Brittany

I’ve been drinking this tea almost every morning for a while now. I was really excited to try this tea when I first got it, for I was lacking a good Keemun for quite some time. Initially I thought it was very thin and light. Somehow, over time, I’ve grown to like it quite it a bit.

There isn’t a whole lot that stand out about it per se. It’s slightly sweet, peppery, and delicately smokey. Sometimes I’m not in the mood to analyze flavors (the dreadful morning hours)- I just want that reliable, familiar friend to wake me up.

There’s a lot going on in this tea. I also think I get different flavors every time I drink it. It’s a blend made up of: Keemun, Assam, Oolong, and Ceylon. I initially tasted a lot of Assam, which made me think I should cut the brewing the time (I usually just go for three minutes with Assams), but then the strangest thing happened…

I was sitting in class with a big thermos of this, trying to wake myself up. All of it sudden, it tasted like a pure Keemun. I kept wondering if I had brewed a Keemun instead in the morning (let’s face it- mornings and me aren’t the closest of friends). I didn’t think about it for the rest of the day. The next morning I pried my eyes open and made sure I brewed the right tea… same thing happened.

Maybe the teas weren’t evenly distributed in the blend I received. Regardless, it’s not a bad tea, but it needs to make up its mind!

Given the many negative reviews, I was afraid that reading them before drinking the tea was going to make me less likely to enjoy it. Well, while I don’t find the tea overly spectacular, I think it’s pleasantly drinkable. I wasn’t expected to be blown away from a CS bagged tea. CS is, for me personally, more of a comforting nostalgic brand. It was the brand that really got me interested in tea and I’ll admit that the cover art still charms me.

On to the flavor… there’s definitely a white tea taste here. It’s not the subtle, higher grade of white tea. They use white peony. I actually prefer the lower grades because I find they have more flavor. I’m not the type of person that gets overly excited on subtleties, so this base works well for me. The pear flavor isn’t really in the taste (as is so often the case with flavored teas), but rather in the scent alongside a vanilla aroma.

Not awful, yet not exciting, but drinkable and enjoyable in a pinch.

It’s been forever since I’ve posted! Not good! Anyway, maybe my taste buds are off because of a cold, but I’m not really wowed by this one. It seems rather one-dimensional. I definitely don’t taste any chocolate as the description implies or even the caramel. It’s very thick- almost chewy, but that doesn’t equate with a varying flavor profile. I’ve thought about decreasing the time to three minutes, maybe pick up some more subtle nuances, but I really can’t be too bothered. This tea’s good for a sore throat and that general tea taste, but I won’t be sad to see this sample go.

So I have a confession to make. Even though I’ve primarily drank loose leaf for the past two years or so, I’ve been re-indulging in Celestial Seasonings teas lately, especially this one. I don’t know what it is about CS that attracts me, a loose leaf drinker, to go out of my way and find some of the rarer ones. Maybe it’s the cute cover arts (especially this one- I mean, it features bears painting candy canes- what’s not to like?!). Or maybe it’s the nostalgic novice tea drinking years of my life. I remember getting into tea around the time I started my first year of college. Freshman year was a great year for me and very exciting. It’s no surprise that tea held a very special place in my life, especially CS teas which I drank very often.

So, I see no reason for not enjoying a bagged tea occasionally… or even often as it’s the case with this tea! I love the cooling simplicity of this tea. It’s minty and slightly green with a touch of comforting vanilla. There really isn’t a wrong way to brew this tea. Even though CS recommends cooler water (they consider it a green tea), I haven’t found this tea really anything more than an herbal with a tad of green to it. The only way I can pull out the green tea flavor is to let the bag infuse for 15 or so minutes. Even then, I swear it might just me mentally thinking it’s there. The big point is, though, the tea won’t run bitter on you. I’ve had this brewing for two hours once and it still tasted good!

Upon opening the bag I was rather surprised to find out that this tea smelled like chocolate! When brewed, it has a very delicate floral aroma to it. The color is quite interesting- an almost golden hue. It’s definitely not a delicate white, as the grade would imply, so from some reviews I’ve read that point that out as a negative, I really have to scratch my head. This is coming from a person that enjoys more of the bold flavors that come with lower grades, though. The aftertaste is very sweet and like the dry scent suggested, there’s a faint taste of chocolate, too.

