194 Tasting Notes
I’m back.
I’ve been suffering from crippling depression lately, so much so that I went almost a week and only had one cup of tea. Well, a change of scenery (I’m at the parents house again) and I seem to be doing better. So I decided to try something new this morning.
Adagio Orange is another one of it’s black tea fruit blends. The smell in the bag is SUUUPER orange. I know it won’t translate over into taste though, it never does with these.
Brewed western style, boiling water, 3:30 Minutes.
Taste is… well it’s better than I was expecting. I can taste orange in the sip, but it is unfortunately a background note. I really wish it was more prominent, as what I do taste of the orange is sweet, not tart. But mostly it’s just an ok black tea with a hint of orange. It’s sad, the smell in the bag is always so promising with these. Heck, even the brewed cup smells more of orange than it actually tastes. That’s not to say it’s bad. I don’t know if it is because I haven’t really had tea in a week, but I am enjoying it. It’s decent. I probably wouldn’t reorder it though. I’m sure there are better orange blends out there that I just haven’t found yet.
Flavors: Orange
Preparation
Ok, just a quickie update.
I had a genius idea today. At least I thought it was genius.
This tea, in my experience, was rather tart and unpleasant. So I figured why not add some almond milk and make a strawberries & cream sort of drink.
So, this time, steeped tea 7 minutes, and made into my traditional 2 splendas/almond milk latte style. The result? BRILLIANT! It’s like drinking a strawberry milkshake, only thinner. The color of the soup is a bit off when you do it this way, it sort of makes a milky off-purple. But the taste is amazeballs. I think I will do this every time now. I may actually reorder this tea just to make into this style latte. This is delicious.
Flavors: Fruity, Strawberry, Tart
Preparation
Yay! Glad you improved the flavour! Just a word of caution though; be careful when adding milk to teas with hibiscus in them. Nut milks tend to be a little more resilient to this, but when you add milk to teas with lots of hibiscus in them the high acidity of the hibiscus will cause the mild to curdle. Sometimes lots of apple can create this unfortunate curdling too – it just depends on whether or not the apple in the blend is acidified; and not every company will state that in the ingredients list.
Oh I am aware of this believe me. I wasn’t sure if it would work or not at first so I poured a tiny bit into a cup and then added the almond milk to equal portions, swished it around a bit, then sampled it. Turns out the almond milk I have can be blended at least with this tea. If you read my original review, this tea was originally on my “ick list” so even if the experiment had gone horribly wrong the worst I would have done was waste almond milk.
Hey, another experience with Wuyi. Let’s see if this one is any better than Adagio’s.
Strong mineral taste in this one. Also getting a prominent spinach and hay taste. It’s slightly astringent, but not so much as to bother me. I’m getting a background note of… zucchini? It’s kinda weird, but definitely there. I do think overall, this is a better cuppa than the Adagio Wuyi Ensemble, however, it still leaves me wanting more. I don’t know what the ultimate Wuyi would be like, other than really expensive (from what I am to understand). Just from the two that I have tried I would say this one is ok. Not the best thing I have ever tried, but definitely decent. B- for you!
Flavors: Astringent, Hay, Mineral, Spinach, Zucchini
Preparation
Ok so this is my first time trying yellow tea. I really don’t know what to expect. Going in pretty much blind.
Also had to guess on prep instructions. Went with 195F water at 3min western style.
Taste is… very vegetal. It is like a mouth full o’greens. However, the green flavor is rather pleasant. Getting a strong flavor of spinach and hay, with a very faint background sweetness. There’s a small amount of bitterness associated with that spinach and hay flavor but nothing too unpleasant. I’m finding the same grassy flavors that turned me off of grocery store greens are actually growing on me in loose leaf.
Bottom line is, this is a green tea that veers very sharply into green territory. While the soup is definitely golden in color, as opposed to yellow or amber of greens, the flavor is very close to that of a strong green. Give it a shot, if that is your sort of thing. You might actually like it.
Flavors: Hay, Spinach, Sweet, Vegetal
Preparation
Sipdown #7
Back again with the Bluberry Rooibos, I really like this one. It’s slightly tart, but not so much as to be sour. It has a really good flavor. I almost want to try it with a single splenda, to see how that would complement the flavor. It’s slightly woody, although I can tolerate it. Ever so mild vanilla flavor. All in all good stuff.
Flavors: Blueberry, Vanilla, Wood
Preparation
Quickie Nighttime Sipdown #6 (I believe)
This time, it’s Adagio’s Spiced Apple Chai. Now, I didn’t write a tasting note the previous time I had this, and according to the steeping instructions you need 2 tsp per servings which means I only got two sessions out of the sample I bought.
Smell in bag is definitely what it says on tin. Getting those spices along with apples. I can actually see the spices as well as the apples, so that is a plus.
Prepped Western Style, 5 min steep with Boiling water. As per chai rules, added almond milk and two splendas afterwards.
Taste is… not too shabby. The Cinnamon, naturally is prominent. However, I can actually taste some cloves in there as well. Plus the apple. The apple is also coming in clearly.
There’s enough spices and complexity that the almond milk doesn’t completely wipe them out. The apple, while clearly there, is unfortunately a background note it seems like. I can taste it in the back of my mouth and throat, but not really on the tongue. If that sounds weird, it kinda is. I mean it’s good, and I do like it, I just sort of feel “eh” about it. Not the worst by far, but not the best. It is better than that Stash Chai Spice I last reviewed, so I suppose I can rate this one a B. I doubt I will order this one again, as there are chais out there I like better. But if you are looking for something with this flavor profile then you might want to give this a chance. Like I said- Good, but not Great.
