Adagio took a pretty safe route with this Valentine’s Day tea: chocolate and raspberry. That’s not a complaint nor is it a complement; I love the idea, but I’ve found that fruit-flavored blacks are not really Adagio’s strong point.
It smells nice enough, a semi-artificial (it’s far too sweet to be real) but clearly raspberry scent with a hint of chocolate. Not much of a tea scent here, which is fine by me when it comes to flavored teas on the inexpensive side (better to smell and taste the added flavoring than the cheap base, right?). It’s a fairly attractive tea, too (or else I’m easy to please) with real dried berry pieces and leaves adding color.
In the taste department, I’d call this… good at what it wants to be. It totally reminds me of a chocolate truffle with raspberry filling (which I assume they were going for, given the holiday release) and that accounts for the not particularly realistic nature of the fruitiness. It’s nothing like a real berry, but it’s definitely like a berry candy! The chocolate is there, but weak. It’s not a very complex taste overall (think candy from the drugstore, not Malley’s [do they even have Malley’s outside of the midwest?]) but for a Valentine’s-themed treat, it does the job. My preferred way of drinking this is in a custom blend, though; it goes very well with creamy flavors.
Like most of Adagio’s flavored black teas, you’ve got to keep a close eye on Ripe For Romance, as it can get very bitter very quickly.
