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This was the Adagio CommuniTEA selection for April 8th – I’m a little behind in tasting notes.

I was excited to see another fandom blend in the mix, and even more excited because this is a character I know. I mean, I don’t know her the same way that, like, actual hard core batman fans know her but I have peripheral knowledge of this character!

One of my favourite things with the fandom blends is breaking down the idea behind the conceptualization of the blend; why were the teas/flavours/ingredients used selected? What makes this raspberry and chamomile blend the blend for Poison Ivy? Admittedly, I think this is a missed opportunity to not use a green tea based blend – that seems like an obvious direction, no? But like I said, I don’t know the character too well, so I’m not sure if there’s significance to what was selected that I’m just missing…

As for the blend itself, it’s not bad – I’m sure that I would like it more if I liked chamomile but that’s a big aspect of the flavour profile in this tea and I’m having a hard time getting past it. Aside from the pronounced chamomile flavour, this has an almost sour raspberry flavour, like the nostalgic “Sour Raspberry” candy flavour that I grew up with. It’s almost a little weird having chamomile juxtaposed with something so sharp and tart, but it still kind of works in a weird way!? I’m not totally sure what the ‘Rooibos Bonita’ in the blend is meant to taste like, but I’m really only getting chamomile and sour raspberry/apple notes…

It’s not a tea for me, but I feel like it’s still a well constructed blend overall.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-uDbpaA5Qs/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhfs1CzzUPM

My herbal/rooibos tea sample drawer is getting so full that it’s becoming difficult to open and close, so this week I’ve been trying to drink a lot more herbal or rooibos teas in the evening…

I’m sipping on this one now, with a slightly shorter steep time that last – three and a half minutes to be exact, and it’s definitely doing something for me. It’s so perfectly balanced between really herbaceous rosemary notes and soothing florals like lavender that I feel highly calm and at peace in this moment. I also love that it does still remind me of being out in a meadow, during this period where I’m isolated at home and haven’t really been “out in nature” for several weeks now…

So, a little while back a new to me company that specializes in CBD infused teas approached me on instagram and asked if I would be interested in trying some of their teas – I’ve never tried a CBD infused product before, but as has been well documented here on Steepster I struggle off an on with very, very bad insomnia and I know that one of the things that CBD purportedly helps with is insomnia so I thought it would be worth a try!

I mean, lets be honest – I like free tea so I probably would have said yes regardlness but this was an added layer of interest/curiousity.

I tried Sweet Roobie yesterday, and, while I reeeaaallllyyyyy hate the name of the tea, I don’t really have any complaints about the tea itself. It tastes smooth and of honeyed rooibos with a medium bodied lemony red fruit/pomegranate flavour and a hint of a more herbaceous note in the undertone. I love this as a fruity caffeine free tea option that’s sweet but not too sweet, and fruity in a more atypical way!

Sleep benefits to be determined, but I will say that I was feeling pretty relaxed yesterday evening after my mug of tea. Was it related? Placebo? I don’t know – but it intrigues me.

I’m excited to steep up the remaining flavours – so far they’re really split down the middle in terms of dry leaf aroma – some smell AMAZING and others are a little off and kind of skunky. So, we’ll see.

I was running late this morning so didn’t have time to grab tea samples to make at work, except then I ended up having the most perfectly timed commute ever (no delays. metro arrived EXACTLY when I did at both stops) so I actually was EARLY despite running late initially…

I used that little bit of extra time to pick up a kombucha and a snack from the Depp that i walk by on my way to the office – wasn’t sure what one to grab so I just kind f blind selected on from RISE. This was alright tasting, but kind of drying/puckering and not as bright a lemon as I think I really wanted. Good for a convenient kombucha, though!

Currently sipping on this one…

It was one of the teas that Stephenia had mentioned in her all time favourite teas video on Youtube, and was also really highly recommended by a couple other instagram tea blogger folks so I decided to pick some up for myself and give it a whirl; I do like a good sweet tea, and cotton candy is one of those flavours that rides the balance between generic sweetness and a distinct type of flavour quite finely so I was excited to see what this would be like!

It smelled much different than I expected – certainly sweet and sugary, with an air of “cotton candy” to that sweetness but also much more fruity than I would have ever expected it to be – like a tart raspberry kind of fruity quality!?

Steeped up it’s… Well… Hmmm…

I honestly don’t know what I think of this. There’s something to it that does remind me of cotton candy; this sweet spun sugar type of flavour in the immediate top notes and then that gingerly sticks in the mouth after swallowing. However, it’s also very fruity in the same way I was getting from the dry leaf aroma – like a more tart raspberry with a generically sweet apple note, and the raspberry lingers in the finish along with that cotton candy type flavour though it has more of a staying power and I’m finding that sharpness is really strong in the back of my mouth. It’s not bad tasting – but to me, at least, it’s not cotton candy and it definitely feels out of place. It also has that same kind of cosmetic fruit type flavour (like you get in lip stick or lip gloss, sometimes) that I find DT’s Dragonfruit Aloe blend has…

It’s not that I don’t think a cotton candy can’t have a fruit/berry note to it like this; in fact the pastel pink/blue cotton candy you often see is typically berry flavoured. It’s just that I think those cotton candy flavours are typically much more light/airy and not nearly as dense and tart as what I’m experiencing here.

