Adagio Teas

Day 11 of 2022 Calendar

Very enjoyable. The spices mixed with the green tea give a very pleasant flavor

Advent Calendar from Kaylee: Day 10

ALMOST caught up on my swap advent! And the Yawn one! The other two… not so much.

It’s been such a pleasure getting into tea these last few years and discovering new varieties. I’m still tickled by genmaicha whenever I encounter it; I find the little popped rice bits so whimsical! This is a perfectly serviceable blend, with light roasty-toasty notes and a pleasantly smooth green base. It smells so lovely and nutty, too. There’s not a ton of depth to it, but it’s definitely an enjoyable easy sipper.

Adventaggedon Day Eleven – 3/5

This is another tea that, when I saw it this morning, I didn’t think I would enjoy it. I wanted to set it up for success though, so I had it when a little bit of a breakfast composed of small nibbley things – orange slices, cheese cubes, and dried cranberries. The cheese was maybe a little weird with the orange, but the rest worked really well.

I think in my head I was anticipating something more intense, like DT’s Orange Spice or Bigelow’s Constant Comment. This is still similar – it is an orange spice blend after all – but it’s more of a light body and flavour with some more complexity to the spice balance than just an assault of cinnamon and clove. In fact, I’m pretty sure there’s not clove in this at all – ginger instead, with hints of cardamom. It’s still not entirely my vibe but it was much better than expected.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmCyvUVuvAB/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNgAZj9hQiQ

Day 10 of 2022 Advent Calendar
Subtle and light. Not my particular type of tea but enjoyable

Day 9 of 2022 Advent Calendar

Good, subtle mocha. Honestly thought it would taste stronger than it did

This blend was nice but I preferred the orange spiced green from DT from the fall subscription.

I spat this one out, I’m sorry it was gross… it was bitter, rancid tasting, and tasted a bit like the way nail polish remover smells

I liked the smell of this blend but that’s about it. I did not enjoy the flavor at all. I handed the mug to my mom and she drank it instead.

I have found that the tangerine flavor is just a little too much all by itself. Instead I take about a quarter of one of these and toss it into my pot along with a plain black tea. The flavor still dominates, but it tones down the sweetness a lot and I find I enjoy it more.

I have been eyeing this and other similar teas for a few years now. I adore orange and similar citrus fruits (not including bergamot), but I never seem to be making orders with companies that have them.

I had also tried Adagio many years ago very early in my journey and found everything was just way too bitter and harsh for my tastes. And then I went and developed a taste for bitter. So one night of absolute madness I decided to try Adagio again. And this was one of them.

For today I have put half of one of these little tangerines, including peel, in my little pot and steeped in boiling water for about 1-2 minutes. I am honestly surprised on how much I enjoy this. The tangerine flavor is pronounced of the peel, which I adore (though I am les fond of tangerine than I am orange). The tangerine peel gives everything a nice sweetness without things being too sweet, which I am enjoying.

Using my steeping parameters, the flavor is every bit as pronounced on the second steep as it was on the first. I plan to drink on this all day and I am curious how long the flavor will last until it fades away.

-update-

I got 5 solid steeps from this over the course of the day. The last two were 2-3 minutes long. The flavor was still staying pretty steady and I likely could have kept going

On the down side, the sweetness of this got to me after a while and by the time I was on my way home, I was actually feeling a little queasy. Not something I can drink much of, or often really, but its certainly something I will enjoy once in a while.

Advent Tea: Day 7 from Michelle
I could definitely taste the bourbon in this one. This one actually reminded me of another bourbon tea. The one from Harney & Sons. There are only a few bourbon teas I’ve tried though. That’s probably why my brain is comparing them. That one has a unique woody flavor that isn’t present in this one. I like this one and would drink it again. I like lapsang teas a lot. Thank You Michelle

It’s just okay. Not a fan of banana or honeybush so not surprised its not one i love.

Day 8 of 2022 advent calendar

Remember when I said that I wasn’t a fan of honeybush? Yeah… I think I’ve changed my mind on this one. I really liked the banana muffin flavor this gave on a cold, icky, and foggy day. It’s definitely making finals a lot easier to manage as I stay grounded with coy teas and tisanes.

Day 8 of Advent Calendar – Adagio

I am so behind on my Adagio Advent by a few days, but this one is actually for the 8th day. Have some behind to do.

This one isn’t bad at all. It’s sweet, nutty, strong, warming. I accidentally got some floating leaves in there thanks to lazily putting it together. I found a mini baby white chip which was strangely adorable.

