Adagio Teas

Did a 3 minute steep time and added just a little agave. Got a very nice cup. Agave helped to bring out the sweetness of the raspberry and cut down on the cardboard decaf taste that can sometimes come through. Very nice nighttime treat.

Black tea from the Yunnan region of China. Yunnan tea is easily identified by its luscious soft leaves, and a unique peppery taste. Our ‘Yunnan Gold’ as the name implies is an exceptional quality tea with beautiful gold-colored leaves and an abundance of rich peppery flavor. Allowed to take only one tea to a desert island, ‘Yunnan Gold’ would be our clear choice.

This tea smells genuine. It tastes genuine. Even the aftertaste is pure. Very light in color and ever so delicate. My cubicle smells like I have a little greenhouse of Jasmine growing and blooming. I think I must have accomplished the perfect steep because everything seems just so. I feel all girly drinking this cup…and I’m not a big girly girl. (except that I’m not really into bugs touching me…or being anywhere around me.)

This tea will have to be an “in a certain mood” tea. I couldn’t drink it everday.

Oh yeah, for all you visual folks out there, I added the pic of the tea leaves to the site. Thank you…thank you!

Well, the peer pressure worked. I bought a bag.

I’m not a fan of chamomile, but this blend is pretty good. I love me some rooibos and I think this is the 1st “anything” that I like it blended with. I still haven’t found a flavored rooibos that I like. :(

I drank two cups hot and it kind of felt medicinal in a way. This isn’t a bad thing, but I might reserve this tea for sore throat, feeling funky days. I’ll try it iced next, since that seems to be getting rave reviews.

Perk: after drinking, my breath is feeling quite minty clean.

Another one bites the dust…all gone…so sad…

YUM…a little juicy for a pouchong today…a little cakey, even…I wish I had a Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin to go with it…that would be a great pair, I think…nomnomnom

Holy COW! What a busy day!!!! This tea is helping me thru it tho…thank GOD.

It’s a very light mossy smell this time. Infusion 3. 10 mins. The leaves are finally fully expanded. The taste is wonderful. Sweet. Could prob do more infusions but I think I am going to move on after this. YUM.

2nd Infusion. 6 mins. Smells of Sweet grass…maybe even a sweet basil-like smell…which is a tad different that the first infusions smell. Interesting. OoooO! Much sweeter taste than the first infusion. Nice!

These leaves are certainly NOT dead so I will be resteeping/multi-infusions. Just LOVE these lil guys…the leaves so fun and vibrant green! The way they dance in the water…brilliant!

These leaves are very different than other Oolongs I have seen. While Steeping the wet leaves are a very vibrant green. I think these leaves are already screaming for a 2nd steep…but time will tell. Not much for aroma, really, it’s close to that of toast. The coloring of the tea-water is more of what I would think of as a green tea type color. As I sip the scent changes to a more masculine and outdoorsy type smell. For the taste it’s a drier taste for starters and gently transforms into something slightly sweeter towards the end of the sip. The more I drink the more I seem to enjoy it.

First, I must say I usually don’t go for Chamomile. Altho I think it’s BRILLIANT in the Adagio’s Foxtrot Blend. For the heck of it I thought I would add this Cha Cha to my last order…you know…broaden my horizons – or something like that. Anyhow…The dry leaf mixture’s smell doesn’t do anything for me. It smells just like my cat’s Catnip pouches. Ek! But…I will try NOT to prejudge. It’s near the end of the 7 minute steep right now.

It tastes different than I thought it would. Eventho I can taste quite a bit of the Chamomile…I think the Lemongrass and Peppermint blend well with it. Personally, I would try and a little more of each ‘just because’…and I have both in bulk at home from the whole food store so I just might try it next time…

I think the peppermint that is in this blend helps more with the after taste than the actual ‘during the sip’ taste. That’s kind of neat.

After almost the whole cup – I have decided I like this. A Creative Blend. Very Nice.

After several recommendations I only steeped this for 3min. Wow… still ncredibly dark. The liquor is a medium dark orange brown. Not delicate at all… and that makes me sad.

4th infusion: 10 min.

