Adagio Teas

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #12 (out of 12).

Wonderful aroma after opening the zip bag, with a lot of chocolate and fudge caramel plus a bit of woody smokiness and chocolate liqueur.
After steeping the aroma is much more mellow, very dessert-like, with chocolate and fudge notes intertwined like in layered ice cream.
The taste is also very mellow, slightly sweet, very chocolate-y, with cocoa nibs in the aftertaste.
Really nice pastry tea, well balanced and not oversweetened.

meh.

It was okay. The balance between the flavoring and the green tea is lost. The flavor profiles that are described are lost. It was a nondescript tropical flavored tea.

This is my go-to tea when I want a caffeinated iced tea. It’s complex and scrumptious. I get notes of cocoa, leather, honey, and hay. It’s also so versatile! Great mixed with lemon, raspberry, honeybush, etc.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this. It was okay, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to drink it. It was really interesting how it was creamy and also had a hint of coconut.

This tea is just okay to me. I wouldn’t pick it to drink regularly, but what’s really interesting about it is how creamy it is. I also get hints of coconut.

Obviously not that pure tumeric taste but pretty good, but needs a generous sized tsp/cup ratio to pull through. Would buy 3oz again for regular stock, unless I had the tumeric+ginger combo from Vahdam, which is so much nicer without any fruit added to the tumeric.

Decent, would buy again in small quantities if there was a sale.

Had this one late last night – arguably a little bit too late because I was already half asleep and I didn’t really process what I was drinking much. Thankfully Hojicha is pretty dang low in terms of caffeine, and I was out of it enough already for it to not be a big problem anyway. I’ll have to try this again (ideally in my Hojicha yixing) but from what I can recall the taste was a little mineral leaning metallic – like the sensation when you lick a penny? Not unpleasant, since it was still roasty/toasty, but not as rich/deep as some of the other hojicha that I own.

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #11 (out of 12).

Wonderful aroma after opening the zip bag: hay, fallen leaves, cocoa, some spices, a hint of smoke.
After steeping it smells a lot like miso soup with a lot of seaweed, but it is very mellow. There’s also a bit of slightly roasted cocoa, solid maltiness and delicate fruit notes.
The taste sensation is very mellow and velvety, with a strong foundation of maltiness and earthiness plus a bit of cocoa, only a slight sweetness and low astringency. TYhe aftertaste is very peculiar, with strong mineral character.
Very good, special tea.

Gongfu!

Found another little tea spot by my apartment, tucked away and surrounded by trees and overgrowth – seemed like the perfect spot to get some fresh air and brew up a lovely session. I feel like the spectrum of quality you can get with Keemun is so incredibly large, but I was very happy with this one – all the flavour notes that I expect & want were present!! A subtle, smoky top note – more complexity in the body of the sip with peppery notes of pine wood, and finally a creeping undertone of red fruits such as pomegranate or currant. I experienced some mild astringency on steeps one and two, but felt it added to the complexity of the tea rather than made for an unpleasant mouthfeel and experience. Keemun generally doesn’t resteep exceptionally, so this was only about a four steep tea session but it was a very good one!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAnBnLDA05E/

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

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #10 (out of 12).

Wonderful aroma out of the zip bag, reminding me of old leather and wet tree bark.
After steeping the leather subsides, but there’s a strong wood barrel character, hot soil after the rain starts, maltiness, mellow pipe tobacco, raisins and Autumn leaves. Really unique and exquisite.
The taste is very mellow and it unwinds magnificently. There is no sweetness, bitterness nor astringency, just the rich and complex bouquet.
Really wonderful tea.

Experimented with this and peach black tea from Fortnum and Mason. The flavor of this tea is light when I tried it iced by itself and very weak hot by itself. I decided to add this to the peach black tea and cold steep the two. It is beautiful. The light peach flavor from this tea add to the peach flavor from the peach black tea. It creates a wonderful blend together.

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #9 (out of 12).

And satisfying my sweet tooth. Currently I don’t eat sweets per se, but I don’t mind dessert teas, so this time I’m drinking te chocolate chip one.

It has a great smell after opening the zip bag, with a lot of cocoa nibs and chocolate.
After steeping, the aroma is still dominated by chocolate (of course), but it’s not one dimensional. You can sense milk chocolate, cocoa nibs and chocolate liqueur in it, plus a hefty dose of vanilla.
The taste is more cocoa-like than chocolate-like, with solid notes of roasted cocoa, creamy, mellow texture, some vanilla and only slight sweetness. Rich, very rich, even a bit heavy, but you don’t drink such teas on an everyday basis, so that’s not a problem,
This tea would probably teste well with some milk. I’ll try it this way one day.

Cold Brew Sipdown (1102)!

I’d be sadder about this sipdown if I didn’t still have the Coconut Grove Pouchong from Adagio in my stash – the two are so flippin’ similar.

This was nice though; more focus on the greener and floral notes of the oolong base with a soft and delicate creamy coconut that reminded me a bit of coconut water. Super light bodied, but nuanced and fascinating flavours. Made for an excellent midday refreshing tea to sip on slowly while winding down after a very long afternoon of podcast recording last weekend!

Did a side by side of this and Adagio’s new Coconut Grove Pouchong…

Cross referencing that tasting note which goes into more detail:
https://steepster.com/roswellstrange/posts/403240#likes

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #8 (out of 12).
Very nice, complex aroma, with a lot of base black malty tea enriched by solid cream/custard, sweet notes, with vanilla.
And the taste is also complex, with only slight sweetness and very low astringency.
Nice dessert tea

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #7 (out of 12).
The aroma is dominated, as one can imagine, by dark caramel, very nice and mellow, toffee or dulce de leche like.
And it blends really well with the base black malty tea, isn’t cloying, in fact it’s only barely sweet.
Good tea. It would probably taste great with some milk.

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #6 (out of 12).
Lovely aroma of dry tea from the zip bag – fruit pie, milk chocolate, caramel, butter cookies and butterscotch, of course.
It’s a bit different after steeping. The aroma is dominated by butterscotch flavouring and baked apple, with some flowery notes more in the background.
Slight sweetness in taste, underlined by solid maltiness and very full, creamy body, with no bitterness nor astringency.
Very good dessert tea, not overdone with sweetness or flavourings.