TeaEarleGreyHot Send Message

Wow, while still cutting open the sample pouch of this looseleaf tea I was hit with a blast of raspberry! Quite reminiscent of the Chambord Liqueur on my shelf. I steeped all 2.75g of tea in 8oz boiling alpine spring water, as directed for two min. The aroma was steadily raspberry throughout, though the dark dark brown color of the soup was evidence of the potent Ceylon black tea leaves in the blend. The tea leaf contributed virtually nothing to the flavor other than a barely perceptible generic black tea taste. The rapberry-forward flavor was complemented by notes of wheat flour, tomato umami, mozzerella cheese, and pepperoni, obviously from the cold pizza that I was simultaneously breakfasting on. :-) This is a good tea for dessert after (or during) a nice meal, without worry that you’ll miss something delicate! For those who like strong semi-artificial raspberry flavors, I’ll recommend and rate this tea 70. Those preferring a refined or floral experience should shop for something else!

Another new tea for me from Adagio, part of a complimentary weekly assortment box that came with my recent order! 2.7g looseleaf, in a sample pouch, I steeped it all in 8oz alpine spring water at 195 °F for 2.5 min, as directed. The resulting pale yellow liquor had a decent, if soft, floral aroma and tasted of a stale Long Jing (dragonwell). Pretty weak in my opinion, though others might say “delicate”. I won’t look this proverbial gift horse too closely in the mouth, but am not going to waste my spring water on a re-steep. Why does Adagio’s website say this was produced five years ago, in 2020? I’ll rate it as 65.

Rolled the dice and am very pleased with this lot of Keemun. As good as the best keemun lots I’ve had from them. Loose leaf this time. Rich, smooth, malty leather and tobacco notes. Steeped only 45 sec and that was enough! Re-steeped for 90 sec and am enjoying that too. Better to my taste than the Qimen Mao Feng Supreme they also carry.

I gave this tea a second chance this morning, and must say it is better this time. It’s not great, but perhaps my prior discouraging remarks were based on poor water or a bad day for my taste buds. Todays infusion was a deep clear orange color, with a subtle generic black tea flavor, light astringency, and okay aftertaste. Previously brewed with tap water in a different city, now back home using alpine spring water. As the cup cooled, the tea darkened somewhat to a nice brown hue and became less astringent. Frankly, it’s comparable to a Lipton black teabag. Increasing my rating to 65, the same rating I give to that Lipton.

Back in February I reviewed this tea with great praise and a 100 rating, as it matched my memory of many years ago that led, in part, to my tea-sipping habit. I immediately re-ordered and received more of that terrific lot (best by 08/2026; sadly Tealyra does not specify lot numbers when ordering). Subsequently, I noted their supply dwindling and selling-out on their website. While preparing my Mother’s day order a couple weeks ago I found that the supply of Black Beauty #8 had been replenished. Out of curiosity, I included a small pack with my order. Received last week, it did not surprise me to see it was a new lot (best by 11/2026).

The surprise came this week when I broke open the seal and was hit by a fabulous aroma in the dry leaf, that was both deeply malty and with notable black walnut character. It actually gave me goosebumps to smell this tea leaf! I brewed it up and it is even better than the previous lot. It has my rating “meter” pegged at 100 and I would rate it at 105. As it cooled, the notes of brown sugar joined the malty raisin flavors in a trio of happiness. This makes a superb iced tea as well. (Fear-not, although black walnut was an aroma in the dry leaf, there was no such aroma or flavor in the infusions.) I have now ordered more, and was pleased to find a 30% discount code online which stacked with the free FedEx delivery offer. If you’ve been waiting to try this tea, now might be a good time to place an order.

Another sample packet from Adagio, containing 3.5 g of rolled leaves that look exactly like Adagio’s picture of it. I steeped the whole 3.5g as directed, in 8 oz 180°F alpine spring water for 5 min, in a stainless infusion basket, after which the leaves were partly unfurled and the soup was tinted light yellow-green. There was a pleasing delicate, floral aroma. The tea tasted sweet, grassy, vegetal, distinctly floral without being powdery with notes of butter, and I even got a quick note of green bean as someone else mentioned! A pleasant aftertaste of orchidy floralness remained, and the first infusion vanished quickly.

For the re-steep, I took the water to 190°F and again steeped for 5 min., by which point the olive green leaves had fully unfurled, revealing many large, intact single leaves and a few leaf/bud sets and a couple stems. The liquor was medium yellow-green with a substantially vegetal aroma that was lightly floral. Overall, although this second infusion was nice to savor, it was more generically vegetal and buttery, though floral notes still filled my sinuses in the long finish of each mouthful. In the final, cool dregs, the butteriness was more pronounced.

For the third infusion (re-steep) I took the water to 200°F, and again steeped for 5 min. Mild vegetal aroma. Soft buttery vegetal flavor in the golden yellow tea, with barely detectable floral notes. This infusion was satisfying as well, but definitively more subtle in its taste. I won’t push for a 4th infusion. Overall, I find no fault or defects, and will rate as 80, and recommend as a nice now-and-then cuppa.

