Lisbet

I love Earl Grey with vanilla, but didn’t want the caffeine, so when I ended up with a coupon for Adagio I thought I’d try this customer-created custom blend. It’s…. okay, not as good as say, SpecialTeas’ Earl Grey de la Creme. Somehow it ends up being a bit artificial tasting and overly sweet, in a ‘Sweet N’ Lo’ kinda way. Oddly enough, this doesn’t mean I dislike it- it has its place. I am trying to use it to recreate Starbucks’ “London Fog Latte”, which Sbucks has given a new name and purportedly involves vanilla syrup and earl grey tea, rather than vanillayearl grey tea. So far, my home-brew is a moderately successful experiment. This is definitely a tea to have with milk.

(I believe this is a combo of Decaf Earl Grey, Decaf Vanilla, and Cream tea.)

I’m having an abysmal day so am trying to keep the tea flowing. And I’m in the library at my language program, so I was limited to their teas for a little while (I brought my own to the library but already finished the tea I brought. Yikes.) Anyway, I typically dislike Hojicha but decided to give it another shot for the sake of trying one of the few Mighty Leaf teas I have left to try.

And I kinda like it. I really enjoy barley tea and this is like green meets barley. Very nutty, only slightly vegetal. I think the water the coffee shop gave me is a bit hot for this tea, so I was careful about the steep time.

In Japan, (cold) barley tea (mugicha) is a summer drink- so I feel happy drinking this in my Japanese language program because of its similar taste. Give it a try and see if you don’t feel refreshed and cleansed!

Am trying this blended with 52Teas’ Cinnamon Fig right now, just for the sake of adventure. Pretty good combo. Then again, this chai blends well with almost everything I’ve combined it with!

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This one is actually a pretty delicious oolong, particularly in the summer- and it’s divine iced. I’m enjoying how the lightness and even clean feeling of the oolong combines with the brightness of the grapefruit. And sniffing the pouch is a kind of aromatherapy. I keep accidentally oversteeping this one, and then it starts to taste cardboardy- where is my mind these days?

I’ve been drinking this stuff almost every night since Kristin was kind enough to send me some here in language-camp hell. It’s like an adult hot cocoa, and I don’t actually like hot cocoa despite my general love for all things chocolate. I definitely want to try this one in a tea latte sometime. In the meantime, I don’t think it’s possible to oversteep this stuff. It’s good and rich without being sweet. Chocolate tea sounds kinda grim to me, but this is just delicious, and if you dislike rooibos generally I cannot even taste it in here.

Thanks to silvermage for this one! This is a really good rooibos chai- slightly almondy, slightly vanillery- and the rooibos flavor is fairly muted. I find that a strong brew of this one makes an excellent tea latte too.　I thought I was sick of chai and was going to take a hiatus from it for a while, but I suppose I just needed to find a new variation on chai. This one definitely fits the bill- and from a tea company I hadn’t heard of before too.

Ahhhh my pouch is mislabeled as White tea, and I kept sniffing this bag and going ‘you know, this looks awfully dark for white tea’. Thanks for clearing this up, Steepster :) I have been enjoying my black teas in the morning and this one has made its way to the top. In the bag it smells of delicious angel food cake. The bag also says to give it a long steep time, so I am going to give that a shot.

Okay, this really is delicious brewed hot. This is the next candidate for my steeping in steamed soy milk with a touch of honey. It’s just desserty enough to be good for that. I’d love to see this flavor combined with decaf earl grey to make an amazing after dinner treat. Anyway, it retains its sweet -nilla wafer/angel food taste very well.

Hahahaha this is like drinking potpourri! I used to have such a thing for pear teas (after trying one in France during high school). The love has waned a bit though. This one tastes mostly of the cinnamon and clove, and while that sounds delicious to me in theory- in practice I feel as though I’ve licked the walls of an Olde Tyme Americana Crafts store. Maybe I’ll stick the rest of this in my sock drawer to scent my socks. It’s that kinda smell, you know? :)

p.s. I just had an odd conversation. I told a girl that I drink at least 4-5 cups of tea a day and she was shocked. I told her I know she drinks at least that much between the soda and energy drinks she’s always guzzling, and for me it’s just a matter of filling my days with tea and sparkling water (and the occasional coffee) instead of other beverages. She didn’t understand in the slightest. Oh, Americans.

