I’m not normally a huge fan of Adagio’s flavored stuff. I used to be. But I suppose places like Kusmi, Lupicia and Mariage Freres have raised my expectations for flavored teas and Adagio no longer matches up. That being said, the husband loves having his tea with lots of sugar and milk and I refuse to sacrifice some of my super tasty (and sometimes expensive) teas (both flavored and un-) to him because of that. He gets Stash and Adagio and the like.
This is the tea I made for him this morning and the leaves smelled so good, I had to make myself some. The smell made me think of icing on an Earl Grey cupcake (if one were to make and ice an Earl Grey cupcake). Sadly, post-steeping the smell calms down from that super-sweetness a bit. But happily it still smells like an Earl Grey cupcake, just now the baked cake part (I think that’s the vanilla note making me think of cupcake cake).
The taste isn’t as cupcake-y as the smell(s). In fact, I get no cupcake. (Sadness.) But it is still nice. Oh, it’s not the smoothest tea – it’s got a little prickly texture that isn’t astringency but probably would turn into that if steeped longer – but the flavor is nice. There’s a bit of a perfume/fake flavor note on the front end, especially when slurped but the vanilla/cream-ish note to it smooths things out a bit.
Honestly, it’s not the best tea ever or anything, but it is totally drinkable without additives and that counts for something in my book.