I was curious to try an organic sencha because I have heard just how different the taste is. I haven’t had enough of conventional versus organic to make this judgement myself, but this tea is definitely different in a good way.

One of the things I’ve heard about organic sencha, and a negative for some people, is that it’s a lot milder in flavor. In a way I would have to agree, but it’s not a negative for me. This sencha doesn’t have quite that bite I associate with other senchas, but nevertheless it’s enjoyable.

The smell is very sylvan and the taste is rather woodsy as well. Slightly grassy with an herbaceous, salty buttery undertone. There’s also a marine like quality to this- it’s as if a garden emerged under the sea and you’re imbibing this oceanic green nectar. I can’t say it’s my favorite sencha, but it’s a nice one to have on hand.

I used 3.5 gram of leaf per 4 oz. of water.

I originally bought this tea out of a mere curiosity of trying bancha and sampling tea from Yuuki-cha. I just placed an order for a kyusu and figured it would be a good idea to throw a tea in my cart, but not something seriously expensive (the kyusu had already put a huge dent in my wallet).

When I opened the bag I was very intrigued. The smell was oddly nostalgic, yet I couldn’t place my finger on it and I still can’t. It almost smells yeasty to me- oddly enough a smell I kinda like.

So on to the real test – the taste test… and it was a letdown, but only at first! I finally managed to brew this tea correctly yesterday and fell in love with it. I used the suggested upward amount of leaf (6 grams) and 4 oz. Today I’m enjoying a big 8 oz. glass with hopefully many infusions. I was able to get around four good cups of this one yesterday.

The taste is very mild and reminds me of the herbs I used to drink in abundance (I still do, but I drink more tea now), like horsetail and strawberry leaf. And yet, there’s something different and unique about this tea. The description refers to this tea as fitting for spring and I think they’re spot on. It’s as rejuvenating as stepping into a open field of spring flowers. After imbibing these sylvan elixirs, one is gently lifted and brought back into a renewed state of energy and life. After drinking four cups of this yesterday I cleaned like crazy for three hours!

As I was digging through the ever so organized tea drawer this morning looking for ceylon, I found this instead. I was excited because I didn’t realize there was a keemun in there (my boyfriend had ordered it), so I definitely decided to have this tea instead of the ceylon, eagerly awaiting the keemun goodness I’ve come to love.

Well… I was a bit disappointed. It smelled very smokey and slightly woodsy. As I took a sip I was less excited. The powerful scent just doesn’t live up to the taste. It’s very flat tasting and watery thin. There isn’t much body to this tea and it has this odd tangy after taste to it.

I sun brewed this tea yesterday and I’m having it with my lunch. I have to say I’m not surprised by this- it’s the typical flavored black Adagio tea that’s misses on many levels. The ceylon base is just never really a hit with me – it’s either too bitter or too overwhelming of the other flavors. The strawberry flavor in this tea tastes rather artificial and very jammy.

Thank you Kashyap for sending me such generous samples!

I really loved how the tea smelled when I opened the pouch. It reminded me of chocolate covered dried fruits. When brewed, the tea had an amber color and a faint citrus scent to it with some of that chocolatey goodness still. It tastes very similar to how it smells: crisp, smooth, chocolatey, and slightly fruity. Very well balanced and a joy to wake up with.

I’m almost done with this sample, but it’s another sample I won’t be getting more of again. It’s hard to talk about honeybush without bringing up rooibos, especially in this case. Having had Adagio’s vanilla rooibos, I can easily say I prefer the rooibos over honeybush. I’m more of a rooibos fan as it is, but it’s not to say I don’t enjoy honeybush- I just think each herb has its own advantages and preferred flavor combination.

For me, the vanilla and honeybush are good friends, but not a perfect match. The sweetness of the honeybush competes with the vanilla. Each one is trying to outdo the other one. The rooibos’ earthiness, not its sweet cousin the honeybush, pairs far better with vanilla.

