Adagio Custom Blends, Cara McGee

Sipdown (123)!

Made in a timolino and, shockingly, with milk – as a last ditch attempt to salvage this train wreck of a tea. The results were little surprising…

- Despite my “sour milk” impression last cup milk WAS the savior of this tea
- Mostly creamy milk with very light gingerbread notes
- All the horrible stuff was masked!
- For once, this was a drinkable cup

But that said, this obviously wont be missed at all because it was such a disgusting struggle to even get to this point where I had a drinkable cup (and just ‘cause it was drinkable doesn’t mean it was mind blowing – far from it). And the way to do that? Mask the taste of the actual tea…

Sorry Thorin, you might be fantastic (and totes homo for one Burglar who shall remain unnnamed Bilbo ) but your tea is NOT.

Ok, this one must have gotten blasted with the Febreze during Tre’s cleaning rampage because surely it can’t be this disgusting all on its own.

Firstly; I can see how the Chai comes into play here – but it’s not even the spices in this that are grossing me out. It just tastes oily and dirty. Not “earthy” – but dirty. Like someone dropped food on the kitchen floor and then waited like ten minutes before picking it up – only to discover it’s now coated in lint/dust and little bits and chunks of spoiled food. Like, one of the things that came to mind to describe this was “sour milk” – but I didn’t even add a touch of milk to this nor are there really any dairyesque things in this blend to begin with.

I seriously don’t remember it being this bad cold brewed. I mean, I don’t remember loving it – but I’m pretty sure it was drinkable…

EDIT: I just went back and read my cold brew tasting note; apparently it was worse than I remember it being. I used the word “slimey” to describe it, and that seems like an apt description here as well. So maybe it’s not Febreze – and I’m just not a fan of this one in the slightest.

So I bought Cara’s Tea for Travelers sampler!

It’s my first Adagio sampler, although I’ve tried all of the Harry Potter and Firefly blends in their respective samplers, and sampled a few odd ones from other samplers. I have to say, the tins are precious and adorable and once they’re empty I look forward to finding stuff to keep in them. Although, I have to say they were pretty packed – almost to a point where I’m unhappy because when I opened a few of them it was impossible to not spill the leaf despite how careful I was trying to be.

I’ve decided I want to try at least one cold brew and straight cup for all the blends, and then go from there and fiddle around with things – and I started with the “Majestic King” (aka Thorin) as a cold brew. I ended up straining this one, and then drinking it on my day out with my Aunt and Grandma yesterday when they came to visit. We stopped at my store because my Grandma wanted to see where I work, and then we went back to my Aunt’s house in the city where we just watched daytime talk shows like Dr. Phil and Ellen and had a nice sit down meal. So it was a relaxed, casual day.

Taste wise; I don’t know how I feel about this. I mean to be fair, there are a lot of ingredients in it that I’m not huge on such as the ginger but even still there was something sorta weird and off about it. There was this very oily/slimey taste present throughout the whole thermos and immediately my mind went to the Pu’Erh in the blend because of the whole “fish” comparison, but it could possibly have bee from something else. I did taste the ginger fairly clearly, and recognized Adagio’s black base – other things like the cinnamon or orange were much, much more subtle and hard to pick out.

For now I wont rate until I’ve tried this hot; partly because I know I have some bias towards the ingredients, and partly because of the weird slimeyness that I’m not one hundred percent sure was from the tea; it’s possible something else like my teaware was causing it (though I am pretty confidant everything was properly washed).

As for character accuracy; I can definitely see the intentions behind what went into the blend and for the most part I think they were well thought out; I don’t know how well I think the oranges mesh with everything else though and I’d have liked to see something sweeter in here (vanilla, perhaps) to sort of emphasize how Thorin’s attitude develops in regard to other characters, like Bilbo. Oh well.

coconut and apple rounded out by sweet vanilla. It gets bitter/astringent very quickly but when I remember to lower temp(very low) all the flavors are balanced and the tea becomes malty and not bitter.