Is it good? Yeah! Is it Cotton Candy? I’m on the fence…

Gongfu!

Early evening session – was feeling something earthy and dank as fuck so this is what I pulled out! It’s been a while since I had some Liubao, and this really hit the spot. I got seven infusions before this was too weak to be satisfying, it started off aggressively thick and then steadily decline. So camphorous, with rich notes of wet & decaying wood, forest undergrowth, soaked potting soil, black currant, and molasses notes. It’s a little bit bitter, and thick as mud but I’m loving it!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-sitpig5Rh/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anlspQCQswo

This was the pick for today’s “CommuniTEA” blend from Adagio…

I wasn’t thrilled that today’s tea was a green tea, but when I realized it was pomegranate I felt a little bit better about the profile. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really deliver – the green tea is very flat/dull and lifeless with an oceanic note I’m not crazy about, and the pomegranate just reads generic red fruit flavouring. It was drinkable, but unexciting and mediocre (at best) in terms of taste.

You can’t love them all though – and while I probably wouldn’t have ever independently picked this one for myself anyway, it is nice to have had the chance to sample it without committing to a larger amount.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvtnPFDHetA

Had this one on the weekend during my Tiger King binge…

I’m skeptical with grapefruit teas – when they’re good they’re usually really good but when they’re poorly done they can be intolerable. DT is a good example; you have ones like Banana Grapefruit and Grapefruit Rose Starburst which I find AMAZING and things like Grapefruit Granita or Grapefruit Squeeze which weren’t well done at all IMO. Same company, but very different sides of the coin…

This is… alright? I say that with a question mark because I think with experimentation I may be able to steep it better, but it’s enjoyable and has some positive qualities even without tweaking. The aroma is very nice; sweet pink grapefruit – fresh, a little floral, and effervescent. It’s the type of grapefruit aroma that makes you perk up a little bit because of how fresh it is. Steeped, it’s accurate to the aroma just lesser in intensity; some intensity loss is to be expected for dry aroma to steeped aroma but I do think more freshness has been lost that I would have expected to be normal; the grapefruit has good clarity and leans sweet but natural instead of pithy/bitter. Note, it’s not sugary but sweet in a balanced way. I don’t want more sweetness at all, that would be cloying, but if the “juiciness” could be amped up a little bit that would elevate this to a sublime level. As it stands, it’s a little flat even if the flavour is nice and clear.

I’m not sure where I fall on the Bai Mu Dan style white tea base that Adagio seems to be using for their flavoured white tea blends – it doesn’t elicit a knee jerk reaction of disgust but I don’t think it’s superb quality either. That said, it’s muted enough that it’s been making for a really good “canvas” white tea so far to really let whatever flavour is in the blend shine through quite well…

On first steep snap impression, this is somewhere in that rare middle zone of grapefruit blends where it’s not a “WOW” tea or something I find repulsive/don’t want to finish. I’m gonna see if I can make the grapefruit pop more, though.

Another ‘matcha’ that I had today…

This was hot and shook up in a carry travel mug; it shook pretty smoothly though I had one clump stuck to the side of the carry mug that I couldn’t quite dislodge and it didn’t really froth. To be fair, cocoa powder don’t really froth well in the first place.

I still find this weird – it’s a very sharp, and kind of “Skittle” fake type of lime mixed with a super straight forward, powdery kind of instant hot chocolate type of cocoa and the two just don’t mesh super well. When I get a sip that’s majority cocoa notes it’s fine, but sometimes that lime cuts through so strongly and then it just feels weird. It’s not bad per say, but it makes my brain hurt trying to comprehend what I’m tasting…

I also thought this was going to be a sipdown, but then I remembered that my little sampler of these newer matchas/powder from Bird and Blend contained TWO little sample tins of each one, so not yet a sipdown.

This is what I started my day with, ‘cause Matcha Monday y’all!

I enjoy this matcha, though it is very sweet and very distinctly honey tasting, but it’s another one that I often forget about and so I don’t have it often. In fact, I was looking for a different matcha this morning and when I found this tin I changed my mind about what to make because I realized how rarely I have this one…

I need to do a side by side taste of this and the Lavender Honey now, to see which I like more. It’s the same honey flavour in both, so it more comes down to whether the lavender makes the experience better for me or not. I’m willing to wager that’s a small enough thing that it could be decided purely by the kind of mood I’m in.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-pdpLzAN-i/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB0Cok8mkyU

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.