Wow this is really good! So pleasantly surprised. I don’t think I’ve ever liked an apricot black tea before. I will admit that the black tea is totally overshadowed by the saffron and apricot, but I’m actually okay with that. The bright fruitiness is really delicious. I’m going to have to nab more of this when I get home and can make iced tea. (Dorm room without fridge is not conducive to the iced tea making- alas, because it’s really hot right now in VT. I didn’t even know it got hot in VT, but I digress.)

Wow, this is just the most unusual tea ever! It really does remind me of cherry cola- and the smell is pure ‘cherry cola gum’ (ever had that before? I know lots of sweets come in this flavor and I imagine the same flavoring is used to make this tea). Anyway, it’s totally unexpected in a tea. As honeybush has the same reputed health benefits that rooibos does (antioxidants, calming, rumored even to help with allergies and tummy woog- google it!) this is a nice alternative to soda- caffeine free, too. I think I really do like it! I say ‘I think’ because I’m still getting used to it. :) I too feel as though I can detect a fizziness to it, and I usually don’t succumb to the placebo effect- maybe it’s not a placebo effect!
Such an interesting tea, that I got to try thanks to Kristin. I’m going to cherish the rest of this sample and then order my own.

p.s. my electric kettle pooped out on me mid-dorm life in the language camp! So I nabbed Adagio’s utilitea kettle and I am loving it. I can apparently send anyone a coupon for it so PM me if you’re interested.

A pretty tasty rooibos blend that I’ve leaned on many a time when drinking teas from the library tea bar this summer. Today I feel as though I’m coming down with something, so I am pounding back the tea, and trying to avoid taking in any more dehydrating caffeine than is absolutely necessary to keep myself vertical and studying for a test I have tomorrow (test plus sick = terrible combination! Am doing my best.) Wow, was that the worst run-on sentence ever? Did I mention I don’t feel well?

Anyway, this is nicely fruity and bright- sweet, but not too sweet. It’s like a mild cocktail and might be amazing iced. Either way, this makes for a really good summer blend. It may be the blorgie talking, but I think I taste a kind of peach-nectarine and a touch of coconut.

Every so often it’s fine to slum it, tea wise. And quite frankly I consider anything I can buy at a mainstream grocery store chain (not including health food chains here) to be slumming it ;) There, I said it. This doesn’t mean I don’t like wallowing down here sometimes though. And the dining hall at my language study program stocks only Bigelow teas. Free tea? Yes, please.

I have been pleasantly surprised by this one. I have tasted some incredibly bad lemon teas in the past, but this one is sorta sweet and mild. It actually reminds me somewhat of some ‘lemon cream’ blends I have tried. It doesn’t get too intense- and I left the tea bag in my travel mug, so if it was going to, it would have an hour ago. Maybe Bigelow shines the most when it comes to herb teas! It’s not as though I have a particularly sophisticated palette anyway.

Good after dinner or lunch, methinks.

I am inclined to refrain from giving this one a numerical rating, as it tastes like exactly what it promises to- sweet potato pie. I can really taste the sweet potatoes in it, and even the marshmallow. But it turns out this is too sweet for me (don’t laugh, it was a kind donation by silvermage). I don’t even put sugar or any sweetener in my tea, so there’s that to take into account- if you generally sweeten your black tea, you might be in for a treat here.

Actually, I have to say that this is one of the Adagio blends that best delivers on its description, of those I’ve tried. I’m going to keep at it and see if I can develop a taste for it, as I don’t have much tea with me here in Japanese-immersion-camp land.

I’ve been drinking this one every morning for a few weeks, because I wanted to wake up, but am under so much stress that my stomach has been a mess. Coffee hasn’t been my friend lately. However much I like the other Tulsi teas though, this one is just okay. Rather than giving me that delicious black tea taste PLUS the benefits of tulsi, it really just tastes like tulsi to me (tulsi = holy basil). I find that some of Organic India’s other flavors do more to cover up the sorta herby-sweet tulsi taste.

