Adagio Custom Blends, Cara McGee

Big thanks again to Sil for sending this along in our exchange!

Oh, my head hurts today. It hurts like somebody’s prying open my forehead with a pair of rusty kitchen tongs in order for a flock of pigeons to crap directly on the surface of my brain. Either that or I’m about to give birth to Athena. I felt fine until I got that rejection from last week’s interview! Bloody bloody bloody. Back to the drawing board, I suppose. Would it be too much to ask that the mug cozy business began to boom and I could make my rent selling pretty knitted things on etsy? Probably. Maybe I should start approaching local tea rooms with the things. It’s not the worst idea I’ve had. Kelsh needs income.

Heck, I can’t even land a temp gig like Donna! Donna’s kind of my hero. She’s, I dunno, probably somewhere around my age, leads a fairly aimless life career-wise, just like me, and then goes on to go on all kinds of space adventures, kicking ass and taking names and saving everything. And she’s a total sassmaster. Donna’s the best thing to come out of the new series. So there.

This tea almost lives up to her sassy awesome. It’s just a little quiet, like Jack’s was yesterday. But the hints of citrus and cinnamon are definitely taking the edge off my headache. The Irish breakfast base has enough backbone that it doesn’t taste too watery or astringent, and milk and sugar are welcome additions to the brew. There’s a bit of orange that carries through, while cinnamon provides a warmth that builds toward the end of the sip. It’s Donna in one of her quieter moments, but I can definitely see her appeal.

Thor’s a bit (uuhh ok, a lot) oversteeped which shows a bit in a tinge of bitterness… but he’s still super tasty.

(This is only my 2nd time having yerba mate – I like it much better this way, with black tea. The other was a citrusy thing that tasted like Tang. Bluhhhh.)

Tony tastes a lot better than he smells. IJS.

I’m liking this less today. I don’t know, it’s just a bit… not as bang-you-over-the-head sexy as I’d like it to be, and I’m really feeling that right now. It’s okay.

Also, I’m pretty sure I’ve become my parents. We spent most of the holiday Monday morning in bed listening to Motown, and today I actually got really excited at work because I got to build a new spreadsheet. This feels super wrong.

I’m sat in bed in my beautiful new home, watching Celebrity Masterchef and drinking a soothing cup of this before bedtime. It’s still a fairly understated brew to my palette, but warm and cozy and certainly pleasant with its notes of chocolate and almond. And the fact that it doesn’t taste overly of rooibos. I’ve still got about a million money woes, but I feel like I can finally rest a bit. My new digs have a gorgeous kitchen, an augur, a piano, and a pond. And my bedroom has this crazy little window seat balcony doodah. It’s good. I just have to remember that the ensuite bathroom door faces directly opposite the window, which faces opposite lots of other people’s houses, so I really ought to remember to close the curtains before getting into the shower in the morning, lest loads of my neighbours see me in all my glory! I shouldn’t like to be responsible for blinding half of the people in my postcode :p

Though I like to think Captain Jack would approve.

Finally, I’m back from Easter weekend! Came home to a rejection letter (boo) and finally enough time to sit down and properly taste the teas sent to me by the lovely Sil in our swap!

So, Captain Jack Harkness. If I’m honest, I was expecting something a bit louder, but with a dark undercurrent, and it’s subtle compared to that. But that being considered, it’s tasty! The scent is a full-on boom of chocolate, though I wasn’t surprised this fell away a bit when brewed, looking at the ingredients. I feel like the amount of ceylon in here waters down what could be a more indulgent brew, but the almond in the fragrance gives me a scent that reminds me interestingly of oats and a touch of booze, and then the chocolate comes back in as the predominant flavour. It’s light and lovely, and definitely cries out for milk and sugar to balance it. All things considered, a pleasant brew indeed. It’s not leaping out of the cup and snogging me with flavour, but certainly making my day a little brighter.

Thanks, Cavo! This brings back memories, though I haven’t actively read and written Destiel since 2010, it was my first SPN pairing (which my Sam/Dean friends have graciously forgiven me for). The cinnamon and cocoa was nice and soothing this morning. I like Cara McGee’s stuff anyway. Also, fandom.

