Custom-Adagio Teas, Elizabeth O.

Drinking the last of this tea today while watching Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. RIP Carrie Fisher.

This tea was sent to me by SuperStarling! She must really want me to try it because she sent a sample to me in both of our swaps so far ;)

I’m glad you did though! Becaaauuuseee I really like it! Yay!

My boy is sick. Yesterday was his birthday and he had a 103F fever with vomiting. I’m sitting on the couch with him this morning. I wanted something warm and fuzzy and comforting. So I reached for Chewie. Save us, Chewie! You’re our only hope!

And saving me he is. Nutty and chocolate is like one of my favorite combinations on this earth so this is really hitting the spot. Plus, my wife (for some unknown and perplexing reason) has a strong distaste for hazelnut. I happen to love it. I try to get that flavor into my mouth whenever I can because it ain’t happening with a shared dish/drink. And this tastes like a toasted hazelnut chocolate tea. Yeeessssss…..

If I seem extra super jacked up it’s because I’m trying to find some sunshine wherever I can right now and this is one of those places/teas.

Argh Monday! And that particular kind of Monday where you are tired, all the clients are calling with complicated things, and all the appointments are running late. Simultaneously people are walking in off the street with no appointments, everyone is grumpy, and you suspect lunch will be late.
Sigh.
This is a very cuddly sort of rooibos, warm, with a touch of nuttiness to it which is pleasant.
I’ve really liked trying this one! And its helped with this bonkers morning.
Sipdown.

It was so much fun to try this!
Warm, woody, nutty, a bit odd, this tea was a good way to pep up the afternoon.

This is a really weird flavor. Nutty, bright, bold, sweet. Something about the aftertaste reminds me of icing on high-end wedding cakes.
Usually I don’t understand how these flavors correspond to their characters, but this one IS CHEWBACCA.
It’s BIG. It’s sweet. It’s fun. It’s brown in color.
And, like an alien race, it’s really bizarre.
I like it, but I don’t quite know what to do with it. I’m not sure where this brew fits into my life. It honestly doesn’t taste quite like any tea I’ve ever had. This is such a peculiar blend. I think it’s closest to a chai because it has some cinnamon/spice in it.
I really want to find someone else who drinks tea, shove it in their face, and be like “WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE OF THIS THING?! I THINK I LIKE IT. DO YOU? IS THIS REAL LIFE?”
I need an adult. Or the Force.

Yep. . . .I had to do it. I had to review a Star Wars tea today. I couldn’t help myself! I am a huge Star Wars fan and so is my son who is 9.

This tea was pretty good. . even tho it had red rooibos in it. I could barely taste it. Gives me hope that I might find more blends like this. This one was rich and nutty flavored. Pretty tasty. Not sure if I would pick this one up again. . but it was fun to try it.

Here are the rest of my ramblings. .

http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/05/04/chew-brew-adagio-teas-signature-blend/

Pass the Stash TTB 2
I was prepared today and brought a tea strainer and some teas to try to work. I only managed to drink this one but I’m glad I did! The leaves of this tea are great, nice long green tea leaves with large pieces of lemongrass. It’s a mellow flavor and a little spicy from the ginger root, almost savory in flavor.

Sipdown (130/137)!

Thank you Cameron B. for this sample! I have to admit, even though the fandom reference is pretty cool, I was actually more interested in this one because of what’s in it. How often does that happen with an Adagio blend?

So this sample was cold brewed, and it was pretty good. I could definitely tell that there was cucumber in the blend; it came off as a very crisp, airy vegetal flavour that I’ve experienced in other cucumber teas like 52Teas’ Cucumber Mango Shou Mei. The cucumber was probably the most prominent flavour in the whole brew. However, I also got some tart and slightly sweet apple notes on top of the white base, which was also ok. Not a lot of pear to be found in this, which is a little disappointing. I wonder if I’d have noticed it more if I’d prepared this hot.

Lastly, even though I didn’t request this because of the fandom aspect I suppose I should acknowledge it given that’s sort of Adagio’s “thing”. I just don’t see how this one fits into a Storm Trooper! Nothing in the blend is something I would have picked for a Storm Trooper tea. Were they playing off the colour palate? ‘Cause if so, that’s a little lame…

Anyway, overall this was decent and enjoyable though I was let down a little bit. Would I order it again? Nope – but I think it’s worth trying. Thanks Cameron B.!