I made fish fingers and custard for dinner last night, I don’t recommend that combo.

A robust tea that makes one think of leather and smoke. But don’t let it frighten you off; it’s got plenty of heart. This tea is full of gruff flavor between the pu erh dante and gunpowder. The hazelnut is faint among the presence of the other two teas, but the blend is comforting in a way that reminds you of curling up in your father’s armchair, wrapped in a well worn flannel shirt.

Everyone says that this tastes like blueberries, I’d like to respectfully disagree! This is definately blackberries! Or at least it strongly reminds me of a blackberry candle I once had. I used to burn that candle along with a vanilla candle all the time, and THIS is what that combination yielded! Well, plus a helping of sweet earl grey, but that doesn’t detract from that wonderful scent memory at all!

The cup is definitely sweet. I can understand the confusion with black/blue berries. I just associate blackberry scent with that candle, and blueberries with baked blueberries. Rarely do you get faced with a ‘fresh’ black/blue berry smell. And let’s face it, when you bake blackberries, the results are far from pretty, I assure you.

I was a little alarmed when I was watching Cara’s video and how she brews this one, but yes, you DEFINITELY do not need to follow her way of brewing tea for a flavorful cup!

Sometimes I feel a little silly buying the full sized pouch of blends before I try them, but I don’t regret this one! Well, I don’t know how on earth I’m going to finish off this 4oz baggie, but it’ll probably disappear faster than I know it! I’m definitely getting the tin next time! I have a few other Dr. Who blends to try yet. I just need someone to come do a DW marathon with me, just cause.

Initially, I found this tea slightly bland. (I like my chai to burn the back of my throat as I drink it). However, as I got better at brewing it, and worked my way towards the bottom of the bag, the spice started to become more powerful. This is an excellent masala chai blend. Also, I adore the label art!

Sipdown (130)!

This last cup was especially roasty and black, still not much of any fruit to be found. Oh well; I got to try it and have fun with the fandom aspect. Time to move on.

Somewhat related; I’ve been planning an Adagio order. I thinking I want to get the Hobbit sampler; I haven’t tried any of the teas in it – and I’ve had everything from the Firefly and Harry Potter samplers, and a few from the Sherlock, Dr. Who, and WTNV ones which are the only others I’d be interested in otherwise. Plus those tins would be SUPER cute. Anyone tried any of the teas in it? I know Bilbo Brew The Burglar was popular here on Steepster when it still had Sweet Potato in it, but has anyone tried the new formulation?

Also; this is a thing (http://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/fandom_set.html?groupId=2171) until the end of the day. I wont be getting it because I’m not ready to place my order – but damn if those tins aren’t stunning. Seriously; amazing artwork. Someone should take advantage of that. I know there are lots of Hannibal fans here on Steepster!

:)

This has been on my Steepster wishlist for probably half a year, so GIANT thank you to VariaTEA and Cavocorax for helping me to finally taste it.

Honestly, I don’t even know why I so desperately wanted to try this Marvel hero blend over any of the others – while I like all of the ingredients in it, none are die hard favourites of mine, and I feel the same way about Thor too actually. I like him, I like the comics, and I like the movies but he’s not my favourite and I’m not about to freak out over him.

Anyway, I prepared this first cup in my timolino and I have to say that I found it a little underwhelming. Perhaps my coveting it for so long put it on a pedestal it could not live up to. I mean, it wasn’t bad it just wasn’t what I wanted it to be either. The black tea outweighed the mate greatly and it tasted thin/watery with only the most subtle generic fruitiness. The closest I could get to telling you what fruit would be to maybe wager a guess and say “Stonefruits?”. It’s pretty average.

So yeah, that’s how I feel about this one. But hey, now I know – right?

This tea is an enigma. Without milk or sugar, it is sharply citrusy and faintly bittersweet. With milk and a bit of sugar it is rich and sweet, like lemon meringue pie. The perfect tea to drink while relaxing after a day of space archaeology, or while adding your latest adventure to your diary.

