Birthday Tea

Started my day off with this because hey, it’s my birthday, I do what I want. Adagio kindly included it as a sample with my last order, so that was exciting.

The dry leaves smell like vanilla cake, but I can smell the flavoring. Steeped 1tsp/8oz/212/2minutes; added a bit of milk and sugar.

The flavor is surprisingly light, but it’s still a decent tea. Not my favorite though… I think I’ll be celebrating for reals with a fancy oolong later on!

OMG! Rachel spoiled me with a HUGE Sample Bags worth of stuff!!!! Thank so much, girl!!! This is the first one I am trying. It’s been on my TO-TRY LIST for EVER. This definitely smells like the FROSTING of a cupcake or cake. YUM.

Let’s see what it tastes like now…

It’s a medium strength type black tea taste with a vanilla/cream taste to it. As it cools a bit I am liking it better but not sure about actual cold tea or iced tea tho. It’s ok. I always have to try novelty teas and blends regardless…soooo glad I got to try this – thanks Rachel!

Well, I’m FINALLY making myself try this tea that I got from Adagio last month on my birthday- isn’t that sweet? How come every time I make a flavored black it comes out so much stronger than other leaves. I mean I don’t even know if you can call these pellets leaves but boy do they bring on the bold! I topped it off with some reddi whip and I’m all ready to party now lemme tell ya! WoooHoooo! Yes, it’s stronger than I like but a more refined version of this may taste just right for a dessert tea. The more sips I take the more bland I taste the flavors – definitely one dimensional and no notes coming from these teas! But its sweet and hot and possibly in need of a splash of milk. Yeah thats what it needs.. Are these blacks strangely stronger than breakfast teas and assams?

Thanks Tegan for thie sample of Birthday Tea!
I thought today was a good day to celebrate! I went with fear and trembling to pick up my Tax Return…ugh…knowing that I would likely owe a bundle this year. My Tax lady said “You don’t owe anything.” Are you positive?!"said I. “Yes, we get it right, I’m sure!” she said. Wow! Unreal! But, as I drove home something just didn’t seem right. I went over my return at home where I discovered the BIG error… she had failed to record the large IRA withdrawal from when I moved to Colorado and bought my condo and paid off my car and credit cards to qualify for the load in January 2011. Oh No! So I called and this will be corrected and I will pay Big Tax Bucks! Now what to do? Be mad or be sad? Nah, make some tea. Make some tea and review it. Pick a good name like Birthday Tea. (It’s not that great a tea really…too one dimensional… vanilla and that’s it). Some tea review huh. Tea review and life lesson review. I have too much to be greatful for. Not much money but lots and lots of tea! I love the tea people I have contact with also.

Honestly, i don’t know if I have a soft spot for Adagio or if my taste-buds are just off tune, but there are quite a few Adagio teas that I really enjoy. I believe that a lot may have to do with Adagio’s flavored teas being my first loose leaf flavored… But either way, I happily really enjoyed this blend. Thanks to Auggy for the opportunity to try it (and quite a few more)!

The smell of the leaves was nothing spectacular. Just vaguely creamy vanillaish. Of course the harsh Assam base scent was there. If this could be fixed, I would love Adagio a whole bunch more. But, all in all, a rather uneventful pre-sipping sniffing session with this blend. The few sprinkles saved the leaves from being boring, and colors always make me smile, so extra credit points there!

The brewed tea smelled buttery and had a strong vanilla note to it. It actually reminded me of the icing that my mom would make for my birthday cakes as a kid (and as a grown up as well… You can’t outgrow birthday cake made by mom can you???). Unsweetened it tasted rather dull, and the astringency was a bit too much to deal with. Sweetened, it was scrumptious. It was smooth and creamy with enough vanilla in it to top it off as a flavor and not only a sensation or texture. I was impressed. As it cooled down the vanilla became even more present and the vanilla birthday cake illusion was complete.

Needless to say, my cup of tea did not last me very long… Sipping slowly was futile… Too tasty for patience.

I am really happy I got to try this, and will have to order it! : ) Yum… Great way to end a busy productive day!

Thank you so much to RICKY for sending me a sample of this tea. It’s sort of “meh”. The sprinkles are a nice touch, but they are a superficial bauble. The tea itself is too “generic black” to get me really interested—but it’s not a weak black. I think that the overtones of vanilla are a little too muted for me to appreciate them. Ditto with the caramel.

It’s a personable tea and a nice idea, but I don’t feel tempted to purchase it.

