Toasted Sesame

Thanks to Awkward Soul for sending me a bit of this tea! I don’t think it’s particularly well-liked, but I was curious. Toasted sesame reminds me of Japanese desserts, and therefore makes my mouth water, but I’m anticipating disappointment.

The aroma of this one is… rather like a straight black tea. That sort of straight black tea I don’t particularly care for. (I really need to sample black teas from different regions so I can explain this better!) Even with a 4-minute infusion (5 minutes was recommended), I’m getting a fair bit of astringency. I really can’t taste anything but astringent black tea, to be honest. No sesame at all. Perhaps I’ll try the rest of my sample in a 3-minute infusion, but I have doubts that I will get anything good out of it. Ah well. I have a (tasty) 5th infusion of Verdant’s Aged Traditional Anxi Tieguanyin to make me feel better before bed!

Hrm. I feel like I’m being quite the harsh reviewer tonight, but I feel like I’ve had a lot of mediocre to bad tea tonight. Just one of those nights, I suppose!

I had a decently sized, well thought out comment on this tea. But then I got distracted, ate dinner, did some work, watch a little South Park, and realized I never finished or posted the note. And then we had a system update, so it was lost.
All in all it boiled down to this tea tastes like sesame seeds and it was delicious in that sense. But I’m not a huge fan of sesame, so I won’t drink it often.
Also, the dried leaves smell exactly like soy sauce, and maybe a little bit of peanut butter if you stick your nose in there deep and good. They look super oily too. Very odd.

My first try at this one… I love the smell of it. It makes me crave Japanese food. Like, a lot. Smells so awesome.

Trying it straight first. The smell is milder than the dry leaves which makes me a little sad. But still smells good. Love the initial taste of the sesame. Really good. But then the tea tastes a little bitter after that. Maybe I steeped too long… Added a little bit of sugar (maybe 1/8tsp for my 7oz glass). Okay, that takes away from the bitterness but keeps a nice savory taste going. Much more sugar and I think the taste would be totally thrown off. Still a little hot thought so I gotta let it cool.

Okay, cool now. Oh… Niiiiiice. This tastes like it smells. Like something with a really awesome Japanese glaze on it. Like the glaze on osembe or something. Maybe the sauce on unagi sushi? Which is something I love so that’s a good thing.

I think this tea is going to be directly responsible for me going out to get some unadon today.

This is one of those really unique teas that I find myself craving every once in awhile. The dry leaves smell really toasty and the tea smells warm and nutty. There is a light sesame seed finish that I wish it was a little stronger. For me, this is basically a nice black tea with a little sesame seed note at the end. A nice tea, but not one that I reach for everyday.

-Dry blend has medium shiny black tea leaves.
-Dry leaves smell like toasted sesame seeds. Tea liquor aroma is nutty.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy medium reddish brown color with an oily sheen on top.
-Malty and nutty flavor and finish. Light toasted sesame seed aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Good tea. Black tea with a toasty flavor.

Auggy sent me some of this tea [because she’s awesome] and I was pretty excited to try it because I enjoy sesame.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to really get any sesame taste out of it. This is what my notes say:

Tastes bitter.
Sweet-ish aftertaste.
Bitter. Bitter. BITTER.
Didn’t get any sesame.
At all.
Boo.
Oh, wait, on the breath…? Yep. A bit. Not enough to be sating.
WTF?
…Am I broken?

I think that pretty much says it all.

I had enough for two cups. I tried the first one at 4:00 minute. The second time I tried this I moved the time down to 3:15.

Thanks for sending it, though, Auggy. Ah, well.

Meghann tucked a sampler tin of this into my box o’ goodies. I love trying new and different tea flavors, and Toasted Sesame is definitely new and different!

The leaves look wet, they are so oily-looking. And, after brewing, there’s an oil-slick-like sheen on the top of the tea. The taste, to me, is more sweet black tea than sesame seeds. It’s pretty good. Would have liked it a bit less sweet and more toasty. I’ll try it at 5 minutes next time and see if more toasty taste comes out.

Another purchase based upon the weirdness of it … yeah, I do that a lot. But… peanut butter is where I draw the line. (Sorry 52Teas) The smell of the dry leaves is intriguing, it reminds me of sesame oil and Chinese cuisine, and because I’m hungry, this aroma is making me even hungrier!

Because of previous issues that I’ve had with Adagio’s black teas – I found them to be just a bit bitter when brewed for the recommended time of 5 minutes – I chose to brew this just 2 1/2 minutes, which seems to be just about perfect for this tea.

I like it better than I thought I would. It possesses a very unique flavor. Adagio’s black tea base is much more tannic than the average Ceylon. It has a stronger astringency, and a tendency to get bitter if it’s brewed too long.

The sesame is toasty and nutty. However, I think that much of the sesame’s characteristics are overwhelmed a bit with this Ceylon – perhaps it would be a flavor better suited for a green tea? I don’t know… I think I need to taste it a few more times before I can really summarize my thoughts on this tea…

When I first opened this tin, the first thing I noticed was how oily and black the leaves look. The smell was just like toasted sesame, which I absolutely love! After I steeped it, the leaves looked dark brown and almost had a green sheen to it. Very nice. The smell of sesame was faint to me. The taste is very faint sesame but bitter. I added some sugar after tasting it without sugar. I believe it needed it. I don’t have any milk, but it might help to add some milk too. Overall, good tea. I’m not too into bitter though. My mouth feels a bit dry now.

I am a sucker for good Japanese food. Or good Chinese food. And one of my favorite elements about it is the sesame – either as an oil, paste or seed. Needless to say, I was excited about this tea as soon as I read about it.

The fabulous Lena provided it to me in a swap (thank you!!), and I am really glad I’m getting to try it!

