Adagio Custom Blends, Cara McGee

Next! This seems like it would be an easier cookie to replicate, especially since Adagio already makes a Chocolate Chip tea, which is included in this blend. I will say, I am not a fan of actual chocolate in tea. It melts and makes an oily slick on top of my tea, plus leaves my brew basket all gunky. Not good. Dry scent is mostly sweet dark chocolate.

The steeped tea actually smells strongly of almond extract, which is odd since it’s supposed to be chocolate chip. I can also smell chocolate and a touch of cinnamon. Hmm. The taste is actually mostly just generic black tea with a little bit of chocolate mixed in. If I really concentrate, I can maybe taste a bit of the almond? Disappoint. :P

I figured I should get these other three Christmas cookie teas over with, teehee. It’s been a very long time since I last had a coconut macaroon, but I remember them being tasty. And I don’t remember them being spiced, so I’m confused by the addition of cardamon to this tea… Oh well! I see mixed oolong and black tea leaves with quite a few stems and a couple shreds of coconut. Dry scent is strong on the cardamon…

Hmm… Once again, I don’t understand the cardamon in here. It’s quite strong in the taste as well, and overpowers the other lighter and more macaroon-like flavors. Underneath the spice, I can taste the chestnut, coconut, and almond flavors. Even without the cardamon, I don’t think this would be great. Just okay.

Next one up from “Christmas Cookies”! Peppermint bark isn’t technically a cookie, but it is delicious and Christmas-y so I’ll accept it. Unfortunately, this looks to be mostly green tea, though it’s technically a green/black blend. I can see the crushed peppermint leaves in here, as well as some crushed spices from the chai and a couple of cacao nibs. I think I saw one tiny piece of candy cane. Dry scent is peppermint with a sweet edge.

The steeped tea mostly smells of peppermint, with a little bit of green tea aroma. Hmm, this one is odd. The peppermint is actually milder than I expected it to be, and I can taste a little bit of the chai spices, though they meld well with the peppermint. I don’t taste a ton of green tea, which is nice. I can perhaps see a little bit where the white chocolate is coming from? But there’s certainly no milk or dark chocolate taste here, and overall it’s too mild to be peppermint bark. Not bad, though!

Next one up from my “Christmas Cookies” sampler! I actually like thumbprint cookies a lot, though I tend to go for apricot jam (my favorite) instead of the usual raspberry. This tea has a lot of dried apple pieces in it, as well as the generic tea leaves, hibiscus, and rose hips. Dry scent is, again, surprisingly weak. I can smell a bit of hibiscus and hazelnut, which makes for an odd combination.

The steeped cup also smells of hibiscus with a bit of hazelnut added in. Not excited… :P Nope nope nope. Actually, I think this would come pretty close to the idea of a thumbprint cookie, but the hibiscus just makes the “jam” part of it way too tart. If there wasn’t hibiscus, I think this would actually be fairly tasty! :P Stupid hibby!

I’m not sure what compelled me to order this “Christmas Cookies” fandom sampler from Adagio… I have yet to find a tea from them that I’ve liked enough to actually order, and most of them are extremely underwhelming to me. Oh well, I ordered these, so I might as well try them! This sounded the yummiest out of the bunch, I love a good ol’ sugar cookies, with or without frosting. This tea also has a touch of lemon, which I’ve done in sugar cookie frosting before and found it very tasty. The tea is a mixture of small, generic black leaves, a few pieces of lemon balm, and some sprinkles. Dry scent is quite weak, I can smell the sprinkles more than anything.

The steeped tea does smell rather close to a plain sugar cookie – it has a mild and almost bready dessert aroma. However, I don’t think it really tastes like a sugar cookie. The problem is the base – it’s too strong and too malty to be used in a sugar cookie tea, I would have chosen a white tea perhaps. I can taste the almond and vanilla flavors, but no lemon. Overall, it’s a resounding meh. It could possibly be more cookie-ish if sugar and milk were added.