I finished my sample from Adagio today and I can’t say I’ll be getting more. It’s not bad- just rather unremarkable. I prefer other fruit tisanes to this one. I can’t review how it tastes warm because I only did iced, but I purposely avoided it hot. It definitely has this orange kool-aid, high c orange, or other sugary artificial orange drink aspect going on. Warm orange kool-aid just doesn’t appeal to me, so I opted for all iced.

It works rather well iced- very refreshing and citrus-y with a little bit of tartness from hibiscus (you know, the thing that just has to show up everywhere!). I blended this one a couple of times with honeybush vanilla from Adagio and it worked quite well to create a liquid creamsicle like flavor.

Mmm… this stuff is addictive! It’s very tempting for me to brew a lot of this at a time, but I’ve been holding back and just doing 3 oz. cups because they turn out so well and force to me to cherish each sip.

This tea reminds me so vividly of the sea and salty waters. It’s the first thing I noticed. Surprisingly enough, the saltiness of it is a rather interesting aspect to the tea and not weird at all like you would imagine (no yucky salt water here). Like other reviewers have noted, it definitely does have a bitter aftertaste to it, but a little bitterness isn’t something that bothers me. I can get two very good infusions and somewhat weak third infusion out of it.

I have so many herbs in my cupboard and drink them all the time, so I might as well write about them. People consume herbs like peppermint and chamomile for taste purely all the time, so why not something like nettle? So here begins my review into my collection of herbal treasures.

Nettle is the epitome of an earthy taste to me. There is nothing that smells, tastes, and resembles the fragrant dirt that lines the earth more than nettle. With every sip you literally imbibing the potent fibers of the ground. For some that may be off putting, but perhaps if you’re into pu-erh, this could be just the herb for you.

Imagine that after a rainstorm the rain has penetrated the ground and fallen leaves. Now imagine making an infusion out of said leaf- there’s the taste of nettle- the taste of earth itself.

I feel slightly bad about stealing a lot of this tea from my boyfriend! Normally we don’t drink the same tea (he’s into Chinese greens), but I’ll try at least a cup for curiosity. Well, this one caught me by surprise.

This is the second yellow tea I’ve tried, so I can’t accurately make associations with other teas. It’s very nutty- a quality which I really, really love. It also has a corn-like taste to it. It almost reminds me of eating corn slathered with some butter (which I never add to corn interestingly enough). Otherwise, it’s pretty light and delicate, which I would expect from a Chinese tea, but it’s unique enough to hold my attention and warrant further exploration into Chinese territory. So far this tea beats all the Chinese greens I’ve had, though!

Excuse me Gyokuro, where have you been hiding all my tea-drinking life? My first Gyokuro and, needless to say, I am happily in love.

This is my second time drinking it and tinkering around with the steeping time and temperature. The first time I killed it on the second steep by following Den’s instructions (180* at 30 sec). I should have known better from reading about Gyokuro and its low temperature preference, but sometimes I like finding out these things myself (and wasting expensive tea in the meantime).

This cup I brewed is deliciously buttery and sweet. Even onto the third infusion it’s holding onto flavor. I didn’t think I enjoyed sweetness in tea, especially green, but this is a different kind of sweetness- a mellow, buttery and grassy one. The first infusion was vegetal and grassy. The second infusion was probably my favorite, highlighting the buttery taste I can’t get enough of. The third was like the second, but less potent.

Steeping notes: 3oz. with 2 g
1. 145* at 90 sec.
2. 160* at 60 sec.
3. 170* at 90 sec.

I was excited to find a hazelnut flavored tea. Back in the days when I used to consume coffee, I would always go for anything hazelnut – be it flavored coffee itself or the flavored creamer. And so, I just had to grab a sample of this one seeing as love both hazelnut and honeybush.

It’s not a bad one by any means, but it’s definitely lacking. Unlike in the coffee I used to drink, the flavor of the hazelnut doesn’t carry over into the tea. As to be expected, I really like the smell of it, but that’s where it ends. I’m fooled in to thinking I’ll be enjoying hazelnut only to discover I’m just drinking honeybush. The flavor would probably be brought out more by adding sweetener, but I think the sweetness would just be overwhelming for me.

