Adagio Teas
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Autumy. Very pleasant. Nice balance of apple and spices.
The spices are more like mulling spices than some chai ‘whoa this is spicy’ chais. Which works for this blend.
Normally I drink chai with milk but for my first cuppa I drank it straight up and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I thought my british background would have ruined me for drinking black teas without milk but I’m reconditioning myself apparently.
Mmm I’m one of the few who really like this one. I get a really full rich brew from this and get the the coco notes towards the ends of the cup when it’s cooling down. It’s very comforting on a windy fall day.
I love to watch the little balls unfurl themselves coming out of their cocoons. It’s the perfect use for my IngenuiTEA pot from adagio.
I used 4 balls at 5 minutes and 30 seconds. It’s best the first two steepings I’m still fiddling a bit with the brewing time on the third.
This is my second cup of this tea. First time, I used 4 balls. This time, I went with 5. The flavor is definitely better, more intense with 5, but it doesn’t seem remarkably complex. Maybe my slightly-congested nose is masking some subtle notes, though.
Steeped 6 minutes at 212°F. Prepared in Adagio IngenuiTEA teapot.
Mom’s been up all nite working on a paper so I thought I’d make her a cup of this.
2nd infusion, 4 min for me. Seems extra sweet today and light on the ginseng, Odd.
As it cools, the sweetness is gone.
I too live with my mom (at least for this semester anyway). She drinks tea from tea bags and refuses to try some of mine! Grrrrr…
Mom just doesn’t drink much hot tea period. She drinks bagged tea even more rarely than loose which is good. I actually didn’t ask her if she wanted it this morning. I just did it.
2nd infusion of my leaves from last nite before dumping them. I have a new joint supplement powder I’m trying and I put it in this today. It covers the tea taste for the most part, but at least I get the added health benefits.
Preparation
1tsp/6oz water. Served: room temp, cooled naturally (made a head of time), clean
Served w/: Tortilla Crusted Fish Lean Cuisine
I know this is a Chinese flavored sencha, but since I do not know the steeping parameters for Chinese flavored senchas (can anyone inform me?) and Adagio’s steeping times for greens and whites can not be trusted, I’m treating it as a Japanese and have been rewarded. I drank this at room temp because I needed something to balance the hot temperature of my meal as well as the spicyness from my meal. The spicyness is also why I paired it w/ a ginseng tea.
The rice, which is mixed w/ sour cream, cheese, and roasted red and pablano peppers is absolutely amazing. I was surprised to see this dish featured on “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” on the foodnetwork last nite. Unfortunately, I was multi-tasking and paid attention just in time to see how it was made (which is how I know it’s the same thing), but missed what it’s called. I’d love to find a recipe for it, but I’d need to know what it’s called. Can anyone tell me? Also, is there a tea you’d suggest that I could steep in the water before making the rice to add wonderful health benefits to this wonderful tasting dish?
Preparation
Yay! It isn’t fubared! lol:)
This tea actually seems to look more like a Bancha, but in fact is a Chinese green. Steeping it with a slightly lower temperature and for maybe just a minute longer might give it a bit more flavor!
We’ve experimented a few times with flavoring senchas but its been very difficult. The fine leaves steep very fast and don’t hold on to oils and extracts very well, preventing much of the potential flavor from actually appearing in the brew. Also Sencha’s natural grassy nature makes it a difficult counterpart in the blending process, so we tend to flavor our Japanese greens using a milder Japanese summer tea: Bancha.
If you are curious about a Japanese Sencha blend, I’d check out the Angiogenisis tea, rumored to be the healthiest tea out there ( I personally disagree). It’s a blend of a basic grade Japanese Sencha with Dragon Pearl Jasmine.
As for what tea to steep in the water for cooking your rice, my go to answer would definitely be Genmaicha, since it has popped and roasted rice in it! It could add a nice toasty flavor to your rice. However, now that you bring it up, another option could possibly be Matcha (what I find to be one of the healthier teas, next to an Ichiban Sencha). Matcha is a powdered green tea that would dissolve easily into the water, but unfortunately it might get bitter at the higher temperatures it takes to cook rice. The flavor it would add though would be like having a sushi roll without the nori!
This recipe sounds easy and good!
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/green-tea-rice-10000000610502/index.html
Thanks for your imput. Unfortunately I can not stand Gen Mai Cha. I am; however, very much in love w/ matcha- I have it daily. Your idea wouldn’t work though as matcha does not dissolve in water, it merely disperses, which is why it separates from the water resulting in a “chunky” or “gritty” (for finer grades) texture if you drink it too slowly. The matcha powder is heavier than the water so it slowly sinks over time. The only way this would work would be to mix it in after cooking. When I said I wanted to flavor the water by steeping tea in it, that is what I ment. Matcha does not steep (which implies decantation). I want to flavor the water w/ tea by steeping them in water, not incorporating the entire leaf into the rice. Although I do love adding matcha to foods:) just not this.