I have tried this both as a cold brew ice tea and as a hot tea. Both ways were incredibly delicious and with a bit of sugar tasted exactly like those haribo cherry coke gummies.

Watson’s mustache creeped me out a little, as mustaches sometimes do. Luckily this tea is no reflection of strange facial hair and is actually quite yummy. It’s like a gingerbread chai with some hazelnut mingling in there. Some sips are more chai like and others are more gingerbread like. The hazelnut usually comes out towards the end of the sip. I get more gingerbread as it cools with clove on the end. I bet this would be good with some sugar, but right now I’m enjoying it without.

Mainly cinnamon. Kinda doughy too. Not really my kind of tea, to be honest. Too much cinnamon. :S
Thanks for the sample, Albertocanfly! Would write a better review, but not feeling so great atm. :(

Teeny Tiny TTB Round 2

And now for the other brother! (The real Hot One, lol) This tea has the same small, broken black leaves, but there are yellow flower petals and also pieces of cinnamon bark mixed in. Dry scent is sweet and dessert-y with cinnamon – like a snickerdoodle.

Mm, the steeped tea smells like a buttery pastry with cinnamon. It’s reminding me of a cinnamon roll, om nom nom. Mm, the flavor is quite nice too. The cinnamon is present but it’s not overwhelming, and the hazelnut flavor is so delicious and creamy and decadent. I can also taste some clove, but it doesn’t completely take over like it does in the Kili blend. I wish I could taste the orange or apple, but it’s still mighty tasty without those.

Teeny Tiny TTB Round 2

I’m actually quite pleased to see this (along with Fili) in the box, since there are a lot of fandom samplers on Adagio that I’m interested in, but not quite interested enough to buy. I do have to say, I find Fili to be far more attractive than Kili, and I don’t even normally go for blondes. So Fili is totally “The Hot One” imo. :P Anyway, this tea. The black leaves are in very small pieces, and there are tiny pieces of white stuff mixed in (I’m assuming ginger root). It smells chai-like.

I can definitely smell strong clove and ginger in the steeped tea. Yeah, this one is not for me. It’s mildly spiced, but in a way that’s almost savory because of the ginger. This is basically clove and ginger tea. :P Noop.

Not sure how old my sample is, but I really didn’t get a lot of vanilla or coconut from this tea…just a little bit of nondescript fruity flavor and a lot of bitter, astringent black base. I only steeped it for 3 minutes and I wasn’t expecting it to go bitter so fast! :( Oh, well…one more sip-down as I work my way through the pile of samples I’m trying to polish off this week!

Sipdown! 987. Thanks Sil!

My first impression of this tea was that it was simply a blend, without flavourings. Which somewhat suits Donna, although I feel like there should be a bit of spice along with it. Anyhow, in the aftertaste, I’m getting a hint of something… maybe orange, maybe caramel… no, maybe cinnamon? It’s pretty weak, so difficult to pinpoint. I’ll go with caramel-cinnamon. Hahaha – wow! I’m impressed with myself. I picked out all three flavours! :D Because based on a previous tea incorporating Irish Breakfast, I seem to associate a caramel flavour with it (I kind of want to try Adagio’s Irish Breakfast now…) Anyhow, I don’t know if this tea is weak due to age/storage or whether it’s typically like that, but it’s a good flavour combo, I just wish it was stronger. (Checking out others’ notes, it seems like it has probably lost some flavour, so I’ll refrain from a numerical rating).

Sipdown! 988. Another from Sil, of course!

I accidentally saw the “tea type” when bringing up the review screen, so I know that this is a chai blend, but thankfully I tried it prior, and had already established that to me, it tasted like a bit of a spicy tea (very mild though), with some orange essence, and possibly some sort of “herbal” ingredient (although I couldn’t narrow that down any further). Looks like I was more or less correct (aha, raspberry leaves – that might account for “herbal”), but I can’t say I taste the vanilla, nor am I overly fond of this tea. It tastes like a very weak chai… as in, if you added even a splash of milk, the chai-ness would disappear. I like my chais strong and flavourful, so this doesn’t work for me. I do agree that a chai is fitting to Amy’s personality, but this is too weak (likely diluted by the addition of two non-chai teas to the blend).

