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I’m having trouble believing the steeping parameters on this tea are correct. 4 tsp. to 2 cups? At 5 minutes? But I like to follow directions so I did it anyway, against my better instincts.
Maybe the fault lies with me, in that I was supposed to add milk and sugar and not try this plain. It was SUPER strong – too strong to be palatable for me – without any additives.
And second steeps of this do not work, either. I figured the weakness in the cup would be a good thing, but it just tasted watery, and no milk and sugar could cover that.
Sigh.
I’ll keep plugging away at the first steeps of this, adjusting volume until I get it right…but I think once this is gone I will move on to better chais. Any suggestions would be welcome. :)

Pie is my most favorite dessert. When I get a sweet tooth, it’s what I want. And sweet potato pie is what I love more than anything – I love the texture and the taste and the spices and the crust. I even like that it’s seasonal because it means it’s that much more special since I only get it a few times a year.

So when this was the tea of the week I ordered it almost before I realized it – I wanted to see how well it could translate into tea. I steeped 3 tsp. of this into 500 ml of water for 10 minutes (I found that that was a perfect amount of time for the coconut cheesecake honeybush and it made the flavor super strong, so I used that as a starting point for this).

The aroma of the tisane struck me first – I didn’t think it smelled like sweet potato pie – definitely spicy and kind of gingery, but not what I recognize as sweet potato, or pie. My first brewed cup smelled very spicy. I drank it unsweetened and got more of the essence, rather than actual flavor of sweet potato (a starchy mouthfeel), and then alot of cinnamon on the swallow. I didn’t find any trace of the crust in the flavor this go around.

My second cup I sweetened with rock sugar, and it brought out some slight butter flavors from the crust. In general the sweetener helps to bring all the flavors together, rather than leaving you to experience them separately, and it strongly resembles the sweet potato pie I know and love. Still very strong on the cinnamon, but I like cinnamon, so I don’t really mind.

A solid tisane, especially if you’re a sweet potato person!

Ok, I’m having trouble really explaining what I want to, here. (I’ve restarted this note like 5 times only to erase and begin again.)

So, the gist: ordered Samurai sampler because I was dreadfully curious about Adagio’s products, and also because I was pretty positive I liked green tea, but hadn’t tried enough variety to really be sure.

This is my first one of the four samples, and I am super excited about the other three after trying this. I got that steamed green smell right away after steeping, it smelled a bit like spinach to me, honestly. Which is a good thing; I love spinach. I drank it straight, which is another good thing. I normally have to use sweetener of some kind in tea to get the flavor I like – but this was just so good I downed the cup before I gave it any thought.

So yummy!

Mixed 1 tsp. of this with my last two teaspoons of White Ayurvedic Chai in 500 ml of water. The result was a very spicy smelling tea, with spices showing up more in the taste as the tea cooled. These two teas played very well together, though – shame it was only a one time thing…

Tried this iced as the weather is supposed to get up to 80 (?!?!) today. Just as I thought, a perfect iced tea blend. I will likely use up the rest of this tea on this method of preparation.
I’m so excited to be figuring out this iced tea stuff just in time for warmer weather! I’ve been living off of Lipton forever so it’s a nice change!

Jeez- I know I drank this a while ago – can’t believe I forgot to log it.

This is a tea that will be great iced. It is a great, simple morning tea, and I enjoyed the smoothness of it. That said, it’s probably not something I would buy again – there are many other options out there, and this is nothing unique. I’ll drink up my stash, but I’d rather have more of Teavana’s Earl Grey Creme if I just have to have one of their breakfast blends.

2nd steep!
3 tsp. in 500 ml water, steeping for 20 minutes. Tastes just as awesome as the first time around. I am so unbelievably happy that I can stretch this out to last longer!

I think I’m going to have to get a pound of this special blended for myself. (If that’s even a possibility – I’m hoping it is because the thought of going without this makes me anxious!)

I just don’t think there’s any other way.

I keep reaching for it again and again and it keeps being awesome, and now I want to try most of Frank’s other honeybush blends because I’m sure they will not disappoint.

This stuff is all kinds of amazing.

Had this iced last night (it’s getting into the high 60s during the day so I needed something refreshing). I have lived off of Lipton iced tea bags since I was very small, but I had yet to branch out and make my good teas iced. So this was my first foray into that.
I was definitely refreshed! The tea was very strongly minty but pleasantly so. I think I prefer it iced over hot, to be honest. We’ll see how the rest of my iced tea experiments go!

This is a backlog –
Okay, I thought I’d rated this one. Had it a while back, when I got my ValenTEAS sampler from 52 teas. I love the Moroccan Mint from Teavana because it is minty, but man this tea is the equivalent of chewing gum minty-ness – my mouth was cold from drinking hot tea!
I really didn’t get any vanilla flavor, though, and I don’t know that I will be getting it again – but it was still a solid tea and I’m glad I tried it.