Adagio Teas

This was a free single serving sample I redeemed with my Adagio order.

Honestly, tastes very similar to their other nutty rooibos, Nutcracker or something? I don’t taste chocolate at all, and the caramel is subtle. Mostly it tastes like a sweet nut-flavored tea. I would guess hazelnut or chestnut, nothing about it says pecan to me.

Not a favorite for me, too sweet and rich and I find it a bit cloying. Then again, I don’t seem to love very desserty teas these days…

Last cold steeped blend from Adagio.

This is very lime Jell-O. Which can be okay in some things, but it’s a bit odd combined with hibiscus IMO. I think a sweet candy lime sort of flavor can be nice with a creamy element (and I think 52teas made a lime Jello-O salad tea like this), but for a tart hibiscus tisane I would rather have a more acidic lime juicy flavoring.

Anyway, not a fan. I feel like the candy lime comes off as even more artificial and cleaner-y and weird when combined when the hibiscus tartness.

Sipdown! (46 | 298)

Another sample.

The cinnamon ruins this one for me. It’s called “maple creme” and yet the cinnamon is the strongest flavor here. It turns it into more of a cinnamon roll dessert tea than a maple one. And I don’t dislike cinnamon, but I love maple and I wanted to taste more of it. Plus the oolong base is very… twiggy-tasting.

Sipdown! (42 | 294)

This was pretty good. Base tea isn’t great of course, very dry grassy. But the subtle cranberry notes paired with the buttery pecan (which tasted more like walnut to me) did remind me of muffins or perhaps scones. But I did find the walnut to be the strongest flavor here, and I would’ve liked more of the cranberry and apple.

So fun to try, but not one I would order.

Cold steeped.

This one smells and tastes like pineapple gummy bears to me. Which, in my somewhat limited experience, is not what dragonfruit tastes like. To be fair though, I found dragonfruit to have a somewhat subtle flavor, so maybe it’s a bit difficult to reproduce in tea.

So in short, this isn’t bad, but it tastes very artificial to me, just like pineapple gummy bears. And I think it could use a bit more tartness to add some dimension. There’s also a hint of bitterness that I’m not loving.

Cold steeped.

I quite like this one! Strong blueberry flavor that’s somewhere between candy and jam, along with plenty of hibiscus tartness. The end of the sip actually tastes a bit like apricot jam to me for some reason? Not sure why that is, but I’m not complaining.

Not sure whether I’ll repurchase, as I’ve honestly been getting a bit sick of cold steeped fruity tea with all the sampling lately. But I would consider this one for next year.

The flavors here were autumnal and not too strong. I taste mild spices with some fruitiness. With milk and sugar, this is a really pleasantly desserty tea. It’s a little toasty tasting – really just a delightful combination of everything. Definitely my favorite green tea I’ve tried from Adagio! I’d consider ordering it again.

Cold steeped.

I’m finding this one a bit bland. It has a pleasant enough peachy flavor to it, but tastes quite thin and watery prepared this way. Maybe it would be better steeped hot, or flash chilled. As-is, it’s not terrible, but mostly tastes like a bit of apple and a bit of peach mixed with a lot of water. I don’t really notice much chamomile or lemon verbena.

Cold steeped!

This one is a bit odd to me. It’s almost like a mulled cider sort of flavor profile because of the cinnamon, but then it’s paired with tropical fruit? I wouldn’t call it distinctly passion fruit, but it does have a tropical slant to it. The cinnamon here is reminding me of potpourri, which, needless to say, isn’t the best association to have lol. Quite similar to Pomegranate Grove, with a different fruit.

It’s okay? I think this one might have been better hot, as I find this mulled spice sort of tisane a bit odd cold.

Cold steeped.

This tastes pretty much as I would expect from the name – like a sour green apple candy. I’m thinking Sour Punch straws… Nice green apple flavor with a whole bunch of added tartness from the hibiscus.

I don’t think this is something I would want to drink often, but it was a fun one to try, and it definitely delivers on the name IMO.

Cold steeped.

This is nice, but a bit weak. The pineapple flavor is nice, it reminds me of canned pineapple specifically. Mildly sweet with a touch of tartness as well, even though there’s no hibiscus here. I taste a touch of the lemongrass but not much else.

Pleasant tisane. Maybe the flavor would be stronger if I had steeped it hot and then chilled it. Not one I would reorder, but I did enjoy the pitcher and it was quite refreshing in this heat.

Cold steeped.

This tastes remarkably similar to their Wild Strawberry. In fact, it doesn’t really taste like mango at all. More generically fruity and tart, with a bit of that strawberry Jell-O thing going on. There is a hint of something slightly perfumey or chemical? Especially at the very end of the sip.

Not great, but drinkable. Certainly not mango.

I don’t really know how I feel about this one. It’s earthy and tart from the hibiscus and super herby too. Idk, for “wine” teas I prefer Merlot Dommaine Chantel by The English tea store. It actually tastes like wine cold brewed.

Gonna sip this down probably

From Meowster! Thanks so much! If I were in the market for stocking up on chamomile, I actually wouldn’t mind stocking up on this one. The flavor is really good. It’s very representative and just shouts CHAMOMILE from the rooftops. There are full tiny chamomile blooms, but also some of the tiny pieces of it that like to make a mess of infusers. If only there weren’t those tiny pieces, but possibly that is contributing to this super chamomile flavor anyway.

