Adagio Teas

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #5 (out of 12).

This one was a freebie sample. I don’t mind the English breakfast teas in gereral, because I usually find them perfectly casual, but I wouldn’t buy them of my own will. So I’m glad I got this one for free.

And I really like the smell. There’s wood, a bit of smoke, a bit of wet cardboard, some earthiness and even a bit of dark chocolate. Very rich and complex aroma.
And this woody smokiness dominates the flavour. It’s not very strong, just seems to be the main characteristic over an earthy background. There’s also some residual sweetness that complements the taste and very slight astringency.

All in all, it’s a very good tea. Maybe it’s time to review my approach to English breakfasts?

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #4 (out of 12).

I can’t believe that this tea wasn’t in Steepster database.
Anyway, the smell is not very strong, but dark, very earthy, with very slight smoky character.
And so is the taste, rich and complex, very deep, slightly sweet, almost not bitter.
I like it more than English breakfast teas, but I probably wouldn’t like to drink it on the everyday basis. And for me it’s more an afternoon tea, not a breakfast one.

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #3 (out of 12).

I just love the smell of hazelnut in the afternoon!
it already smelled great right after opening the zip bag and I absolutely don’t mind that this smell comes from flavourings.
And after steeping it smells even better! Just like a delicious hazelnut cake or a pancake with hot nutella.
And the taste is also very full, complex, malty, not as sweet as could be expected. Delicious pastry tea really full of hazelnut flavour.

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #2 (out of 12).
My second Adagio tea and first from a small sample bag. And I just love the idea of a zip bag. So practical.
As I expected, this one is rich and malty, with typical to Assam teas wet cardboard in the background. It tastes a bit bitter (steeped for 4 minutes), but I certainly don’t mind a little bitterness in a decent tea, and a bit astringent, with solid, malty base and threshold sweetness.

Discovering Adagio teas, episode #1 (out of 12).
Recently I made my first order at Adagio Teas (UK). I liked their tea selection and the fact that they sell 30 g samples. I definitely prefer small packages, because they allow me to taste more varieties. 50 g bags are fine, 30 g bags are even better. I’m planning to avoid the tea shops that sell only 100 g packages or bigger (hear it Denmark!).
So my first pick is the only large tin from my order, Irish Breakfast (blend of Ceylon and Assam black teas). Filled above the rim, so it’s not easy to scoop the tea without spilling, but I’m not going to complain.
Lovely dark brown-red colour.
Distinct wet cardboard flavour, typical to Assam teas. As a beer judge, I would find it a sign of oxidation and an off-flavour in beer, but here it’s different, of course, and expected. Apart from that, the aroma is rich, dark, malty, woody.
Very smooth taste, with only trace of astringency (I steeped it strong), slightly sweet and caramelly.
Very good tea, in my opinion much better as a blend than just a sum of its parts. Looking forward to my other Adagio teas.

My flavour cravings seem to come in waves, and the most recent one has been pear teas…

I’m actually a little surprised to see how poorly rated this tea is here on Steepster because I enjoyed it a lot. I suppose it is the kind of polarizing pear flavour that is so decisive; very sweet, very artificial overripe pear. However, I love how sweet and syrupy it comes off; like the juicy pear flavoured Jelly Belly candies. It’s the type of pear flavouring that could easily be too sweet, but the use of a soft, and delicate white base seems to help offset some of that boldness.

I know I’ve always appreciated this pear flavour any time it’s been used in a fandom blend, and I’m happy to know that I like it when unmixed as well. I guess I’m just the minority in that…

Sipdown! 179/397

I think I’m going to miss this tea more than I thought I would. Before I started drinking loose leaf tea, I would get black tea with a shot of hazelnut syrup when I went out to a coffee shop with my friends. This is so nostalgic for me because it reminds me of that time, and not only that but once you add the tiniest drop of milk to hide the astringency from the Adagio base, it’s a really tasty cup. The hazelnut is rich and creamy, with an almost caramel-like quality to it which makes this feel like a treat. I bet this would be a lovely tea to have with pancakes on a lazy morning. Adding to my wishlist. I probably wouldn’t buy a large quantity of this, but it’s something I’d like to have in for the occasions when I want a bold, nutty cup of tea.

Had this earlier in the day. Like last time the dry aroma is very creamy &silky milk chocolate but unfortunately, as beautifully as it froths up, the taste is extremely thin and more just a nice, creamy matcha than anything resembling chocolate.

Boo.

Picked this one up because I like the idea of a chocolate flavoured matcha – and I don’t think I’ve ever had a good one, so here’s hoping!

