Caramel

I’ve been on a milk tea kick lately, so I thought I’d open up this tin and churn out a tasting note. What can I say? It tastes a whole lot like caramel, and not much like anything else. The caramel is similar in taste to homemade, slightly-burnt, caramelized sugar. The caramel flavor component is quite strong and can be easily detected by tongue, but it balances well with the black tea flavor. Luckily, the tea doesn’t taste fruity the way Adagio’s black base often tastes. It’s just a nice, solid black tea flavor that supports the caramel. It is a bit astringent (drying) but not particularly bitter. However, I would imagine that oversteeping this one would lead to a very bitter cup.

I know some teas are all smell and no flavor. Adagio’s Caramel is not one of those teas. This tastes just as much like caramel as it smells. With a little milk and sweetener, it’s almost as though someone melted a milk caramel and stirred it into some black tea.

While there’s not a lot going on in this tea, I rather like it. It’s simple, and seems like it would be great for mixing with other teas.

So of course I get a sore throat when I have a swap box full of new samples to try ::rolls eyes:: I have been drinking throat coat today and yesterday, however I had this with pancakes on Sunday. I could not convince the husband to make the pancakes with the tea however he was willing to have a cuppa. “Easily bitter” he read from the packet. I used half the leaf, intent to have my caramel pancakes another day and steeped it for a min. I sipped my cup before eating and continued during. Quite nice, balance of sweet and salty and wee bit malty. Husband pronounce after his first sip “wow they weren’t kidding when they said easily bitter” says the man who let it sit in his cup for at least 15 mins. Sigh, I used to be like that, except I did it with herbals. Now I have a much higher tolerance for heat, or use a tiny sipping cup. I did not get around to resteeping that day as I found out my dad had taken my mom to the hospital with chest pains, she’s perfectly fine, excellent heart health, probably either heart burn or anxiety. Throat is starting to feel better this afternoon, though now I am sneezey, perhaps I shall get to try a new tea today after all! Thanks to Michelle for this!

Although the tea wasn’t labeled Adagio and was repackaged, I have no doubt this is what I purchased. I knew when I tasted it that this was a Ceylon base, and I am pretty sure it is a high grown Ceylon because it has a slight astringency, but not unpleasantly so. Also, there are some odd looking leaves, and when I saw this picture I knew this was my tea. The tearoom where I bought this was reviewed many times on teamap.com which is hosted by Adagio, so I figured many of their teas would be from there. About half of their tea was from Harney and Sons.

I have to agree with other reviewers. The caramel flavor is nice though has a slightly burnt taste. I took this with no additions, and I bet that with a little milk or milk and sugar it would be a good dessert tea. I like it, I will drink it, it is a step up from the Twinings I have had this week, but I don’t see myself buying more.

Sunday Sample Sipdown #1: This came from Rachel. Thanks!

I’ve been having a bit of a sweet tooth, so I put stevia in it. Not bad :)

Okay…

This tea is best in latte form, where the milk gives it a bit of richness and creaminess. Without that, it just tastes a bit bitter (probably my own fault) and artificial. It’s decent, but it needs a lot of milk, which is unfortunate. It is, however, really good mixed with hazelnut.

Thanks to willworkfortea for this sample! My first adagio tea :) I’m really enjoying the simplicity of this tea. I haven’t had many single flavour teas and this one is done well. I can see mixing this with other teas if I ever get into blending :)

Made this as the communal pot last night. The instant I opened the pouch, I could tell that this is yet another Adagio tea that has been enhanced since I last ordered it. The caramel scent was almost overwhelming, and sweet like you wouldn’t believe. I admit, I had to sniff it again. And then again.

This tea might have to stand as my staple caramel tea. I like to have one around, as caramel is one of my favorite flavors and if it’s in tea form, I don’t have to feel bad about having a lot of it. It’s a mellow Ceylon with a very realistic buttery caramel taste. It doesn’t come across as artificial, and it even has a sort of creamy aftertaste. Sort of like a caramel square you’d get from your grandma.

Sadly though, this just makes me miss Sweet Caramel O’ Mine. It doesn’t have that nice hint of smokiness that I liked.

Another from the quiet life! I feel so spoiled!

I’m rounding out my day of caramel with this tea (a remarkably delicious day which included Lupicia’s Cookie, Caramel Sugar Oolong, and now this Caramel Black).

I was a bit skeptical of this initially because Adagio’s tea base can be a bit strange and harsh. I really shouldn’t have worried though, this tea is really good. The tea just tastes like a plain black tea when drank plain, BUT when you add milk and sweetener which is befitting of a dessert tea, Wow. I’m pleasantly surprised.

Another in the swap from WillWorkForTea, who kind of spoiled me.
Today took a turn and I’m going into the dentist to see about my cracked tooth. So, until then I shall sit around a drink tea!
This one is pretty good. It has more of a caramel smell than taste. I had to agave it quite a bit though.