Another Doctor Who fandom tea. I love River Song! Unfortunately I think this tea has lost its flavor. It’s from last Christmas, so I probably waited too long. I saw that I gave it a 95 last time but I don’t think I’ll rate it this time. I’m not tasting the bergamot or lemon at all. :(

I have some other DW teas from last Christmas. I hope they all haven’t gone flat. (?)

I’m enjoying my DW teas today As i eagerly await the new Who. This tea is mostly Earl Grey which is fine but I’m not sensing much of the lovely River Song’s personality. I taste some creaminess but mostly an EG. This is lacking her spicy flare and naughtiness. Dare I put some peppercorns in the basket next time?

I think this tea has died. I see that I gave it an 85 but it has dropped probably to about 75. I’m sure it’s my fault by I’m not tasting the chestnut anymore so it’s just not much of anything special. :(

Note to self – Don’t let your teas get old. :(

New Doctor Who tonight!!! Celebrating by drinking DW teas today. I feel guilty not drinking tea from my TTB but, come on…. Doctor Who!

I think I am over leafing this tea a little bit. In looking at the directions on this page I see that they list 11 oz. which is pretty odd. It’s still good and chestnut-y but somewhat astringent. No one else mentioned astringency, so I think it’s me.

LOL i tried this tea just for the name – lol the art is funny too! From the Teeny Tiny TTB 2

Taste? Well, a whole lotta stuff going on. Chai, chocolate and pretty gingery. Kind of bitter from all the spice. There’s strawberry and rose apparently too. Either way, this is a heavy spiced chai with an assortment of other stuff in it. Not bad.

I was looking through my cupboard trying to find something I could finish, found this and thought it would be perfect. My husband loves chai’s and thought it could be an amusing tea moment before he goes out of town for a few days. I told him the name and that it was a chai. With a smirk he asked “What’s in it.” Grinning I said “Just a fun blend of tea.” As we sipped it, we knew it would not become a favorite but it was ok. Each sip was half funny chai half some kind of black tea. Then he noticed something fuzzy on his tongue and was trying to figure out what it was, I was busted. I had to tell him what I was trying to avoid telling him, it had Adagio’s chocolate chai which we had tried a few months ago and had a similar experience. He was done after that butt we had a few laughs.
Thank you jump62359 for giving me a chance to try this fun tea! I also checked out the reviews on Agagio. There was only one not so great review out of ten- A brother gifted it to his sister and she was not impressed but it made me laugh because it’s something I could see my brothers doing.

missb sent this one my way and i think i’m just all tired of adagio these days after my whirlwind tour of a number of their blends. Not that i’ve ever been a SUPER FAN! of adagio – middle of the road tea for a pain in the ass to canada, but there have been a few that i’ve enjoyed. this one falls on the side of enjoyed, rather than being a blechy blend. could i do with a little less cloves? certainly, but outside of that, it’s a decent enough blend that was fun to drink!

So good

I wanted a nice, sweet bedtime tea…. Without caffeine, of course. This is cinnamon apple loveliness. Honey and milk makes it the best dessert ever. Apple pie a la mode without the calories :-). I will definitely keep this in stock.

Nice

I can handle cinnamon and Irish breakfast together, but adding a green earl grey to the mixture is pushing things for me. In practice, it isn’t the terrible tea I imagined, however. The cinnamon is what I notice first, followed by the malt with the bergamot thing, and then by the cinnamon again.

A grassy note that mixes into the citrus becomes more prevalent as the cup cools. The cinnamon/citrus has become sweeter with the passing time as well.. I wonder if this would work iced.

The tangy citrus spice duet is simultaneously both the lethargic old leather couch and the cozy robustness of a midwinter celebration with old friends. Green/black blends are not my favourite but I love this vibe. Definitely a Watson tea.