Thank you Reasoned_Melody for this tea.
My birthday was a few days ago but I only received this today and my party is tomorrow…I think it’s only fair I have a cup of this tea at the present moment. Plus it would have been my cat Mr Bloo’s birthday today (he was my best friend and childhood pet, he died last year). A very sad day and would be birthday.

This tea is vanilla and creamy in scent whilst raw. Once steeped with a sugar and drop of milk added this tea is a rather tasty mix of caramel and creamy vanilla. Smooth and silky yet being black tea based there is an earthy darkness behind it all. Rather a nice blend and the rainbow sprinkles in the raw mixture are fun. ^_

It’s NOT by birthday, but I’ll drink this birthday tea if I want to. Sorry, that was bad. I probably only know that song because I spent at least one of my birthdays crying (chicken pox & sweltering heat). And another birthday memory: I also remember bringing ridiculously colored Sesame Street cupcakes to a school birthday one year. When there were some extra cupcakes left at the end of the day, my brother was planted in a high chair in the garage for a good reason — he got blue cookie monster frosting EVERYWHERE.

Anyway, thank you Starfevre for this sample! I love anything with vanilla and cream. This might be the first Adagio black tea I’ve tried. This is good! I steeped for three minutes, since I don’t see any instructions anywhere. The dry leaves smell like cake more than the tea tastes like cake. I love the black tea flavor — a bit strong, which may be drowning out the flavors. But I’m okay with that! I needed a tough black tea this morning (or every morning, really.) It’s a nice flavor combination… though more caramel would have been nice. I love the briskness with the sweetness of the vanilla, caramel and cream. I wouldn’t mind having this on my birthday! But now I’m thinking… what about black tea cupcakes??

Yet another tea I had forgotten I had. Actually, thought I was out of it. Nope, I’m not! I have almost half a tin left. Yay!

Because it has been a while since I’ve had it and it is possible my tastes have changed some since the last time I had it (in July), I’m going to treat this like a new tea.

First off, the sprinkles are fun. I’m easily distracted by shiny and sprinkles are close enough to bring me great joy. As it is brewing, I get a big time vanilla icing smell. Mmm. Icing. Normally I’d add a sugar and a splash of milk to my flavored/dessert teas (seems to me to help the flavors show up and be, you know, dessert-y) but I am milk-less today. Boo.

Mmm, this is good though. Sweet (yay sprinkles!) and tastes pretty similar to how it smells. It’s not exactly a well developed tea or anything. No peppery notes or sweet hay tail or hints of raisins. It’s a vanilla cupcake tea. Correction: it’s a GOOD vanilla cupcake tea. But dessert teas have their place in my pantry and I think this is probably in my top 5.

First, as I usually do, I smelled the tea leaves.

They already smelled very much like caramel with just a hint of vanilla in there somewhere.

When I had steeped the tea, I removed the leaves to find the refreshing sight of a brownish red liquor in my cup.

I tasted the tea plain at first.
It was already a little sweet, without having to add sweetener, and it was also smooth like cream. The flavor of caramel was very bold, blending in with a strong sapor of vanilla.

I then added sweetener and some cream.

The brew gushed brilliant flavors into my mouth and over my tongue, lingering as I swallowed what seemed to be sweet candle light from a birthday cake.
The caramel mixed with the vanilla and came.to.life.

It was like drinking the essence of a birthday cake: Very sweet, yet balanced; very creamy and smooth and wet on the tongue, the savoring flavor tardy in my mouth long after each sip I took and swallowed eagerly.

I would rate this tea as one of my absolute favorites! huzzah!

(I drank at least nine other mugs of this tea throughout the day~)

This tea was okay, but unfortunately didn’t get the sweet dessert taste I was looking for. After adding a generous portion of rock sugar it was better, but still didn’t taste like cake unfortunately.

Another sample tea sent by Ricky! Thanks for the opportunity to taste this tea. This tea smells sweet and intoxicating. I think it may need to be brewed closer to 2 minutes as I got a really strong not so pleasant cup at 3 minutes. I’m not a fan of cream, and that seems to be the main taste on my tongue, I’m getting a pleasant aftertaste of caramel though. I think I’m starting to see why others find adagio’s flavored teas aren’t the best. The base really isn’t to my liking in this one. I do like that it tastes more like a black tea with light flavor undertones. I didn’t need to add anything to this tea. Probably won’t reorder, but will enjoy the rest of my sample.