Mmmm… a new favorite of mine! I love rooibos and I love vanilla, so I figured that mixing the two together would just have to create a fantastic, tasty union. This tea is perfect for any time of the day, but I especially like it for the nighttime hours to help me unwind. It’s also really good with almonds (just discovered it by accident when I happened to be eating them at the same time!). I like how both flavors don’t overwhelm the other. So often I get a rooibos flavored blend only to discover I taste merely the flavor and not the rooibos. Not this time- vanilla and rooibos work happily in harmony together. A creamy, mellow vanilla and a earthy, sweet rooibos… why did I buy only a sample? Oh, so I can have an excuse to go on a tea shopping adventure yet again.

I didn’t know just how much I would enjoy Chinese black teas, especially Keemuns. I’ll be sad to see this sample go, but excited to try out different Keemuns!

As the description implies, the word “rustic” is fitting. As ambiguous as the term may seem at first in regards to describing a tea, I think it’s perfect. When I think of the word, I think of some pastoral, laborious scene in the midst of a summer heat. That’s exactly what drinking this tea reminds me of. It’s as if I am imbibing some long bygone days of another century.

Slightly chocolaty, not the least bit smokey like some Keemuns, this would make a perfect dessert tea or even, like my favorite application, the perfect breakfast tea.

The first rooibos sample I’m trying from the myriad of rooibos/honeybush samples I purchased from Adagio. I actually had a taste for apples, so I thought this tea would be perfect. When I opened the pouch I was hit with what reminded me of scented candles or potpourri. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a bit different to say the least.

The tea actually tastes very sweet. I’m wondering why this is, but maybe it’s the apple? I think I did see apple pieces in it or something, but I doubt that really contributes to the flavor. I’m not getting blasted by cinnamon like other reviewers are, but maybe it builds up on your tongue over time.

Okay, I had to go back and edit this note. The tea was just too sweet and became overly artificial tasting as I kept drinking. I guess my boyfriend was right when he said it truly tasted like drinking a candle >.<

I was super excited for this tea, yet super afraid. I absolutely love candy canes and anything mint related, so I of course had to order a sample of this one. And yet, I’ve had not so stellar results in the past from Adagio flavored black teas. I’ve always found the smell so tempting, but the flavor lacking and needing sweetener and/or milk, which I’m not opposed to doing sometimes, but still…

Well, the smell, like I expected, is definitely tantalizing. It’s everything I would want a candy cane tea to smell like – nice and minty combined with comforting, creamy vanilla.

So I sit here, waiting anxiously to get my mint fix, and then I finally taste it… Go away black tea, you’ve ruined it! Ah, I had my fears. Believe me, I absolutely love black tea of all kinds, but maybe not so much flavored – or maybe not so much from Adagio – or maybe not so much when it interferes with mint.

Either way, maybe it’s a taste that will grow on me, but the bitterness that comes from that base is rather disconcerting. I’m going to try to add some cream to this next time. If that fails, I’ll add some peppermint to it. And it if that fails, too, I won’t be too far away from finishing the sample.

Meh, I wanted to like you Candy Cane. I really did. I’ll try to work on fixing you, okay?

I had this tea last night because I knew I was getting my Adagio shipment in the next day. I had ordered almost all their rooibos and honeybush samples, so I figured this tea was getting pretty stale and better to use it up before the exciting new ones come in.

Well, I can only guess the tea I had was this one… I purchased a 1 oz. pouch of this from a nearby new age store. After some investigating online, however, I’m almost positive it’s this tea.

Stories aside, I don’t really know what to make of it. The first several sips were amazing. It tastes exactly like what it says – a warm, nutty gingersnap cookie with all the earthy, sweet goodness of rooibos underneath. As I kept drinking it, however, I kinda lost interest and the sweetness of the drink really built up on my tongue. If only all the sips managed to taste as good as the first few…

On a weirdly positive note, though, I had trouble falling asleep last night. After tossing and turning for an hour and going downstairs for a midnight glass of milk, I came back to discover my entire room smelled like gingersnap cookies! Who needs candles anymore?

I don’t know why I’m getting sleepy at around noon, but I knew an Assam tea would definitely help with this! This is one of my favorite Assams I’ve tried so far from my Upton samples. It’s extremely balanced with fruity notes, a touch of sweet malt, and lasting subtle astringency.