Adagio Custom Blends, Cara McGee

14/05/2013
it’s like when you love a song so much that you wanna play it for the world to hear!
i wanna play this tea for the world to hear.

today i’m buying more.

09/01/2013
seriously!
this tea is ONE of a KIND!
Lapsang, Candy Cane Tea, and Ginger Tea?!?! all in one cup.
i still laugh when i read the ingredients, but it is really an amazing cup. not upsetting in the least. but it is quite feisty. and precarious. the lapsang is big on the nose, but really it’s the ginger that carries the whole cup. a little cinnamon pinch on the cheek & marigold flowers to pat you on the head.
smaug is a complex and quite lovable dragon.

19/01/2013
smaug you are one crazy tea dragon and we will be friends forevah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

25/01/2013
obviously i am the only one drinking this tea.

i never give teas actual ratings because it’s seems arbitrary to me. i mean it uses so many people and so many diverse opinions and tastes and they all end up in the same 15 point range that i don’t see how it’s very helpful. but whatevs. i’m not complaining, just explaining why i don’t really rate stuff.

BUT I’M GONNA GIVE THIS ONE 100 BOOM cuz everyone needs to try it at least once.

from the website:
1. lapsang souchong – famously smoky aroma and flavor. clean and slightly cool smokiness in the aroma, like menthol. Sweet, refreshing smoky flavor, crisp and edgy.

2. candy cane – Premium black tea from Sri Lanka flavored with minty candy canes.

3. ginger – Fresh, warming heat of ginger with the rich tang of Ceylon black tea.

GROWL!

The way this tea smells in the bag is woody, with a lingering of sweetness. There is also a smokiness that reminds me of a fireplace or the way the air smells after firing a gun. The taste is incredibly unique. The first flavor I noticed was a slightly sour cherry taste that blended smoothly with the smoky, woody flavors I expected.

I think it perfectly captures this character… Maybe I should rewatch ‘A Scandal in Belgravia’

Sipdown!

Okay so this is pretty good too. I noticed these Adagio teas have a certain… je ne sais quoi… smoothness or mellowness. I like it. I still like the TARDIS blend better. (I still dream of that blackberry mouthfeel.)

This is nice and creamy and enjoyable. My only complaint is that I would expect more attitude/zing from River.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – December Tea #10 – a favorite tea

additional notes: It was time to say goodbye to this old favorite that I would most definitely stock up on again — a favorite from Adagio…. which now that I said “favorite” twice, I guess I will switch the top of this note to count for my final December prompt – a favorite tea! Which also means ALL ten of the December prompts were actual sipdowns. Awesome. I think I may have finished my Sherlock teas. Time for a rewatch?
2022 sipdowns: 140

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge January 2nd: National Science Fiction Day Tea #2

additional notes: Another of my favorite geeky things: SHERLOCK. The flavors are fading now, but I’d love to restock this favorite. It’s almost gone. It’s such a comforting blend. I also want to re-watch the last season of Sherlock again. Is it done though? Is it really done?

Additional notes: I usually reach for this one when I need a triple punch of super comfort: Earl Grey, caramel and hazelnut not to mention the nice brisk comforting black tea. Poor Watson looks like he needs it on the packaging. The flavor is fading a bit now, but this is one I would definitely purchase with an Adagio order (Jane Austen Mafia is the only other definite I can think of — but any order from Adagio would probably be way down the line… probably.)

That drawing of Watson just breaks my heart. Poor Watson.

/////START BBC’S SHERLOCK SPOILERS///////
If Watson only knew that somehow Sherlock was around to stop the beheading of Irene Adler, if he only knew about that debacle at all, he might have an idea that Sherlock can somehow fake his own death. And does anyone else think that if Sherlock can fake his own death by jumping off a building then somehow Moriarty faked his own death with that super creepy grin on his face, supposedly after death?
////////END SHERLOCK SPOILERS////////

thank you Starfevre for sending me a sample of this one! I love tea and I love fandom so I love Adagio’s fandom blends. I haven’t yet had an Adagio tea that wasn’t delicious. I haven’t had many, but I’ve had a few. Somehow I thought they’d put more emphasis on letting people create their own blends and less emphasis on the tea quality itself. But the flavor is always there! This one definitely seems like it should be comforting with earl grey, hazelnut and caramel. Those seem like the most comforting options they might have at Adagio. I’d say the most prominent flavor is the hazelnut. It’s definitely hazelnut! It seems like that wouldn’t work with earl grey, but somehow it does. I didn’t really taste much caramel though. This was definitely delicious. This would be a good one for Watson… or one to have while I’m thinking of how long it will be for season three of Sherlock to finally be on TV!

Best brewed in a tea ball. The chai was so fine that it clogged the glass infuser in my tea pot.

Fruity, light, and herbal is how I would describe this one. It is perfect for calm days like today. I am avoiding my coursework this weekend and spending all my time relaxing and being with my husband. It has been very nice. We’ve even shared quite a few pots of tea (I normally just brew for myself in my Teavana contraption). I love sharing tea so it has been really fun!
I have to say that out of the fandom blends that I’ve tried I really favor this one and Tardis. I have been rationing my last bit of both so I can pull them out on special occasions.

