Custom-Adagio Teas

SMAUG. You are a funny one.

Had this blend for a late breakfast before heading out. I really like strong smokey teas, so I was excited for this one. The oriental spice in this one seems to tone down the lapsang, without really showing itself. At first, I was disappointed with the lack of smoke, but I like how smooth the other elements make this tea. It’s not bitter at all and honestly better than I was expecting.

On a mostly unrelated note, I found out that Zhi Tea is near me and I plan on going soon! I just have to find someone I can convince to go with me..

This is a strange tea, but I actually really like it. Bummer too because it doesn’t look like they sell it anymore. I’ve only found a few puerh blends that I like much and thats generally if I can’t taste the puerh. The puerh isn’t hiding in this one at all but the hazelnut and the puerh really compliment eachother. I’m sad to only get to have a bit of this but thank you to shmiracles for the chance!!!

100th note!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (You can never have enough exclamation points)

This is the tea that I made for my mom custom for mothers day. She loves raspberries so I started off with that as the base (it’s decaf so she can drink it after work. Then I added chamomile to help her relax and then honeybush vanilla to add a smoothness to it. When I got it in the pack it smelled really good. It had a nice light fruity smell with vanilla and chamomile. The brew smells good as well.

The taste is pretty good. The only problem I have with it is that it doesn’t have a lot of raspberry flavor. It is kinda there, but it isn’t the fresh tart flavor I was looking for, but the more sweet candy kind. The chamomile and vanilla seem to dominate, and has a floral undertone.

While I like it I want it to have a little bit more of a tart edge. I think next time I am going to brew it longer, since it seems adagio’s decaf teas don’t turn as bitter as there normal teas. That might bring out more raspberry flavor. If that doesn’t work I might take out one of the raspberry leaves and put in hibiscus instead to add tartness.

Do any of you guys have any suggestions?

P.S. My mom did like it a lot though so, YAY!

Specifics

Pot: Porcelain
Water: 8oz per steep
Leaf: 2 tsp (5 grams)
Steep Time: 2:45 minuets; 3:00 minuets
Sweetener: a good small spoon full per 8 oz

Combined two steepings in one cup.

You can smell the apple right out of the tin! Right out of the tin, the aroma smells sooooo good. The Apple and Sour Apple overpowers a lot of the other flavours, but it’s lost in brewing. When it brews, the smokiness of the gunpowder and the cocoa nibs take over.
Tastes pretty good with a bit of milk and sugar.

Fili is the careful older brother. i’ll translate that into more patient and loving. cuz this cup is definitely kind and gentle.
this tea smells really good. and i’m gonna say it’s the hazelnut. with this cup i’ve figured out that every single adagio blend that has hazelnut in it smells great to me. and so i like it. that’s all.

this weekend i went to the Bilbo Baggins Cafe. and in this picture is a Hobbit’s Lemonade cocktail.
http://instagram.com/p/ZLiOlsoc1G/
i also had beer with blueberry mead in it. i would totally drink that again.

Pippin: What’s that?
Merry: This, my friend, is a pint.
Pippin: It comes in pints? I’m getting one.

thank you very much Shadowfall for sharing all these blends with me. i’ve had a great time. cheers!

HE’S GOOD? Ish..
Like.. It’s a nice green tea, but it had a weird aftertaste?
But still, it smells sooo good coming right out of the tin.

Wow, this smells so much better to me today. I wonder why that is? I’ve heard of other brands needing some adjustment time before being had. For whatever reason, I think that may be why this one was throwing me off. The smell is still very strong with this one. The lemon verbena is so much stronger than I would suspect, being as it is just an “accent” to the tea. I really actually love nut (especially hazelnut) teas, so this has plenty of that to offer. Still, the ginger and lemon verbena are strong players in this blend.

“What are you captain of? The Innuendo Squad?”

idk what the descriptor is talking about, this tea is rooibos heavy (at least the sample i got is) so i don’t think it would keep me “up all night”. ..unless john barrowman served it to me personally i suppose??
har har
this IS a nice tea. i can taste the almond and the light chocolate hints.
thumbs-up!

in related news
someone made this.
and then i watched it.
oh internet.

Single Ladies – John Barrowman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEr0BPOfVw4

thanks Shadowfall!

