Adagio Custom Blends, Cara McGee

I was going to have Derek Hale tea, because my mind has been very Derek-focused this week, but then I forgot to have afternoon tea at all and decided to settle on Feral Dogs, because it was appropriately doggy (sorry, Derek – don’t grumpy face me). It’s pretty golden colored like my favorite IPAs, and spicy and warm. Very nice. Though I’m still disappointed there was no floating interdimensional bathroom kitty tea in this set.

Yuuum. My wife cracked open a can of coconut milk and made a latte for me with this – why coconut milk? Because this tea tastes like nothing so much as a diluted Hello Dolly square, which is amazing. It’s this flaky coconutty chocolatey cookie type taste, with just a bit of an edge on it like they’ve been sitting in the pan too long. A++ would drink again.

Finishing off this tea, steeped in my sister’s adorable little blue teapot and bubble teacup at my work desk – making the days better with tea!

I am trying to get through my Nightvale teas, since they aren’t my favorite, but allergies are bad so drinking tea by the potful is necessary anyway.

On Monday night I went to a rave on an island about 1.5 miles from my house, and yesterday I went to Kings Dominion with Shmiracles and rode every single roller coaster with no wait (plus froyo, Instagramming, & Kindle time). Friday I’m going to a baseball game, and tonight is the penultimate episode of Martin Freeman’s Fargo. Getting through day by day by day…

I just read outside in the sun during lunch, and it was glorious. Also, because I read this:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/1163398
Mythological creature!Sherlock monthly fic partnered challenge series? By one of the best writers in any fandom? SO MUCH WIN. I’m halfway through the second one and I can’t wait to keep reading.

The first one is mermaid. LOVE.

Cecil tea – light and green – is perfect for this, today. There’s even tentacles on the cover art.

Shmiracles said this was the lightest tea ever, and it’s pretty light.

I’ll pretend the green tea is for the tentacles. Mmm, tentacles.

Can this day end? Soon? Ever?

I’m finding the Earl Grey kind of overiding the other flavors that are supposed to be here. I’ve grown to like bergamot over the last couple months, so this is okay. I just wish I got the comforting notes of caramel and hazelnut. They kind of sneak up in the aftertaste, but I didn’t really find them prensent in the sip itself. I ended up adding sugar and milk trying to find the sweeter flavors, but that didn’t help much either. Of course, milk and sugar in EG is pretty swell regardless.

Thanks Shmiracles!

“You… you told me once that you weren’t a hero. Umm, there were times I didn’t even think you were human. But let me tell you this, you were the best man, the most human… human being that I’ve ever known, and no-one will ever convince me that you told me a lie, so there. I was so alone, and I owe you so much. But, please, there’s just one more thing, one more thing, one more miracle, Sherlock, for me. Don’t be… dead. Would you do that just for me? Just stop it. Stop this.”

i’m way behind on my tea notes. so apologies in advance but having a big backlog is when i tend to write nonsense notes that have very little to do with actual tea.
i guess i just treat the note like a bookmark. — i dog ear the page saying ‘i drank this’ and hopefully when i have a second cup i will be inspired to make a more flavor specific note.

this tea is a tea of things i love. i like all the teas used in this blend consistently.
and i know it’s mean’t to be a sort of stern and dark tea. management is uptight right? and ancient. and terrible.
so what does that say about me? hahaha jokinnng

any tea that can add aniseed has my respect.
when i’m making adagio blends i always wanna add things like cardamom accents and saffron. but usually the tea is intended to be shared with a friend… and i don’t wanna do that to them. i know not everybody enjoys my flair for the weird when it comes to tea.

ALSO
did you guys notice the “Similar Teas” listed under this one?
HILARIOUS!

I would love to make an ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD joke but unfortunately I really just can’t. This tea gave me all sorts of fruity citrusy promises and then didn’t deliver. Brewed up, it’s incredibly dry (I keep smacking my lips and looking for water) and almost no flavour. I just took a sip of it and I can’t tell you what it tastes like. And it’s got this odd chemically tap water aftertaste. Did not enjoy.

Actually drank this a few days ago and forgot to log it, OOOPS.

I was going to make some to take with me to work. So I could drink it while waiting for the bus. In the rain. IN THE RAIN.

Yeah, good luck getting that out of your head.

It tastes like green curry. Smells even more like green curry, but then tastes like a green curry chai. Which I don’t particularly like? It managed to taste creamy without adding any milk. It was a rather odd cuppa.

Appropriately enough, the end of my alphabetic journey through Night Vale is The Weather.

I will not make the obvious joke.

This smells like thai green curry. I have such a craving now. Unless this tea is amazing, the rest will be used to make rice, because yum.

The tea is very, very good, but it tastes like green curry. So yes, it will be going into delicious rice…yum.

So that’s all the fandom blends! I feel like I’ve lost my purpose now.

Bye, Steve Carlsberg. I actually really enjoyed the light grapefruit flavor. Though I realized that I should be steeping twice as much Adagio tea as I usually do – I find the teas light, and my literal teaspoon isn’t very exact – so for the future I’ll load up the spoons.

Ooh at lunch I started reading a 3-part close to 300k-word Hannibal fic by an author I’ve never read… and it seems really good. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend… and next week… and perhaps next weekend. (This fic’s podfic even has a gag reel. That’s a first for me.)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/813951?view_full_work=true

I didn’t like the first sip of this tea, but it’s def growing on me the more I slowly drink this cup. I barely taste the ginger, and the grapefruit, which I wished was kind of punching me in the face instead.