Randomly grabbed this last night, and boy is it ever amazing. I know I’ve had it before, but it was nowhere near this good! Dunno what I did differently, other than oversteep it way way WAY too much (15 minutes). Loved it, helped me power through writing a murder mystery – right up until the last second when I had to leave to play it with 32 others. Success!

Wow. This is surprisingly good. Okay, yes, I know it’s an Adagio blend just from the flavor. It’s still a hearty, creamy chai, smells strongly (and tastes strongly) of cloves and… cardamom? Something else? I also definitely get the chocolate in here, which is (I think) a first for a chai with chocolate in it.

I really like this simple tea (chai + ginger), even if I was expecting a bit more… devilishness from it, after its namesake and all. ;) It’s a solid chai, and one that I do (and will) enjoy often. Having said that, it’s far from an amazing chai ever, so I doubt I’d make a point of restocking it. It’s just nice.

Who the heck is Billy Wiggins? /dashes to google and returns/
Right. AWESOME. I liked this guy. :D Sherlock needs more people like him.

And this tea seems fitting for a brilliant street urchin with a heart of gold. Well, idk if he has a heart of gold, but this tea is messy and smoky and earthy, but also sweet like a cupcake. Magical.

It’s a good tea and it’s enjoyable, but so strange too. I doubt I’d buy 3 oz of this, but I wouldn’t say no to the occasional cup here and there!

Thanks Shmiracles!

I’m finally starting to drink my Doctor Who teas from Adagio. We had an early Easter because one daughter has to work tomorrow. I put the sample size tins for Doctor Who and Firefly in plastic eggs and hid them around the house. Yes, my daughters are in their 30’s. But they humor me. They had lots of fun searching and of course loved their surprises.
Today my daughters and I had Eleven. Seemed bland at first but we looked at some tasting notes and decided to try milk and stevia. That added a lot to it. Tasting some nice coconut which seems so fitting for Eleven! The coconut brings up a creaminess. Quite a nice cuppa. I don’t think I would buy a large quantity of this tea, but it is good. I think I am just going to have to watch some Matt Smith episodes tonight!

Had a cup today before packing up the rest – blew it though by oversteeping. Ah well.

Ah, I miss you, Mrs. Hudson. Your ridiculous history and gentle, welcoming and open nature really touched my heart in the BBC version of Sherlock. This tea, I was a bit surprised at the ingredients, and wasn’t sure if I wanted to try it today. Then I smelled it, and hooboy! I needed to have some. Like right now. It smells like a creamy marzipan candy, and tastes like it too.

Hm. It seems that Steepster has a weird algorithm going, where folks who choose not to rate teas, still get factored in. Why do I say this? Because this tea is only rated 76, yet the two folks who did rate it, rated it very highly. While I understand that there are some factors beyond our knowledge (and it’s pretty easy to figure out when you rate a tea 100 and you’re the first who did), however non-ratings shouldn’t affect the overall rating whatsoever. Just my two cents.

Nope, nope. Dunno what’s with this tea, but it’s more of a fake weird chemical orange than anything. Nope. Buh-bye.

This is much better cold than hot, although it’s still.. weird. It’s grapefruit, kind of, with something weird in there that’s still fruity yet… I dunno. Tart in a way that seems weird to me. It’s… tea tart? Hard to explain this one.

Really just a chai, with a hint of something chocolatey in the end. Oh wait, caramel lingers after. I do like it… kinda makes me feel like I’m making out with Watson after he’s had a long drag off a pipe. A chocolate pipe, of course.

Damn, this tea is OOOOOLLLLLLLD. Like, I’ve had it for five years old? Jeepers.

Went back home to visit the family, and they’d stashed this somewhere. I’ve sent them tea from my travels and swaps for years… and I thought they drank it. Ah well. More for me.

Hilariously, I drank two pots of this before I realized there was strawberry flavoring in it…. (I’m allergic to strawberries, and yes, there’s still some in the flavor).

I had wondered if I’d ‘gotten over’ my allergy, as I’ve worked hard to deal with it naturally. But then, the age of this tea and … well who knows.

All I know is that I like this tea this time around. Like, a LOT a lot.

It needs sweetener, and it’s divine with some cream. Like a chai-y goodness of weirdness. It really is weird, I’m assuming from the age and the additives and whatnot, but I like it. Red hot cinnamon hearts? Cold, not so much. It neeeeeds cream.

