adagio breeze Send Message

Oh, I do like this one. Cleanly spinachy and buttery, and very moreish. There’s a subtle note of mild seaweed that makes it taste somewhat oceanic. My first sips brought back some kind of smell/taste memory of sitting in a Japanese restaurant eating udon and vegetable maki. Which is kind of what it tastes like – delicately cooked greens in dashi broth.

I can’t believe how good this tastes almost 10 months after I bought it. Now I’m curious what it’s like when it’s really fresh.

Thanks to the guy at the Bleecker St NYC location for giving me such a generous sample!

While it’s usually kind of fun to try to pick out all the various flavor notes in straight teas, sometimes it’s nice to just have the name of the product tell you what to expect. It tastes like – that’s right – potatoes with apple & cinnamon, and makes for a surprisingly refreshing beverage. I found the liquor a bit thin, but I suspect that can be remedied by using more leaf and/or less water. A solid offering that I look forward to playing with more!

This is probably the most expensive tea I’ve purchased from Stacy, hence my usual putting-off of the good stuff that I’ve recently learned you’re not supposed to do with greens. I bought this nearly a year ago and I’m only trying it for the first time today. Sigh.

I used 1.5 tsp dry leaf (I wish the “amount” box would recognize decimals or fractions) and probably a little less water at a little lower temperature and for maybe 4 seconds longer than the recommended parameters. The resulting liquor was pretty intense – I almost never add more hot water after steeping, but I did twice for this one. Even then it was somewhat bitter and astringent, but there were some buttery and spinach-y elements I liked. (Why do I always think green teas taste like buttered spinach?) I’ll try it with only a teaspoon of leaf next time.

ETA: Went for a second steep, 1m15s. It’s much gentler than the first steep, but still has a bitter bite along the sides of my tongue & plenty of umami (at least that’s what I think it is). The buttery & vegetal qualities are much less present, but I think I can make out some nuttiness, and perhaps a wisp of fruit.

Giving this another go tonight, hoping it’ll help clear my head after my inaugural gongfu session (I don’t think I’ve consumed that much green tea in one sitting in a long time).

It’s still kind of weak at 3m15s, and I’m not very fond of it unsweetened. It seems to taste better as it cools, so I may save the remainder to make iced tea when the weather gets warmer.

This is just okay to me. The only flavor I can definitely pick out is the ginger, and everything else is an earthy, slightly bitter muddle before I add agave. I’m kind of disappointed that the berries & lemon zest aren’t coming through more clearly. And there’s a fine grit of unknown origin at the bottom of my cup.

On the plus side, it is quite good brewed rather strongly & sweetened, and it does seem to be a nice remedy for what ails me. It soothed my tummy from last night’s bout of indigestion, and tonight my head feels better than it did before I started drinking it.

Despite having purchased a gaiwan months ago, I only used it for the very first time today. I didn’t want to use a tea that was too pricey or short-stocked for my maiden voyage, so I went with this one, which I still have a good 25 grams of after a year in my cupboard.

Using the gaiwan was pretty easy – pretty much the same premise as opening the lid of a pot just enough to drain the cooking water off boiled pasta. I only got a big piece of leaf in my cup once (which is better than my track record with draining pasta). Whittard only has western-style instructions on their site, so I used Teavivre’s gongfu instructions for their Huang Shan Mao Feng as a guide (80 C, 5s rinse, 30/60/90). I started at around 85 C for the rinse.

Rinse (I don’t know if you’re meant to taste this, but I did): butter! Somewhat salty. Mild flavor of some type of cooked greens.

1: Similar to rinse, but more cooked greens & less buttery. Getting some bitterness.

2: I poured this one off after 30s, but it seemed a bit weak, so I poured it back into the gaiwan for another 30s. This made it kind of unpleasantly bitter, like overcooked greens. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go any further after this cup, but…

3: I poured this after 65-70s. Still bitter. Don’t think I’ll go for a fourth.

Obviously my gongfu skills need refining, and this tea is hella old, and I very likely overleafed, but I’m inclined to think my original 91 rating was more of a reflection of my beginner’s enthusiasm than the tea’s quality. It’s probably not a good sign when the rinse is my favorite steep.
And now my head hurts. Dropping the rating like it’s hot.

Tonight I’m cracking into my Verdant herbal blends to see if I want to add any to my next order. The dry leaf for this one is so pretty! Little flakes of green sprinkled with pink rose petals, and pieces of ginger & lemon zest poking through here and there.

4 minutes is probably too long for the size of the cup I used, though it did seem a little weak at 3 minutes. The ginger is pretty mild but strong enough to make my tongue tingle. Unsweetened, there were some bitter & earthy flavors I couldn’t put my finger on (can’t say I have any idea what burdock or rhodiola are supposed to taste like), though after adding some agave nectar it tasted quite a bit like ginger ale. I’ll let you guess which way I liked it better.

Hmm. I think I like this one, but I’ll have to try it again to be sure.

I’ve resolved to make greens & lightly oxidized oolongs my priority, after reading a Verdant blog post saying they only stay fresh for about 4 months. Let’s just say I have my work cut out for me.

Dry leaf smells a bit like being on the coast – herbaceous, but with a whiff of ocean air. After being rehydrated, the leaves appear very delicate, almost the texture of seaweed. The flavor is light and similar to the aroma; very clean, with a satisfying thickness to the liquor. It’s very similar in taste to a Japanese green, and quite different from the only other Korean green I’ve tried, which was biscuity and fruity-sweet.

I was expecting a lot worse, considering the overall rating! Yes, its flavor is barely-there at times, but so is the tea I’ve had at most of the Japanese restaurants I’ve been to. I’ll have to seek out some other Korean teas.

Oh my gosh this is good. I’m only on my first steep (1/2 tsp, ~6 oz water) and I need to go out and run some errands, but I got all excited drinking it and had to write a little note. Smells like roasted nuts while brewing, then wonderful swirls of creamy/toasty/fruity flavor that made me slurp down my cup a little too fast. Yesssss. This is a good find. I bought it from Rachel of iHeartTeas in a stash sale she did last summer – not sure why she got rid of it, but I’m really glad I was able to pick it up!

This is my first time trying a Da Hong Pao. When I first sipped it I thought “wood”, but on second thought it’s more like roasted grains. I’ve steeped this three times now, each infusion much like the one before and a bit one-note (NB: I bought this tea nearly 10 months ago, so age might be catching up with it). I do like the fact that it tastes toasty rather than charred, unlike many other roasted oolongs I’ve had. Not amazing, but very smooth & drinkable.

Backlog: I made a pot of this a week or two ago from a sample I pilfered from the first round of the European Traveling Tea Box. The dry leaf smelled amazing, but my expectations weren’t all that high based on what I’ve heard about & tried from Adagio.

I had taken more from the box than the brewing instructions recommended for a cup, so I used what looked like proportionately more water (didn’t bother measuring, though) and followed the parameters on Adagio’s website. The first infusion was rather heavy, resinous, and almost piney – interesting, but not really what I was hoping for. Probably too hot & long a steep.

From the second infusion on, I decided to just go with what I thought was the right amount of water/temperature/time. That’s when rainbows appeared and birds started singing. Gorgeous perfect jasmine flavor! As if that weren’t enough, these lovely little leaves gave me another five delicious steeps. SEVEN steeps from a white tea brewed western style! Super impressive. I’m definitely grabbing some more of this next time I place an Adagio order. Thanks for sharing, KittyLovesTea!