New Tasting Notes

A Stunningly energetic tea, an epicure’s delight. Indulge your taste buds.

It’s an early Friday for me this week, since I work for a Swiss-owned company and we get Good Friday off (which is so weird, but I’ll take it)!

Another purchase based upon the weirdness of it … yeah, I do that a lot. But… peanut butter is where I draw the line. (Sorry 52Teas) The smell of the dry leaves is intriguing, it reminds me of sesame oil and Chinese cuisine, and because I’m hungry, this aroma is making me even hungrier!

Because of previous issues that I’ve had with Adagio’s black teas – I found them to be just a bit bitter when brewed for the recommended time of 5 minutes – I chose to brew this just 2 1/2 minutes, which seems to be just about perfect for this tea.

I like it better than I thought I would. It possesses a very unique flavor. Adagio’s black tea base is much more tannic than the average Ceylon. It has a stronger astringency, and a tendency to get bitter if it’s brewed too long.

The sesame is toasty and nutty. However, I think that much of the sesame’s characteristics are overwhelmed a bit with this Ceylon – perhaps it would be a flavor better suited for a green tea? I don’t know… I think I need to taste it a few more times before I can really summarize my thoughts on this tea…

Small teapot (10cl) : 25’’ – 30’’ – 45’’ – 1’00 – 1’30 – 2’30
Very nice, taste of ripe fruit.
Strong fruity after taste very long in mouth. The taste is a bit light in the last brews.
At this price, a real bargain.

I finished off the last that I had of this treat in a teacup! I love this tea. It is especially good “Latte” – I warm the milk and then froth it foamy, and top it with a grind of fresh nutmeg. YUM!

The cinnamon is sweet (not a spicy cinnamon) and the almond has a beautiful nutty character. The black tea is bold enough to taste, but not so bold that it overwhelms the cup. A very pleasant way to start the afternoon!

Backlog: this morning, instead of starting my morning with my breakfast blend, I decided to go a bit decadent and start with some dessert! Smooth, creamy, delicious! I love it!

I needed a pick-me-up and what better one than tea? Well, unless it is tea provided by lovely Steepsterite Angrboda. Which is what this is, so rejoice!

The dry leaves smell like hay or dried grass. It’s sweet and nature-y but not deep/dark enough to be earthy. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this exact smell from tea before and I am intrigued. It makes me think of the middle of summer when everything is dry and the sun beats down mercilessly and I desperately want to be out by a pool. For the record, that kind of day? Is pretty perfect for me. So I like this smell. A lot.

Once it gets in my cup, it smells much sweeter – I’m cycling between honey and fruit and syrup trying to peg the exact smell. There is still the underlying nature-y smell but it is very faint, though it comes out a bit more as the cup cools.

Wow, this is a sturdy cup. Bold but not really rough, it is surprisingly sweet, like I’ve tossed some raw sugar in (I haven’t). There’s also a sweet malty taste that isn’t so much bake-y as it is not-quite-burned toast. The end of the sip has a faint bitterness that reminds me of walnuts or maybe those dark, not-so-happy pecans. If given a longer steep time, it might become unpleasant but currently it’s not quite there (though I did do a pretty long steep time for not putting anything in it, so kudos to this tea for taking that so well). Instead, that edge makes me want to see how this is with a dollop of half & half in the cup. (Though I imagine there are those out there less wussy than I that would enjoy the sweet and almost bitter mix in this tea and not think to smooth it out with additives.)

I think this tea is Golden Moon’s Sinharaja’s more rough-and-tumble cousin. It has similar sweet notes to it, making it taste like there is raw sugar in the cup, but this one has a bit of an edge to it that makes it a little too strong to be the all-day tea Sinharaja is. I definitely don’t think sugar is needed at all in this puppy since it is nicely sweet but I think I want to give it a shot one morning with a little half & half to see if I can’t smooth the end taste a little. I speculate that it could be pretty freakin’ nifty then.
3g/8oz

I have this nearly everyday, mixed with Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls. Hot or cold, this tea is delicious. Unfortunately, the jasmine in the pearls overpowers a bit of the fruitiness of the tea. But it is still both refreshing and relaxing.

