Adagio Teas

I’ve been on hiatus for quite a while…again. And the holiday season is upon us, so things are about to get even busier. However, I have been sitting on quite a few new teas to try, so here’s hoping I can get some reviews posted.

This one immediately hit me with the scent of chocolate and hazelnut from the moment I opened the bag. The taste was a delightful combination of both – just the right amount without being overpowering or feeling like I’m drinking an actual mocha. Overall, this was an enjoyable blend.

Sipdown 70 – 2024

Much like most of the other unblended Adagio teas I’ve tried, this is just boring. Maybe slightly floral, but overall a touch muddled and blah tasting.

Single-serving portion from a tea friend.

This is fine, as I would expect. I like citrus, so the orange and lemon is nice enough. Definitely an essential oil sort of flavor, as there’s no tartness to this. The base is a generic Chinese sencha, with mostly hay and dry grass notes.

Drinkable, but not something I would order. I’m definitely a bit of a green tea snob these days ha ha.

Sipdown! (1 | 144)

So this was a random sample that I picked up at some point, maybe when I ordered Nightmare Before Christmas teas for fall? Speaking of which, because this has lapsang and hazelnut, it actually does remind me a bit of the This Is Halloween blend.

It’s nicely balanced, the smoke isn’t overwhelming and neither is the somewhat creamy hazelnut flavor. However, I wish I tasted more of the other things. I get cinnamon and maybe a hint of clove, but definitely not anise, and the orange is extremely subtle – mostly I get a hint of zest in the finish. And because of that, I prefer This Is Halloween. That one has apple, which I think helps bridge the gap and tie everything together. If this had a stronger orange flavor, I think I would like it at a lot. But as-is, it feels like it’s missing something to me.

I understand that there’s a massive cult following with this tea due to its appearance every Leap Year. I’ve been sitting on my sample for a long time from the second to last order received from Adagio (I had a few ounces ordered amongst the lost/last order, and Adagio never made it right…I’ve since parted ways after having lost $100 of tea + awards.) Maybe it’s the sample or me, but the tea is okay. It has all the components of a good breakfast tea, but without the 3oz, I’ll never know if it was the uneven portion from the sample or the tea itself.

Sip Down/Backlog

I thought that this was going to be much stronger than the mug offered. The dry material was quite spice heavy; unfortunately, the flavor fell short. I left my tea bag in the cup the second time around and it still didn’t give out much flavor…Light spices and no hint of the honeybush.

Loose black tea. Kind of taste like their Keemun Concerto and Yunnan Sourcing’s Premium Grade AA Jin Jun Mei, not surprising for a Fujian black tea. Malty sweetness but one noted. No bitterness, tartness, or astringency.

I got this from the portions sampler and I feel at this price point you might want to look at other brands first.

sold for $14/ 2oz

https://www.adagio.com/black/golden_monkey.html

I love a green oolong, but this is just not good. Smells like raw pumpkin. Tastes like stale old seaweed. Very dusty/old tasting.

Slightly floral. Slight muscatel flavor. A bit muddy and an unidentifiable mix of flavors. A touch astringent.

Loose black tea. Dry leaves have a minty smell, the tea turned out pretty floral even though it’s not as sweet as I wish. I wouldn’t say it taste malty. A little astringent after a while, but definitely not bad at all.

Currently it is out of stock and mine came from the portions sampler. I don’t know how much the price is for this.

https://www.adagio.com/black/assam_melody.html

Loose black tea. This tea reminds me of Yunnan Sourcing’s Jinjunmei sampler somehow. Dry leaves smell like spicy chocolate, the tea came out malty when I was expecting a wine like profile. This taste similar to YS’s Premium Grade AA Jin Jun Mei but a tad less malty. The wet leaves have a similar burnt smell too but not as potent.

I don’t hate this tea, but it’s weird how much this tastes like a souchong.

sold for $10/ 2oz

https://www.adagio.com/black/keemun_concerto.html

Loose oolong tea. Dry leaves smelled like dried carrots, the brewed tea smells like a standard bai hao oolong. First sip did not have muscat flavor, I left the grandpa style brew on the table to vacum the house and had another sip afterwards, the tea then tasted like a bai hao. The tea tastes like a very standard bai hao with a tiny bit of astringency.

