Hugs and Kisses

moving day!
omg i have a new office! it’s a private office all to my very self!
it’s very adult. i’ve been sharing an office with another gal for the past 3 years. and i’ve never had my very own office in all of my career.
i also have a spiffy new title to go with it.

and a shelf just for my tea!
i’m gonna make so much tea in my new office. i even bought some tins from home. so much tea. look out!

this is a cute little tea! very romantical.
thank you very much KallieBoo!
swak!

I was digging through my cupboard for a comforting dessert tea today and was reminded that I’d ordered a set of 3 about a month ago that had totally slipped my mind. Usually I put untasted teas on the kitchen table so I remember to try them before putting them away, but for some reason the Valentine’s Day set went straight into tea storage. They were a total impulse buy (I had a 30% off badge + free shipping on the sneeqpeek sale, so it was dirt cheap) that I regretted once I got them. The only one I was actually interested in was the raspberry chocolate one—I don’t like rooibos and I don’t really care for peach tea either, so I just kind of shoved them out of sight.

But this pretty pink tin caught my eye today, and I looked at the ingredients: rose petals, chocolate, vanilla, cream, and almond?! I love all of those! Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad. There is one dessert rooibos that I LOVE because the flavors mask that weird medicinal taste. And this tea did smell great, like a latte in a tin. So into the tea pot it went, and the result smelled amazing. Almond + vanilla smells (and tastes) just like marzipan, which is actually pretty hard to capture in tea form. At first sip this is heaven—chocolatey, creamy, marzipan goodness with a gorgeous floral undertone. If the rating was based on that first taste this would be a 100 for sure: it was perfection. But after I actually swallowed, total medicinal rooibos took over my palate—not mild medicinal, but “oh god I just chugged cough syrup” medicinal. Disgusting! I let the tea cool and added some milk and that quality took a back seat to the magical flavor combos, but it’s still there sadly. Just a hint, but enough to make me question if I actually like this tea.

From my wonderful husband for Valentines day. :)
Shame it took so long to arrive and so I’m drinking it post Valentines. Never mind.

The blend looks beautiful with red rooibos mixed with rose petals and blue flowers. It smells like a floral vanilla.

It tastes similar to the smell but the rooibos is not overpowering. Instead I can taste both rose and vanilla before the sweet rooibos gives it a caramel finish. Its smooth, sweet, creamy, floral and delicious.

Sets my day at work :)

I went out and bought some milk this morning, and today I finally, finally had a good cup of this one. I used 1 tsp of leaf, and left it in boiling water for around five minutes, then topped it off with a generous splash of milk. It’s insanely creamy. It tastes just like I’d added cream to my cup, rather than milk, with that deliciously smooth, almost flat-tasting dairyness about it. I didn’t like Adagio’s “Cream” flavoured black last time I tried it, but I might have to give it another go next time I order from them. There’s also a hint of almond here; a touch of marzipan amongst the cream, and a tiny, tiny nip of vanilla. I’m not getting any caramel, but that might well have been one step too far anyway. Also, despite the amount of rose and cornflower petals scattered throughout this one, there is no floral note to be found. In my book, that’s a good thing. So; creamy, vanilla, almond tinged loveliness. This one needs milk, but once it’s got some, it’s just plain lovely. It’s not a flashy or overflavoured tea, but it’s pleasant and comforting to drink when something more plain is required.

In other news, this is my 1000th note. I can’t believe I’ve been here long enough to have written that many — it doesn’t feel like so long ago that I was just starting to drink loose leaf tea! May the next 1000 go as smoothly!

Such a pleasant tisane to see and smell dry! The flower petals provide a pretty pop of color, and you can distinctly smell the vanilla and even a bit of almond and cream.

The flavoring in this one is stronger than I’ve come to expect from Adagio’s flavored rooibos. Generally, they tend taste overwhelmingly of rooibos with a tiny hint of flavor, but this one really strikes a more even balance. It’s got kind of a generic creamy taste, a little bit sweet and floral — I don’t notice any almond and certainly no caramel!

I’m giving this one a moderate rating because I have a strong preference for rooibos blends with even more the taste of the base more covered up, but I would really recommend this to bigger fans of rooibos.

I drink some kind of Adagio rooibos every day, and this is what I have currently, so I’ve been drinking a lot of it. I definitely wish it were offered in a smaller size because I wouldn’t have wanted four ounces of this one. It looks pretty, but it tastes almost like plain rooibos. I would have liked to taste the other flavors more. Certainly not bad, but I wouldn’t choose it over other options.

I usually wouldn’t order a whole tin of any tea without sampling it first, but I bought this one on a whim because the description sounded pretty great. Rooibos, caramel, vanilla? Yes please? In point of fact, it’s so overpoweringly full of “honey” scent and flavor that I really struggle to pick up any other note at all. But after my third or fourth steeping, it’s growing on me. A very smooth, comforting tea, nice in the evening.

Added 1t of sugar. Taste is pleasant, and the vanilla and almond flavors really stand out, making the flavor like cookies or frosting. Doesn’t taste as good as it smells, but it still tastes pretty darn good.

Thanks FlyAwayBirdie for a chance to try this. This is a very nice dessert tea with a lovely floral vanilla flavor. Very relaxing especially when you’re needing de-caf. Don’t let it cool off too much because the rooibos starts getting a bit medicinal/woodsy tasting overwhelming the vanilla and floral flavoring.

I’m pretty sure this came from KallieBoo!.

This a nice pretty unoffensive dessert rooibos. I’m getting a bit of almond, a bit of cream and vanilla. Thankfully, the flowers aren’t giving a significant aroma or taste since I’m usually not a fan of overly floral teas (or anything else for that matter). I’d consider it in a future Adagio order.

2 tsp + sweetener