Adagio Teas

So I did something awesome today. It was brewing this with eggnog. Massive success! Any and all eggnog fans much try.
Per usual the chocolate was a bit more subdued than I wanted, but it had a definite presence. While I over did it on the eggnog, I still got more of a tea taste than I normally do with this tea, odd. The spices in the chai works perfectly with the eggnog, although overall it came out a bit too sweet as store bought nog so often is.

Back logging from this morning, I made this after a strong cup of coffee, as I am a caffeine junkie, and drank it on my way to class. Instead of paying attention in Orgo, a bad move per usual, I contemplated my tea.

Overall, it was better than most teas I’ve been able to get my grungy little paws on, but not that life altering tea experience I’ve been looking for. While nicely rounded and full bodied as it were, I did forget while actually paying attention to class that it was suppose to be chocolate, not just faint notes when well examined. I added a little skim, and carefully monitored my steeping time, via an awesome tea-timer widget for my mac. Next time I’ll try it with a heavier milk and maybe steep it a bit longer? I ALWAY over steep tea, so now having good tea, I’ve been keeping a better eye on it.

Also, I’m trying the whole re-steeping business and it is not working out to hot. I know you re-steep green primarily, but I’m trying to all I can out of my precious few ounces. Needless to say, my vaguely chai spice water is very unsatisfying but I am to lazy to get more water for kettle and will deal for now. But I do have the whole chai and green sampler for Adagio to test out, but for now filling in the blanks for chem comes first.

Used more leaf this time just because I didn’t have enough 2 separate sessions, just one large-ish session. Cut down the steep time a bit to compensate.

The first thing I though upon taking a sip was “Pineapple!?” That sweeter flavor that I found before but couldn’t ID is apparently coming across as a pineapple flavor today. More fresh than canned… the taste of one that is a lighter yellow and not so juicy. So mild pineapple, but yeah. Plus some honey. So more like not-juicy-pineapple brushed with honey.

Not at all what I was expecting with this but it’s good!

A while back, I had a larger sample of a honey orchid dan cong. I didn’t have a lot of sessions with the tea and could never get it quite right but part of the thing I enjoyed about it was the mental image it brought up for me.

Last year I went to the Big Island of Hawaii. We stayed at this hotel right on the ocean and had breakfast in their open-air restaurant every morning. Each morning we were up early enough that it was still a little cool, typically a bit overcast and there was just enough breeze to give you a constant fresh-ocean smell plus hints of flowers growing in the hotel’s garden. And drinking that tea would put me right back in that restaurant, getting ready to start my day while seeing if I could spot sea turtles. http://tinyurl.com/ybhxrln But there was something lacking in the tea (or in my brewing of it) so when I ran out, I didn’t feel the need to get more.

This tea reminds me of that one, but it has that something extra. So I get a little taste of overcast ocean plus a little something else – honey? fruit? a stronger floral? Don’t know. But it’s good. And I like it.

Very light and tasty

Very floral aromas and slightly nutty and fruity flavors. The 3rd steep at 30 seconds a steep was the most flavorful by far. Once the leaves open up, you can really taste the peachiness described by Adagio. Super smooth and easy to drink for about 8 steeps.

Whew, back. Had computer issues that involve a brand new Dual Core Gateway. Hurray, no?

I should start by noting that Sinister owns a lovely Yixing clay pot seasoned for this tea alone. (refers to self in third person) Did you see what I did there?

Iron Goddess is a good epithet for any Oolong tea, but it’s perfect for this. It has sharp blood-coppery notes that are very lifting. It’s by no means too dark to taste fresh and light. That may sound a little like a contradiction…but sense is so hard to type in words.

If you’ve tried this, then you know. If you haven’t, buy some. This type of tea is too important for that “I don’t have an opinion so let me use yours” mentality. Besides, if you really think about it…what sort of tea aficionado would you be if you couldn’t say you loved or hated this tea?

It’s hard for me to correct myself. But I apparently lied/wrong when I said that Gunpowder was my favorite forever. “There’s always a bigger fish.” “The light at the end of the tunnel is brighter the closer you get.” “When you meet the Buddha on the road, you should kill the Buddha.” (think I’ve taken this as far as it’ll go.)

Either way, few people can say bad things about this tea. But to the few that do: I won’t argue with you, but I wish I could give you something as delicious as this tea. Alas, I cannot. A lot of Zen references floating around this post… =/ Suppose I’d best end on that note.

I don’t hate this. I was expecting to hate this, but I don’t.

Not a fan of rooibos or chamomile. I’m okay-ish with peppermint but much prefer spearmint. But for some reason, this mix kind of works for me. I mean, I’m not going to suddenly convert and drink this every night. But every so often, I might find the desire to have a little.