Flavors: Apple, Cinnamon, Cloves
Preparation
Doing a new review of this tea because frankly, my taste buds seem to have evolved in the past two months.
This tea is not as good as I previously rated it by far. I recently made a pure cinnamon infusion for medical reasons and this tastes approximately the same. Yes I like cinnamon and it isn’t horrible. But that is basically all there is to this. Just pure cinnamon. If there are other flavors I can’t taste them.
I’ll probably finish the box but I don’t think I will get any more. I’m certain I can find a better caffeine free chai out there if I look.
Flavors: Cinnamon
Preparation
Yayayay another Jasmine.
Quick note today, as I really am not in mood for anything legnthy.
The flavor balance on this one is quite nice. Some jasmine, a bit of peach, some vegetal greeness. All around good tea. I’m on my third steep and it’s still really good.
Totally recommend.
Flavors: Floral, Peach, Vegetal
Preparation
Huzzah. another black tea. This time, it’s the Fengqing Dragon Pearls from Tevivre.
Starting out by saying I love how the “sample” packs from tevivre are exactly one serving. Yes you get two individually wrapped single serving packs per sample, and yes I ordered two of almost every sample in my order. Still- nice touch.
(NOTE) I should add that for a small, 6oz cup of tea, the amount per sample package is probably closer to two servings. But for my large 12oz cup, it is a single serving.
Ok, western style, 195F Water at 6 min per steeping instructions.
Flavor is… different. It’s not as cocoa-y as my golden blacks, although that flavor is still present. Strong malt flavor and I now know what that flavor tag “Autumn Leaf Pile” means because holy cow is that here. I’m not sure if I like this or not. It kinda tastes… dirty. Not earthy, DIRTY. There’s a bit of bread flavor here too. I’ve let it sit a bit and it really doesn’t taste good once it’s cooled. I think it was much tastier when hot. I mean, if you like a really woodsy black tea, then this would definitely be for you. I personally, however, think I will stick to my regular golden blacks.
Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Baked Bread, Cocoa, Malt, Wood
Preparation
With Feng Qing black teas, I think you need to brew them gongfu style to fully appreciate them. They tend to be very earthy and complex. Some people love that about them, but others don’t. You may also be able to get better results brewing these Western style if you start off with a shorter steep time. If it were me, I would start off with a 3 minute brew and then increase the steep time by 2 minutes for each subsequent infusion to see how the aromas and flavors change over time.
Agreed that six minutes is definitely a LONG time to brew this one Western to get the best version of its flavour. I’d personally recommend 3 or 4 minutes.
Agree. Kind of sort of on topic but what type of tea is the best grandpa style? Green? Thanks in advance.
I’m still relatively new at this and even I thought, when looking at the package, “5-8 minutes? Are you sure?” I really should have gone with my instincts rather than the packaging. I’ll try this again later with a much shorter steeping. The thing is, even oversteeping it like I did, I found that the drink was still palatable when really hot. The hotter the better it seemed. When I was typing that note, the tea had cooled significantly and it was just bleh. But when I went back for a resteep and drank it immediately it was actually not too bad.
@kawaii433 – personally, I’m a big fan of drinking oolong teas grandpa style – but really I’ll drink any straight tea grandpa except for black teas (I just find they get weird and bitter the most, and have the least longevity). Lately I’ve been doing a long of Grandpa style Shou, with the colder weather. The rest of my lab team Grandpa brews Chinese greens on the daily, though. So kind of just personal preference and experimentation, I suppose?
@Roswell Strange Ahh kk, thanks for the information. :D.
I’ve never grandpa brewed even once in my life, but I kinda want to try. I almost want to grandpa my Golden Monkey as I have found the Adagio Golden Monkey is extremely forgiving and doesn’t get bitter regardless of how long it steeps. Maybe I will try it sometime.
(Copied and pasted from other review. I almost had the right tea…)
So time for another chai, this time a grocery store chai I bought just before getting my first Adagio order. It wasn’t even opened and I bought it two months ago so that should be a hint of my excitement level.
Gonna keep things brief, this is an ok chai. Actually, it’s really ok. I’d give it a C+. It’s above average, but not by much. It is however, somewhat better than the Adagio Masala Chai. The flavor is more pronounced, even if it is mostly cinnamon. There’s enough of that in it to make my lip tingle. I’m getting a mild undertone of other spices, but it’s mostly cinnamon. Like I said, slightly above average, but not much.
Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove, Spices
Tea made an major inroad into my life when I was going through some hefty depression. Looking back, I think it was a healthy activity to dive into when feeling like I had a lack of control in my life.
Hang in there Shanie. You got this. Glad you have some family to turn to. I’ll have a cup of tea to you :)
100% have to echo Derk; I first got into tea following a move to a new city at a time where I felt super depressed. I had no direction in my life, new no one in my new town, and was in a highly self destructive place. Tea provided me with something to be excited about, and that engaged me physically as an activity and intellectually through learning about it. In finding Steepster, I was able to become a part of a community and that sort of crossed the final “box” of what I was missing in my life – a connection with people until I was able to meet new people in the city I had moved to and form relationships that way as well.
Family is the best sometimes. I am sure they treasure you as you treasure them.
Thanks guys for the support. I seem to be slowly crawling my way out. This is the second day in a row I’ve slept through the night and woken up in the morning, even though I had a long nap yesterday afternoon. I seem to be doing a bit better overall, and appreciate your kind words. Thanks.
I’ve been going through a bad depression right now too, and have noticed my tea hobby isn’t quite as “involved” as it once was. I think it’s just that typical “lack of energy toward things you normally enjoy” going on, but I’m trying to make an effort. Feel free to send me a message if you want to talk.