I see what others have mentioned with the leaves being “oily”. They look and smell for all the world like they’ve been coated in sesame oil. Yum. Sesame oil…. :)

Brewing up, it smells like I’m at my local sushi joint rather than lounging around the house in natty sweats. The brewed aroma is a meld of the sesame and the tea – I’d expected the sesame to be a little stronger than it was, but the two were evenly matched.

The taste is nice. I first taste tea, and then taste tahini as almost an afterthought. It also tastes warm, not as in temperature or spice, but like the feeling you get when you’re warming up after a day outside in the cold. Comfortable.

I would definitely agree with shortening the steeping time – I cut it down by about 30 seconds, and next time I’ll cut it down further. There’s a hint of bitter I think can be cut out.

I was so excited to get my “savory sampler” from Adagio yesterday. Sesame was first on my list to try. The leaves smell and look a little like soy sauce. They are dark black and have kind of a dark sheen on them. There are also sesame seeds visible with the leaves. When brewed it smells somewhat like sesame, not soy sauce (thankfully), but the sesame flavor was kind of weak. I’m giving it a 100 rating for the moment, because I don’t really know what I think of it just yet. When I first tried it, I was at work and distracted, so I will make a better assessment when I’m fully focused. Try it! The “savory sampler” is free with a $19 purchase from Adagio. Not sure how long that promotion is running. This tea is definitely worth checking out.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the tin is how oily the leaves look, like the whole container was dropped in a pot of sesame oil. The smell made me think of Chinese food, or maybe teriyaki. When I started steeping though, the smell reverted back to being just like a bag full of sesame seeds.

I goofed on the steeping time so I’m not sure how long it was, but it’s probably somewhere around four minutes. When I rescued it, the surface of the ‘tea juice’ (ha!) was covered in a distinct sheen of oil. The flavour is very much like what I’d expect toasted sesame to taste like; so Adagio gets points for authenticty. It seems to also work quite well with the tanins in the tea base.

This isn’t a flavour I’m used to tasting in my tea (obviously) so my tongue is sending my brain rather mixed signals and confuzzling the poor dear. I think I’m leaning towards liking it, but not loving it – further testing is required! ;)

I have toasted sesame seeds before and this is certainly what they smell like, indeed! Once steeped, however, they just smell like regular sesame seeds. The leaves are greasy looking – which is something ‘new’ from Adagio. It’s not a bad tea…I actually somewhat like it. It’s a strong and bold taste so if you are looking for something a little lighter…try understeeping and/or less loose leaf while steeping. I’m thinking about using this to make rice for flavoring just for the heck of it. Not bad…E for effort. Nice creative attempt on something new.

I’m freaking terrified of this tea.

I purchased it during my last Adagio Teas order, got it, smelled it and promptly put it on my cupboard and it got shifted to the back. Once in awhile I’ll find it and sniff it, then the shifting happens again.
Then I started to think that I should save this tea next time I make Korean food or bring home some kimbap. Of course, I never remembered to make this tea when I had Korean food.
This tea was requested to be traded and it was weird I never tried this tea, but I was shipping some of it away. I figured I should actually taste it.

DRY: Smells kinda oily and of course, like sesame oil. The leaves look almost oily.

STEEPED: typical Black tea look. Smells mysteriously nutty. Odd film on the top… maybe my cup or steeper wasn’t clean… or is it the tea? Oh man I’m scared.

TASTE: BITTER!!!!! Bitter black tea with an aftertaste of nuttyness once I got past the bitter. Then there is more bitter taste. Never ending bitterness. Why is this so bitter?!?!?!?

COMMENTS:
Okay – maybe using boiling water and 4.5minute steep is too much. Next person needs to try this tea at like 185 or 2 minute steep. That might save you from making the OMG BITTER face. If I finally work up enough courage to try this tea again, I will do that.

One upside to this tea, I think it would taste great with kimbap, it goes with more sesame oil and the bitter tea could offset the salty soy sauce.

I was expecting this to taste like a sesame oil slick. Okay, maybe not. I think when I ordered it I was hoping it would taste like black sesame bubble tea. Hey, I think sesame tea could be pulled off! A tea with creamy stuff (like white chocolate/yogurt), and black sesame bits. OOOOOOOhhhh Yeah! Someone make this, now!

Sorry to the nice person I traded this tea to. I hope it goes over better with you.

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.

^{Brewed in Tiny White Teapot}

I opened the tin with these leaves, smelled them, and was completely disgusted by the strong, burnt sesame smell—almost like soy sauce. I like sesame and soy sauce, but the smell was so gross to me that I almost didn’t make the tea. I’m glad my grandparents always told me that “you have to try everything once.”

After steeping, the cup had a very faint sesame smell, and almost a spice to it. The taste is great: solid black tea with sesame notes and nothing “soy sauce” about it. This was a very nice surprise!

Part of a bunch of samples my humans received. Such cute little tea tins. Very interesting tea: http://bit.ly/6Gi104

I can’t smell or taste sesame in this at all, in the dry leave or the liquor. I had Mr. Kupgup try it, just in case my nose was being unreliable—he declared that it tasted just like plain old black Lipton tea.

It’s nicer than your cheapie bagged Lipton (Mr. Kupgup isn’t very interested in tea). Not a bad tea at all. It’s just not a SESAME flavored tea, as far as I can tell.

I was thinking I might have received some variety of plain black tea by mistake, but I see some other reviews here also noting a lack of sesame flavor—and also reviewers who are noticing plenty of sesame. I guess it’s just something that varies from person to person?

Quite a good one. The sesame is a nice accent to make what’s ultimately a very delicious savory tea.

2 infusions (5 and 6 min respectively) @ Thanksgiving dinner.