Sipdown! (142)

I’m finding this tea to be much tastier than I gave it credit for the first time I tasted it. It’s probably because I’m overleafing it so I don’t have a weird tiny amount left over. The cucumber is really rather lovely, and I can taste the pear and the apple too. The white tea’s flavor comes in strongly at the end, and it leaves a nice sweet haylike and grainy taste in my mouth. Quite refreshing and delicious!

Bumping it from a 78 to an 83.

Aw, the very last Star Wars tea! To be honest, I was not very excited for this one, mostly because it’s all white teas with coconut and I felt going by color was quite juvenile (all white items because storm troopers are white). And to continue with the honesty, the smell is quite weird. Visually, it’s broken-up bai mudan leaves with some shredded coconut and small pieces of apple tossed in. For some reason, it smells very tart and odd. I think it must be the pear flavor, but who knows? Not super appetizing. Brewed for 3 minutes.

Luckily, the brewed tea smells nothing like the leaf. I smell the soft hay of the white tea which blends well with the cucumber. I also get sweetness from the apple and a hint of coconut. It tastes pretty good, too! Very mild of course, but the cucumber and the creaminess of the coconut meld together beautifully. There’s a pear crispness at the beginning of the sip, too. Very light and I’m sure this would be extremely refreshing as an iced tea. I will definitely have to try it that way! :)

As for the fandom element, I think I just have a different concept of how to assign a tea to a character. The creator claims this is for storm troopers because it’s relaxing after a long day of work. I guess that’s valid. If I were to make a tea for a storm trooper, I would go with the concept of a strong breakfast tea blend to fuel them up for taking orders all day! :)

Edit: Adding a short rant since this is the last tea of this sampler for me to try. So I went to review these teas and get my rewards points, but I couldn’t find any way to review it. So I sent Adagio an email asking about it, and they informed me that fandom samplers can’t be reviewed… “Our technology folks are aware of the problem, but the solution has so far eluded them.” So basically I get to miss out on the 36 points I could have gotten from these teas because I bought them as a sampler and not separately… Annoyed.

Leia happens to be my favorite character! Strong and feisty, not whiny or reliant on men like most female characters. This blend smells quite feisty too! It reminds me of ginger ale, but with a bit of orange and vanilla added in. I overleafed a bit, as I pretty much always do with rooibos blends. Steeped 5 minutes!

Brewed, it smells quite gingery! There’s that orange fruitiness there too. I didn’t expect to like this tea much, not being a huge fan of ginger. Luckily the ginger is much milder than I expected, though it is still the main flavor. The sweet vanilla and fruit round out the spiciness quite nicely, and the orange just adds an extra element and melds well. There is a definite peach aftertaste, and the ginger lingers at the back of the throat, warming and feeling a bit odd. I drank this with a half teaspoon of sugar and found it quite nice actually. Didn’t taste black tea or rooibos at all though! I would consider this a good evening option since there is very little black tea in it.

The little green man tea! Yoda is pretty epic, even if he is a little bit overdone in pop culture. The tea is a mix of green tea leaves, dried lemongrass, and bits of dried ginger root. It smells exactly like bread & butter pickles! Side note: my boyfriend looked at me like I was crazy when I called them bread & butter pickles, apparently he had never heard that term before (he calls them sweet pickles). Maybe it’s a more southern thing…? I steeped this twice.

First time, 175 degrees for 3 minutes. The aroma reminds me of the pickles too, just with less of a vinegar scent. The taste is extremely light. The main flavor I get is ginger and cinnamon, and even that is very mild. I taste a hint of lemongrass and then a light vegetal edge at the end. Meh.

Tried again at the recommended 190 degrees and with a little more tea. Came out basically exactly the same. I guess this tea is just a bit light for my tastes…

How does this tea compare to Yoda? Well… There is something about ginger and lemongrass that seems meditative to me, which would make sense. And I can see Master Yoda drinking a green tea, mostly because he has that kind of stereotypical Asian wise man persona. But I think he would want something far more pungent than this… Too weak for such a strong Jedi Master!

Just tried this one using the traditional chai method on the stovetop. I used 8 ounces of water and 8 ounces of vanilla soy milk, brought them to a boil and then added a tablespoon of tea. I simmered it for ten minutes and then added some sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract (can you tell I like vanilla…?). It actually came out pretty tasty! This blend has too many cloves in it, in my opinion, and I can’t really taste the other spices aside from maybe the ginger. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since one of the teas in this blend has cloves and then the blender added more cloves on top of that. Oh well, still tasty! :D

Yay, another Star Wars inspired blend! Oh Han, you rascal… :) This seems to be a very chai-like blend. The tea leaves are jet black and there are a ton of cloves mixed in, along with a few pieces of dehydrated ginger. It smells very strongly of clove and ginger, so much so that I can’t really pick up on anything else. Followed the directions and did a 5 minute steep.