One of my preferred so far from the calendar. Have some chai to catch up on from their previous days as well, will try to catch up on those later today.

I did pour out half the water from the large cup so mine may be stronger. The sample didn’t contain much tea in this particular bag really, and didn’t want it weakened because of the water ratio. Didn’t need any additives or sugar.

I got this for myself because I knew my advent calendar of teas was liable to have a fair number of herbals in it, and in the morning, herbal absolutely doesn’t cut it.

It’s a perfectly nice tea. It doesn’t jump up and grab me the way, say, a Golden Yunnan or other single-source really nice tea does, but it also doesn’t make me sad the way many other blends do. I’m happy to drink the rest of my sample of it over the next month or two, and I’ll buy more if my preferred breakfast Assams are out of stock. It will do very handily.

But it also isn’t Harding Spring. :-)

Adventaggedon Day Seven – 3/5

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this tea. I made it iced halfway through the day. It was our office cookie exchange so I had actually planned to make it as an iced latte for a bit of a “london fog” vibe to go with all the shortbread but I liked it so much plain that I decided not to add any milk.

Y’all know I’m not a huge EG person and I’m picky about the ratio of bergamot in my teas but I thought this was so smooth and fresh tasting and the additional coconut note was everything I could have wanted out of what is essentially a coconut Earl Grey.

Bonus points to Adagio for date placement, too! This tea only comes out for sale on full moons, and today is a full moon – so the intentional timing is not unnoticed.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl4gObROvMk/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppoWCIuof1Y

Adagio Advent day 7: This blend was okay. Very bitter and perfumey with a touch of an alcoholic taste. I did pick up a marshmallow note but I wasn’t a fan.

Decent black tea with a hint of sweetness

Day 6 of 2022 Advent Calendar

Adventaggedon Day Six – 3/5

This is probably one of the teas in the advent that I was most excited to try, so I was pretty thrilled to see it pop up so early on. I actually almost ordered a bag of it back when I was placing my advent order in the first place, but I figured I’d wait and try it…

I was just saying to Marika a few days ago that I don’t usually love Adagio’s chocolate flavouring because it leans a little bit too “chocolate liqueur” in taste to me most times and I definitely smelled that coming off the dry leaf. However, I think this is one of those rare cases where the profile that they were aiming for benefits from that quality.

Firstly, let me just say that Black Forest Cake is a deceptively tricky profile to do well. On paper you would think that it’s just chocolate, cherry, and maybe cream – but in practive it’s so much more complicated than that. You need a specific kind of cherry note that’s like a cross between a maraschino, with a more candied quality, and a black cherry. Syrupy, dark and just a bit juicy. You can’t use only milk chocolate because that will just read as a chocolate covered cherry but it can’t be as bitter as straight dark chocolate either, and if you’re not careful with the cream it will over power and dilute the richness of the cake.

So, with all that considered… I think this is a damn good attempt. Probably one of the better Black Forest blends I’ve tried. If I had to pin point a criticism it’s definitely the cherry though. Kudos for not using hibiscus as a crutch and ending up with a weird tart mess because of it, but it’s still a little medicinal. I didn’t mind it (though it got more pronounced as it cooled), but my coworker who sits at the desk next to me couldn’t get past the medicinal quality in the smell/taste. Maybe a bit of sweetener would help.

I’d still drink this again though. In general, I think I’m more forgiving when it comes to medicinal cherry flavours than most people though.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl16y9KOY7N/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-zqAcS2Uc8

Backlogging – Adagio Advent Calendar Day 4

This advent calendar is not really for me so far. Bizarre non-christmas flavors and some of my most despised. Lots of Rooibios and such.

I don’t like Cherry teas, just like I didn’t like the prior day’s bananas teas. I will say that this one wasn’t a BAD Cherry – it is NOT Cough Syrup Cherry or overwhelming cherry. As a personal preference not something I enjoy much, but wasn’t awful and I could drink it. The oolong base was standard

Backlogging for Day 3 of Adagio Advent

Another I wont’ rate because I absolutely despise Banana in tea, so I won’t be able to be unbiased here from personal preference.

I will say, though, that the banana and nut come through strong and clear, non-artificial, and if this is your kind of flavor, you should likely enjoy this one.

No, I really didn’t love this blend. It smelled good and sounded like something I’d be into but steeped it was super bitter and had a cherry + rubbing alcohol scent. It tasted like hot, cheap, cherry alcohol and I didn’t taste the chocolate.

Adagio Advent 5, a subtle chocolate nutty candy blend. I got a hint of cocoa but mostly the rooibos. It was fine, not one I’m going to repurchase.