Decaf Tropics

Today has been a pretty rainy and blah day. And then a package came in the mail – surprise! Oh how I love to check the mail! My fiancee ordered me a really nice stethoscope for nursing school. AND it’s a sparkly pink color. AND he engraved it. So sweet! I was totally surprised and love it so much. He will be getting a big hug when he comes home from St. Louis tomorrow! :)

This tea is a cup of comfort for me. I wasn’t expecting much when I first purchased it, and the only reason I did purchase it was because it was decaf. It’s so wonderful, though – all sweet, warm pina colada flavors. It’s really soothing with a little milk. You can’t really taste a lot of the black tea base, but it’s there enough. This reminds me of drinking suntan lotion. That sounds odd, but it just makes you feel like you’re at the beach on a sunny day, sipping a pina colada.

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs with pieces of dried pineapple.
-Dry leaves smell tropical and sweet. Tea liquor aroma is of black tea and sweet coconut.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark brown color.
-Light pina colada flavor and finish. Tropical and sweet aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. A mellow and soothing cup.

DISGUSTING! I sniffed this when I received it from a contest, and it turned me off. So I waited… and waited to try it this morning. I made it iced because I realized that “tropics” brings up thoughts of “tartness”, and I figured that making any tea iced will make the flavors mild. NO. I was completely wrong. This is disgusting. I felt like I was drinking fake fruits. Not the watered down fruit flavors, but like there is nothing resembling pineapple or mango in there. Maybe a hint. MAYBE. I eat mangos frequently. This tea is not mango. I’m sad to dump the whole iced tea down the drain and this tea in the garbage. I’ve never rated anything so low before.

My box of tea samples from Adagio came today. The samples are all in tiny tins! It is very cute, but I’m not sure what I will do with so many little tins once I’ve finished the tea.

This Decaf Tropics has an excellent flavor and fragrance that makes me think of sunny days on a beach sipping a drink with an umbrella in it. The fragrance is true to the flavor.

The black tea base is ok. It isn’t Lipton, but it isn’t up to the grade of my favorite black teas either. It has more tannins than I like and a slight bitterness. Also it doesn’t have much complexity. (On the other hand, it’s better than most grocery store tea. However, I’ve been getting spoiled with the great black teas I’ve been trying.) I steeped it for 4 minutes. Next time I’ll try 3 minutes and see if that improves it.

Despite my slight disappointment with the black tea, the adept hand Adagio has with the flavoring makes up for the dull tea. It is pleasant to drink and a good bedtime tea. I look forward to trying the rest of the samples.

Urrrg its pretty terrible
Just tart and basically undrinkable – I threw it away.

This tea is more about the flavor than the tea. It has a good smell to it. It’s somewhere around pina colada, though it also reminds me of the smell of some of those stores that sell decorations and potpourri for older people’s houses (not old people, just a generation or so past mine). Upon first taste, I can tell there’s a tea base, but pineapple stands out to me. I suspect this particular one will change taste in bigger ways as it cools… we’ll see over the next half hour or so!

Eww. First off I hate the way this tea smells dry like truly despise it. I am not sure it is necessarily a bad smell but it is definitely a smell I do not like. I was hoping that the smell wouldn’t be an indication of the taste so I went on to make a pot of this iced. Unfortunately it tastes kind of like it smells. Luckily the taste was much less strong then the smell so I could take it but definitely do not particularly enjoy this tea! I could finish the cup but I highly doubt I can finish the pot or the sample. I don’t know what it is but something about this tea just does not sit well with me.