White Cucumber

Trust Auggy to send me a conundrum in a tin. [Hahaha, just kidding. Love you, Augs.] But seriously y’all, this tea belongs in a carnival somewhere between the bearded lady and the contortionist. It is bizarre.

The leaves will punch you in the sarcophagus if you aren’t ready for the stench when you open up the tin. And yes, I am going to call it a stench, because I don’t think it’s an extremely appealing smell. It smells like brine, with maybe a hint of cucumber [but just a hint]. There’s a spicy nudge that almost smells like cinnamon, but it has that sweet edge Auggy was talking about so it really reminds me a lot of Red Hots, which I was never a fan of. Sometimes it has this sharpness to it that reminds me of when I got pine sap on my hand one time and it was really hard to get off and smelled kind of nasty. It’s one of those smells that is impossible to ignore and makes your nostrils feel not unlike they’re being poked with a skewer.

With a smell this pungent, you’d think the tea would be inarguably disgusting, but surprisingly, or not surprisingly as I am discovering with Adagio’s smell to taste ratio, I didn’t find this to be true. This was one of the rare cases where I was so glad the taste did not live up to the smell that I let out a huge sigh of relief after the first sip.

It kind of tasted like cucumber, but even more of that cinnamon/Red Hots note came out in the taste. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t hate it. The scent of the liquid is still a liiiittle bit overwhelming, but the taste was surprisingly mellow. Cucumbers, a cross between dill and sweet pickles, and Red Hots. There is nothing in my head that say those flavors should meld together, but for whatever reason worked okay.

As it moved to luke warm, it began to get a little bit sweeter, which I liked. But when it cooled, the any taste I could pick out was pretty much gone. It sort of tasted like cucumber water, which I can make a little more easily by just sticking cucumbers in water. EDIT TO ADD: Somewhere around here, in the lukewarm range, I also was getting the flavor of plain, unbuttered popcorn. That kind of weirded me out. Not sure where it was coming from, but it wasn’t completely unwelcome.

So, for the novelty, I’ll probably finish off this sample tin. I’ll just have to hold my nose a bit because the stink of the leaves is strong enough to actually make my eyes water. [I wish I were kidding.] But this definitely isn’t something I’m going to buy.

Goodmorning Steepsterites.

Word of the day is ‘BRRRRRRRR!!!!’
I’m having an unplanned day off because my city looks like a christmas card (Look! http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iwBGrA_DuCCny_0D9mhQfw?feat=directlink and http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/AS7NtzJwc9yVtSMUwALKsw?feat=directlink)
and the train service is unreliable enough today that I got a bit worried about whether or not I’d be able to get home again if I managed to fight my way to work. So I gave up and went home. It’s actually more or a hot cocoa day rather than a tea day, but I haven’t got any milk, and hot cocoa made on water is not worth the effort.

What better time than now to give this white cucumber stuff that Ricky sent me a whirl?

The leaves look fairly normal and of a good size. Some of them are pretty dark. I have to say I agree with other reviewers though. They absolutely reek! They smell like pickles and vinegar and something kind of chemical and it’s the same thing in the finished brew. I was rather imagining fresh cucumbers. Not pickled ones.

The colour is sort of yellow with the slightest hint of green, and surprisingly, because of the smell, it actually tastes more like fresh cucumbers than it does of pickles. It’s so weird! It’s got that same sort of bitterness that cucumbers can have, especially in the peel, and I’m picking up a strong note of dill too. I’m always happiest with something that will leave me with a good aftertaste, but this is a bit much. My mouth tastes like I’ve just been chewing a wad of dill and it feels all green. If I go and look at my tongue in the mirror, I’d probably be surprised that it was still red. As it is, I keep catching myself searching for a note of fish that isn’t there, of course.

I’m glad I only made one cup and it only got worse as it cooled. I’m so not a fan of this. Spitty! Spitty! I’m going to go and make something else to take the bad taste out of my mouth.

I could die right now, I’ve been freaking out that I wasn’t going to get the grade I need to finish macroeconomics, convinced I had to have gotten like a 30 on my exam, I actually got a 78.33, which means I really don’t have to worry. I hope. I still have to worry about a stupid science class because I don’t go to the lab and I’m pretty sure that’s unforgivable but it physically pains me to do busy work.

