Adagio Custom Blends, Cara McGee

My best friend/roommate here has this tea, and is gracious enough to let me have some whenever I feel like it (lucky, lucky me!!). This is lovely, sweeter tea that I generally have for dessert. Very relaxing blend (the Adagio Cream is one of my go-to teas), the cream balances out the chai nicely. I usually have with one sugar and two milk.

sipdown! (234) OH my dear shmiracles I’m so sorry that i can’t get on board with this tea. i do love lapsang…but opening this i was blasted by an all too familiar smell from my childhood – vick’s vaporub. I thought for sure i was off my rocker and imagining things. So i brewed it up. While there is a smokey undertone to the scent upon brewing it, it still smells like vick’s. My first hesitant sip… yup! this tastes like i imagine liquid vick’s vapo rub would taste like. I let it cool a bit to see if that would help to let the smokiness come to the forefront…it did but now all i can think of is vick’s. bah! Oh well, at least it’s another one i can cross off my list. lol

This is quite a delicious cuppa! This isn’t one that is normally my favorite, because as much as I like almond oolong, the assam meleody seems to cut it a bit. However, today the cherry seems more pronounced. Maybe it’s just because all tea tastes great to me, as I can actually taste it again after recovering from my cold.

Thanks Shmiracles! When I opened this one the aroma kind of reminded me of bacon. It has an interesting flavor. I actually kind of like it. It’s fruity but has nice smokey notes. I’m not really digging the hibiscus in this. I feel like it overpowers the berry. It’s good but I don’t think I’d order it. Thanks again! :)

I was afraid the black tea would over power the blueberry taste. But much like John and Sherlock’s relationship, there’s just a enough room for the berry taste to really shine. It’s a great berry tea without being too overpowering, and just enough vanilla taste. Perfectly John and Sherlock.
Steep Time: 3 min 30 sec is actually best, my iPad just had trouble with the drag thing

In the bag, you smell a lot of almond with a slight hint of cinnamon. In the cup, the vanilla comes through a little more with cinnamon coming to back it up. Despite a seemingly good team, it just didn’t create any sparks with me even with some sugar and milk.

This blend is absolutely amazing. I’m not usually a fan of lemon but this tea won me over completely. The smell out of the bag is like lemon pound cake. The lemon scent may seem like it would be overpowering in the taste but fear not! It’s just right next to the cream and Earl Grey. This is a blend that should not be missed out on. I take mine with cream and sugar.

Sipdown #58

I decided to give this tea another chance before passing the rest of it along to a friend. This time I used only 1 tsp and steeped it for 2 minutes. I enjoyed it sooooo much better! I added a splash of skim milk but no sweetener, and it is delicious! The hazelnut is much lighter and more authentic tasting this go-around. Now I understand what everyone has been raving about. Upping the rating from 44 to 76. Thanks again for the sample, Shmiracles!!

The dry leaf aroma is bergamot and hazelnut, which is kind of a weird combination to my nose. It’s definitely very unique and unlike any other tea I’ve smelled. This is a tea that requires milk. I added sweetener too, which may have been premature.

The dominant flavor is definitely hazelnut, followed by bergamot and something floral, and then finally a little caramel. I don’t particularly like this Adagio base. It’s fairly bitter even with milk, and normally I don’t find it so. Hmm, I want to like this. I really do. But it’s just…

I think it’s the hazelnut that I’m really not a fan of here. It’s very heavy and artificial. No, this is just not my cup of tea. Oh well. Thanks to Shmiracles for the sample!

This tea smells amazing in the bag. Most of the reviews of Adagio say that this tastes like a blueberry muffin. I can’t seem to figure out how to make it taste that way. I’ve made it both with and without milk and sugar. I’ve played around with temperature and steeping time. It is a very good Earl Grey tea. But all I can taste is the Earl Grey. I bought the collector’s tin so I can display the artwork on my shelf. When it is empty I will probably just refill it with a plain Early Grey unless I can figure out the secret to unlocking this tea.

I sum this one up best as a burley man tea. It’s definitely reminiscent of Thorin, but not the tea for me. Thanks anyway Shmiracles!

drank this at Star Trek Into Darkness. also drank Reichenbach Recovery.
Benedict owned the movie.
and i’m pretty sure i love the tea.

This was definitely one of my FAVOURITE Hobbit blends!
I loved it hot and steeped for as long as I can.
But I decided to throw this into the fridge as a cold brew and… it just didn’t work.

Ahh well. If I get money, I’d totally buy this again and now I remember that this is only good hot!

I had this whole extravagant plan of making mashed potatoes and chicken roulade with provolone and spinach and a whole lot of other things I could find in the kitchen, but my roommate got mad because she knew I had my bigger midterm tomorrow morning. I’ve been reduced to sitting in my usual corner of the kitchen table drinking tea and having ramen for dinner tonight because I just really need to study for this midterm.

The Elrond blend is one of my favourites! This was probably the one out of all the Hobbit Blends that I was really nervous for. Rooibos teas in general (to me) smell like medicine and I always am hesitant to try it. Elrond does have that medicine-y aroma dry, but when you drink it it tastes like yummy sweet candy. It tastes like the tea was grown in a meadow full of sunshine and rainbows and prancing unicorns pooping lollipops. Yeah I just really like this tea okay.

