me.
Not what I was hoping for. There’s some orange here, but there is also an odd aftertaste that I can’t describe and can’t figure out what’s causing it. As the tea cools, the aftertaste is more and more unpleasant.
I’ve been wanting to try out a handful of teas from Adagio in the hopes of coming up with my own custom blend (an orange spice that doesn’t contain clove) but I don’t think this is going to be a workable base for my idea.