“Bravery is by far the kindest word for stupidity, don’t you think?” – Mycroft Holmes

thank you Shadowfall for this taste of the Queen. haha tv joke.
anyways, i don’t really prefer chai’s but even though this smells very chai it tastes mellower. which makes me like it. (perhaps i should just short steep all my chais?) plus it’s a vanilla chai AND there is the chocolate chip tea too. so it’s good!
i LIKE it.

i’ve spent the past 24 hours reading a looooong post-Reichenbach fic which is kinda Mycroft heavy, in a lovely way, so i thought this was an appropriate tea for the evening. here’s to the CCTV warrior.

backlog Sipdown! thanks terri! I had this last night while testing – it’s not something i love with that familiar weird adagio taste i don’t like but for whatever reason i kept drinking it. None of the tastes really popped with this one – it seemed to boil down to just a meh cup of tea. Oh well, can’t win them all! :)

Thank you so much Shmiracles for sharing such a coveted tea treasure; the only tea that you deemed worthy of a rating. It must have been hard to part with! haha.

So I have to start with a bit of backstory: About a week ago, my father was grilling bbq chicken and he used some fancy smoke-flavor thing that my brother had given him as a gift some time ago. I took one bite of this chicken and complained immediately that it tasted like a chimney and that I was pretty sure I was exhaling chimney smoke from my nose for half an hour after eating it. But my father loves smokey flavors, so all the better for him. What he doesn’t like are most of the teas I bring for him to sample. “tastes like seaweed!” … “that tastes like seaweed too” … “too weak” … “too boring” … “SEAWEED!!!”

I had never tried Lapsang Souchong nor any blends made with it, but I read plenty about it’s smokiness and told my father that I will have to get him some. It’s not a tea I ever would have considered getting for myself as I knew it wouldn’t suit me.

So fortunate it was that I happened to get a Lapsang blend in a swap. I opened the bag, smelled it and thought “yep, this has Papa written all over it!” I took it over to my parents house this evening and told my father that I found the tea for him. And guess what? No surprise, he LOVED it. He even asked if there was more before he finished the cup that I gave him. I also poured small sample cups for my mother, little sister, and myself (because I can’t officially say that I don’t like it unless I try it). It was one awful smelly cup of blech to me and my mother wasn’t too tickled either. As for my little sister, her story is special too. She’s been sampling several teas that I bring over there and not once ever has she not liked one. Every tea is equally good in her book and I was determined to find something she didn’t like. Finally did. She didn’t even finish her sample, but gave it to Papa.

I was interested in this tea by the description, but also a bit hesitant. It is just that, interesting. The ginger and lemon verbena are more aggressive than I personally would have made them. It makes for a really interesting tea. I wouldn’t say I like or dislike it. The chocolate notes are very, very subtle. The base on this one seems more stable than other Adagio flavored blacks. When you smell this in the bag it instantly reminds me of chocolate orange. It is actually a very calming tea; perhaps the lemon verbena? I’ve never had it before.

(copied from Adagio) How does this not have more notes?! This tea is soooo good! I was a bit timid about temp/times because this has some white tea in it, but it could have been brewed longer without any issues. This tastes just like those little jelly roll chocolates that everyone buys me for Christmas! It is very flavorful and I look forward to having this one around.

People make fun of how I make tea because I like my tea very… bland? Well, I steeped this for about 2 minutes and it was the perfect amount of time for me!
The smell of this tea right out of the tin, oh it was amazing. It smells like the weeks leading up to Christmas. Not exactly Christmas though, that’s the Watson blend for you. It had such a hearty aroma out of the tin and steeping it, I felt like the Irish breakfast took over and lost a bit of the cinnamon. But adding a dash of sugar helped bring out the sweet potato and cinnamon!
**With more experimentation, I’ve decided that Bilbo Brew with just a small dash of milk and suger is amazinggg. But with milk, I had to steep it a little bit longer. Like… almost 7 minutes. I’m weird with how I like my tea okay

I’m claiming this 2nd sipdown of the day for Leif, who enjoyed this tea more than I did. He says, “It’s actually pretty good with stevia & french vanilla coconut milk creamer.”
And now it’s gone.

Sipdown 9. For awhile my sample box has been thinning out, so I’ve been feeling pretty accomplished. The number of teas in my cupboard has’t changed much, but I usually won’t include samples that are too small to share. This morning I went ahead and added every single tea I own into my cupboard. To my horror, it jumped from a relatively manageable 85 to 116!!! Looks like I have a lot of sipdowns to do. Anyway, back to the review…

The pumpkin is the most prominent flavor in this blend. For some reason I taste a lot of maple (which is not a listed ingredient), and I’m missing the almond. The spice is a bit understated, but still present. The maple notes complements the pumpkin flavor rather nicely, so I’m really enjoying this cup.

