Adagio Custom Blends, Cara McGee

this one was from missB by way of jump62359 from thelooks of the bag. I think i made a mistake in trying this one next to a tea that is way more OOMPH-Y than this one. while this one isn’t bad… let me tell you, the other tea i’m having kicks this one to the curb and then takes it’s lunch money. ;)

sipdown! needed something a little spicy earlier today. Still not a fan of that adagio taste, but it’s not seriously terrible or anything.

thank you terri for this one! I’m not sure if it was the steeping or something i did but this tastes mostly just like a slightly spicy vanilla black. However, i am a-ok with that because it’s pretty tasty! it still has that weird black taste that all adagio blends seem to have that i dislike but it’s not objectionable in this blend because of the vanilla :) Thanks terri!

Thank you so much Shmiracles for sharing such a coveted tea treasure; the only tea that you deemed worthy of a rating. It must have been hard to part with! haha.

So I have to start with a bit of backstory: About a week ago, my father was grilling bbq chicken and he used some fancy smoke-flavor thing that my brother had given him as a gift some time ago. I took one bite of this chicken and complained immediately that it tasted like a chimney and that I was pretty sure I was exhaling chimney smoke from my nose for half an hour after eating it. But my father loves smokey flavors, so all the better for him. What he doesn’t like are most of the teas I bring for him to sample. “tastes like seaweed!” … “that tastes like seaweed too” … “too weak” … “too boring” … “SEAWEED!!!”

I had never tried Lapsang Souchong nor any blends made with it, but I read plenty about it’s smokiness and told my father that I will have to get him some. It’s not a tea I ever would have considered getting for myself as I knew it wouldn’t suit me.

So fortunate it was that I happened to get a Lapsang blend in a swap. I opened the bag, smelled it and thought “yep, this has Papa written all over it!” I took it over to my parents house this evening and told my father that I found the tea for him. And guess what? No surprise, he LOVED it. He even asked if there was more before he finished the cup that I gave him. I also poured small sample cups for my mother, little sister, and myself (because I can’t officially say that I don’t like it unless I try it). It was one awful smelly cup of blech to me and my mother wasn’t too tickled either. As for my little sister, her story is special too. She’s been sampling several teas that I bring over there and not once ever has she not liked one. Every tea is equally good in her book and I was determined to find something she didn’t like. Finally did. She didn’t even finish her sample, but gave it to Papa.

Dude. This will always and forever be one of my favourite Adagio blends.
It’s a perfect Bilbo! It as a nice warm touch of home that tastes like just baked cinnamon bread.
OH DARN IT. I just looked at Adagio because I was pretty sure that the Sweet Potato Pie was discontinued and yep, now it’s Pumpkin Spice.
Dang. Now I don’t know if it’d be worth to purchase a full 3oz of this? I loooved the Sweet Potato Pie in this tea. It gives that nice unique rustic taste that I don’t think Pumpkin Spice will be able to pull off? Ahh well, I think I’m just loving the original tea and I want the original Bilbo to last as long as it can.

Just a touch of milk and agave makes a perfect cuppa. Sad that the original ingredients aren’t available anymore.

IT’S 6:45 IN THE MORNING. I ACTUALLY HAVE TIME TO DRINK TEA BEFORE CLASS.
Drinking a breakfast tea over BREAKFAST.
Oh this is so exciting.

Irish Breakfast at 7pm probably isn’t the smartest thing, buuut IT’S GOOD.
It smells SO good and tastes even better!
And I need to stay awake because of midterms and essays so I’ll be fine.
Bilbo Brew is definitely one of my favourites!

People make fun of how I make tea because I like my tea very… bland? Well, I steeped this for about 2 minutes and it was the perfect amount of time for me!
The smell of this tea right out of the tin, oh it was amazing. It smells like the weeks leading up to Christmas. Not exactly Christmas though, that’s the Watson blend for you. It had such a hearty aroma out of the tin and steeping it, I felt like the Irish breakfast took over and lost a bit of the cinnamon. But adding a dash of sugar helped bring out the sweet potato and cinnamon!
**With more experimentation, I’ve decided that Bilbo Brew with just a small dash of milk and suger is amazinggg. But with milk, I had to steep it a little bit longer. Like… almost 7 minutes. I’m weird with how I like my tea okay

so, i’ll have a real cup of this soon, cuz i kinda messed up the brewing. i just know that it steeped for way too long. and i didn’t even dare taste it in that state.
i poured my tea from my tumbler to let it start to cool and i added more hot water to help with the oversteep. and then i added a little agave to the first cup. and this is pretty nice!
i actually like the taste of the tea more than the smell. i don’t really like chai teas, but i do like ginger teas. lots. which is probably why i requested this tea in my swap with Shadowfall. and i’m glad!
apple and ginger, apple and ginger, apple and ginger.
i can taste the chai-ness. the cardamom and orange peel. but it’s part of a blend and sufficiently muted for my tastes.

well, i also requested this tea cuz i’m SHERLOCK obsessed. (half way through the Two Two One Bravo Baker fic now.)
i own a lot of apple teas actually, and this tea makes me think i should try maybe mixing them with a little of the Super Ginger tea. Experiment! blending teas experiments! — more tasty than keeping severed heads in the fridge.

