Adagio Teas

This leaf is so fluffy that 2.5 gm is a heaping Tbsp. Dry leaf aroma fresh, green, hint of spice. Yes, Virginia, this tea IS mostly buds! 12 oz water, 200 F, 2 min yields clear gold liquor with mild floral scents. Astringency almost imperceptable, good flavor but hard to describe. If I were blind tasting, I would waver from green to oolong to white. Most enjoyable, especially since the buds winked at me from the infuser, evoking a smile at 5 am.

Whenever I open my tin of Leo I am always charmed by the fact that it smells almost exactly like an orange creamsicle. It is a very refreshing blend. The citrus notes aren’t artificial or bitter, but very creamy. I steeped it for 3 minutes and got a very robust cup. This uplifting blend is exactly what I need right now. I’m writing a thesis! Yay.

Grassy and sweet. Yum!

I decided to have this tea this afternoon when I thought I’d need it as a comfort tea. But turns out it is a celebratory tea.

Just when I thought that this month’s budget had been bent over and had dirty, dirty things done to it (kitty surgery + biopsy, $600+ of car maintenance, new car battery), I discovered today that this month is a magic month. Yay for biweekly paydays! And yay for three in one month! Now, instead of mourning the dip into our emergency fund, I am celebrating the unexpected black ink at the bottom of our budget month!

Chai is always a treat for me. Because of the time it takes to make (I do half milk, half water, tea, sugar all thrown into a pot and brought to a boil for 5 mins) this is an evening tea but due to sugar and caffeine, this is something I only do when I can stay up somewhat late. On top of that, the rich spiciness makes it something I have to be in the mood for. Usually that mood is for the tea-equivalent of curling up on the couch with an afghan. And that’s really what I thought I’d be using it for tonight.

But no. I get to use it while I relax and go “ahhhh!” and bask in the celebratory glory of a surprise magic month while I surf the net to figure out what teas I’m going to buy with some of this month’s overflow. Seriously. Gonna buy tea.

I’m feeling especially chipper tonight so I decided to go heavy on the leaf and pretty much doubled it. The milk keeps the spiciness from being overwhelming but I can tell it is there. And I like it. I think I’m even going to try resteeping, something I haven’t attempted with chai, so we’ll see how that goes. After all, it’s going to take a while to figure out what teas I’m going to get.

YAY!

Love this stuff. Made a pot and relaxed after a long week.

This goddess is very nice to me. The aroma is light, while the flavor in the tea richer and fuller than that whiff off the leaves. At first sip, this tea is light, but the flavor is strongest in the back of the mouth as it has a distinct bitter nutty-like taste. The savor of this tea lingers in the mouth, which perfectly compliments its smooth finish.

N.B.: very light yellow liqueur.
Preparation: 1.5 tsp. at 4 min. at 205 F

I have run out of almost everything … Then I found a little bit of Keemun Rhapsody in the back of my tea shelf. I have always enjoyed Keemun – it’s moderately smokey, rich and dark and smooth. Perfect for the afternoon.
Made some tea related design work. I’m not done with it yet. I hope to finalize it next week. It will be available for people to download to be printed on a t-shirt, tote bag or a hoodie.
Here’s the preview:
http://www.antemeridiemdesign.com/fun/teaS.jpg

A little bit smokey but not too much.

Rich, complex with a chocolate-like flavor.

Love this tea, full bodied, a bit of lemony tang. The nose and lingering taste evoke salted lime tortilla chips. Definitely an essential part of my tea stash.

Yay for finishing off another tin! I didn’t have quite enough of this for my morning tea so I put a little blackberry in it. Why blackberry? Well, I thought of Irish Breakfast but realized that I probably wasn’t going to greatly enjoy this cup and why waste my yummy Irish Breakfast on it? And the blackberry was right next to the Irish Breakfast, so I just grabbed it knowing that blackberry isn’t my favorite either.

Mixed results on this one today. The instant this touched my tongue and as it was in my mouth I got a smooth, almost chocolaty taste from it with a hint of kumquat. It was nice and pleasant and made me smile just a bit.

But then I swallowed. And as the tea moved out of my mouth, I tasted this… taste that made me think of the time I had a kumquat that was overripe to the point of almost-but-not-quite rotten. And then after I swallowed, I’d get this… astringent but perfumed taste that physically poked at my tongue and cheeks. So as I drank each swallow, I had to wince a bit. I ended up drinking it pretty quickly, though, mostly because I didn’t want to taste (or feel) that aftertaste for long so I’d quickly take another sip to get me back to the happy taste. And once I was finally done, I needed a gum chaser, STAT.

Okay, so maybe not so mixed. Because really, how much does that initial flash of happy taste really count for? There was a time (before this tin) that I liked this tea. So making my way through my second tin of this tea, I kept hoping that I’d get back to that previously happy experience I had with it. I kept giving it the benefit of the doubt, even when the first few cups from it tasted like bubblegum.

But no. So I’m finally finally adjusting my rating. Down. A lot. But not as far as I would if this was my first or only experience with this tea. Because I can’t discount the fact that used to really like this tea.

Better than I remember, nice solid coco base flavor, like a smooth dark chocolate with a smooth minty highlight. Not unlike Girl Scout Thin Mints :)

I prefer to steep it for 7 min.

Smooth and subtle.

This was the tea that began my love of Yunnans. I love the earthy, peppery flavor of this, though that’s not a flavor profile I typically care for. I really want to try their Yunnan Jig to see the differences between them.

I found this to be immensely, overwhelmingly cocoa-y, to the point where it was more reminiscent of burnt hot chocolate than tea. Definitely prefer the Jig.

And another tea is gone (though I’ll do multiple steeps so it’s still around for a little bit longer). Earthy but sweet and fruity, this is lighter than a lot of the Chinese blacks I tend to favor but the smooth sweetness and lighter body make it a nice, relaxing tea.

I’m attempting simultaneously to be productive and relax today. The relaxation part is where this tea comes in. A smooth, comforting tea that is dark and strongly flavored, but not stout – perfect for relaxing. But not too sure about how it’ll mesh with the productivity portion of today’s program.