JustJames Send Message

i don’t mind clove, quite like it actually… but for me it boiled down to too many acid ingredients without complimentary agents: orange, cranberry, hibiscus… and the clove doesn’t tone it down, if anything it boosts it.

i’d like a stronger tea component which ideally plays the part of a non acid baseline for all of the acids. maybe not a darjeeling because they can have acid flavours, maybe not a keemun because they can overpower. not a puerh (even though it’s my favourite)…. i don’t know what baseline changes need to be made… beyond my skill sets!

too much acid, not enough complimentary base. that’s my two cents worth. it does have potential though!

there are all kinds of apple pies. the kind you buy at walmart, the kind you get at a restaurant with a crumble topping, the kind you buy in a fancy bakery that’s teeny and costs more than a month of groceries… this blend actually reminds me of a tarte tatin that i make: light and fresh, a strong apple flavour, a light caramel.

however, that’s where the comparison ends. i think this tea has significant potential. it’s ALMOST there. i don’t get as much of a commitment from the spices as i’d like. the ingredient list says there’s allspice in there, but it’s a very hesitant component.

nitty gritty: do i like this tea? sortof. i really like what it could become. the apple component is strong and light. granny smith in its brightness. there is an element of caramel. so the pie filling is there… the spices could be stronger which would, in my opinion, improve the blend.

flip side: i don’t get any elements of pastry, and i do get an odd mottled element that i’m having a hard time identifying which i feel challenges the accomplishments of the blend. i really do think this tea could be brilliant, it just needs a bit more work.

how could this not be in the database? i am dumbstruck.

i got a great tea of the month club coupon which gave me 15% off anything i ordered. happy day! and this was one of the new teas i chose.

surprise, surprise— it’s great! i don’t think i’ve ever had holy basil before, but this is a light cinnamon medium bodied puerh that has beautifully balanced fruit and spice notes worked in. while it is a cinnamon puerh, it’s nothing at all like steap shoppe’s cinnamon swirl bread. puerh fills in the bread role in steap shoppe’s blend, whereas in this one it is a pure puerh note (i’m not being critical of either… i think both are awesome!) the goji gives the fruit note a very original berry taste… not one i’ve ever found before. it also adds to the colour lent to the steep by all the cinnamon. looks beautiful and smells great dry.

affiliated words: comforting, soothing, energizing (the caffeine), balanced, light.

my only sad note is that it doesn’t resteep particularly well unlike the rest of verdant teas, but still well worth it. lovely!

very nice! the chocolate gives me warmth, the mint gives me cool… it’s a very smooth blend with a natural sweetness. this came along with my feast of tea treasures from ShortSorceress. this is very nice to drink while looking at the rain and the clouds that don’t look like they’re going anywhere through the window.

i’m the first to comment on this one? excitement for the day…

this is a lovely puerh. i wouldn’t count it as a major player like some of verdant teas puerhs, but it has been explained to me that the highest quality teas are often NOT used in conjunction with flavour because the two would compete. (makes good sense to me).

one of the things that impressed me most about this was that it was tropical without using coconut or pineapple. while i love both, i don’t always want tea that reminds me of a pina colada. the strawberry and mango are very complimentary and very ‘warm season’: spring, summer, a cruise to someplace warm…

amber steep… as opposed to an earthy bread flavour in this instance the puerh gives more of a quiet pastry suggestion (i swear i do have thoughts that do not orient around desserts)…. as though this were a mango/strawberry danish.

haven’t tried a resteep but i will. not sure i will buy it for myself, but it was a lovely surprise in my swap package. again, thank you ShortSorceress!

this was a grand share from ShortSorceress. thank you kindly, ma’am!

i am trying so hard to reduce sugar in my life which is not an easy thing for me; given the choice between cheesecake and chips i’ll always swap my wife her cake for my chips so i can have two pieces! however, given that despite my red mowhawk my next birthday is 38, i figured maybe i should eat a tad more responsibly.

i have a costco membership. it would be bonkers to buy sugar there under normal circumstances (what, an 80 pound bag? lol) as i stumbled through the inconveniently unlabeled aisles i noticed bottled pairs of agave syrup for 9.99$. that’s supposed to be a great alternative to sugar. it’s way sweeter than white granulated, which means i can use less. except it doesn’t seem to work that way. i use just as much if not more. damn.

so i thought i’d try to cut it out all together starting with this tea! it’s a very nice smooth blend. deeply, darkly chocolate. lovely even without sugar (although i did add cream). very rich, definitely decadent, reminds me of chocolate mousse. i didn’t miss the sugar at all!

i’m not sugar free… but if you are trying to reduce your sugar intake i highly recommend this one =0)

thank you to ShortSorceress for this treat. i have read so much about it and she was so kind as to send me a bag out of her supply!

i can truly say that i have never had a tea like this one. when a tea is described as fruity apples and raspberries come to mind. it is definitely fruity, and yet i can’t place which one. all of them perhaps? there is a very interesting hint of potential that it could be bitter had they wanted it that way, but instead of being a liability it plays as a beautiful counterpoint, emphasizing the lovely balance of fruit notes and how they play with the tea harmony.