So, I guess this is a sipdown of a long-forgotten tea I’d removed years ago from my cupboard.

A rating of 69 seems fitting.

Bah. Strawberry flavor. Now, I only had a very mild reaction to this, so it’s obviously minute in detail. Still, it kinda sorta ruined the cup for me, which blows, as jump62359 so graciously sent this to me. And the name! The name!! I love it. In turn, I wanted to love this tea.

All I got from the two sips I had was an earthy sort of chai-like tea, with some weird background flavoring that I can’t quite place.

Hmm.. a nice tea.
I don’t know how I feel about the cherry though.
Definitely not in the Teen Wolf fandom so I have no idea how Stiles is supposed to taste like! I know nothing about his character. My knowledge on Teen Wolf though.. Every character that I know of, they’re just one character with different names so I honestly have no idea who is in Teen Wolf and what this show is about!

Hmm.. a nice tea.
I don’t know how I feel about the cherry though.
Definitely not in the Teen Wolf fandom so I have no idea how Stiles is supposed to taste like! I know nothing about his character. My knowledge on Teen Wolf though.. Every character that I know of, they’re just one character with different names so I honestly have no idea who is in Teen Wolf and what this show is about!So I’m just rating this on the tea itself.
It’s a nice balance.
The cherry does take over the chocolate though. I almost get no chocolate taste! But the cherry is very present, but not so much that it tastes like medicine. If I didn’t look at the ingredients, then I would not have known to look for almond notes. Yes, I do taste faint almond flavours, but only because I was looking for it. The cherry is very pronounced! But I like how the Assam tones it down a bit. Add more cherry and less assam then it probably would be more on the medicine side, rather than the nice tea side :)

Hmm.. a nice tea.
I don’t know how I feel about the cherry though.
Definitely not in the Teen Wolf fandom so I have no idea how Stiles is supposed to taste like! I know nothing about his character. My knowledge on Teen Wolf though.. Every character that I know of, they’re just one character with different names so I honestly have no idea who is in Teen Wolf and what this show is about!So I’m just rating this on the tea itself.
It’s a nice balance.
The cherry does take over the chocolate though. I almost get no chocolate taste! But the cherry is very present, but not so much that it tastes like medicine. If I didn’t look at the ingredients, then I would not have known to look for almond notes. Yes, I do taste faint almond flavours, but only because I was looking for it. The cherry is very pronounced! But I like how the Assam tones it down a bit. Add more cherry and less assam then it probably would be more on the medicine side, rather than the nice tea side :)A decent blend! Hoping I would have tasted more of the oolong though.

Hm. Intriguing blend, although I’m unsure what exactly to make of it. Very ginger-y, earthy, and a touch chai-like sweet with some caramel in there. I like "dangerous"in the description, it seems fitting. There is something I’m finding a bit offputting in this though, some sort of smokey earth that is probably the puerh, or maybe the ginger, not sure — and usually I love both these ingredients, so I’m hesitant to blame either one. A shorter steep would likely help.

This is what my daughter and I started out with when we grabbed the Sherlock tin bundle – and it was a great choice! Creamy with a chai kick, that’s the best way to describe this. Maybe a touch cake-y.

A lovely tea, but I’m just very happy to rid this from my shelf.
Thank you tons to shmiracles for sending this my way!

SHMIRACLES I’M FINALLY DRINKING TONY STARK. I’VE BEEN PUTTING THIS TEA OFF FO SO LONG AND TODAY IS THE DAY.

Dude. I don’t know what it is, but all the fandom blends that use Lapsang always taste so weird. Like I actually really like lapsang! But I haven’t had Adagio’s lapsang alone, only in blends, but I’m convinced that Adagio’s lapsang is just… weird in its own way.
Oh Tony. You smell like… it’s the cockiness in you that deserves such a smoky, dark, spicy tea.
OH GOSH NO.
I AM SO SORRY
BUT ONE SIP
What is in this blend!? Tiger Eye, Lapsang Souchong and Ginger
Oh gosh. I’ll like force this down my throat and resteep to see if I can get a different taste, but at first sip, this is a no.

EDIT: This got a bit tame as it cooled and a lot of the flavour sank to the bottom. Not completely terrible and sour and gross from what I tasted right when it finished steeping, but at least it was a totally drinkable tea :)