I like the idea (for a separate recipe, not adding it to the recipe I mentioned), but simmering bancha or sencha for 20 min?? Can you say seriously over steeped?
Made a 16oz cup (6g leaf) for my mom while I drank my matcha. I just can’t get her to try it… :(
Preparation
I need something to kick this cold so in this cuppa I’m having 3 servings of this prepared Premium Sencha style w/ a couple things added.
-1.5TB (7.7g) Ginseng Green (note: If you have a fever, you’ll wanna use a white tea to help lower your fever so your amount, steeping temp, and time might vary)
-3.85g ginger root
-3.85g lemon verbena or lemongrass
-6oz water
I would have added 3.85g Organic Echinacea, but I didn’t have any.
Preparation
2nd infusion w/ lunch, 2 min. Dinner was Subway last nite. Italian BMT on flatbread w/ extra pickle, lettuce, pepper jack, light ranch, and chipotle south west dressing- toasted at the very end, I HATE when they toast it and then put cold ingredients on it, so I had mom pick up an extra one for today. Added some red peppers, a lil hummus, and babaganoush and reheated it. SO greatful for the crap load of flavor since I have a cold. Did you know the only difference between grape soda and orange soda is the aroma and the color?
3rd infusion, 2 min 40 sec.
4th infusion, 3 min.
Needed energy (yes even after my matcha LOL) but didn’t want to take up a lot of space in my bladder so I made a green tea shot by steeping it the way premium sencha is prepared. 1/2TB tea leaves, 2oz water heated to 160 degrees, steeped for 1.5 min.
Preparation
I blended 2.25g w/ 1.12g of dried organic home grown orange mint. Because of the mint I decided to only steep this for 2 min instead of my normal 3. I like my tea stronger so although this is a blend I’m thinking of steeping them separately so I can steep the orange mint for only 2 min then use that herbal tisane to steep the gensing green for 3. The gensing green is definitely lighter (it only steeps for 3 normally so what can you expect for 1/3 less time?), but so is the peppermint. I don’t taste the orange, but I do taste a sweetness (not sweetener sweetness) that hits me before the bite of the mint does which is nice. I find coming back to mint blends ironic because that’s the way I started w/ loose leaf… putting mint in EVERYTHING. Mint (unless it’s chocolate mint) isn’t my favorite anymore. Yay for maturing tastebuds!
Preparation
Infusions 1 and 2. 16oz of water, 6g of tea leaf, and 3g of dried ginger root. Backlooging infusion 1 from last nite- made it for my mom who was very sick to her stomach due to having to take a whole bottle of miralax for her colonoscopy prep and I had the 2nd infusion (steeped for 4 min) this morning.
Preparation
I have a HUGE headache today so I’m drinking this in a blend of 2 parts Ginseng Green (2.25g) to one part each (1.13g) dried lemon verbena and ginger root.
Preparation
I’ve heard that tea is supposed to be able to help with headaches because the caffeine dilates the blood vessels in the brain, increasing the blood flow. :)
Sorry for your headache. I grow lemon verbena in my herb garden. It smells so good!
Angrboda, that is true but tea helps more than coffee or any other caffinated beverage because of the L-Theanine. Ginger also helps.
I’ve never noticed it working for me, but then again when my head hurts, I’m not really paying attention either. Then I’m just looking for comfort. :p
I’ve never heard of ginger helping headaches; I’m more familiar with using peppermint. Hope you feel better!
First of all, these are the infusion parameters I used this time:
4 balls, 2 cups boiling (212 degrees F) water, 5 minutes, first steep.
It was quite good. Not amazing, but good.
Quite smooth for a black tea. Everything seemed to blend well together (or I couldn’t distinguish any particular flavor, anyways). Not much in the way of bitterness either.
I didn’t really allow my cup to cool much while drinking, so I can’t say how it did as it cooled. Last time I had this with 3 balls/2 cups, I didn’t like it as it cooled down then (it was ok warm).
Will continue tweaking with parameters values as I use up my sample, but this time around it turned out quite good.
Finally drank this last night – got in my Steepster Select Adiago Fall tea set a few weeks ago! I have never seen a pearl tea before so I was really excited to try this out! I enjoyed the tea. It was light and subtle. But, I think something up went wrong in prep, either not enough pearls or water wasn’t hot enough. Still enjoyable and will certainly try again.
try 10 pearls per 16oz at 212 degrees F for 5 min.
@cofftea: Wow, really? I think I used 3 pearls for about 12oz at around boiling for 5 mins. Maybe I’ll try more tea next time. But I have been trying to use less because I feel I usually pile on too much.
Thanks for the advice, Cofftea. I will add more pearls next time and let you know how it turns out! Jason, made the same mistake, only used 4 for about 12 oz! Could be why it was so light!