I should do something about it but blah blah anxiety blah blah hide and don’t do anything welcome to my world.

I was worried about this one because my first and only experience with an Adagio white was reminiscent of a slice of bread coated in dust.

This one isn’t bad at all, I drank some of it hot then wanted to try it cold…not as good cold at all, there is a weird aftertaste to me. Hot, however, is oddly refreshing and works for cucumber, which I wouldn’t really expect. I quite like the Tazo cucumber white, but this one tastes like a floral cucumber at times.

So school has been using me as a punching bag as of late, but only about a month left to go. I honestly feel bad about not updating here whenever I’ve had a new tea, so I’m taking a quick break to fill in this one gap at least.

That being said, this tea was worth the loss of the nap I was planning on taking. When I first opened the tin (ages ago) I smelt sour and cinnamon, but with something else that adds a bit of sweetness. The smells blend oddy well together and kind of overlap in my mind,but I’m not a fan. The leaves look un-uniform, with some rolled and downy silver and other open and blackish-brown. I did really enjoy the light yellow it brewed to, and in my glass mug I could see the little hairs from the leaves floating around. I tried not to think about that too much when I maned up and took a dainty sip.

The first taste was more spice than I expected. The cucumber aspect was definitly overwhelmed, but when I did isolate it was like woah. I felt a the same sensation when I’m eating cucumbers, sans crunch, that wetter than water feeling. It also tastes pretty much what I’d expect from a cucumber tea, cucumbery goodness, when ignoring the cinnamon.
One the second steep, the cinnamon was cut back and I enjoyed this cup more than the first. One the third steep I lost interest and left it to sit for about 6 hrs.

Does any know why Adagio added the cinnamon aspect? It doesn’t really detract from the tea, or help it, but I can’t figure out why it would be there. I’ve never thought cucumbers and spices. Pickles and spice, yes. But cukes? Not really.

I love cucumbers. I love cucumber water. I have learned that I do not love cucumber tea. This tastes exactly like white tea with cucumber. Followed package directions and everything. Just not enjoying it. It might be good during the summer, brewed for a shorter period of time, iced, and with sugar… and possibly with fewer leaves than the 2 heaping teaspoons suggested on the package.

I agree with literally every other reviewer that the dry leaves smell like pickles. I quite like pickles, so it didn’t put me off. And ok the brewed tea smells briny too. And now that I think about it the tea also tastes vaguely briny… reading the other reviews has actually made me like this tea even less! At least it’s pretty – a nice pale yellow. Great thanks to TastyBrew for sending me the sample, but I don’t think I’ll be drinking this again any time soon.

This tin is so hard to open. I’ve already had to vacuum up little leaves off the floor. :(

DH says the dry leaf smells like Christmas. Well, I’ll see him his Christmas and raise him a pickle, combining to make a sort of pickle potpourri. If they, you know, made pickle potpourri…

But hey, I’m not judging. Yet.

The liquor smells more potpourri and less pickle. I smell something like cinnamon. No, more like Red Hots (or Hot Damn). I am insane. (Or not because I made DH try some and his first question was “Is this a cinnamon tea?”) But underneath the Red Hot, I smell cucumber. Ooookay. As it cools, I smell more cucumber, less Red Hot.

The taste is… kind of nifty. The main flavor is very cucumber. Juicy, musky, good cucumber. The Red Hot flavor is hanging out a little underneath the cucumber – pretty much a reverse of the smell – but it moves to the front as I hold it in my mouth.

Mentally, these tastes don’t seem to go but in actuality it works. It’s flavorful but not as overpowering as the smell would indicate so that’s good. Not sure if I want a Red Hot cucumber tea though so rating subject to change.

ETA: 2nd steep @ 7mins. The flavor isn’t as strong but pretty much all I can taste is diluted Red Hot. DH says this tea should be called Big Red. I concur.

This is certainly an… unusual tea. I was really craving a crisp white, Golden Moon’s Persian Melon to be exact, but I have a policy where I try to drink new teas before dipping into old ones and I still have several from my Adagio order to go through.