I finally got the chance to try this one thanks to Ricky!

I took this with milk and sugar. I can mostly taste the awful Ceylon base that Adagio uses, but I’ll put that aside and concentrate on other things. I can taste a lot of caramel and some vanilla. The aftertaste is really nice caramel. Also, I’m noticing that it reminds me of a cappuccino.

There’s some weird oil-like stuff floating on the surface of this tea. Maybe it’s from the sprinkles, which were a really nice, really cute touch.

I really like the idea of this tea, but honestly, the Ceylon ruins it. C’mon Adagio! Get your act together!

EDIT: Now that it’s starting to cool off, I can taste more of the vanilla. I’m liking this more now; it’s not as bitter.

I came home today quite frustrated with the combination of one of my classes + bad drivers. I needed a good cup of tea to relax! Imagine my surprise when I saw that this tea (thanks to oOTeaOo!) had arrived! Dry, this really is a pretty tea: black, curled leaves and a dash of colorful sprinkles thrown in. Delightful! Brewed, this tea has a yummy black tea and sweet, creamy scent. Oh, boy! I’m so excited!
Sipping, this tea has a definite vanilla/caramel taste. It is a bit overshadowed by the black tea. Almost immediately, I get a very dry feeling in my mouth. I wish that the vanilla and caramel could be more present! The black tea could be pulled back a bit.. and this would really be a yummy cup. Is a shorter steep time the way to go? I’m afraid if I do that then I’ll loose the sweetness! Sigh.

Adagio sent me a free sample tin of Birthday tea when I made a purchase last month (my birthday is May 22nd) and it was a complete surprise. I opened up the tea and was amused by the rainbow-colored sprinkles nestled amongst the black leaves. It is described on Adagio’s website as a blend of “vanilla, cream and a hint of caramel”; if it tasted anything like cake or frosting, I would be hooked.

It took me a few weeks to get around to trying it, but I have to say I’m disappointed. It doesn’t taste like vanilla frosting. It doesn’t taste like sweet, sugary cake. It has the slightest hint of vanilla…and that’s it. It’s practically a plain black tea. If steeped over 5 minutes, it goes bitter really fast.

The lack of flavor makes me wonder if I got an old batch or something. I mean, it just doesn’t taste all that sweet to me! But hey, it’s not like I paid for it. It’s definitely a better birthday present than socks or granny underwear. ;-D

Well, I’m finally finishing this off. I’m getting hints of vanilla, caramel, frosting-like flavors. I added a bit of sugar to make it seem more… cakey.. It kind of worked.

This tea smells like maple syrup to me, but not legitimate maple syrup..the sugary fake flavored kind. And that’s perfectly fine for a tea, but not for pancakes. I would like it a lot better if it tasted like the caramel and vanilla but everything sort of blends together into what smells like syrup.

I usually like to put milk in this because it’s so sweet for me, it just needs something. I drank it last night and I had no milk, and I was pretty distracted, and found that it was just fine.

It’s definitely not my favorite black tea, but it gains points for having sprinkles, because I am a child inside.

I was given this tea for free from Adagio for my birthday. It smells like maple syrup and tastes about the same. It was not really to my liking, but hey! It has sprinkles in it!

A sample of this tea arrived as part of a tea order which was in fact placed as a birthday gift so it was a nice and thoughtful extra for Adagio to throw in. The first few sips of the tea straight came off as a bit bland which was not a surprise considering that it is based off of a mix of vanilla, cream and caramel flavored teas mixed with cake sprinkles so I was forced to add sugar to balance the flavors with the needed sweetness that they demanded. Adding sugar to my tea is something that I very rarely do and due to a lack of white sugar I added brown sugar. In the end it took around 3-4 spoons worth of brown sugar for the tea to end up tasting right, or at least as right as a birthday cake flavored tea can. I’m sure that even with all the sugar that I added that it has less calories than a slice of cake has, but in my opinion it sort of defeats the purpose of tea as an enjoyable calorie free beverage to take one’s mind off things with calories.

Got this in a swap and the sprinkles made my Monday. Tried it over the weekend and, like many others, I was a bit disappointed. Not to say the tea was bad, or even not good, but if you promise me cake, I better taste cake. I liken this to those yogurts that promise to be full of desserty goodness and just taste like yogurt (for the last time yoplait, if you say the yogurt is cake or pie flavored, put a few pieces in there!). Sure they’re good and all, but it’s not like you’re going to fool yourself into thinking you’re having the real thing.