Adagio Custom Blends, Amy Zen

I love spearmint and was intrigued by the addition of gunpowder to the blend. I was not disappointed. This is a nicely balanced, and strong, cup of tea!

This whole tea is very muted. If I focus, there is chocolate and there is orange…sorta… but its all just muddled together and one note, which is kind of a shame since it is supposed to represent such an awesome character.

I tried to make this as an iced tea.
It was a poor choice.
Don’t ever do this thing, guys.
In my head, the orange flavor of this would turn it into an orange-juice-tea. But the chocolate or something in the base strongly objected to the ice process.

If you like orange/blood orange, I have THE EXACT THING FOR YOU. Come here. Try this.
The issue with people creating teas online is that they can’t really TRY them. Things can get kind of unbalanced and weird.
That’s what happened here. This is a REALLY ORANGE TEA.
I think that an expert teamaker wouldn’t’ve made it this way.
Then again, the Firefly crew does aim to misbehave, so maybe that’s the idea?
The tea is, overall, very, very orange. Then there’s a chocolate aftertaste on the tongue. And a tiny bit of nut that’s like “hey. I’m here too, for some reason. Sup, guys?”
I don’t regret purchasing this tea. However, I don’t think I’ll purchase it again.

I liked this tea because it reminded me A LOT of a Thai iced tea. And it is very, very sweet….practically perfumy. I got this when I was up in college, and again, nerdiness. I can kinda see why Wash got this blend. Thai iced tea is a very tropical drink, one that you would drink while on vacation. Wash is one of the more laid back characters on the show, and he normally wears the same kind of shirts that I saw tourists wear on their vacation in Hawaii.
This is a little bit better iced, and not bad hot. I’m honestly biased to coconut, though, given that I grew up in Hawaii. I probably would have rated it lower now as someone who is starting to prefer purer teas, and like all the other Adagio’s that I’ve had, it depends entirely too much on flavoring. I am glad that I only had a sample, and that I drank it when I did to enjoy it a little bit more. I totally understand why people would be peeved as a fan-and again, not like it because of the rampant syrups.

This was one of the first teas from Adagio that I got, and honestly, my geekiness begged me to get this one. River is one of my favorite characters although they did not develop her as fully as some of the others. There were facets of her personality that I could connect with oddly enough, and I admit that I enjoyed the crap out of how she fought the Reavers in Serenity.
Anyway, I got it last year as a sample for while I was up at school. I have had green and black blends before, and they are a hit or miss for me. Blending black and green normally result in a really mellowed out tasting black tea with the crisp green in the back ground, sometimes being too weak, or nicely balanced out. This one I had to be careful with because the black base is a cream Earl Grey, so I made sure to have the exact same amount of green tea, black tea, and rose petals in every cup. It turned out to be one of the nicer green and black blends after all. I am also really glad that distributed the rose petals in the detail that I did, because I would have not otherwise tasted them as a complimentary accent.

With that said, it’s a good tea, but not great. I am glad that I sampled this instead of getting a full tin. The tin for this specific one is also a delight to have, which is also one of the reasons why Adagio is so expensive: it’s for the dang tins. Worth a try, but not something I highly recommend. I honestly couldn’t imagine what the other adagios taste like: thank heavens I was picky and chose the blended ones.

23/28 sipdowns

i feel like there is WAY too much going on in this tea for you to really be able to actually taste all the things going on in this tea. it’s not a terrible tea or anything but when i look at what’s in here, and focus on the taste, it all kind of blends together to make “brown” lol

22/28 sipdowns

thanks again variaTEA (can you tell i’m finally getting to your sample box this weekend? lol) this one was actually quite pleasant. I’d need to be in the mood for a lapsang as this is a little more smokey than not smokey but it was a nice cup. hints of mint and…something else? made it more interesting than just a boring old lapsang heh

21/28 sipdowns

thanks again VariaTEA as these have been fun to try. this might be my favourite of the lot so far, except that there’s a bitterness in this one that i dislike. it also leaves me mouth feeling super dry. heh. BUT all that aside, this is a nice enough chai like sort of tea with just a hint of something sweet running through it. apparently that’s caramel but i am just not finding that..just “sweet” to me.

20/28 sipdowns

this is another from variaTEA and while this one is minty fresh, i’m getting zero hazelnut, if that’s what this is supposed to be. to me this is just a cup of mint tea…with a different smell than normal lol ah well, it’s been a refreshing cup :)

19/28 sipdowns

VariaTEA sent this one my way. All i can say is that this is not a tea for me lol blerg!

18/28 sipdowns (home stretch! lol)

VariaTEA sent this one my way and so today i thought it would be fun to go through as many of the Serenity Fandom teas as i could. This one was from earlier today as i’m still working ugh Sadly this one was just a muddling of flavours to me. i didn’t get much in the way of orange or chocolate..just a blend of a vaguely fruity sort of adagio black tea. :( it wasn’t bad but there wasn’t much distinct in here for me

mmm i am quite enjoying this one. strawberry, licorice almost sort of flavour. this is another one from *VariaTEA

ugh work calling… good stuff, enjoy this one yay kaylee!

thanks for sharing this one with me VariaTEA this one wasn’t as delicious as i thought it would be. the chai like sort of thing sounded really nice. However something about the flavour combination just isn’t jiving for me. at least i got to try it though! thanks VT!

Sipdown!! (146)

This is a nice chai with hints of caramel but there is maybe a bit too much ginger for my liking. Honestly it is pretty good but I think the rest will be passed on to Cavocorax who will appreciate this more than I will.