I’d read all the reviews before purchasing this and new it wouldn’t be exactly what I wanted, but I guess the name was just too tempting. I’ve been really, really wanting a cucumber tea recently: I picked up some cucumber lime Gatorade when I was sick (I know, it sounds disgusting, but it was the most refreshing drink I’ve ever had!) and wanted to replicate that taste with tea. Well, this isn’t exactly cucumber. When you open the bag there’s not even a trace of it—it smells just like pickling spices. Kind of gross and offputting, but a lot of Adagio’s teas either have a weird artificial smell or a bland scent that doesn’t translate to the actual brew.

It brewed up very colorless, and I was worried the tea to water ratio was wrong, but it tastes fine to me—this is just an unusually pale white, I suppose. The pickling spice smell was pretty much gone and I thankfully can’t taste it that much. What I am getting is a really overpowering sour note on the front of my palette—I have no idea from what, there’s no lemon in this blend and it honestly tastes like someone put wayyyy too much lemon juice in my mug. The cucumber is there in the middle—for a second this tea is heaven, crisp and sharp and fresh, but then at the end of the sip there’s that damn pickling spice! This tea is a real tease, so close to what I wanted at some points but the rest of it is kind of unappetizing. I think this would be much better iced and I am going to try cold brewing it to hopefully cut some of the sour notes—maybe mix it with a lime tea. It’s definitely far from perfect, but if I can get those cucumber notes to be more prominent I don’t think I’ll really regret purchasing it.

I’m really not getting cucumber out of this.
I mean, I taste cinnamon, and something vaguely vegetal. But I tend to associate a sort of watery crisp freshness to cucumbers, and I don’t get that same feeling from the tea.

The flavor is weak; maybe I didn’t use enough leaves. I’ll have to mess around with it some more.

Pulling off the lid of the sample tin (this one was on tight) I caught a wiff of the dry tea. The only thing I can describe it as is a cross between cinnamon and light dill pickles. Yeah, I don’t get it either. It’s not that I don’t like it – I LOVE dill pickles – it’s just such a non sequitur for me and my nose.

I’m glad to see the large number of buds in this tea instead of the crumbled up bits you sometimes get. Taste-wise this tea is actually very close to the taste of raw cucumber, though I’m also still picking up a very minute trace of cinnamon or some other spice.

From two swaps, I managed to request samples of this tea.

Ooops. (Anyone want some? PM me to arrange a swap)

Well. Hrm. I don’t think the scent of the dry leaves are disgusting as others have commented. Odd, but not disgusting.

Initally my brewed leaves smelled exactly like cinnamon. An the liquor smells like it.

The taste… is confusing. I think it tastes a little like soap. But strangely, pleasantly so. I think the cucumber flavor, which is definitely there, reminds me very much of all the various cucumber scented lotions and soaps, while still tasting nice. Except.. well.. it still tastes like soap. Pleasant soap, but soap. Don’t get any cinnamon flavor. Although I’m getting a little soap flavor burn afterwards, which others might taste as cinnamon.

I don’t think I’m fond of this. I was hoping to be, as I like cucumbers a lot. Sigh. MEH! Low end of the meh scale. How sad.

The dry leaves smell rather like pickle juice – a little off-putting at first. The tea brews up to a delicate golden hue, with a sweetly refreshing taste. This is definitely going on my favorites list!

thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for including this in our trade! First, I must say the picture above that goes with this tea is so clear and well done. You ca see all the fuzziness to the white tea leaves. I actually don’t even like the fuzziness to white tea but that picture is impressive. I was worried about this one when I saw the name. White tea. Cucumber. Uh oh. I don’t love either of them. But luckily the flavor is mild… a mild dill pickle! But also is genuinely cucumber. It definitely tastes like cucumber. I usually associate white teas with drying my mouth, but this one didn’t! So it wins there anyway. I’m actually glad this one isn’t worse! But I don’t think any cucumber white tea could impress me too much. Not a bad blend but am I crazy to think it would have been better with a stronger flavor? More dill pickle?

What is that stench? Oh its White Cucumber. It smells so pungent in the tin! It smells like a mix of old ketchup and old mustard… like what you’d smell at a carnival or one of those carts in NYC selling those dirty water hot dogs.

Steeped, it wasn’t so bad. It was yellow and the smell wasn’t as bad. The taste was milder – thank goodness! Though I didn’t enjoy this one as much. It left a strange aftertaste in my mouth. A milder “dirty water hot dogs” taste. Not bad, but I can’t say I’ll reach for this often. Well.. I might just to finish this tin as fast as possible.