Sipdown! 989. Another Dr. Who tea from Sil, so thanks! Today is ‘companion’ day, as I have three of those to drink.

My trainer cancelled our session this morning, and as I was starting to feel a bit under the weather last night (topped off by a very bad case of the angries), I ended up sleeping away most of the day today. Oops. On the plus side, I think I feel better, but I also think there’s still a sickness lurking. Sigh. Anyhow, I figured that drinking tea can only be a good thing (though I may need to get into some non-caffeinated teas a bit more later tonight), and I figured a few sipdowns would make me happy.

So! Onto this tea. Delicious sweet, raisiny aroma – reminds me of when you make sticky buns with raisins, and the sticky-caramelly raisins on the edge get a bit burnt to the pan, and you eat them anyways even though there’s a bit more burniness than you’d like. Yep. That’s exactly how it smells (no burniness; that only comes in the flavour with the raisins, not the aroma). Flavourwise, it’s like the raisins that do not get burnt, but just browned and caramelly and very YUM. I didn’t mention it, but I’m playing “guess the flavours!” again, if that wasn’t obvious. I find it very entertaining to do this with flavoured teas when I have no idea what the ingredients are. Anyhow. Looking at the ingredients (sesame, rooibos caramel), it looks like I was about right. I believe I’ve had Adagio’s Sesame before, and it was not good at all, but in a mix, I can see how it would provide those burny notes – I assume the assam is responsible for raisin, and the rooibos caramel, duh, the caramel. I actually forgot that there was rooibos in here, so it’s worth noting that it doesn’t really have much impact aside from the caramel, which is perfect IMO.

Overall, a pretty decent tea, but probably not quite decadent enough for me to want to grab any. I’d happily drink it again if the opportunity arose, though.

The fourth and final Dr. Who-themed tea for tonight (my bladder just can’t take any more). The aroma is fairly chocolatey, which is quite present in the flavour as well. I can also taste the distinct flavour of rooibos, though it’s not the objectionable medicinal flavour, just that characteristic woody/herbal-ness, which is bearable. This tea actually tastes much like a chocolate rooibos I’ve had previously… I’m thinking the one from the Amoda box, but I could be wrong (I could probably confirm that if I was less lazy, because I know I still have that one around). It has a bit more body to it though (probably the black). What’s odd is that the chocolate comes through as almost bitter – I’m probably influenced by noticing the documented flavours before pulling up the review screen, but it’s certainly not the milk chocolate flavour that most teas seem to aim for. It’s not unpleasant, though.

Upon looking up the tea ingredients – I think almond might account for that flavour that’s coming off as bitterness to me, and there’s surprisingly not much chocolate in here given the number of chocolate-related ingredients. Ah well. Not overly enamoured by this blend, but it’s not bad. I’m pretty sure I’d enjoy it more sans rooibos. Thanks Sil!

Sipdown!

Decent flavour (Caramelly/vanilla), but somewhat masked by bitterness and astringency – not sure if I overleafed or what (I’m pretty sure it got no more than 2.5 minutes of steeping, and was in a Finum basket, so no bits should have escaped). Anyhow, farewell little tea. Maybe you would have been better if I had drank you sooner, but it looks like bitterness/astringency are common occurrences with this blend anyhow.

Another delicious yum-smelling tea, a bit like caramel and vanilla. That’s kind of what I’m tasting too – kind of a caramel vanilla black. I was expecting a bit of fruitiness from the… fruit chunks (apple?) but am not really detecting anything. I see that this is supposed to be coconut-vanilla-apple (which sounds fabulous!), so I’m wondering if spending time in a baggie zapped a bit of the flavour. Possible, though it’s still good. Nine has won out for me, when comparing these three blends though (which is funny, since I even steeped it incorrectly!) Thanks for sharing another one Sil!