Mm, the aroma is very comforting. Clove with a sweet edge, warming cinnamon, and a little hit of ginger. Chai always reminds me of the holidays. :) Clove is definitely the most prominent flavor in this tea, but it’s not overpowering as I expected it to be from the scent. The ginger adds a little bit of sharpness and there’s a lovely warm note from the cinnamon. I don’t know what cardamom tastes like so I can’t comment on that. :P

Next time I think I would use more tea as it tasted a bit thin to me. Would be excellent with milk and sugar!

Is this tea Han? I would say it’s a pretty good representation. A strong man represented by black tea, his mischievous personality in the spicy clove and ginger, and his warm heart in the comforting cinnamon. I wish I would’ve tasted caramel in this to reinforce that aspect. Not bad, Elizabeth O.

Sipdown! (117)

So I’m trying this new thing where I never add sweetener to teas unless they really need it and/or aren’t drinkable without. I figured I should try to shake my dependence on flavored teas being sweet and try to enjoy them more sans additions. Just because!

This one isn’t too bad unsweetened. It’s not as tart as I would expect considering it contains both hibiscus and rose hips. But overall, this is not a great tea either – it’s just kind of blah tasting and doesn’t have much of a flavor. There’s something kind of roasty about it, I guess it must be the green tea? Not sure.

Aw, one of the best characters ever… Beep boop beep! This tea is a mixture of broken-up green and white tea leaves, lots of dried apple pieces, some rose hips, and a few blueberries. I see some small pieces of hibiscus, so hopefully they won’t factor into the taste (I hate hibiscus, and rose hips for that matter). It smells very apple-y, with some tartness and a sugary scent. Brewed for 3 minutes at 190 degrees.

It smells pretty good – a mild blend of blueberry, vanilla, and the hay scent of white tea. The taste is quite weird though. It feels like the flavors are fighting one another and not melding very well. I can taste a generic green tea taste with a little bit of bitterness and some musty hay from the white tea. I also taste quite a bit of apple and little to no blueberry. Sigh… I hate it when companies include apples as filler. There’s a really weird tart aftertaste from the rosehips that linger unpleasantly at the back of my throat. Overall, pretty meh. Next time I’ll try a lower temperature, since the recommended 190 seems high to me for a blend with green tea in it. I could see trying this cold-brewed too.

Is this R2D2? I don’t think so. I have a sneaking suspicion that the creator chose this combination because it involves a lot of the colors white and blue. I am always so disappointed when fandom blends are created this way… R2D2 is such a go-getter! He definitely needs a caffeine punch in his tea!

Sipdown! (113)

This one is definitely my favorite of the Star Wars fandom blends. It’s a nice combination of almond and hazelnut flavors with just a bit of cinnamon. Super delicious with sugar and vanilla soy milk! And you can’t really taste the rooibos or honeybush much, which is nice.

This is the first tea I selected to try from my brand spanking new Star Wars fandom sampler from Adagio. To be honest, I’m not expecting much from these teas and I mostly bought the sampler for the cute tins (I love Star Wars…). I chose this one because it smells fantastic! It’s very strong marzipan/sweet almond scent with other roasty nuttiness mixed in and a few spices. The dry leaf is a mix of a ton of various tiny brown things. Only a few tiny chocolate chips, which makes me happy because I generally don’t like chocolate in teas. On to the tasting! BRRWHHHAARGH! …sorry, I don’t know how to spell a Chewbacca roar…

The aroma of this tea is yum and yum! It’s a more toned-down marzipan mixed with hazelnut and nice roastiness. The taste is also more yum and yum! It’s much more subtle than the smell, but the flavors blend beautifully. There’s a lovely roasted nutty taste with little hints of sweet almond and spice. It also seems a little vanilla-like to me, but there is no vanilla in this so I guess it’s just the almond! I don’t taste chocolate, hooray! This is a very warm and comforting tea, and it reminds me of the holidays. I found myself inhaling with each sip to smell that amazing marzipan goodness. I added a bit of sugar to the second half and I think I may have liked it better without. I can see this being good with milk too!

Now, to the really important part… does this represent Chewbacca? I would say it does a decent job at least. Chewbacca is generally laid back, warm and fuzzy, just like this blend. Then there’s the hints of spice and the caffeine kick from the mate to represent his outbursts. Bravo, I say! I am so pleasantly surprised by this one!