It’s very gloomy outside this morning and I’m having trouble getting motivated to make the most of my day. I have so many new teas to try, but I decided that an oldie but goodie may be my best bet to turn this drag of a morning around.

Adagio’s Caramel black tea delivers a delicious, creamy, true caramel flavor. The black tea is strong but not over powering. Caramels are my favorite sweets, and I get so disappointed when caramel teas smell amazing but then they don’t deliver in the taste department. This tea defiantly delivers. Is it as beloved to me as David’s Buttered Rum? Nope, but I still have room in my heart and tea cupboard for it.

I had a sample of this and somehow ran through it without ever making a tasting note.

It’s a good, solid caramel. Sweet smelling, tastes good, and blends nicely with others like hazelnut.

I was lucky enough to be able to pick this as a free sample with my last haul! My last flavored black tea, candy apple, was very under flavored. I could hardly tell what it was other than black tea; so to open this and be hit with a great amount of sugary, creamy caramel was a pleasant surprise!
This has a much more dominant flavor than the other caramel black that I’ve tried (Kusmi). Surprisingly, I enjoyed the base for the Kusmi tea more than this one. The base for some of the flavored blacks at Adagio are a bit more finicky than others. I enjoy stronger tea, but this at anything more than 3-3 1/2 min. is just bitter. This is a great tea for the price and I’d love to have more of it in my cupboard.

Yum, a pleasant cup from Adagio. Overall, I haven’t had much luck with Adagio’s black teas. But it’s rainy and cold out, so I thought I’d dip into my sample pouches and try the warming taste of caramel. The dry leaf smell is awesome; like thick caramel sauce prepared on a stovetop.

I oversteeped this one by a minute or so (I got distracted by a coworker – don’t they know this is my afternoon tea time?!), so a tiny bit of bitterness presented itself, but not enough to overwhelm the cup. First sip: whoa, tastes kind of like maple syrup. Sweet and rich. (A coworker even quipped, “smells like maple syrup in here” as she walked by, so I guess I’m not the only one who caught the similarity.) Subsequent sips taste more like caramel. Not the cheap, candybar-filling caramel, but “real” caramel – slightly burnt, dark, and very rich.

Just for fun, I added a tiny bit of sea salt to the last few sips… and it was great! (I’ve found myself salting my tea a lot lately. Apparently, I’m on some sort of a salt kick.) It was like drinking a wonderful salted caramel candy.

The dry leaves smelled awesome. They smelled so carmely!! Very nice tea. It has a nice black tea flavor with just a hint of caramel. It was nice and sweet but not overpowering. I added milk to bring out the caramel flavor. It was quite good.

I drank this yesterday morning and wondered why I never finished my sample of such a pleasant tea. Thanks to my current cup I’ve remembered. The caramel scent/flavoring just isn’t sitting well with me right now. I enjoyed it yesterday but I’m seriously about to pour out almost an entire mug. I hate being wasteful :(

Another tea sample from PeppermintPlant. I tried this one twice before writing the review. The first time, I had trouble noticing the caramel. It tasted like black tea with a slight bitter flavor. So, I had to read the reviews and see if i could learn why others liked it.

For those of you who want to know how I think about tea…here’s my internal dialogue:
Cup two went like this: “Well, it does smell like caramel….I wonder if I added some milk it would taste like a milk caramel candy…” In went the milk and I tasted it again. “Hmmm, tastes like caramel but something is missing….maybe it needs to be sweet.” In went a bit of honey. “Ooooh, now it tastes like candy!”

So yeah, it is good. Better with milk and sugar if you want to bring out that dark caramel flavor.

Not full on sweet or caramelly (I know it isn’t a word) but is still tasty. If you go into it not expecting to drink a cup of syrup I think it is okay. However I have yet to try it with milk, which I’m sure would dull the taste.

Nice in the fall with milk.

This is a tea I bought quite a while ago and then forgot I had… I think I got it because an idea I had for a blend which I have now forgotten. Maybe it will come to me.

Anyway, when you open the package, it does smell pretty much exactly like caramel. Not an overwhelming artificial smell, just sweet and slightly burnt smelling.

I usually drink my tea straight but I read a few of the reviews here and decided this would probably be enhanced by a bit of sweetness, so I used a tiny amount of Really Raw Honey.

So, overall? Tasty, but nothing too special. Would probably work well in blends.

Edit: Maybe not… while drinking this tea I became nauseous and a little bit lightheaded. It could be unrelated, but I can’t say I’m excited to try this tea again after this experience.

FINALLY GIVING THIS A SHOT all by itself without mixing it with other things oh WOW THAT SMELLS REALLY GOOD— BRB IT NEEDS MILK.

Okay the milk helps a lot cuz without it kinda tasted like some really bitter wannabe caramel coffee or something I MIGHT HAVE BREWED IT WRONG TOO I’ll have to give it another go later but WITH MILK it ain’t too bad.