This is much better cold brewed than hot. The mint is still the only flavor I am getting but it is not as harsh as it was in the hot cup. Still, I think I will count this as a Sipdown and pass the rest on to Roswell Strange because even though I enjoy this more, I think she would be more appreciative of this blend than I am.

I noticed both Roswell Strange and Cavocorax rated this an 80 and tbh I feel as though I am having a completely different experience. This is probably my least favorite Firefly tea of the ones I have tried so far. I mean, it is not bad by any means but I am just finding the spearmint to be overpowering for my tastes. There might be a hint of nuttiness in here but it is not present in a pleasant way. Instead, I am finding that the mint and the nut combine and end on an earthy/vegetal note that comes off almost drying as the sip ends. Perhaps I might enjoy this more cold brewed but if not, I will probably just pass the rest along or drop it into my swap box.

Sipdown (153)

Made the last of this as a latte because the first few ingriedientd screamed chai. Then I noticed lemon and second thought it but it worked out fine. It’s not my favorite tea as I don’t tend to drink a lot of the ingriedients anyways, plus it has aged. What I am getting is a fair bit of cardamom, some lemon, and a dash of cinnamon. There is also something more savory in here. All in all its drinkable but this isn’t a hard goodbye.

So my very first sip of this tea tasted like DAVIDs Sugar & Spice tea. It definitely was not what I was expecting at all. As I continue to sip, I am picking up on hints of lemongrass and notes of sweet coconut. I am actually enjoying it despite thinking this would be one I would immediately want to toss into the swap pile. As it is, I don’t think I will be stocking it anytime soon but this is one I will most likely enjoy drinking while I have it.

Cold Brew Sipdown (141/149)!

Thank you VariaTEA for sending along more of this one for me to enjoy and play with. I was highly interested and amused with it the first time around, and this time I thought I’d try it a different way and see if it still carried the same intrigue.

So cold brewed, I thought this tasting more dominantly of spearmint than hazelnut but both were definitely still present. I still can’t get over that flavour combination; it’s so weird and contrasting and by not working at all, that somehow manages to make it work? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it’s true. This is like drinking two different teas at the same time.

Also, I really like that this one showcases hazelnut without pairing it with chocolate. I feel like I said that last time I reviewed this, but I want to drive that point home because the two flavours are not mutually exclusive.

Anyway, I drank half of this refreshing blend while getting ready to leave the house, and then the other half on the bus ride to my destination. Where was I going? DAVIDsTEA, of course. But what was significant about this trip other than my planning on picking up the fall teas? I was headed off to a date. A first date.

Basically, it didn’t really go too awesome. It’s not so much that he wasn’t nice and that I didn’t enjoy what we did, but there was zero spark… None.

I’ll elaborate in the next few tasting notes though, since I had a few different teas while we were out.

Sipdown (148/154)!

So the plan was to drink this while watching Serenity but Tre highly distracted me tonight with conversation and now I’ve long finished the tea before starting the movie! Argh! Plus it’s 1 AM and I have work in the morning. I should have just told him to leave so I could watch it…

Anyway, this was I think the weirdest of all the ones VariaTEA sent me. Like, it was super distinctly Hazelnut and Spearmint. Maybe even perhaps the most distinct Hazelnut flavour I’ve had in any tea. Hazelnut on steroids which was also weird because there was no chocolate flavour and I’ve kinda learned to associate the two. And then Spearmint and Hazelnut apparently DO NOT mesh together not that I really expected them to anyway.

It was very much like drinking two totally different teas, just at the exact same time. Which, I suppose, I was technically doing? Because that’s sorta what the fan blends at Adagio are. And as weird as it sounds this was really good though; just super mind boggling. The really problematic part is that now I want more of it because it was good; just not 3 oz. more. Something like 1 oz. would probably be more than enough. Except that’s not an option.

Bleh. So frustrating.

But thank you VariaTEA. This officially finishes off the Firefly teas you gave me and I think it was the perfect excuse/reason to watch and get into the series. And, while I definitely didn’t like all of the teas I found each of them interesting! And I will get around to watching Serenity eventually, just maybe not tonight…

sooo i had hopes for this one…i do like blueberry and lemongrass but there is almost too much lemongrass in this one for me to really get behind it. it’s nice..but..just missing the mark a little for me. thanks for sharing variaTEA!

VariaTEA is awesome and let me try all the firefly blends. i haven’t had a chance to dig most of them out of the box of fun that i have in terms of samples but since today is SIPDOWN DAY! i figured i’d start with this one…because BLERGAMOT blech River is most certainly not full of blerg. says me. because i love river…hell i love them all and this is not her. because i don’t like it lol.

this is just not only blerg like but very floral to me. I appreciate the share a ton though because firefly is awesome. and fan blends are fun!

Whaaaat weird.
This is the last of my Firefly teas from Cavocorax via Variatea, and I saved this one for last because I fully expected to hate it, on account of it’s rooibos.

I’m pleasantly surprised that I don’t really taste the rooibos in this one! I actually taste the lemongrass, apple and blueberry, with a tartness that I presume comes from the hibiscus. And isn’t entirely delicious, that part.

Sooo yeah! Not terrible! Which is high praise coming from me, as far as rooibos goes.
Thanks ladies, for sharing!

I sadly have to say that I finished watching Firefly the other day, sadness. I plan to watch Serenity with the hubby this week, so at least there’s that to look forward to.

I’m ashamed that it took me this long to watch it, the huge Joss Whedon fan that I am. It was way less juvenile and cartoony than I expected (based on Buffy and Angel, which I loved loved loved)…. I totally see why people were pissed when it was cancelled. So sad.

Now I’m up to my eyeballs in season 2 of Orange is the New Black season 2….. SO MUCH AWESOME.