Thanks for sharing, JennyFur!

so, i’ll have a real cup of this soon, cuz i kinda messed up the brewing. i just know that it steeped for way too long. and i didn’t even dare taste it in that state.
i poured my tea from my tumbler to let it start to cool and i added more hot water to help with the oversteep. and then i added a little agave to the first cup. and this is pretty nice!
i actually like the taste of the tea more than the smell. i don’t really like chai teas, but i do like ginger teas. lots. which is probably why i requested this tea in my swap with Shadowfall. and i’m glad!
apple and ginger, apple and ginger, apple and ginger.
i can taste the chai-ness. the cardamom and orange peel. but it’s part of a blend and sufficiently muted for my tastes.

well, i also requested this tea cuz i’m SHERLOCK obsessed. (half way through the Two Two One Bravo Baker fic now.)
i own a lot of apple teas actually, and this tea makes me think i should try maybe mixing them with a little of the Super Ginger tea. Experiment! blending teas experiments! — more tasty than keeping severed heads in the fridge.

nothing to do with anything.
Ask is by far one of my favorite Smiths songs. it should be played 5 times at every wedding so i can dance to it over and over.
Ask by The Smiths
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEpAtTe-oJY

I was SO excited when my tea from Adagio finally arrived!
First of all, I’d like to say that Adagio does care about their customers. They were aware that my package was going to be delayed because one of the teas I ordered wasn’t available in the warehouse closest to my city. I set it so that Adagio would send me direct messages through twitter to track my package and when it finally arrived in California, I was ecstatic! I opened the package and found a note from them saying apologies for the delay. I just really love Adagio :)

Anyways, the tea! Ori was the one I was most excited for when I looked at the teas that came in the sample set. The sample tins were packaged very nicely. Each tea in a tin with a sticker of the art. Ori looked amazing and SMELLED amazing. The cream aroma is pretty strong when you open the tin, but the flavour gets lost after brewing. And I’m not getting much Lemon…
Okay this tea, IT’S GOOD, TRUST ME. Just some of the flavours get lost with the Irish Breakfast and Chestnut.

Sipdown #2
My son Drew & I LOVE Dr Who (& who on steepster doesn’t, may I ask?)
So of course, we had to have this blend last season, sob…
The boys & I are in sipdown mode, so Leif made a nice big pot of this to drink during breakfast with our pancakes, & it was spot on! Slightly bold from the Irish brekky, a little blueberry, & little earl green. Fruity, tangy, & daring! I loved Amy & Rory… ;_; I miss them…

Drew made a pot of this while we made breakfast & I drank a cup.
We made Paleo pancakes, coconut milk whipped cream, & berries.
This has been finals week for both of my sons, & they both had today off, so a fancy breakfast together was in order!
Honestly, I haven’t really been a fan of this blend. I’ve tried it plain, I’ve tried it sweet. Although I like the idea of it, & the ingredients all sound like they’d work, it’s not for me.
There is enough to make one more small pot, & I’ll probably try it that one more time, & then it will be gone.

i had to look up who Queen Toothiana is.
and duh! “Toothiana is the Tooth Fairy.” “She is the Guardian of Memories.”!
now who can’t relate to the tooth fairy!?!

Shadowfall asked if i was interested in trying this tea, and when i looked it up my answer was a certain yes. i love the adagio fandom blends because, well sure cuz i’m a fan-girl, but also because i love the sometimes randomness and obviously endless variety that blending teas can offer!

this tea is a black & oolong & white blend, full of peachiness, apples, apricot, and tangerine. it’s nimble!
i think i over steeped it just a tad. but as it cools it’s found it’s balance. not even slightly dry. it’s very delicious! the spring into summer time is MADE for a tea like this! just beautiful.
so glad i got to try it.

http://instagram.com/p/YVr9GIIc1u/

Mmmmmm Watsooonnn.
It smells like christmas in a bag :)
Definitely tastes like Watson because of his jumpers. Cinnamonny and wonderful.

MORIARTEA.
I’VE NEVER HAD CHAI BUT OHHHHH I WANTED MORE.
I’m scared of buying blends from Adagio because I feel like I haven’t drank enough tea to know what I want, but luckily my friend had some of this and it’s sooooo good. JUST DRINK IT.
And it’s like.. Moriarty. That’s how he would definitely taste like if he was liquified in tea form.