nothing to do with anything.
Ask is by far one of my favorite Smiths songs. it should be played 5 times at every wedding so i can dance to it over and over.
Ask by The Smiths
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEpAtTe-oJY

And that’s the last of this tea!
A wee two grams left ahha
Lovely, but it’s time for my Hobbit teas to go. I think they’re the oldest teas I have…

Decided to try this one iced!
Ahh I think I’m starting to love iced teas now. I used to only drink hot tea, but this one is pretty good iced.
I taste no lemon whatsoever, but the cream is good. Ori was one of the teas from the Hobbit sampler packs that sounded so good on the website, but it is sort of a let down. It didn’t taste as good as I expected it to be, but it’s just a nice, generic creamy black tea.

Just 2g of this left so into the sipdown pile it goes!

Ori today because midterm is in an hour and I need some waking up to do.
I think I’ve figured this tea out! I just need a whole lotta milk because it’s a bit too nutty for me? It smells good, but the cream gets lost and I like that smell :)

I was SO excited when my tea from Adagio finally arrived!
First of all, I’d like to say that Adagio does care about their customers. They were aware that my package was going to be delayed because one of the teas I ordered wasn’t available in the warehouse closest to my city. I set it so that Adagio would send me direct messages through twitter to track my package and when it finally arrived in California, I was ecstatic! I opened the package and found a note from them saying apologies for the delay. I just really love Adagio :)

Anyways, the tea! Ori was the one I was most excited for when I looked at the teas that came in the sample set. The sample tins were packaged very nicely. Each tea in a tin with a sticker of the art. Ori looked amazing and SMELLED amazing. The cream aroma is pretty strong when you open the tin, but the flavour gets lost after brewing. And I’m not getting much Lemon…
Okay this tea, IT’S GOOD, TRUST ME. Just some of the flavours get lost with the Irish Breakfast and Chestnut.

Mmmmmm Watsooonnn.
It smells like christmas in a bag :)
Definitely tastes like Watson because of his jumpers. Cinnamonny and wonderful.

Dude. Yesterday was just a really had day for tea.
I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY.
I was craving chai. I really wanted chai. CHAI IS GOOD.
But yesterday’s tea just tastes like butt and I didn’t do anything different.
Uggghhh okay. I’ll like.. give chai a break for now.

BECAUSE I LOVE MORIARTEA.
I don’t own him, but Monica does and we have tea parties every week aaand MORIARTEA TIME. I’M EXCITE. BEST TEA EVER OKAY.

MORIARTEA.
I’VE NEVER HAD CHAI BUT OHHHHH I WANTED MORE.
I’m scared of buying blends from Adagio because I feel like I haven’t drank enough tea to know what I want, but luckily my friend had some of this and it’s sooooo good. JUST DRINK IT.
And it’s like.. Moriarty. That’s how he would definitely taste like if he was liquified in tea form.

This was my go-to travel tea for a while, as it held up really well under odd water temperatures. Sometimes the hot water spigot is 160, sometimes it’s 190, sometimes it’s a mystery. Anyhow, the addition of pumpkin spice and caramel to Adagio’s regular masala chai tempered the extremely aggressive cloves in that tea. The caramel adds a hint of sweetness, resulting in a tea that makes me think of a slightly spicy pumpkin pie.

so you KNOW i like lapsang blends. i just really like how there is this super distinct tea that you think is so strong and kinda overbearing that it’ll only ever be a lapsang. and then you blend it with other teas and it goes all kinds of other new places!
i like to be surprised by lapsangs.

smaug is still my number one lapsang blend i guess. and also the only tea i’ve ever rated on steepster hah. but this one is special as well.

when i smell it dry, unfortunately it KINDA smells like cough syrup. definitely the berry blastiness is to blame. this tea would probably benefit from trying different kinds of steeping. i used a slightly cooler temperature water and let it steep for only about 2ish min. i don’t remember the last cup being so rose hips and hibiscusy, but that is also the nature of blends sometimes. one scoop can turn out noticeably different than another.
(come to think of it, i might have found a good lapsang iced option. weird i know but i’ll try anything once.)

i might go so far as to make my own blend including the lapsang souchong & almond tea but removing the berry blast and replacing it with orange rinds? marmalade? I’m Brillaint! anyone know how to get in contact with Cara McGee asap??!?!? it’s urgent!

2013/04/30
if you love Sherlock the way i do, you will understand this.

my sister pointed out that this song is a song for Watson.
and now when i listen to it i get chills.
i just had to put this note somewhere. i just had to.