EDIT — I’m going to try this iced.

Yes! I ordered a good 18 samples of Adagio’s teas when we got our UtiliTEA kettle (which is fantastic – if only Steepster had equipment reviews!), having never tried that brand before and being enticed by the low price of admission, and thought just about every one I’ve tried so far was thoroughly boring, good but not great and that’s just unacceptable in a DavidsTea world. Every one of those were blacks and oolongs (the latter my favorite variety and therefore the lion’s share of the samples I ordered) until getting to the delicious vanilla green, and between that and this white cucumber I think my judgment of Adagio might be changing.

A vaguely unpleasant scent from the leaves set my expectations pretty low, but the vinegary notes vanished in hot water to make way for a very recognizable white tea scent. To be honest, if you had me smell the liquor without knowing what it was, I’d guess this was a plain Silver Needle – albeit an old one, but still pretty quality stuff. There’s a very pleasant vegetal edge that more than makes up for the discouraging nose from the leaves.

I normally steep white teas one or two minutes and no more. Adagio’s instructions on the types-of-tea leaflet you can expect to find in any shipment encourage you to steep theirs for as much as seven (!) minutes because the flavor needs that time to come out, which just sounds downright heretical to me. The cucumber white’s bag recommends a more modest 3-5 minutes, so I shook off the innate resistance to doing so and gave the infusion a solid four. Fortunately, that time didn’t end up making my cup bitter, and I’m intrigued to try a few different times with this tea.

In fact, the flavor is really, really good. I’m a big cucumber fan so I was expecting to at least like the tea despite how odd it sounds, but I found myself loving each sip more than the last. I’m not sure I would describe the flavor as cucumber in a blind taste test, but it definitely tastes crisp and vegetal on top of the fantastic mild earth tones that mark white tea. The liquor is more golden than most whites, likely due to the long steep.

My cup’s been cooling down as I sip it writing this review, as hot beverages are wont to do, and the scent and taste both are getting stronger and closer to the tea’s name. I still love each sip more than the last, as I mentioned in the opening of this review. Color me impressed; I’m excited to get to Adagio’s other whites shortly.
-Cash

I am wondering if the White Cucumber I am having today is the same as that noted by others a few years ago. Perhaps Adagio changed the formula? The reason I say this, I get none of the harsh smell from the leaves. A mild “green” aroma but nothing much else. There is definately no cinnamon others had mentioned. A hot cup was a plain very mild white tea taste -not a bad thing. As it cooled though I was able to detect hints-small hints-of cucumber. Great tea if you want something very mild. Next time I will increase the amount of tea and note any difference.

We are up to sample # 16 from TTB-A
Leif was really curious about this one. I thought it would be boring.
Turns out, we both enjoyed it. :)

I have to give Adagio credit for creating a tea that tastes exactly like a cucumber. This is one of those teas that you like the taste, but you don’t want that taste in a tea. Not a tea that I want to drink again, but I can’t say it was poorly flavored. Props to this tea for giving the flavor it claims by the name.

I opened this tin and was greeted by a surprising vinegar/pickle scent. The tea retains some of the scent after steeping. The taste is definitely that of cucumber, which pairs nicely with the delicate white. I like cucumbers, but not necessarily in my tea.

I didn’t have an issue with the scent of the dry leaves. They just smelled kind of plain to me. I chose a low temp and low steep time to avoid cooking the cukes.

165/1.5 min. It’s not bad. Smells like cucumbers and tastes like it, too. I’m not picking up any tea taste, more like liquid cucumber, no spiciness whatsoever. Actually, I think it’s pretty neat, but it’s not what I’d look for in a tea.

The coloring of the white tea reminds me of the South India Oothu from TeaG. With the higher brewing temp, I am sure they are related. I would of loved this tea, if it wasn’t for the cucumber flavor. The smell of the dry leaf wasn’t exactly appetizing. It smelled like a cucumber that’s been in the fridge for alittle too long. And I love cucumbers, I used to buy cucumber to just put in my ice water to flavor it! I think this is just an iced tea. I had this as a hot tea. Yeah, not good. Thank you Doulton for a taste of this tea.