Adagio Custom Blends, Kiernan Sjursen-Lien

This tea is deliciously rich. It’s full bodied and warm. I always grab this tea on a cold, bitter day to bring a little bit of life back into it!

sipdown!
I’ve come to really love this tea. It really helps calm my stomach when it’s feeling upset. This is, as I’ve said, a no-nonsense tea. All the flavors are very sharp and in your face, especially the lemon balm. But there are also notes of black tea, nuts, and chocolate competing for the spotlight. I would definitely buy this again.

I’m totally frustrated at our mail people lately. It feels like they’re holding our mail! I got my Wed. on Sat. and I’m still waiting for a book that got mailed out a week and a half ago. On top of this, I’m waiting for a Verdant order which was supposed to go out today, but is stuck in sorting. It took them a whole 5 days just to ship it from the drop off! In other words, they’re really just making me mad at this point.
As for the tea, this one is a tea that goes in and out of popularity for me. Some days I love it, some days I hate it. Notes of ginger, lemon balm, chocolate, sharp herbs, and nuts. No nonsense for sure!

Wow, this smells so much better to me today. I wonder why that is? I’ve heard of other brands needing some adjustment time before being had. For whatever reason, I think that may be why this one was throwing me off. The smell is still very strong with this one. The lemon verbena is so much stronger than I would suspect, being as it is just an “accent” to the tea. I really actually love nut (especially hazelnut) teas, so this has plenty of that to offer. Still, the ginger and lemon verbena are strong players in this blend.

I was interested in this tea by the description, but also a bit hesitant. It is just that, interesting. The ginger and lemon verbena are more aggressive than I personally would have made them. It makes for a really interesting tea. I wouldn’t say I like or dislike it. The chocolate notes are very, very subtle. The base on this one seems more stable than other Adagio flavored blacks. When you smell this in the bag it instantly reminds me of chocolate orange. It is actually a very calming tea; perhaps the lemon verbena? I’ve never had it before.

Sipdown!
I actually really enjoyed this one. It is a light chocolate tea that reminds me of jelly rolls. This tea could have used something to ground it a bit more; maybe a stronger black base? I tend to enjoy my chocolate teas with dark bases.

(copied from Adagio) How does this not have more notes?! This tea is soooo good! I was a bit timid about temp/times because this has some white tea in it, but it could have been brewed longer without any issues. This tastes just like those little jelly roll chocolates that everyone buys me for Christmas! It is very flavorful and I look forward to having this one around.

Don’t think I get pear or strawberry. However, it does taste like the scent of an old fashioned candy store. Kind of like old wood (not in a bad way) and nonspecific “sweet.” Maybe that is the jelly roll chocolate taste Tamm mentioned.

Thanks for the sample, Tamm!