Metric – Blindness (Amtrac Dubstep Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPB2uZZV3HU

Send us a blindfold, send us a blade / Tell the survivors help is on the way
I was a blind fool, never complained / All the survivors singing in the rain
I was the one with the world at my feet / Got us a battle, leave it up to me

Find us a trap door, find us a plane / Tell the survivors help is on the way
I was a blind fool, never complained / All the survivors singing in the rain
I was the one with the world at my feet / Got us a battle, leave it up to me

What it is and where it stops nobody knows / You gave me a life I never chose
I wanna leave but the world won’t let me go

2013/01/28
poor watson. i keep drinking his tea but never wanna actually review it.
but listen, the number of times i’ve had a friend over for tea tasting, and they declare this is one of the favorites teas they’ve tasted so far, always surprises me. this tea is good but it obviously doesn’t speak to me they way it does to them.

this blend of irish breakfast, cinnamon, earl grey green is obviously perfect for them!
i’ll use my sister as an example. she loves rose teas and earl greys and lavender teas and chamomile teas. just last week she was like “you never buy earl greys” and ….pause pause…. she’s right. and even when i buy anything with roses in it, it’s usually only because i know she will love it and drink it!! besides, who better to drink your tea than your friends.

Watson is the perfect support team. a dedicated and loyal friend. the most thoughtful and reliable of my company love this tea. and i like to think that says something.

and i’ve got their back too. xo

oh thorin, all of your bravado, greed, and loud warrior spirit still can’t mask your warm and oversized heart. no matter how hard you try.

i bought this because i love thorin and the hobbit and also i’m on a puerh kick. so i felt like they made this tea just for me. or that basically i love thorin because he is like puerh?

also if you were paying attention you will know that i already love Richard Armitage. (http://steepster.com/shmiracles/posts/149839) and if you don’t love him after watching North and South then i can’t help you. oh swoon.

so analysis shows that in fandom blends
armitage is to puerh (guy, thorin),
as cumberbatch is to lapsang (sherlock, smaug),
as freeman is to irish breakfast (bilbo, watson)

this tea may be a blend of 3 teas but really it is a puerh with other hints thrown in. the puerh is the star of this tea show. it is soft and earthy and full of body. wet, earthy body. (hubba hubba)
the puerh dante tea is described on the site as “a clean, damp forest aroma, dried mushrooms, leather and earth. Some sweetness of figs or dates and a slight creamy flavor. Mellow and grounding.”
…. thank you universe, for always putting Armitage in leather.

grounding. such a beautiful and accurate word. for both thorin and this tea.

assam melody adds some pungence and maltiness and astringency to the cup. (if you wanna go there you can think “dwarf sweat”) agitation and short tempers. an edginess that is palpable.

the ginger and cinnamon and orange peel from the gingerbread tea is faint. it’s mostly overpowered by it’s company. but it’s absence would be immediately missed. it ads a touch of added warmth and sensitivity.
and like thorin’s bright blue eyes, when the orange peel pops out i pay attention.

and then lastly, the cocoa nibs add a small layer of darkness. deep and brooding. so subtle, but it is there. like the weight of thorin’s responsibility, and the difficult memories he still carries, that never seem to give him true rest. (until perhaps sometimes when bilbo the zen master is there.)

i forget that this tea is actually two herbals mixed with an irish breakfast. for some reason i always assume it’s 3 black teas and so i don’t drink it as often. but when i do decide to open the tin i’m always thrilled with the sweet vibrant scent. note to self: drink this more.

the irish breakfast is a blend of a hearty black tea from Ceylon that has citrusy notes and a malty Assam. it’s a nice nice base and compliments the other teas in a manly sort of what you see is what you get kind of way. i can see watson slumped in a chair now.

the berry blues tea is made of blueberries and apple pieces and a tiny bit of hibiscus. but since this hibiscus is only a small part of one third of this overall blend it’s barely there. it’s mostly just appley if you ask me. down with hibiscus! sherlock agrees with me, i asked.

the rooibos vanilla chai is a strong vanilla component with ginger, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon pieces, and orange peels. i do so like orange peels in my tea blends. and this is where the spice comes in. i kinda wish there was a tiny bit more spice. like a small smooth bite of ginger. perhaps if i steep it longer at a lower temperature……. !!!oh damn i just remembered that i should steep the adagio blends at a lower temp for 2 min. see THIS is why i need a tea journal of some sort. dangit. (i’d make another cup right now but i only brought one scoop with me to work whomp whomp)

i think this tea has slightly more heart than mind going on. and that’s more than fine with me. it’s what keeps us sane.

sherlock + watson = BFFs4Evah

well i think i steeped this too long. i’ll need to shorten it below 4 min and see what happens.
it could just be a matter of perception and inflated expectations.
this tea is rated the highest of the fandom adagio blends, and i seriously love a few of the other blends i’ve ordered, so i figured this one must be delicious. i’m such a practical type of person that i forget how much others might be influenced by cross promotion. so maybe after this cup my expectations will be tempered.

HOBBITY GOODNESS!
the scent of this tea really let loose as i began to steep it. first it had a sweet tone that hadn’t been there before. then a cinnamon kick started to rise from the cup as the sweet tones slightly dissipated.
i only steeped this for 2.5 min, but i did steep it with water that was probably definitely too hot (because i am at work and distracted and only think of these details after the fact)
now don’t get me wrong, it is still DEFINITELY an irish breakfast tea first and foremost. i guess i look at several of the adagio fandom teas as just really good staple teas to have in my collection. nothing too fancy. but with a little something warm and special added. it’s that little flourish that brings each it’s own personality.
a tea for the hobbiTEAest of hobbits.