Nonetheless, I shall finish up the box because the plant is good for my adrenals, and right now, in this stupid language immersion program, I need all the help managing the effects of stress that I can get.

Drinking this with my steamed soy milk- and actually finding it a bit weaker than the regular Mighty Leaf Earl Grey. Also, if they can make the regular Earl Grey organic, what about the decaf? I hope they don’t use chemical decaffeination methods.

Anyway, I am barely tasting the bergamot right now, which is odd- it doesn’t get swallowed by the soy milk when I use the caffeinated version. That said, I’m going to give this one a few more tries because of my need to combine the tummy soothing effects of black tea with less caffeine for the sake of my nerves. I am a fragile bunny right now.

I’m in a Japanese immersion ‘camp’ right now, so I thought this one would be fitting (thanks, silvermage!)- we’ve eaten plenty of Japanese food while here, although not enough sweet sesame desserts for my liking :) Also, right now I need to wake up, so a black tea seemed like a fine idea.

This isn’t the first time I’ve tried this one, and I keep finding myself really missing the taste of sesame. It’s there in the dry tea, but brewed this mostly just tastes like okay black tea to me- slightly bitter, slightly dry, good to wake up to.

I am considering just combining this with the sweet potato adagio tea- that one is a bit too sweet, and this one just tastes like nothing when brewed, so voila, diluted s.p. tea.

So funny- I didn’t drink black tea before this immersion program, but as stress caused my tummy to get a little bit unpredictable I found black tea was one of the most effective remedies- more so than the ‘tummy’ herbal teas I have. I have been loving my black teas here.

Anyway, unimpressed by this one.

Thanks to silvermage for letting me try this one.
I love oolongs, but it’s been a while since I’ve had one at home. I was afraid of this blend being too floral, but it’s actually quite mild and pleasant. I’ve been enjoying this one mid-mornings, as a kind of energizer. There’s something very clean and refreshing about it. I can taste the rose component, but it’s not at all perfumey. A pleasant surprise, really!

I bet this one would go really well with a nice piece of cake. Oooh, good idea, me. But I think I’ve been overindulging in dessert lately, so maybe not. Anyway, I most strongly taste the fig in this one, and it reminds me of the raisin in the Cinnamon raisin toast tea (which I liked). I don’t taste the cinnamon much, but that’s kinda okay because cinnamon can turn sickly sweet in tea blends, and I was afraid of that. I’d like to try this one with steamed vanilla soymilk, I think. It’s a good after dinner cup, and I can’t really taste the rooibos, so fear not, rooibos-haters!

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Keep in mind that I have absolutely drowned this in a sea of steamed soy milk, because as I posted yesterday, my new hack is to get a cup of tea with steamed soy milk for a measly $1 at the campus coffee shop.

Anyway, I’m really digging on black tea lately, so I thought I’d try this one. I can’t say it held up that well to my milk-treatment, even with my leaving the tea bag in the cup and risking oversteeping. However, what I do taste of it is actually a rather mild, almost sweet cup of black tea. Not particularly astringent. I’d recommend this one to those who like black tea, but generally don’t like the mouth-feel of it / the bitterness. I’m actually enjoying it, but I’m not sure I’d consider it a breakfast black tea. More like a nice tea-time tea.

Okay, I can’t take it anymore. I don’t think the world will end if I write about tea occasionally in English (currently in a Japanese immersion program).
Anyway, I’ve found a cheap hack at one of the campus coffee shops- one bag of Mighty Leaf tea is really cheap. Ask for it with steamed milk of any type (I get soy) and it’s the same price. Mmmmm…. so this is a decent earl grey (most really do taste the same to me), and with soy milk it even seems to have a touch of sweetness that I may or may not be imagining. I’m in the library with a travel cup, so I’m lazily letting the tea bag sit, and it hasn’t ruined the flavor at all. If anything it’s richer. I love that I can get an organic tea latte for $1 ;)

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