I love peaches and I enjoy a peachy earl grey tea from elsewhere, so I was optimistic as I steeped-up this sample packet, as directed by Adagio. I re-steeped once, for a second cup. The dry tea had a strong peach scent, which the hot water intensified as a blast of peachy-vanilla fragrance. But it wasn’t an honest peach scent, having an artificial and chemical tinge to it. As I began sipping, I feared I’d never taste the base oolong, which was clearly heavily oxidised as in the main description on Adagio’s website (and contrary to Adagio’s claim in the Q&A section that it is mildly oxidised). As I continued to sip, the artificial notes (which were limited to the aroma) dissipated, and I began to enjoy the lingering aftertaste of roasted peach. It appeared that the vanilla scent had been completely driven off with the steam of the initial steep. I enjoyed the tea more as it cooled in my cup. The final cold dregs gave me a mouthful of woody flavor, not bad, but surprising. The second steep had a much tamer fragrance, and from the first sip I found it to be superior to the first infusion. Well into the second cup the floral flavors of the oolong arose and I got the idea that they were merging with the artificial peach to create a sensation of woodiness, which may also account for comments by other Steepsters here. Thankfully, the base oolong was not overpowering, and the roasted peach flavor persisted in the cup and in my mouth long after the tea was gone. Toward the end of the second steeping I realized that the apple bits present were contributing a sweetness that I’d not noticed previously. There were no major defects, no sour notes,nor bitterness (nor scent of marigold flower). So overall I did enjoy the blend, despite the initial chemical blast, and am glad to have tried it. Just not enough to consider buying it again. I’ll rate it as a 70.

Who knows what’s in Adagio’s teas?
The website waxes poetic about the tingly ginger in this, but there is no mention of ginger as an actual ingredient in the website ingredient listing. So I was ready to accept it was part of the “natural spice flavor”, until I saw that the sample packet does include ginger as an explicit ingredient!

I drink a lot of Pu-erh teas, both sheng and shou, usually straight but sometimes with orange/tangerine. And I like black tea with spice blends, so I was optimistic when this arrived in the week’s sampler box from Adagio. Steeped as directed, with two additional re-steeps. Goodness sakes, the pungent cinnamon overwhelmed everything! I could not detect any notes from pu-erh, nothing of orange, nothing of anise, but yes, there was a faint tingle of ginger. (I didn’t expect to taste safflower.) Even in the third steeping, whilst the cinnamon was muted, so was everything else. It was just a weaker cup of cinnamon. Although I could see bits of orange and maybe ginger, I’m going to chalk the imbalance up to stratification in the bulk spice, giving my packet too much cinnamon and too little puer, especially since other reviewers did detect those flavors. I suspect Adagio is using Chinese cinnamon, Cinnamomum cassia here, whereas true Ceylon cinnamon, C. verum is much softer and would be a superior ingredient (Also, C. cassia is 20 times more pungent and contains 13 times more of the toxin coumarin). If you choose to buy this blend, I suggest you buy loose material and re-mix it well before taking a portion to your cup/pot. Since I can only evaluate what I received, I will not recommend this, and consider it imbalanced and give it a rating of only 25.

Who knows what’s in Adagio’s teas?
I do love the flavor of orange! But I almost didn’t taste this because I read the ingredients on the sample packet I received last week: “rooibos tea, orange, natural orange flavor.” I dislike rooibos immensely. Then I looked at their website and there was no mention of rooibos: “Ingredients: Blended With Orange, Hibiscus, Rose Hips, Rose Hips & Natural Orange Flavor.” Suddenly hibiscus appears along with rose hips (twice if you don’t expect an Oxford comma, otherwise rose hip flavor too). Since I do like hibiscus and rose hips, I opened the packet and did not see any rooibos among the 3g of contents. So I steeped up a cup, according to directions. Smelled good, and the infusion started out blue, then became deep purple after 10 min of steeping. Tasted bitter and only slightly orange, with no hint of rose hip other than bitterness. Added sugar helped, but it needed more orange IMO. Thankfully, there was no rooibos. It seems to have been a misprint on the packet. I note that Adagio offers three types of blood orange product, one especially for iced tea, and one with “spice” added to the name, and this was neither of those— just plain Blood Orange. I’ll give it a 60 rating because it was not balanced to my taste, but recommend it to those who love hibiscus and rose hip.

Received a loose-leaf sample of this last week from Adagio. Appearance, taste and fragrance indistinguishable from “Jasmine Dragon Pearls” sold by Tealyra. Plenty of reviews on the Adagio product here to inform you, and I rate it a 75 (just like the Tealyra product).

My major complaint is Adagios inadequate labeling on the packaged tea— specifically the ingredient listing. I have uploaded a photo of the foil packet, which lists “ Ingredients: jasmine phoenix pearls”. That is not a legal ingredient list! Green tea is not included as an ingredient! Jasmine is not present, only the infused floral volatiles. Phoenix is a mythological creature, not an ingredient! Pearls are a marine product, and are not in this blend. Ingredient lists should be technically precise, complete, and accurate! People depend on this information, and I do believe it is a legal requirement. Adagio could be more accurate here. What they are showing on their product is IMO insufficient.. The website lists green tea as the only ingredient, which is incomplete because the jasmine volatiles are not shown. And I question whether the website is the proper place for the ingredient list.

My secondary complaint is the photograph on Adagios website which shows the pearls, along with what appears to be dried jasmine flowers or petals. There were no jasmine flowers or petals either mixed with or inside the pearls of my sample. I have attached a photograph of my steeped leaves, clearly showing their size, beautiful green color, and the absence of any jasmine petals. While it conveys the concept of a floral component, the photograph on their website could be misleading.