the intake of breath just before i sip carries a light scent of honey and something reminiscent of the brioche that i bought and dunked in coffee (back before i was allergic)when i lived in paris. the is the tiniest hint of nuttiness, even harder to detect that the bitter potential.

comparing this to familiar blends i come up with no metaphor. it is not a an earl grey of any kind, nor a puerh, nor a green. it’s not an assam or an oolong…. or maybe it is, but it is blended so brilliantly that for me it is a brand new kind of tea!! this is new and wonderful!

predictably, two days previous to trying this charming tea, i placed an order with harney and sons…. did i order this one. of course not, lol.

i must be off to add this to my future shopping list, lol.

i adore creme brulee. so much so that i tend to focus in on that word and not observe the words before or after it. sigh. face to palm.

i really don’t like orange peel in teas. well, usually. it’s often bitter and that’s all i taste. the caramel would balance it out though, right? yup, if i could taste it. i have no idea what my problem is but other than butiki’s caramel vanilla assam i can’t taste it.

i’m sorry ShortSorceress and i’m sorry della terra… this was all my oops. note to self in future: maintain level of literacy previous to identifying the presence of the word ‘brulee’. no numbers. my bad.

let me begin by saying that the arrival of ShortSorceress’s mammoth swap (i know i have never done one on this scale) was perfect. i have had a rotten week. nothing remarkable about that fact, we all have bad stretches, they come… they go… we survive… ideally we thrive. i was late for a doctor’s appointment last friday. it was the appointment where we were going to review the images of the MRIs taken to diagnose my injured right arm. because i was late i was handed a copy of the report by the receptionist and shuffled out the door.

depending on how you weight the value and application of information then i was in both a fortunate and unfortunate position. i have extensive experience with advanced first aid, and i have a neuro-transmission disease, which simply translates to: i know more than most regarding trauma to the vital systems and the nervous system especially. the only doctors that trump my knowledge base are very specialized.

unwisely i read the report (if only i had a tardis and could undo that fact)! the words lesion, lesions, cervical spine, atrophy and dubious were bandied about. this horrible diagnosis, these terrible terrible pictures were me. and i have more than enough education to know how serious everything APPEARED to be.

what about school? what about the future? sleep was elusive. food was disgusting. in a second my life had become a terrifying thing.

it took me a couple of days, but this is generally the way i exist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5uWRjFsGc (the getting up again, not the booze) that and Concentrated Power of Will. nervous system diseases are always evaluated clinically: your images can light up like a christmas tree, but it’s your physical presentation is what’s most important. i found my feet. sometimes we get knocked about and forget what we know, namely that the piece of paper that i never should have been handed, that i never should have read may be me technically, but it is not at all how i present. the report does not accurately reflect my function.

it is very likely i have been like this for months, even years and the fall poked a previously dormant plaque. it’s the nature of the disease. somehow in my stress i had stopped drinking my tea. my horror had stopped me dead and i strove for a sense of control. tell me friends, how does eliminating a ritual that gives comfort help anything? it doesn’t. i’d like to say that i came to that conclusion myself, but a friend very reasonably pointed it out.

i’ve had teas arrive this last week. i’ve been storing them with the mental note ‘for a day better than this one’. counterproductive! and so when the mailbox door thumped and it became obvious that it was crammed full i retrieved the package from our miss ShortSorceress.

it was meant to be. there was a lovely sample of adagio’s tardis blend. the closest thing i can get in time travel aside from a massive graphic f/x budget or concurrent degrees in thermonuclear dynamics and theoretical astrophysics.

this tea is so smarta**. it will get a nice high mark because it hit so many points all for me. timing: yes, it is getting a nice mark because it arrived when i needed it. i don’t care if that isn’t as a result of adagio. it has a timelord smell palate (bear with me, no i am no crazier than usual, lol)… the dry leaf smells musty, but no unpleasantly so. makes me think of a ship full of rooms that haven’t been visited in a few years but are filled with good things. it also smells like something it really isn’t! for a half second it smells like an earl grey, but then i got a tea based round, orange, autumnal that segued into a berry muscat. so very appropriate! dr. who looks human, but really isn’t…. a perfect tea metaphor for a blend of this name.

steeps up to a lovely amber (again, very appropriate… amber freezes time after a fashion). makes me think of an earl grey/lady grey hybrid with some unseen twists.

i guess the last determining feature are the little blue flowers… they were tardis blue. neat! and then i added water… the became translucent with the flower bases weighted downwards. they looked very much like the opening sequence when the tardis goes sailing into roiling space/time. OH VERY GOOD!

i really can’t thank you enough ShortSorceress… if it had arrived yesterday or the day before it might not have given me what it did which is my first real grin in days. and thank you adagio teas (watch it folks, i intend to spell without stars this time…) for being such outstanding smart asses. the metaphors of taste and smell, the cheeky visual, and an elegant refined taste

btw: i am not normally a fan of earl grey… but this one was truly great.

there is something in this tea that is not alright with me. the ingredients list doesn’t give me a hint… my only thought is that perhaps coffee (which i am nastily allergic to) might have been added as a chocolate enhancer?

in any case… i believe i am done with tea drinking today as everything i put in my mouth makes my stomach hurt. =0(

has anyone else had this experience with this tea?