Another thanks to Sil for a sample! And again, I get to play the “what’s in this tea?” guessing game! This one is a lot less aromatic than “Nine”, but there’s still a little something peeking out that’s not quite straight tea. I’m tempted to say caramel, or perhaps even chestnut, again, but that’s not too likely. Other than that, though, it just tastes like black tea. A little mouth-drying (so a bit astringent), but not too bad, and that’s probably a result of again, the extra 45 seconds it got due to inattention (I try to be very strict with blacks).

Seeing that this is supposed to be a chocolate banana tea…. comes as a surprise. Maybe that caramelly flavour is actually chocolate. Or banana. It’s impossible to tell, really, because it doesn’t taste overly like either. I see that Sil also found it relatively flavourless, so maybe this was just a poorly flavoured or old batch. Or, maybe Adagio isn’t great at banana or chocolate flavouring. Either way, I’d happily try this out again, since as a plain black tea it’s certainly not objectionable, but not by means of purchasing it myself (whereas some of the other blends…. yes.)

Sipdown! 982. Thank you Sil! (I think there were a few teas accidentally missed in the count previously. And I need to add a Verdant and Butiki order. Plus the incoming 52teas’ Christmas sets. Crap crap crap.)

I took the time to look up all the teas I was steeping to check if any of them needed different parameters…. and then proceeded to steep the only one with green, with boiling water. Sigh. It doesn’t seem to be ruined though, but there is some bitterness and astringency, which I would definitely chalk up to user error. Anyhow! This is one of a few deliciously aromatic mugs I brewed up tonight, from the Doctor Who custom blends by Cara McGee. I genuinely have no idea what any of them are, so I get to play a little guessing game!! This one smells caramelly, with a hint of cinnamon or spice, but JUST a hint. The flavour is more or less the same, being thick and somewhat sweet/caramelly, fairly malty, a little bit spicy, and kind of astringent, which definitely impacts my tasting of the base teas. I assume, though, it’s Adagio’s standard black (and some sort of rolled green; I’d maybe guess gunpowder but I’m not detecting smoke). Despite the overly hot water, and 45 seconds longer infusion time than I intended, this is pretty good. I’d guess it’s a caramel spice tea (emphasis on caramel, not spice), but it appears to be chestnut and irish breakfast (with gunpowder?) Quite an interesting combination, but it does actually work. The chestnut must account for the sweetness, and the spice is perhaps an artefact of sample contamination or my imagination (I do have a Laoshan Chai a couple teas down the line).

Anyhow, I’m pretty impressed with this blend, and it makes me quite curious to try Adagio’s chestnut tea, if they have one available, because that caramelliness is gooooood. Thanks again Sil!

Going through my cupboard, I’m finding so any teas I never reviewed. Well, I can’t remember much about this tea other than I liked it. So a new cup is steeping as I type this.

So… this is good. It’s not really sweet, but instead dark and savory (hello, Chestnut!). A perfect tea for fall when the weather is turning cold and the leaves start falling. Yummy.

Sipdown (172)

Thank you Cavocorax! I used the rest of this leaf to make an eggnog latte. My thinking was pumpkin spice lattes are super popular so there must be something to the combination of pumpkin and creaminess (not that I have ever actually had a PSL). However, this has taken a weird turn as the pumpkin, though present, has taken a backseat to the green base. Consequently, the latte is tasting a bit like a veggie stew mixed with eggnog. Certainly not what I hoped for but it was still fun to try.

Thank you Cavocorax for sending me more of this tea. I must say, as much as I am enjoying this tea, I do miss the sweet potato that used to be in this blend. The use of pumpkin spice instead is making for a tea that is not as rich in taste. It is sill nice though.

This is definitely my favorite of the bunch. It is like a big cup of pumpkin pie and it is delicious! Warm and comforting and oh-so-tasty. Thank you so much for sharing, Roswell Strange. I would certainly consider getting this one again to experiment with or simply to enjoy another hot cup. 170.