Birthday Tea

Thank you very much Ricky for sending me some of this to try! This looks like black tea with colored sprinkles. The tea mostly smells like caramel. I steeped this for a short time. I can taste mostly the caramel with abit of vanilla and the black tea. I would of liked the vanilla to be more balanced with the caramel or stronger. I still do think this I’s a pretty good tea if abit really sweet.

Nice and sweet. The vanilla tea being one of my favorites, this blend is great when I want something sweeter. It smells great and the flavors aren’t overpowering.

The first thing you notice is….there are sprinkles in my tea leaves!! I do not care how bad of a mood you are in, if you see sprinkles it is a smile inducer. Unless those sprinkles are casually replacing sesame seeds on your hamburger’s bun, then that might be annoying. The description of the tea’s ingredients list a blend of Vanilla, Cream, and Caramel teas, have tried two of those three and really enjoyed them I was excited. These teas use a base of Ceylon and blend with natural flavorings and usually I really like their blends, sadly there have been one or two that did not make me go WOW! but most of them are delicious.

The aroma of the dry leaves is strong, it doesn’t really smell like birthday. With a lot of Adagio’s flavored teas, you really cannot judge them from the leaf aroma (which I do find really frustrating) because it is usually really strong. This tea smells like you open up a bottle of vanilla extract and snort it. I do not smell any of the caramel or cream…or sprinkles, but they don’t really have a smell.

The aroma of the brewed tea though is YUM!! It smells so much like a freshly baked, butter-cream frosted, cupcake that I legitimately wondered ‘is this tea a portal to an alternate reality cupcake?’ I really think in a blindfolded test I would have thought that this tea was a cupcake. Which, I want to point out, is really convenient since I have been hard core craving some cake lately.

The taste reminded me of a tea soaked cake. The flavors are predominantly cream and vanilla with notes of caramelized sugar (not actual caramel candy, which is good since I am not a huge fan) as the initial sweetness fades you get to taste the base tea which is rich and mellow, no bitterness like you get with lower quality Ceylon. Everything about this tea is sweet, it is a dessert tea through and through. I recommend a splash of cream and no sugar unless you really need a sugar fix. Definitely best for after a meal when you don’t want to eat any more but want something sweet or for breakfast.

Adagio Birthday Tea: Warm and sweet, not overpowering. More comforting than distinctive. A nice pick-me-up. Good black.

The sweet caramel and vanilla flavor is delicious and the sprinkles and sparkles add a fun touch. Unfortunately, the base tea ruins the experience for me. It is strong, bitter, and astringent and completely takes over the flavoring by the end of the sip. I do wish Adagio would use a better quality black base for their flavored teas, because they have so many fun flavors available!

This is the first tea I’m trying from my swap with Arshness. The dry leaf looks like generic little black tea leaves with sprinkles mixed in. I had to pour a little bit out of the zippy bag to smell it – that darn Foxtrot made everything smell minty! :P It smells like vanilla and sugar and frosting, which bodes well. I actually brewed this one twice.

The first time, I did a heaping teaspoon for 3 minutes, which turned out to be too long. It basically came out bitter and I didn’t taste much of anything else. Drank it with lots of sugar and milk.

The second time, I did 2 minutes instead of 3 and it was much better. The brewed tea smells like a medium-bodied black tea with strong vanilla and frosting notes. I must admit, I’m a little bit disappointed that the flavors in this one don’t taste quite as strong as they smell. The tea is slightly bitter even with the short brew time, but it’s not a super unpleasant bitterness. I do taste vanilla and frosting, and I added some sugar to help coax them out some more. Overall, this tea is tasty but I would like it better with stronger flavors. Thanks for the sample, Arshness. :)

Wooo! This is one of my favorite teas, but maaan I made a mistake preparing it today.
I’ve been noticing several of my older teas were tasting weak so I started adding in extra tea to make sure there was good potency for each. Low and behold, I have found one that is certainly still good. >_<

I put too much tea to water in this and the tannin made my mouth cry.
I couldn’t finish it.

At least I know my Birthday Tea is still good.
However, it did raise a disappointing situation. My tea storage methods are not good enough.
My teas that have been stored a while are mostly in cheap tins. They are mostly old tasting now. The Birthday tea has been in its original resealable Adagio package this whole time and it still tastes fresh. Oh dears :c I guess I’ve learned the hard way about needing good quality tea tins. But how to afford such things in this economy you know? Yuck. >_<

Anyone recommend good quality tea tins at a decent price?
Bonus points if pretty, especially blue :D

This was tasty, and definitely had an element of cake to it. I received it for ordering near to my birthday, and am enjoying it. I don’t know if I would pay for it per se, but I will enjoy what I have very much, and it will probably be even better with a bit of milk and agave.

This tea smells amazing, but does need a touch of sugar to cut some bitterness.

Fairly unforgettable black tea by itself, but with a little sugar and milk/cream, it really does take like a cupcake with a swirl of vanilla frosting. I could do without the sprinkles (which stain my IngenuiTEA’s filter if I’m not careful), but other than that, it’s tasty stuff indeed.