Adagio Teas

This is another very mild white blend from Adagio. I’m not really impressed with the peach flavoring they’ve used, but it certainly isn’t the worst I’ve come across. This tea is naturally very sweet and while hot the peach flavor is pretty strong. As it cools it mellows out a bit and the peach isn’t as overwhelming. It’s still pretty artificial tasting, but not overwhelmingly so.

I did resteep this, I started out at 4 minutes for the initial steep and 5 minutes for the resteep. It managed to give me a pretty solid flavor the second time around, but it had noticibly less peach.

I’d gotten this as a free sample with another tea I’d ordered, because it was one of the only teas Adagio offered as a sample that wasn’t a flavored or herbal tea. The first time I tried it, I was unimpressed. However, this afternoon I was helping my dad fix dinner and I wanted to fix some tea, so I decided to give this another go.

During round 1, I was puzzled by all the reviews on Adagio.com that raved about its “nutty” flavor; I just tasted burnt grass. I would have feared I’d oversteeped it had the dry leaves not smelled exactly the same. I erred on the side of caution anyway. Adagio recommends steeping it at 180 for 2-3 minutes. This time, I veered closer to Teavana instructions with 175-180 for ~45 seconds.

I still taste burnt grass. Or toasty lawnmower clippings. But it doesn’t bug me quite as much as my first try. I can see it being an acquired taste. Or working well when blended with something else. Don’t know what. Maybe this time, I just knew what to expect.

Had to be up at 5 AM to take my mom to the airport, so made a couple of cups from this with second-infusion leaves. This time (and I normally don’t do this but I know this tea doesn’t really oversteep) it steeped for an hour and a half. Then I took a three and a half hour nap, then reheated the tea (whoops!) So I wound up having this tea about five and a half hours after I originally made it. This time around, I get a little bit of malty and a lot bit of peppery, and normally it’s the reverse with this one. Still a good wake-up tea, though.

This is one of my Adagio favorites. Sweet and creamy. Had a little steeping snafu this morning…the Hot Shot I use for quick morning out-the-doors was decidedly tepid. So I had to run water through the microwave and throw the steeping basket back in for a bit.

Reinforces the theory that this does better with cooler water.

Drinking some of this today at work and decided it’s the perfect green tea to leave here. It’s gotten some interest so far but mostly from people asking if they are real snails…DOH!

They re steep rather well so an infuser can do 3 cups with good flavour.

This tea is nice but nothing special so I will probably not replace it.

I didn’t dislike this as much as I thought I would, but that isn’t really saying much. This is a really delicate blend and not at all what I was expecting. The only thing I taste is a rather sweet taste from the coconut flavoring. I’m not getting the rose petals or pineapple at all and as it cools I’m getting less and less of the coconut. On one hand I’m happy to see a tropical blend without the hibiscus, I just wish I liked it more, it really let me down by not having more of a fruit flavor present.

This is what my other half chose for me to have with breakfast. And it was a winner. Chocolate for breakfast on a Friday? Yes please! Goes great with a dash of milk.

SO funny story, I’m definitely listening to Hedley songs on loop right now… and apparently I confessed my teenage crush on Hedley last time I drank this tea. Teehee.

Anyways, I think I left this one too long :( A 2.5 minute infusion, and this is kind of astringent and not as flavourful as I previously said it was. Totally my fault. It’s not bad, but definitely needs some sweetener to cut that astringency. Perhaps I’ll make my way back downstairs and doctor it up. I’m pretty much out of tea at this point anyhow. Oh well!

This brewed up to a surprisingly dark color. The flavor is richly floral, and surprisingly hearty. I think it may be the jasmine green from ThinkGeek’s sampler.

Tried this again the other day. I think it’s growing on me.

I gave it a 15-second rinse before brewing, and liked it better. It may also have helped that the floral scent and taste were not a surprise this time.

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Brought this along to my parents’ place, when I visited for kid sister’s graduation.

Tasty! A nice gentle spinachy flavor, with a hint of seaweed. Not as grassy as I expected.

The hot water spout at the office runs about 175-180 degrees. I was worried this would be too hot, since the package suggests 170.

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This tastes much better this morning once brewed in my Gongfu Teapot. Using ‘1 minute, 2 minutes and 3 minutes’ steeping times it has a much stronger taste and brings forward more grass, cabbage and butter.

I still have yet to use the glass method of brewing Dragonwell, has anyone tried it? Notice any difference?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kff7OxaWhM

I had such very high hopes. I wanted something sweet and light for a bedtime tea and this seemed like a good candidate. The dry leaves are very pretty and smell like actual peaches. Quite misleading, since the actual taste of the tea is very artificial. Maybe I overbrewed, because I also found the fake peach flavor overwhelming. I can’t say much for the white tea base because I couldn’t really make it out. I tried diluting it with ice and even adding a splash of seltzer, but nothing could salvage this tea for me.

This might be improved with a shorter steep and a squeeze of lemon to add some natural sweetness while cutting the artificial taste.

I’ve had this tea a few times and liked it, so I decided I would make a few cups for my after-work tea. I heated the water, put the leaves in, and steeped it for three-ish minutes, maybe a tad too long. Went to smell it… and there was the faint, familiar, turkey-like aroma of Yet Another Oversteeped Dud. Damn. Let it cool for several minutes, then went for a sip… it’s just on the inside edge of being oversteeped!

It’s a good jasmine fix, if you like jasmine (which I do!) The only other thing I have to compare it to is the Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls from Teavana, which is my hands-down “Calm the F*** Down” tea. It’s a lighter flavor of jasmine without being too light for my tastes. Floral, soft, jasmine, yadda yadda. Bit cheaper alternative to my beloved Pearls. Will probably become a standard.

I have a lot of White Peony on my shelves from different companies because it’s my favourite white tea and it’s high time I started to drink it up. From Adagio I only have a 9g sample to try.

I was disappointed to see that my leaves are no where near as fresh and green as they are in this picture. Instead they are brown and almost completely broken down, dry and brittle. There are some silver tips amongst them but also a lot of twigs/stems. It has a strong peony scent that is very thick.

Once steeped the tea is amber in colour and has a mild sweet floral aroma. Flavour wise it’s nutty, woody, floral and sweet. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be but it’s by no means good quality. It lacks any real peony flavour, it’s not as sweet or delicious as it should be.

I’m glad I only bought a sample pack of this. I think I will stick with Teavivre and NothingButTea when it comes to White Peony.

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More green tea please. I’m not usually a fan of Dragonwell, usually a bit too dry and perfumey for me. But if I have it then I might as well drink it..or at least try it.

The leaves are crisp to the touch with green/light green combination of coloured leaves. Some have a yellow tinge to them so not the best of quality. They have a strong floral perfumey scent, like a very strong peony.

Once steeped this tea is yellow in colour with a delicate, soft and sweet floral scent.

Flavour is quite gentle, more so than I remember. Grass, honey and peony are the three main flavours I can detect, all in subtle form to create a very refreshing green tea. The dryness and perfume after taste is at a minimum also. Maybe I can also say it’s vegetal in a cabbage sort of way.

The quality is acceptable but I was hoping this tea would be better.

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This is probably in my top three teas so far! The item description talks about the “peppery” taste in this tea. I only notice it when I’m looking for it. Most of what I get is a smooth, “malty?” taste. It’s not as “earthy”/dirt-like as some other Chinese teas; just warm and comforting. The leaves are golden-brown and smell sweet, and they don’t oversteep, which is perfect for people like me who don’t always fancy standing around with a stopwatch. Just all-around good!

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