I’ve had this in my cupboard for a while, but this is the first time I can recall trying it. The box is open, though, so maybe I’m wrong about that. Anyway, I’m kind of assuming that this tea is what I’ve got – it’s the bagged version called Cinnamon Spice, but it’s essentially cinnamon flavoured black.
The dry leaf smells reassuringly of cinnamon, exactly like a freshly opened pot of the ground up spice. There’s actually quite a lot of dust in the little packet it was wrapped in, so maybe that’s what it’s actually flavoured with. In that case, no surprises. Brewed, this smells almost exactly the same as it does dry. There’s something in the scent that’s making me think of Butiki’s Cider Guayusa – it’s kind of earthy, and I imagine (but can’t actually remember) that they share cinnamon as an ingredient.
To taste, this is much more palatable than I expected. I didn’t brew it for the recommended 5 minutes, as I have no milk. I gave it about 3 minutes, and it’s a pretty dark brown, so I was expecting to taste Adagio’s black base a lot and maybe not much else. It’s not like that at all, though. Cinnamon is definitely the predominant flavour, and there’s something deeply earthy and maybe a tiny bit smoky-spicy in the background. I will try it with milk at home, because I think I’ll definitely prefer it like that. I’m getting on with this a lot better than I thought I would, though. I feel I’ve been spoilt for Adagio’s blends now by all the other kinds of tea I’ve tried and loved, so I can’t help but think I would have liked this a whole lot more earlier in my tea journey than I do now. It’s not bad, though, and it’s certainly one of the better Adagio flavoured blacks I’ve tried.