Oddly enough, I get a chocolate taste from it. No clue why. Not heavy chocolate, sort of the aftertaste from some Girl Scout Thin Mints.

I just noticed that most of the blueberries in my tin fell through the leaves and landed on the bottom. It makes sense to stir leaves to spread berries more evenly each time before brewing.

I’d call this tea Blueberry Vanilla or Blueberry Jam because it doesn’t have that pure blueberry flavor one could expect looking at the name. I can definitely taste and smell something sweet which doesn’t make it a bad tea, just not 100% blueberry.

So, I played an epic game of “enni-meani-minnei-mo” today with my tea and landed on this. Joy. I tried it again without milk, could only taste tannin and mild spices. Now that I’ve added milk, I’m actually getting a bit more pumpkin! But it still has an odd effect on at the tip of my tongue.
The liquor (I for some reason feel uncomfortable with that word) was gorgeous and a rich red-brown and when I added milk it is a touch orange. Very pretty, happy I used my glass mug.
Still unnecessarily bitter and bland.

I think it might be because I had some terrible tea the night before, but I enjoyed this a bit more than I expected I would. While it was bitter and far less pumpkin and more fall-vanilla, it was decent cup. Honestly, if it wasn’t advertised as a pumpkin based drink, I would have liked it more, but it made want something it was not.
Ok, but I’m can definitely look forward to much better as my night of tea (and work) goes on.

The aroma is fantastic but the flavor doesn’t live up to it. Not nearly as sweet as I would expect but the taste is unique enough for me to really like. The best flavor comes out when warm and not too hot. The taste is mostly of black tea with pumpkin pie flavors to it. Enjoyable but don’t set your expectations too high.

Great evening drink, although I wish I didn’t have to waste the 2nd steep the next day…

Hm, somehow I did not realize that Earl Grey has bergamot, let alone that bergamot is THE defining ingredient of Earl Grey. Therefore, I was quite surprised and confused to open my new sampler tin of Rooibos Earl Grey and get a huge waft of orangey, floral bergamot. The bits of blue and orange petals scattered among the red honeybush further convinced me that Adagio had mislabeled my tin. I was expecting something more stoic, dignified, and well . . . grey. But a quick internet search told me that I am an idiot and Earl Grey is far more complicated than I’d imagined.

After all that, I’m still not sure if I like it. The strong floral and citrus (I assume this is bergamot) scent is too reminiscent of Pledge and potpourri. My mouth is left tasting like some fancy soap my mother used to use.

If anyone wants this let me know. I’ll definitely swap this one

Feeling so so about this. It tastes a little like bitter coffee to me. Better with soy milk and turbinado sugar, but still far too coffeeish.

My favorite green — has a nice clean, somewhat grassy (but not too grassy like other greens I’ve had) taste. Good overall balance. Be careful not to oversteep, but its not as sensitive as other teas I’ve had.

Mmmm! Genmai cha is one of my staples. So, after a 60 hour work week and 7 hours of sleep in the last 2 nights (combined) I brewed a cup of this. The toasty flavor is just perfect on a rainy, dreary day. I’m on my second steep now.

It took several tries to get a good-tasting steep from this tea – it definitely does not benefit from oversteeping, and it is well worth while to time the steep and pull out the leaves after no more than 5 minutes. Oversteeping will result in an astringent aftertaste. It might benefit from a shorter steep with more leaves.

This looks like a black tea, but brews up very light and delicate. I added more leaves than I might for a Darjeeling or other black tea. During brewing, the smell reminded me of spinach – a strongly vegetal, mineral aroma. Even after adding more leaves, it brewed up a very light amber, with a light floral aroma. Once I got the steep right, I tasted a smooth, flavorful tea with a definite sweetness.

I like it very much, and think it is worth keeping on hand, even though it is a bit fussy to brew.

Pouchong may have been the first oolong I ever tasted, because it’s the ‘default’ taste I think of whenever I hear ‘oolong.’ It’s lightly vegetal, and almost like a green tea except it doesn’t have the sharpness. A little floral, but not to the point that a specific flower could be named. I like it because it’s a very fresh and clean flavor.

This is really pleasant. Pouchong is a very light oolong, without the smokiness that I normally associate with oolongs. I have no idea how Adagio’s Pouchong compares with other Pouchongs, but my unsophisticated tongue thinks that this is great when you want something delicate and light.

backlogging…

I made this over the weekend while at my sister’s house. I boiled milk, water, and sugar together with the tea, then let the tea steep for several minutes before straining the leaves out and drinking (what I could remember of takgoti’s chai method posted on Steepster earlier).

It was definitely better prepared that way than when I had done it with straight water, but there was still no pumpkin flavor. It’s just a spiced tea, and I’m not really fond of the spice blend used in it.