I tried a new experiment today and went grocery shopping at lunch and got a sushi roll. It’s sunny outside, though really windy, so it’s a nice day to sit in a car and eat a sushi roll. My day is boring – I watched scary HBO docs last night before bed and I think I had nightmares AND daymares. Those things are so addictive though. Happy MOONDAY! at least, holy crap.

Meh

I had a cup of this last night, but I have no memory of it because as soon as I sat down to enjoy it, my laptop decided to start sounding like the unmarked black helicopters seen in the skies of Night Vale.

This area is Not Good For Play. I will mourn you Vanellope.

So I made a new cup today and I rather like Steve Carlsberg (Sorry Cecil!). The grapefruit and the vanilla pair well together, but it’s more vanilla than grapefruit, which is a little disappointing…I love grapefruit.

But he is keeping me company as I fight with my old laptop to back up before she dies. Sigh.

I finished this up today while listening to the latest Night Vale podcast. What a great episode!!!

Sadly, this tea, like the thing it was named for, causes memory loss (i.e., is completely forgettable). SIPDOWN.

And on to the next Night Vale tea! I think I have maybe 3 left?

This is one that I know I like, and it’s not dark/mate/desert-y like I associate with this fandom. It’s light and airy and mostly peach. I like it, but don’t think I need more of it.

I should try to steep it longer next time to coax more flavour out!

OK, time to try NV Tea #2! I’m listening to Welcome to Night Vale #41 as I do so. (http://nightvale.libsyn.com/) I love the series, but there’s something almost Lovecraftian about the way I try to listen to it, and then my mind slip slides away to something else, possibly in an attempt to protect me from hearing about the casually mentioned horrors…

This is a really light and delicate blend, with peach as the most prominent note. Further sips bring out a touch of puerh earthiness to give it weight, and I can taste green tea and citrus. This tea grows on you, much like an enveloping glow cloud will slowly block out all surrounding stimuli and eventually become the sole point of your focus… You then become aware of more and more…

“Stay tuned next for the noises of my hurried retreat echoing first as sound, and then as memory, and then maybe then again as part of tonight’s fractured dreaming. Good night, Night Vale. Good night.”

I’m not an ex-smoker like my wife, so I can’t comment on whether this actually tastes like smoking, but it smells like the inside of my grandpa’s pipe with every sip.

As for taste, it started off as a slightly sweet smoky black, like a keemun maybe, but as I drank the cup down the tobacco taste got stronger and stronger until I just couldn’t stomach it any more. I don’t think I’ll be having this again, but I don’t know. It draws you in. I know that the last sip got stuck in my throat, but I keep finding myself reaching for the cup.

Like the Sheriff’s Secret Police, there is no escape.

So I haven’t really been present on here in the last couple days. Maybe a bit, but no notes or anything.

I’m at my parents’ house and dogsitting right now (as I might have pointed out before), and the oldest, Tango, stepped funny on the ice/snow mess in the backyard and hurt her hip Sunday night. She was moving pretty stiff and can’t make it upstairs to bed, so I’ve been sleeping on the couch with her. She’s doing a bit better now (more independant and such), and I’ve kept my mom updated, but I think I might be the worst dogsitter ever. Blah.

At least the tea is tasty.

I’m starting to think I just like Adagio’s apple. It’s sweet and almost like a juicy baked apple, rather thn tart fresh apple. The coconut and vanilla make for a creamy up, and the Assam stays pretty muted, but offers something a little bit bolder than the standard Ceylon base.

I’m not really getting caramel like some other reviewers, but it’s good regardless.

Also if you haven’t seen this before, I feel like I should share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4jxU7hQlc8

I have the feeling that this tea will be similar to the Management, but I’m really hoping not.

Sidenote, I have my window open and someone nearby is frying fish, so now I’m dying for fish and chips. Dying.

Anyway! First sip: Yup, this is a tea for the wife, as I’m not too keen on it. It doesn’t make me want to run away screaming like Management did, but it’s still not great. The roasted mate is a saving grace for this one. You can really smell tobacco as it gets near your nose, and then you can taste it as well in the aftertaste. As an ex-smoker, I find it both delicious and revolting and I want a cigarette now. Badly.

So, uh…don’t try this if you’re trying to quit. Yeah, after a few more sips, this is all I can think about. It tastes like drinking a cup of tea right after smoking a cigarette. Or improperly stored tea from a smoker’s home. Which…if the Sheriff’s Secret Police kept tea in their headquarters, this is what I imagine it would taste like. So spot on tea, but it’s not for me.

This one took me on a taste journey. I kept taking sip after sip, the flavor strongly reminding me of something but I didn’t know what. It was driving me crazy, so I set it down and walked away.

The flavor reminded me of a specific mouthfeel, gritty but kind of cakey, but not really. It brought up the memory of some…woman in my life making some kind of bars. Not chocolate chip cookies, but something that did have chocolate in it, and chocolate I felt was unneeded.

I read the reviews and went back to the tea after it had cooled and kept sipping. Some kind of spice dessert bar…gah! What the hell is it?

Then I read a review mentioning someone putting coconut milk in it and it was like my head exploded.

Hello Dolly squares. This tea tastes like my mother-in-law’s Hello Dolly squares in a watered down form. I need to make this into a latte with coconut milk for my wife and see if she agrees.

It reminded me of Carlos and Cecil. Is Carlos into Cecil? It was months upon months of wondering and trying to figure it out when ALL OF A SUDDEN things changed and the internet exploded over it.

So while the tea itself doesn’t make me think of Carlos, the first time I had it certainly always will.