This is finally back in stock at Adagio, and the lovely ladies at BSB had a promo coupon – I couldn’t resist picking it up! I just wish I had picked up a couple other of Cara’s blends I’ve had my eye on while I had a coupon!
Cara’s description on the Adagio site sounds good — Earl Grey Lavender, Green Chai, Cherry Green, and Marigold Petals.
In the bag: It certainly does smell of Earl Grey and spice. It looks pretty, like “tea potpourri” with the marigold and other flower petals. It would be pretty (and smell good!) in a glass bowl, if one did not want to ever make tea out of it and instead wanted to use it in a display.
In the cup: It smelled of Earl Grey and an orangey-cinnamony spice I associate with Christmastime (from the chai). There’s a lot going on but it blends together to smell warm and homey. The tea liquid is dark brown. I brewed it with boiling water, steeped in an Ingenuity for 3 minutes and drained into a white pottery mug.
First sip plain: I just taste “hot water” with a faint, bitter flavor. If this is how most people drink tea for the first time, I’m not surprised that most of my friends and colleagues in the “real world” claim not to like tea.
Second & Third sips: I added 2 spoonfuls of sugar to it, 1 at a time, and wow, the flavors popped! I definitely tasted orange spice and the flavor of the Earl Grey base came roaring out. I never got a separate flavor of flowers, lavender, roses, or marigold (which is good, as I don’t particularly fancy drinking a get-well bouquet), but I also never got a distinct cherry flavor.
Fourth sip – rest of the cup: I added a splash of whole milk. Normally, to a green tea, I wouldn’t, but it seemed to help, quite a lot. After the milk addition, the tea became even better tasting. The subtle cherry came out, more like grenadine and maraschinos in a Shirley Temple rather than the cherry lollipop so many “cherry flavored” things are; it was definitely cherry flavor rather than actual cherry. There was also a subtle vanilla hint. It reminded me a little of the “London Fog” tea lattes a lot of the coffee shops make.
Basically, there’s a lot going on in this tea! No one flavor overwhelms, competes, or even stands out; they all blend together and make a very “girly” tea that isn’t a standard flavored tea.
