15678 Tasting Notes
As y’all know, I’ve been sampling my way through a bunch of Teeccino’s coffee replacement blends. So, when I saw that Adagio had released their own “fake coffee” tea I had to tack it onto my advent order. The curiosity was too much.
I will say, this is the most chicory dominant of the fake coffee teas I’ve tried – and I think that’s both a pro and a con. The con is that I am personally just not a big fan of chicory. As much as I deeply crave that dark, dark roasted flavour I find there’s a sour sharpness that always accompanies chicory that turns me off more than the heavy generality and earthiness appeals to me. Howerver I think the pro is that because there’s so much chicory here it actually does a better job of recreating the intensity and full bodied of coffee – from the roast all the way to coffee’s natural acidity.
Chicory aside, I did really love the addition of cinnamon here. It kind of broke the illusion of coffee for me, because it did taste so distinctly of cinnamon, but it was really complimentary and added just enough natural sweetness that there really isn’t any need for other forms of sweetener like the carob/date sugar that’s used in the Teeccino blends. To clarify though, it’s not a sweet tasting tisane – it’s more just that the natural bitterness and earthiness is offset enough by the inclusion of cinnamon.
Definitely really roasty and I think a great take on this whole fake coffee/coffee replacement trend that’s happening – I’m glad I picked it up because even though I’m not a coffee drinker I do love these heavily roasted profiles.
Late, late night cuppa from yesterday. I pulled this one out because I was craving the camphor that this blend delivers. Strongly aromatic and cooling in the back of your chest, with crisp notes of peppermint and just a hint of cardamom to add a slight citrusy pine note. Say what you will about Fireberry (and there’s a lot to say), but this blend has grown on me.
Cold Brew!
Added some coconut milk to this after straining to create more of an “iced chai latte” sort of vibe. I had, however, forgotten just how much ginger is in this tea. Like, it’s a lot of peppery hot ginger and only a bit of cinnamon and cardamom. The coconut milk complimented well and tempered it a bit, but there was still something just a tiny bit off about about that much ginger with the more banana heavy sort of finishing flavour.
I still wish there was more banana present here, but I will say that I enjoy the style of banana present. Not super sweet, and treading the line between banana bread with a more bake-y feeling a creamier banana pudding with those vanilla notes. I think the banana is stronger when you drink this hot, as well – so that probably didn’t help either.
Cold Brew!
I have a little box next to my tea station with an assortment of teas I want to drink, try for the first time, or work on sipping down. This one has been sitting in that box for a while because I’ve felt like it would be a nice and refreshing cold brew. However, in the moment something always speaks to me just a little stronger and I end up picking something else. I decided to finally prioritize this blend though and it’s really delicious. Definitely a bit of a softer flavour, but the delicate notes of cherry blossom and overall floral sweetness is easy sipping while still feeling playful. I’ve had some heavier cold brews lately with very saturated, strong flavours so it’s nice to break them up with something so fresh feeling.
Happy Matcha Monday!
It was a cool, crisp morning which is why I couldn’t help but reach for this more autumnal feeling matcha. I did cut it with a bit of plain Ceremonial Matcha to reduce the ginger a bit, since sometimes I find it too strong. Even still, the ginger adds a crawling back of the throat heat that contrasts so pleasantly off the tangy and just so slightly sweet notes of apple cider vinegar. All that’s missing is the cinnamon stick!
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjiY53NrKIL/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwYFLoFMOr0
Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Deciding to pull out this tea to have something pleasantly soft, fruity, and floral to ease into my day with. I am really digging the way the banana has a creaminess to it but also still some of that greener edge, and it works very nicely with the semi-sweet and very floral notes of blueberry. Neither of these interpretations of the two fruits would probably fly in the mass/commercial North American market and it’s a shame because they’re both accurate to the fruits in very specific but very real ways. Definitely feeling the cozy, lazy morning vibes as I sip on this really lovely blend.
Continuing with sampling Adagio’s coffee leaf collection.
I don’t want to call this one low hanging fruit but it is kinda low hanging fruit. Not a bad thing though – it makes all the sense in the world that you’d do a riff on coffee for a coffee leaf blend. I liked this one quite a bit too. More than the Lemon Turmeric. Definitely that very signature coffee profile from Adagio that’s a bit borderline boozy, but complimented with a pleasantly earthy note of coffee and a nuttiness. It reminded me a lot of another favourite Adagio fandom blend of mine – Apache Tracker from the Welcome To Nightvale fandom. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if there’s overlapping flavourings used between the two.
Sipdown (1911)!
I picked up a handful of teas from this company during the Tea Festival, but this is actually one that I received as a free sample – just a single cup worth. It was kind of shockingly nice, and I don’t mean that as a slight towards the tea. It’s more than chocolate blends don’t usually resonate very strongly with me right away but someone about this one stood out. I think it was mainly that it did taste sweetly of chocolate but there was also clearly something else. It was hard to put my finger on what that other thing was though; at times it was like a honey or caramel flavour and sometimes it was more nutty, like an almond nougat. It worked very well with the more liqueur-like chocolate notes though.
Sipped on this one earlier last week. It was somewhere between the softer pastry-like cinnamon notes you’d expect from a Cinnamon Bun teas and, like, the red hot style cinnamon that’s more “Chai like” and intense. I think maybe I would have minded that it was venturing into some of that stronger cinnamon territory, but the creaminess in the finish was so lovely and rich and it pulled this tea back into cinnamon bun territory for me.
Sipdown (1912)!
I feel like this is definitely on me for assuming and not checking before brewing this one up, but I really thought this was going to be a straight oolong. Something like a Four Seasons Oolong. Instead, I was surprised by the fact this is flavoured. Once I got over the initial shock I found myself enjoying this quite a bit. It’s simply flavoured; seems like just an addition of juicy sweet peach flavour. It works well with the greener oolong base which adds a layer of floral flavour and creates these lovely peaks and valleys of dimension to this mono-flavoured blend. Soothing while also being, like, lush.
I wouldn’t buy it again because it’s a little simple and not especially unique, but if you wanted a reliable and just nicely executed peach tea this would be a pretty solid option.
