Adagio Teas

It was light and not as smokey. I must have picked up a scoop with less lapsang today. It tasted more of black tea. Still pretty good !

Smokey with some chocolate flavor. I also get hints of cherry flavor. It is a smooth tea. I love lapsang so this tea is perfect. Not too Smokey like their regular lapsang. It is one that I would consider getting in the future

Modified “grandpa style” in the park from this weekend – by which I mean brewed in a small, shallow teacup a few times – not the fanciest way to drink tea but it does the trick.

This is, I believe, the 2019 harvest of this tea – it was a Christmas present from a relative. For over a year old Bai Hao Yin Zhen, I thought this was pleasant. It felt fresh and flavourful enough to satisfy me, with fragrant honeysuckle notes and a flavour a little bit more cucumber-like…

This wasn’t the best brew method for evaluation, so future tasting notes to come with other preparation styles. However, for tea in the park it was good.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCQrx7FAmFy/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiXfzapc2Js

My very favorite coconut chai is from Satori Tea Company, so I might be giving an unfair review of this one. It doesn’t at all compare to my #1 in that category. It smelled delicious as I spooned it out of the bag. The coconut is evident, though I’m thinking it might be on the very edge of spoilage. Either that or I expected it to be spoiled so my mind kept sending me there. Or I just wanted a cup of my fav and I’m being grumpy about it. My husband loved it (and he doesn’t very often drink black teas or chai) so this is probably a good one, but there’s definitely better coconut chai blends out there.

There’s just no point. Got as a sample and would never buy again. The taste is off and not enjoyable to me personally.

Good tea without milk, bad with milk. Would certainly buy again in 3oz, unless I ever happened to find an even better “candy” mint tea. This type of tea is a staple in my collection, but it is quite pointless to have multiple of this type.
Currently I heavily dislike reviews which are written like a cozy blog post with way too much unrelated information, but of course don’t want to shit on people’s outlets of expression, I just don’t like reading someone’s life story to understand why they gave a particular review.

Got this as a sample. Too strong flavoring for my taste, would not buy again full size or even as a sample.

Got as sample but don’t think I would buy again. The lychee flavor is nice, but it feels more like flavored lychee drink than lychee green tea. Good in small quantities, but would not buy full size.

Very good staple tea. I had coconut milk left over after making curry, and adding about 3 spoonfuls of coconut milk along with regular milk (16oz) really enhances the coconut flavor. Would certainly buy again 3oz quantities, unless there was a really incredible sale going on I might consider getting 24 oz.

Very good iced after a tough workout, and with generous honey. Would buy again in 3oz.

Very good tea. Would definitely repurchase in 3oz quantity.

From earlier this week.

Sometimes I have moments when drinking teas where I become acutely aware of this snobby attitude I often have – despite really not wanting to. That happened with this tea, when I kind of internally scoffed reading the ingredients list when I saw that this uses jasmine flavouring and isn’t jasmine scented. It was a real knee-jerk kind of moment because as soon as I’d thought it I immediately sort of self corrected in my head because, what the fuck!? One, there’s nothing wrong with jasmine flavouring and, two, this is a jasmine rooibos – how crazy are my expectations to think that someone is out there hand scenting rooibos?!

Like – rooibos comes from South Africa and jasmine scenting is traditionally an Asian (primarily Chinese) practice. I bet there’s no one in either content actually combining the two, so why can’t I just appreciate that this is a very cool way to present a caffeine free jasmine tea that would theoretically be super well suited for a jasmine green tea drinker who can’t do caffeine all day – like, what innovation!

And actually, it was nice! I’m not a massive jasmine fan, but there are a few kinds I do enjoy and I especially like it when it isn’t combined with green tea so the sweeter and slightly honey tasting rooibos wasn’t a bad combination for me. It was smooth and pretty flavourful, and I could see it being a nice nighttime option. Not something that I’m going to replenish, but certainly better than my snobby ass had originally expected from it.

From the weekend – tried this for the first time since ordering it on February 29th this year…

I was impressed with it as a breakfast blend; very robust and full bodied but also quite smooth and creamy with a mix of malt, honeysuckle, and raisin notes. It was the creaminess that really got me though – I hadn’t added anything to the tea and yet it was giving off such creaminess that I thought of Devonshire cream/clotted cream from scones.

I also had it with a Cranberry Coconut bagel from a Black ownedbagel shop with some of the best and most unique bagels I’ve had since moving to Montreal. Supporting Black owned businesses with tea and breakfast in bed feels so good!!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CB_JvaAgTph/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwJ0XlU_P8o

First cup of the day to wake me up, more than for the flavour itself. It’s set to be the hottest day of the year here too, so it might also be my only hot tea of the day. Actually, I received quite a few bottles of grown up juice for my birthday so it might be my only tea of the day full stop! It’s weird having a birthday in lockdown, I can’t see my friends or my family and I can’t go out to celebrate. I’m spending most of the day doing online training, so it doesn’t really feel like a birthday at all. I did get a couple of novel cold brew teas as presents, so maybe I’ll make one of those later to cool down while I’m working.

There were quite a few pieces of ginger floating around the infuser while this was steeping, which made me nervous because historically ginger and I don’t get on so well. It is very strong, and definitely the overriding note of this chai, but it actually works pretty well with the tart apple and robust black tea, so I’m not mad at it. Like most of Adagio’s black teas, I added milk to temper the astringency. Not bad if you like heavily spiced chais, but for my it’s just too ginger-heavy to drink often.

Definitely has Chinese characteristics, with chocolate and molasses-like smelling notes coming from the dry leaves.

When steeped it has a nice roasted nut like flavor that I enjoy a lot, one of my favorites. Decently priced too.

From the Samurai TTB.

So I forgot to write my note while I was drinking this. Just drink drink drinking away, no thought at all for my notebook or tealog. I can say for sure that I really enjoyed this one from SkySamurai. It had such a unique fruity quality that I can’t say I’ve tasted before. I couldn’t pinpoint the fruit, but I kept thinking how remarkable it was that this tasted so fruity. Anyway, maybe if I’d written my note while drinking I could have come up with more, but this is all I’ve got. I liked it!

Grandpa Style!

Seriously misjudged the amount of leaf that I tossed into the Nordic mug, so when it all unfurled it actually unfurled out of the mug. So, suffice to say that this was a STRONG cup of tea! Even still, it didn’t taste bad – creamy, buttery and floral. I can’t remember for sure if this is flavoured/scented, but just judging by this taste (even if it was amped up) I think it probably is?