This is easily one of my favorite fandom blends. I think that the cherry and chamomile go perfectly with one another. The only thing I would caution is that I had my stored in my zip bag and when I moved it to a tin, the bottom of the bag was comprised very heavily of chamomile dusting. It reminds me of the dregs of a cereal box. So this makes the cups very gunky, and I hate that. So if you purchase this, try to mix it up so you don’t just have a few cups of chamomile at the end.
This is one of only 2 cherry teas I have ever really enjoyed.

I’ve noticed that this tea is leaving my cupboard at an alarming rate! I’ve had this one for about a week if I’m remembering correctly and it is already about halfway gone. I can’t quite pin what I like about it so much, but it really helps that it seems to be lower caffeine and I’ve been having lots of nighttime cuppas. The sweet, fruity notes are really fun and I’m a chamomile lover so the ingredients are just about perfect. One of the best blends on Adagio!

I’ve almost been in a tea mood recently. All I drink is this and Amandine Rose! I’m sad that I didn’t purchase more of the Amandine Rose now that I found that I love it so much…
This tea is going to be gone pretty quick if I keep this up! I’ve had at least 5 16oz cups of this the past two days. I don’t know why I like this one so much as it has pretty regular flavors. There is herbal tones, chamomile, cherry, just a hint of white tea, and a surprising amount of apple. The apple itself is a lot more noticeable than the cherry and it pairs really well with the chamomile. I just figured out what it reminds me of! I had a Christmas (winter?) apple wassil or cider tea from Twinnings that was awful. I ended up giving it away, but this is just like that if it was spruced up and the craft store smell somehow got taken out. I wanted to like that Twinnings tea and that may be part of my love for this one. It has all the apple and herb notes without smelling perfume like. I may have to order a larger tin of this at some later time.

So some of these blends are a mystery when it comes to steeping times/temps. They just don’t tell you what you should be using and often combine white, black, and herbals all in one tea. So for this first steep I tried just under boiling water for 5 min. since my bag has tons of chamomile in it. The smell when opening the bag is really cherry, but much better cherry than in the Stiles blend (which is pretty meh to me). Steeped the liquor is light pinkish brown and smells really herbal. There are tons of herbal, cherry, and almost apple notes in this cuppa. It is really very sweet, which is something unexpected. I think that this tea is perfect for the character! I may tweak my steep times/temps to get a cup that is a bit lighter than this, but overall I’m pretty pleased with this one.

Best tea I’ve had in a while! The taste reminds me of pancakes with butter and maple syrup for some reason. It’s sweet and nutty and earthy. I enjoyed it plain, but even more with sugar and milk.

Yum. You can smell all the flavors in the dry tea. When I steeped it, the Earl Grey won out, though there’s some berry in the background. Perhaps I steeped it for too long or with too hot water, or maybe my palate isn’t nuanced enough. Still, it’s tasty, and even more so with some sugar and milk.

Surprisingly light and sweet.

Sipdown!!! Woooo! I had 6 oz of this and now it’s gone and that’s a relief. I have an awesome TARDIS keepsake tin and I’ve cleared my oldest tea off the list and I’m just happy. 6 oz is A LOT of one tea, especially an Adagio tea.

It’s nice today. Blueberry vanilla goodness. I guess I’ll get more. Eventually. In a year or more? :P

Ok, so everyone has been posting this one lately and it reminded me I was due for a cup. I think I still have about 2 oz of this left in my pretty, keep me forever TARDIS tin! But I bought this in April, so I had better get sipping!

It was a great cup, as always. 2 min is enough to bring out the flavours so they can dance in my mouth and take me to different places through time and space… Now if only I could land in August 2014 to see the new Doctor Who Season. Or, Christmas next year for more Sherlock! :O

(I guess to be specific, they were talking about THIS Tardis tea: http://steepster.com/teas/custom-adagio-teas/42029-tardis but I don’t have it and never have. So, it’s time for this one! Some day I will switch from Cara McG teas over to Aun Juli Riddle. I’ve heard good things and for some fandoms I like the art far more!)

Forget trying new teas, and forget “reward” teas. This is my comforting make-it-all-better tea. :)

And I feel better already.

Ozli – I have TONS if you want some. :P

This is perfect, and it’s even better because I’m drinking it in my Tardis tea pot. :)

The bad news is that it got cold before I could finish the whole pot. :(

I drank 6 oz of this and enjoyed it, then drank the last of another tea, and didn’t enjoy this as much when I came back to it. :P Maybe I left a few leaves in there, slowly making this blend bitter…

Yep! This one again! I’m not sick of it yet. :D

ETA: Apparently this was my 600th tasting note. What a waste?

Backlog: I’ve had this every morning ever since my tin came in last week. I didn’t add it each time because that’d be boring, but I should do it once in a while so that the # of tasting notes help reflect how much I like drinking it.