Such a shame that all the Hobbit blends got taken down though. I’m the only one who has reviewed this tea so I have no idea if anyone has tried it yet! If you follow me and would like to try this tea (or any other of the Hobbit blends), shoot me a message and let’s hope I’ve got plenty to go around :)
((except for Bilbo. Bilbo is mine and I only have enough for two cups oops. But I’m all for letting everyone try all my other Hobbit teas! Even if it’s not on my swap list!))

Remember when I was all HE SMELLS LIKE MEDICINE!!
But now I’m all yuuuuuummm.
Elrond has grown on me definitely :)

Okay, the last time I drank this, I was expecting for the worst.
Now that I know how it actually tastes like and I KNOW it doesn’t taste nasty, I enjoyed myself! Really different compared to the other teas I usually drink. Give me a choice and rooibos would probably be the last one I’d go for, but I was in a very fruity mood today so I figured Elrond would satisfy that craving :)

The last of The Hobbit blends that I have to try!
Okay. This one… I’m not a fan od Rooibos so that’s why it took me forever to try it?
Right out of the tin, it smells like medicine. Just a reeeeally strong super fruity super sweet scent and.. I’m not a fan.
Brewing.. and it still smells like medicine.
It’s a really red colour and it’s only been steeping for about a minute but the smell is still really strong. With the tea leaves out, it still smells like medicine. If you can’t tell, I’m not really enjoying this blend?
Drinking the tea and… ooh it tastes like… I’VE HAD THIS FLAVOUR BEFORE but I can’t remember what it tastes like. It’s like a sweet, candy-ish type of thing?
It tastes like a watered down kool-air or Hi-C… like those sugary fruit juices from waaaay long ago. But of course, this tastes much better.
Not the biggest fan of this blend, but definitely tastes much better than what I expected.
I don’t drink Rooibos. I don’t even know what the correct steep time or temperature is sooooo yeah.

Had a bit of this guy Wednesday morning right before class :)
Nice roasty coffee-like tea on the way to Disney! Yes, because I’m doing the Disney College Program in Anaheim, we don’t have like actual classrooms sooooo we had class in one of the rooms at the Disneyland Resort hehe :) It was great! But the room may change every week sooo.. let’s hope it’s in the same place tomorrow haha

A decent tea :)
Tastes like… watered down coffee? Ahh well, I needed all the caffeine I can get since I’ll be crazy busy all day long.
In the past 18 hours, I’ve bade 12 dozen cookies and packed for the weekend because my sister’s graduating tomorrow! Cousins are getting confirmed tonight and I’m flying back home tomorrow early early in the morning just so I can make it in time. Hoping I can convince my parents to see if they’d let me go into the city to get more tea..

BUT YEAH this tea is good because I need the mate haha

Busy busy BUSY day yesterday!
Just because this is the only blend that I have that mate in it, I always think that it has the most caffeine out of all the blends that I have (since coffee does things to me..)
But yes. BOFUR! He is good and he has a very mocha-y/chocolate-y taste and he is good :)
I remember the first time I drank him, I ALWAYS experiment with my teas. See if it’s good with sugar and milk and stuff and I still laugh at myself. Don’t put milk in herbal teas. Even though I’ve done that once or twice before, I know I’ll still do it becuaseee… I’m curious.

Mmmm the mocha in this blend! You can definitely smell the Mocha Nut Mate.
I’m still experimenting with this tea blend. My first cup was very bitter and the next one was flavourless.

Okay so the last time I had this tea was way long ago when I was sorta new to a whole lot of different types of tea. I’ve been drinking Jasmine for so long I like… I never really drank blacks and whites and I didn’t know how those types of teas were supposed to taste like. So I’ve decided to revisit this one because I haven’t had it in so long! My first impression of it wasn’t good and I think it may have been a bit skewed because I just didn’t know how oolong or pu-erh was supposed to taste like.
From the tin, it smells a bit dusty, but still a bit fruity. I’m guessing from the marigold? There were a whole lot of marigold flowers in this tin.
Steeping, the oolong comes out. I don’t smell as much almond though! I remember the almond was very prominent when I tried this earlier.
Sipping this tea, it’s actually quite enjoyable! I like the mix of the pu-erh and the oolong, the lightness of the white monkey, though I don’t taste much marigold.

I. Love. TEA.
So so much!
I’ve been drinking tea for so long now, but in the beginning, I was only set on green tea; Jasmine green to be more specific. I tried other teas and it definitely took me a while to like all these black teas from chai to earl grey to lapsang and pu-erh to oolongs. White teas were easy for me to love because they’re light like the greens, but rooibos? I wasn’t a fan of fruity teas for a while.
But now that I’m expanding my tea tastebuds and learning what teas I like and how to prepare them, I actually am enjoying my time sipping all these teas. So yeah. I know it’s a tad cheesy, but I really am proud of myself for actually sticking with teas and actually getting to learn a whole lot about it :) Granted, there are a whole lot of teas that I haven’t tried yet, but soon. I’ll broaden my tastebuds even more :))

Gandalf was really… interesting.
I wasn’t a fan of the smell since it smelled soooo strongly of Almond Extract and I’m not the biggest fan of almond extract.
Steeping, it lost a bit of the almond, and smokiness took over.
Not the best blend I’ve ever had, but it DOES seem like a very Gandalf blend.