Very odd that this didn’t immediately taste like a bai hao, never happened to other bai haos I own. It did deliver on flavors though.

sold for $14/1.5 oz

https://www.adagio.com/oolong/formosa_fancy.html

Loose black tea. Dry leaves contains visible gold hair, smell of chili chocolate. The taste….it’s like a muted puer tea. A bit of cocoa, light astringency, a bit of wood rose afterwards, it doesn’t have a lot of other flavors and it’s lacking in sweetness. Leaves are pretty broken. I’ve had tea bags that tasted better than this.

It’s not expensive so I’m not extremely upset, I bought the Black teas of China sample pack but this can be bought separately.

sold for $9/2oz

https://www.adagio.com/black/yunnan_jig.html

Sipdown 63 – 2024

Meh. This was fine. Inoffensive, but forgettable.

Sipdown 60- – 2024

Chocolate covered raisin. Really easy to drink.

Sipdown 59 – 2024

Another Adagio sample sip down. A pretty decent jasmine pearl! Good jasmine flavor, well-balanced.

This was much better than the other Adagio oolong I just tried. The peach flavoring helps cover the tea itself, but this was decent overall. Probably would’ve made a better iced tea, but I didn’t like it enough to repurchase and try.

I’ve never really been impressed with Adagio’s offerings, but they lured me back in with a 75cent sample offer. Sadly this isn’t good. The charcoal flavor is overwhelming and I’m not getting much flavor otherwise. I ended up dumping my cup.

August Sipdown Prompt – Strange Music Day

The music and the tea came from someone else!

This was a sample packet in the box from Nicole – many thanks! But there were TWO packets of this so I was able to make enough to have with Ashman for breakfast.
I decided strange music could be music you haven’t heard before or music that is strange. I didn’t want the algorithm to choose music for me and give me the same ol’ same ol’, so I assigned my daughter and her friend from Morocco the task of choosing a song for me. One if the comments called this “the Despacito of the Middle East”, and apparently it is an older song, perhaps from the late 1990’s?

https://youtu.be/J9PQ1dEJi0Y?si=YGnUCuFaalfXGETC

It is a very cool morning for August – only 59F – and we are celebrating this very unusual streak of cool morning weather by dining outside every time we can. We had bagels with cream cheese and cinnamon sugar so I thought this would be a good pairing.

This is a super typical Christmas tea along the lines of Constant Comment but it is milder. I am not a huge fan of clove but don’t mind it as long as it is not too prominent, and this one is in the right range for me. Clove lovers would want more.

Otherwise it is a typical black tea with cinnamon, orange, and clove that so many companies put out as their Christmas tea. It’s good for when you are in the mood for that, but this one is a bit mediocre. It doesn’t have any great attraction that would make me seek it over another brand.

Edited to add: Sent a message asking “what made you choose this particular song?” and the response was “because it is a song white people like.” Absolutely rolling in the floor laughing!

Another sample from Nicole’s big gift boxes – many thanks!

I made this to go with lunch, two steeps combined.

This is really heavy on the hazelnut and light on the chocolate. Ashman doesn’t like Harney’s chocolate flavoring, so of the two he would prefer this one. I didn’t hate it and I didn’t mind it, but it wasn’t special enough to me to purchase it.

Aroma of the dry leaf was hazelnut, same for the steeped tea. Amp up the chocolate, especially with a heavy hand dealing out cacao nibs, and you might have me on board for this one over Florence.

A nice enough tea, but no fireworks for me.

Another tea from Nicole – many thanks!

I made this to drink with lunch, and with the meal I thought it was very tasty. There is a lot of lemon aroma and taste and it went nicely with my turkey and dressing and spiced apples. (Stouffer’s, having frozen dinner today) As I drank it, it seems so mild that I thought I would probably never be tempted to make it with milk and sugar in a traditional chai style but just drink it plain like this. It was very nice.

After the meal, reading and chilling out, the ginger is much more noticeable. I am not a fan of much ginger. As a tea with food, this was quite good. As a stand alone, I would prefer something with less ginger but most people would probably like this just as it is.

This is another Adagio sample from the giant stash sent to me by Nicole – many thanks!

I had this was lunch, and honestly my mind was elsewhere so I wish I had another sample to try again. I DO know that I was worried about the fact that green tea is mentioned first and then black tea, because sometimes those two don’t play nicely in the steeping temps.

It was surprisingly smooth and flavorful, with no bitterness from the green tea and the black tea was not washed out from having been steeped cooler than usual. The chocolate flavor was somewhat mild, the rose was not cloying or overpowering, and the fruit flavors were nicely balanced.

It was a much better cuppa than I anticipated and I wouldn’t mind trying it again when I can really pay attention to it. It is a low caffeine option, which I sometimes need.