Had two cups of yerba mate this morning ! Added a bit of honey for sweetness . YUM !

Color isn’t as red (more brownish) and tea isn’t as clear as they get.
I don’t know how to comment the taste of the tea itself because I always drink it with milk and honey. It’s drinkable but now i’m pouring in milk and trying the old fashioned way. Hehe looks awesome to pour milk in hot dark tea. Gotta take photos of that sometime.
Hmmm….
Well it is good. Not as strong as the teabag. And a little bit different. More of that herbal taste perhaps.
Don’t know quite good but i prefer Twinings. Got used to it by now. Yep this one has way more of that fresh herbal kinda taste to it. Good just different. Less strong and not so black tea taste. More herbal greenish. Maybe i should just put more tea in next time…

I’ll rate it just slightly under Twinings. Still very high. Still quite yummy…

SECOND STEEPING:

Today has been insane. So it took several hours to get to my second steeping.

I am putting 2:30 for time, but that’s a guess. I set the timer for 2 minutes but it took time to set up the pour and make the pour. So it’s a bit longer than 2, but not 3.

The brew is again that deep amber honey color. The leaves still have the same aroma, amazingly enough. So does the cup.

Wow. Completely different cup from the first steep. All the astringency is gone. This is a soft, subtle, open, earthy cup with just only the most lingering hint of anything living (call that green, floral, fruity, sweet, whatever it might be, as opposed to dead things which are earthy, nutty, roasted, &c).

This is a really delightful cup of tea, but it leaves me apprehensive that a third steep will be weak and insipid or bitter and harsh. Worse, both.

Mmm, this is quite nice. Strong and full flavored, a little harsh plain (but I may have oversteeped a touch), smooths out easily with a little milk and sugar. Hints of cocoa, fruit, and spice, but I’m not actually getting a lot of malt from this one. That’s fine though, the flavor is round and satisfying regardless.

This brews up a nice yellowish color. It is an excellent green tea with a great aftertaste. It reminds me of some Japanese greens. I am a sucker for different tea leaf shapes and this is a very unique one. They look like, well gunpowder. It even shimmers.

After my matcha disaster, I needed something simple. Just dropped this in 6oz of water heated for 2 min. Pretty good for a bagged Chinese green. Very sweet, slightly grassy. Just what I need.

Well, my last Upton sample is green Earl Grey, which is simply Not Suited for being my morning tea, so I’m going to get started on a new project! The Great Finish Off My Adagio Samples That Have Been Taking Up Space In My Cupboard For Ages To Make Room For More Samples Project! (or TGFOMASTHBTUSIMCFATMRFMS Project for short)

Does anybody else do this thing where you end up not drinking your favorite samples all that often because you don’t want to finish them off and be left with the not so great samples? That is what has happened to Golden Monkey. I love this stuff, but the sample tin tends to sit in the back of the tea cupboard, neglected due to my miserliness. Poor Golden Monkey. This tea has a lot going on; I was thinking “smoky” when I was drinking it earlier, but reading the other notes, malty is definitely the right word.
I let this steep for a stupid long time this morning because I was distracted trying to find all the April Fool’s jokes I could before leaving for class, so the end result is extremely strong and extremely malty. Suitable for mornings, when nothing else gets through the post wake-up fog, but I was definitely wishing for more subtlety by the end of the mug.

This makes up for my last tea. The cup is quite pale, the scent is a strong coconut cookie. It smells so good. It tastes somewhat like a coconut cookie too but not as intense. There is smooth, buttery, lightly sweet with coconut mixed in. I don’t see myself drinking this everyday or even that often but as a nice dessert tea here and there it has potential. I’m going to try a second steep and take it to my lecture with me.

This is a very nice tea with citrus notes. It has no bitterness that I can find and only a slight astringency. The tea has plenty of tips in it. While this is not a brisk robust tea, it would make a very nice afternoon tea.