Cold steeped.

This is weirdly named. To me, “Pomegranate Grove” just implies a pomegranate fruit tisane, so I expected it to be similar to their other similar blends, like the cherry and strawberry versions.

Nope, this is more of a mulled cider type of flavor. It’s quite spice-forward, on the cinnamon in particular. The ingredients claim there is only pomegranate flavoring and not spice, but I can’t imagine getting this strong of a cinnamon candy flavor with just a bit of ground cinnamon.

Anyway, the whole thing tastes quite artificial to me, it reminds me of potpourri without the strong floral presence. It’s that sort of “essential oil” cinnamon taste, and then a vague cherry/red fruits flavor and plenty of hibiscus tartness. To be fair though, I can imagine this might be better hot.

I actually quite like this one. Cold brewed again, the whole sample packet in my 1L Takeya pitcher.

It’s quite light in flavor, which makes sense since there’s no hibiscus here. It’s a smooth and sweet combination of orange, cream, and a touch of spearmint. The apple base does give a touch of tartness. It reminds me of a tea I tried from DT (North Star or something?) that was a similar flavor profile but was way too sweet from the sugar crystals they included. I find I actually quite like that sort of creamsicle vibe paired with a bit of mint.

I used my whole sample for this pitcher, but I would think this would be nice hot as well. I might consider reordering some to try that way…

Man oh man its been warm and muggy for the last few days. Because of this, I wanted something light and I wanted to try this so it seemed good timing.

Ever read the description of a tea while you are sipping on it and want to yell “no it doesn’t!”?

What I get is kind of floral or perfumy. Actually perfume is the better word for it as its like a floral perfume and not floral in of itself, if that makes any sense. It has an almost chemically kind of flavor.

If the name and description didn’t mention pear, I likely would have not been able to guess. if I just breath in the scent for a while I can kind of convince myself there might be just the faintest hint of pear, but mostly its just perfume.

I didn’t have high hopes here, mostly just curious. I ended up dumping it and switching to their White Grapefruit, which I know I like.

I didn’t expect to like this, and I was right LOL.

Tastes like a generic cherry lollipop mixed with Tums and bit of hibiscus. There’s a chalkiness that tastes almost floral to me, and it’s reminding me of baby powder.

Nope, not for me! XP

Another cold brew.

If I’m honest, I expected to like this one more. The beginning of the sip is fine, all mixed fresh berries and hibiscus. But something a bit herbaceous comes out midway through and it’s throwing me for a loop. I was guessing maybe raspberry or blackberry leaf, but there isn’t any in the ingredients list. Maybe it’s from the “forest berries flavor”…?

Either way, it makes it taste a bit medicinal to me, and I’m not a fan. :(

So I went rogue and ordered a sample of basically every fruit tisane that Adagio makes (along with a couple of white teas), so that I could try all of them cold brewed and see if there are any I love. So far I’ve just tried some of their iced tea pouches, and there were a couple that were tasty enough, so I thought I’d give some of the loose leaf varieties a try.

This is just okay. It’s the sort of tart orange flavor that makes me think of Vitamin C chewables, or Emergen-C drink power. I do like the hibiscus with it, though overall it obviously becomes very sour. I could see adding a touch of sweetener to this one to balance the flavors a bit.

Not a keeper for me, but I won’t mind sipping through one pitcher of it.

Drinking this while I write up a few tasting notes. When I opened up the pouch, the scent of fall just wafted up: apples, cinnamon, and maple all in happy harmony. Yes, it’s a hot summer day right now, but still this seemed appealing somehow. It’s one of the few Adagio teas I’ve really been wanting to try. Disappointingly, the flavor balance feels quite off. The maple is here and pleasant enough, and there’s a nice apple note. Not sure about any creaminess, which is definitely a miss when it’s in the name of the blend. But the real problem is that the cinnamon is too strong, to the point of being biting. And I LOVE cinnamon – I use an appalling amount of it on yogurt, ice cream, etc. But in a blend like this, the cinnamon should really be a supporting player rather than the prima donna. This is still drinkable, but primarily because I like cinnamon so much; I think someone else might find it difficult. I had such high hopes for this blend – an oolong in my flavor profile sweet spot – but it just didn’t deliver.

Sipdown! (49 | 247)

Another one from Adagio that was really disappointing.

All I could taste was a pile of chamomile and a bit of lychee flavoring. Definitely no mango to speak of. I was surprised to not really taste lemongrass either, given it’s the first ingredient. Mostly just chamomile with some butterfly pea flower mustiness and a touch of lychee.

Nope, nope, nope!

Sipdown! (48 | 246)

This just wasn’t very good. Mostly it just tasted like cheap, grassy green tea without much else going on. Definitely no guava to speak of, perhaps a hint of a creamy note.

Meh!

Sipdown! (4 | 70)

Finished off a pouch of this one, cold-steeped. One of my favorites, and especially appropriate for summer. It’s good with a bit of sugar for a sweeter watermelon juice sort of vibe, or with a bit of added hibiscus for something tarter.

Already have a 1-pound bag waiting in the wings. It’s actually my first ever bulk tea purchase! I figured since I use it for cold-steeping, it’s feasible to get through a pound in a reasonable amount of time ha ha…