Finally trying this again. Dry smell is scrumptious, steeped I initially get standard black tea smell, albeit (artifically) sweetened. Upon closer inspection, there is a definite creamy berry sort of aroma, almost reminiscent of a french vanilla cappuchino. The black tea smell is a little disconcerting, not of the best quality. I’m positive I didn’t oversteep it, but it almost gives off that aroma. Looking at the leaves, they are very small and broken up, so I’m assuming that is the source of the ‘bitter’ smell. Hopefully, I am over-analyzing things.
The liquor is very dark and a little ominous. Lets dive in! First sips are (unfortunately) skewed by the onions from my lunch. Onion taste aside, there is a lingering sweet berry taste after the sip, but I get some of that bitter black tea at the front. It blends well with the vanilla to cover it up, I don’t really get a straight up bitter taste, but it definitely lacks the complexity and taste of some of my favourite black teas. This is one tea that only deteriorates as it cools, I prefer to drink it while hot before the bitterness becomes strong.
I definitely enjoy this but sadly have not been wowed like everyone else. I think that with a better base, this tea could really shine but at the moment it is held back by my impressions of the lower quality black tea. I’ve never had another Adagio tea before so I don’t know what they’ve used in this or what they use in general. I took a peek on the site but I didn’t see anything about the tea base. Anywho, this continues to be good but not stellar in my books and it makes me a little sad.