WOW… I’ve never done a 4th infusion before. AND I LIKE IT! It has an amazingly strong aroma for a 4th infusion and that ever so slight “fecal” taste is gone. It’s still very strong and complex though. And slightly flowery. I’m leaving to go out to dinner now, but next time I steep a cup, I definitely am gonna try a 5th infusion. It was so worth waiting 10 min:)

3rd infusion, 9min:

Still a slight fecal taste, but mostly a light and floral taste that’s a lot stronger than I expected for a 3rd infusion.

2nd infusion: Weird… this serving of leaves (the 2nd infusion at least) has a light fecal taste in addition to the grounded, yet lightly floral taste. Still very good though.

Sample #2 from my white tea sampler…

1st Infusion:
The raw leaf has a stronger scent than I was expecting, kind of like gunpowder- no floral scent as the name implies.

Steeping method:
2.25g of tea per 6oz of purified water heated to 180 degrees F and steeped for 7 min.

The liquor and aroma are both stronger than I expected. The liquor is a medium orange tone and the aroma is solid, no floral notes. Smells kind of like some of the bagged green tea I get when I go out to eat.

The strength of the flavor matches the liquor, but is still stronger than I had expected from a white tea. It’s not heavy like a black tea, smokey like gun powder, or fecal like pu erh, but it’s not light and floral as the name might suggest either. Quite possibly my favorite unflavored white tea so far. I’ve been on a string of “the 3rd infusion was my favorite” teas so we shall see if that continues.

2nd Infusion:
Steeping time: 8 min

The liquor and aroma are both lighter than the 1st… The liquor lost some of the bright orange hue the 1st infusion had and is now duller, almost like tarnished brass. The aroma is still more solid and earthy than I expected from a white tea, especially with the word “peony” in it, but the floral scent is starting to appear.

I love when the aroma matches the scent. It shows consistancy. It is more grounded than I would have expected a white with a floral name, but as the scent eluded to, the floral notes are starting to peak out.

3rd Infusion:
Steeping time: 9 min

I’m still surprised at the darkness of the liquor… The third infusion resembles the flesh of an acorn squash, especially after it’s been roasted. The aroma is slightly lighter than one may expect based on the liquor. It’s light and smooth with a touch of floral.

The taste is something that I’d expect from a 2nd infusion… quite strong considering the leaves have now been steeped for a total of 24 min. There is no floral taste when I take a sip, but there is a very light floral aftertaste. One that would not scare off anyone that hates floral teas.

Conclusions:
Very interesting tea. Stronger in all 3 aspects through out the infusions than I had expected, but not over powering. I probably could get a 4th infusion out of this but I have 2 more teas in my sampler to try so I’ll have to come back to this one.

This isn’t really my thing. It has a strong sort of vegetable taste that reminds me of my grandmother’s green beans. Very earthy, very dark flavor. I usually prefer fruity, herbal, and floral tastes, but if you like a strong black tea taste, you might like this. It has a very complex taste.

Having a pot of this that is 2/3 Ceylon Sonata and 1/3 English Breakfast, both by Adagio. I’m not a very big fan of either, but they blend together well. I’ll definitely do this again. It’s malty and sweet, with a summery taste that’s hard to describe.

I probably should have brewed this for less time, as it is pretty potent and a little bitter. (But I like some bitterness to my black teas.) I think I’ll go with four minutes next round.

So THIS is what they’re using for all the flavored black teas at Adagio. I knew it was Ceylon, but I didn’t know which blend. Anyway, this is a good, standard black tea. The leaves smell sweet and smoky, but the smokiness doesn’t really appear in the tea itself. But that’s alright, I’m not really a fan of smokiness anyway. It brews up a really pleasant shade of amber, and was a great way to start my day.

Just a warm-up…still sweet and earthy! nice!

Another one bites the dust! And another one’s gone…this is the last in my stash of this kind, too, WOW! I sure am finishing up several of my teas in my stash lately…must be time to do some ordering…

I think I finally found “MY” perfect amount and length to steep! Unfortunately I am almost out. I prob have one more attempt after today. Still woodsy, but sweeter than other attempts – which is fine by me. I can finally taste the semi-peachiness that was talked about by others but I must say this is the first time I have been able to taste this. I know it’s because I steeped for less time this time. I have a tendency to oversteep stuff often. :) Regardless – this is a nice cup

My Mistake! Not the tea’s…Steeping water NOT hot enough and not enough loose leaf. I really ruined that cuppa. Bad Tea=Bliss, BAD! How dare you ruin an Adagio Tea.