541 Tasting Notes
Ouch. I seem to have woken up with a “book hangover.” As in I stayed up until 2am finishing The Secret History and then couldn’t sleep because omg. I’m really hoping the caffeine kick in this is enough to brighten me up a bit!
I really love the chocolate chai from Adagio, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch to assume that this would be pretty good. I couldn’t taste the chocolate as much as I was hoping. I’m not a big chocolate+orange person, but it is nice once in awhile. I’m not sure it needed the cream, but it isn’t unwelcome.
Preparation
Having this right after some chocolate. It was not my favorite. I mean, who puts freeze dried raspberries in chocolate anyways? shakes head I should’ve picked up another Dagoba lavender bar. They’re amazing.
Back to tea! Well, This smells very nice dry, I can smell a bit of cinnamon and the caramel. Other than that, mainly smells of black tea. Once steeped it is pretty intense in the pu’erh department. And just a bit oily (a thing I tend to not like). But this tastes quite good! I like pu’erh quite a bit and the other flavors are there just enough to make it taste really rich. It isn’t hiding the pu’erh at all and I think that’s a great thing about this one
Preparation
Another sampler tea! This one smells mainly of just earl gray. But somewhere along my tea journey I’ve come to enjoy it as long as there are other flavors playing with it. In the dry leaf I couldn’t really smell the apricot, but it is in there! They blend quite well and this is pretty great for me because I need to watch my caffeine intake still!
Preparation
2nd try on this one today with almost the same results. I really don’t think this one is any good. Very weak flavor overall. Even the tea is too light for me to really taste. But I still have quite a bit so I will continue to tweak/play with it.
Preparation
Another sampler tea!
This one is actually pretty great when cooled down. The flavors are very roasty and like the other review, does remind me of seaweed a bit! The fruity notes are very soft, but still there. I am surprised I enjoyed this one so much. I think it just fills a gap in my tea collection that nothing else could. I think I need to try more hojicha and kukicha.
Preparation
Oops! Forgot I was steeping this and so it went quite a bit over. But somehow it isn’t bitter, so it’s a win! This tea includes a lot of Adagio’s better black chocolate+raspberry things. It’s a given that this would taste quite good. It reminds me of the Neil tea I had awhile ago (they share some ingredients). In other words, tastes of those chocolate/raspberry stick I always get for Christmas. Very tasty!
Preparation
Hello everyone! I know it has been a really long time since I last wrote on here. But I want my followers to know that I am still here; reading, studying, and of course, drinking tea!
I purchased this blend in the discounted Fandom Samplers set. I’m not sure if I would have picked this one out myself, but I’m glad it was included!
This smells very tropical and sweet. I am having it with an orange, which seems to be the perfect pairing! The liquor is extremely light; despite my steep time. Maybe I need a bit more leaf? The taste is again, very light; but fruity. I really like this flavor and I’ll have to keep playing with it before I really give it a rating.
Preparation
Thanks Angel for this sample!
Sorry everyone that I kind of fell off the planet. I basically got into a school-induced rut. But here I am, with a new review for the tea I just received today and I’ll be brewing in the precious little gaiwan that Teavivre also sent me.
The dry leaf smelled surprisingly fruity to me. I’ve only had one other dong ding and it was much more roasted smelling than this one. The leaves are rolled into large balls, maybe even a bit larger than what I’m used to seeing.
I managed to use the gaiwan without burning myself too badly! It was my first time using one and I’m surprised it was this simple. I think that the leaves are gorgeous when brewed in this fashion. I had been worried about using the wrong amount of leaves, but it turned out just like all the photos I’ve seen!
The aroma of the tea is very floral and green. I love lighter oolongs, so this is right up my ally. There is a very light roast to this as well. I enjoy that it is there, but not so upfront that it overpowers the other smells and flavors. There seems to be a lot of flavors in this cup. Sweet, green, floral, roast, and something else that is a bit elusive; pepper?
Either way, this is a pretty brilliant tea that I’m going to continue enjoying tonight.
I was looking for an alternative grocery store tea that I could pick up because the kava wouldn’t go well with my migraine pills I’ve been taking. This one is still not quite what I was looking for (wanted St. John’s Wort) but it’ll work. I picked this over one of their other “calming” teas because I really love cardamom and fennel. I don’t know if I’m really going to taste it once the tea is brewed, but they’re in there!
The bag smells very medicinal to me. Or like some kind of odd forest floor type smell. Brewed I can tell they must have added a sweetener or something as that is the first thing I can smell. Brewed it smells almost just like my friend’s home from childhood. They were Chinese and always had something interesting brewing. This was one of those don’t ask, just drink/eat situations; but it was always something wonderful in the end.
The flavor is..interesting? It tastes like an oriental market to me. I don’t really know how to explain that? Sweet, but also like herbal medicine. Maybe almost minty? This tastes like a grab bag to me. I just hope sipping might calm down the anxiety a bit. We’ll just have to wait and see!
edit I have to comment to say that it might just be the being home and not doing my homework, but I do feel significantly better. No more headache, but my ears are still hurting. So at least the anxiety has gone down a bit. I’ll try it again next time I feel blah and see if I get similar results.
I enjoy Yogi teas, although I haven’t been drinking them that much lately. Most of them contain some Licorice root. which I absolutely love, & which gives it a naturally sweet taste.
Ah! I bet that’s where the sweetness came from in this one. A lot of their teas have stevia too, but this one only had that licorice. I enjoy most of the ones that I’ve had, but I don’t really care for paying for the bags when I can get way more loose tea. I only purchased this one because it was on sale ($4), but the regular price is $6-$6.50 per box.
Dry, this tea kind of smells like the Master Han’s sheng to me. I think I may have been skimping how much tea I’ve been adding to these small, short brews, so I put in a bit extra this time (I don’t have a way to weigh it).
Cups 1&2 (3sec): lighter brown brew, smells a bit thin for what I was expecting. This tastes of light chocolate and crunchy bread to me. It is reminiscent of the laoshan black, but then again, my tastebuds are still all over the place. :(