Leah Naomi select Send Message

This is nuanced and delicious – to me it tasted equal measures of creamy, floral, and fruity. Very balanced, and I enjoyed this sample a lot.

This is pretty good – very creamy, but as it cools it gets very floral. I found it to be rather strong – I feel like a teaspoon ended up tasting a bit overleafed and bitter for 8oz of water. Which is great – more tea savings for me. :) Not to mention the three resteeps…

I don’t know that I’ve ever tasted osmanthus before, but it is a distinct floral if this tea is very accurate in flavor. I really enjoyed it – the oolong gave a creamy base, which cut the floral a bit. It also had a bit of fruit flavor. I was able to get 3 strong steeps out of this before I got tired of it and gave up for the session.

In other news, my stomach is in knots – I have a job interview next Tuesday in Virginia, about a 5 hour drive away. I am super anxious for the drive, the interview, and making sure the dogs I am pet sitting for get cared for during this really inopportune time haha. Interviews always seem SO critical to me, as they are important, but I already feel myself getting insane tunnel vision feeling anxious about how much my future rides on this…failing to remember that even if a contract job doesn’t happen for this fall, there will be other interviews for other equally great jobs. Yay anxiety?

I also managed to get my tea to live only in my setup in my tea cupboard and on my dining room table, and off the section of the floor. Yay drinking more tea than I acquire for once?

Refreshing, primarily tea taste with a hint of mango. I think the mango flavor could have been stronger, but it was so refreshing I drank my whole sample packed (which I had prepared iced) in one day which is uncommon.

This is why I always return to Adagio for teas I intend for iced tea. They are just so inexpensive, the quality really isn’t terrible most of the time (cold brewing the blacks is the way to go), and I go through iced tea SO darn quickly I really need to be economical. Their points system trumps the rest, too, if you can remember to “share” a cup you are drinking daily for 2 points. I normally spend well over my points with them each year, but I would say the rewards points alone fund 70% of what I receive.

This is mostly fruity, with a hint of mint. There is very little actual tea flavor, as is common with Teavana blends, but I still enjoy it. I think I would adore it if the mint were stronger. As it is, it is sweet, not very sour, and a bit mild fruit flavor, but that is what eating watermelon is like. I definitely prefer this iced.

This was interesting – it wasn’t juicy at all, like most fruit flavored teas. It was tea and flowers from the chamomile, with a tropical edge. Can’t say I tasted mango specifically, but mango is such a strongly flavored sweet fruit, I find it is not easy to duplicate in a flavoring without a lot of flavor and a lot of sugar. I even cold steeped this, which normally really enhances any fruit flavors in a tea.

This is hibiscus all the way. I taste a slight herbal flavor with it, but not much else. Good for iced tea, but steer clear if you were hoping for more Orange. I cold brewed,and when I do so I usually do three cups instead of four to keep the flavor strong, and this one would have done really well to be steeped that way, but with 5 cups. Maybe even 6. Then I might have tasted the orange more.

This is pretty good. I have this weird relationship with Earl Greys and bergamot in general, where it tastes like licking a bar of soap plain, but somehow becomes oddly appealing with milk. Same goes, here. The extra citrus isn’t overwhelming but gives it just a bit of a zing that most Earl Greys wouldn’t have.

I enjoyed this, but was surprised to see that it smelled more like lemon dry than I could smell or taste it brewed. That said, the mint is the real deal. It is a bit spearminty, but frankly, real mint to me usually doesn’t have a strong flavor. It iinstead creates this cooling mint effect that is more of a feeling than a taste, kind of like drinking air conditioning. Which I LOVE in an iced tea.

I enjoyed this – it is very smooth, not bitter at all, and has a malty rich flavor. What differentiates it for me from other blacks I’ve tried is the hay flavor mixed in there, which I normally don’t taste in black teas. That said, it didn’t wow me enough to want to buy more.