This matcha smells rich, buttery and like milk chocolate in the sample packet but all whisked up the cocoa note is very weak. Though, the texture is super silky and the flavour quite creamy in addition to the overall strong umami profile – I feel as if the base matcha used is actually a nice quality but the flavour is just really lacking for me.

If I was blindly served this, I might enjoy it but I definitely wouldn’t know it’s meant to be chocolate flavoured…

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_xBfAZg7Mj/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMgGVZmqb8

Sipdown 169/397.

I’m actually really surprised I hadn’t written any tasting notes on this one yet, given that it was one of the first loose leaf teas I ever purchased – I am very ashamed to say I’ve had this tea for almost exactly SIX YEARS now! Yikes. I never finished it off because it never really appealed to me. I’m not a huge fan of Adagio’s black Ceylon base – it’s too astringent to drink plain in my opinion, and ever so slightly citrus-y, which doesn’t really go with the cream flavouring (which itself is very artificial tasting). It’s not the worst I’ve ever tried, but it’s not very exciting and it smells a lot better than it tastes. Just overall unremarkable. It won’t be missed, and it probably will be forgotten. Oh well.

Cold Brew!

Made this using the Fujian Jasmine Pearls from the Masters line up from Adagio. I always have a hard time eyeballing ball rolled teas over other tea types when making tea – I’ve gotten so much better at it, but there’s definite room for improvement.

This was an intensely floral cold brew, so in the future I would use less pearls. It’s a nice way for me to plow through some of this sample though, because it’s not a tea that I typically drink and I don’t love hot jasmine green teas in general. It’s more refreshing cold, and I taste less of the green tea (hard to avoid it completely though). Weirdly, I’m actually NOT tasting the signature “grape” note that I personally almost always get from jasmine teas, and I’m so used to the two flavours being tied together that the absence of it is almost jarring…

Grandpa brewed some of these pearls yesterday; I was amused that I had a teacup that matched the tin so spot on here!! These pearls were a gift during the holidays from a family member & not something I would have typically purchased for myself, though I did find them quite smooth. Being a person who isn’t very into jasmine teas or green tea, this won’t be a restock but I also don’t think I’ll struggle to finish this tea either…

Also, just gotta say that when I opened the Steepster page for this tea I saw that someone else has used “grape” as a flavour descriptor for this tea and seeing that made me SO EXCITED!! I always taste grape in jasmine teas, and I’m just elated that I’m not alone in finding that flavour note!

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

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2edy0mowBZU

Pleasant, mild. A little too sweet for my preference, actually, but I still enjoyed it.

Thanks again for the swap, AJRimmer!  I like this one!  I guess I’m surprised?  Dry, the blend has that artificial peach flavor (AJRimmer says “peach rings” and I say YES), but on steeping, the flavor tones down a bit.  My sample looked to be mostly apple and rosehips (so yeah, very surprised these ingredients brought such a tasty flavor), though the mug stayed a bright yellow color and never resulted in anything tangy.  It was a nice, delicate, fruity, bright couple of cups.  I wouldn’t have minded more chamomile, but I’ll be saving the sipdown for the hottest of summer days (well… night… it’s no-caff.)
Steep #1  // 2 teaspoons for full mug // 15 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  20 min steep

With the weather starting to really change and cool down, and the sun setting earlier each day I’m realizing that I’m going to have a very limited amount of time left where I can have tea outside until summer next year – so I’ve been making more of an effort to get outside for a session on the weekends or right after finishing work for the day on days I’m working from home…

This is something that I haven’t really had in a long time now, but it was that type of afternoon where I was like, “Fuck – we gonna have some outdoor tea time” and I just scrambled to grab teaware, water, and the first black tea sample that I saw.

It was a nice tea – it’s robust and malty, with a sweetness to it that I like from steep to steep. I didn’t find as much nuance in this little mini session as I have in the past, but I did really enjoy myself and that is ultimately what matters!

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

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnaxmFw9Pjo&ab_channel=glassbeach

Gongfu!

From Thursday, I think? Honestly the days blur together half the time and it’s getting weird keeping track of it all. It’s been more than a month now of social isolation, which is crazy weird to think about…

I picked this sample out for myself because I was curious to see if this would be anything like DT’s Jasmine Black Pearls – and clearly I wasn’t the only one who made that connection because I had at least three people reach out on instagram to ask me how they compared/which I liked better. That’s hard to say for a few reasons. Firstly, as much as I do my absolute best to be honey, fair and impartial I will always have at least some built in bias because I’m a DT employee. Secondly, they’re two VERY different teas aside from the obvious similarity from the pearl shape. The one from DT is pretty heavily jasmine scented and this tea is NOT jasmine scented – so that makes the experience quite different…

I did enjoy the session a lot though. I used, I believe, seven pearls for my gaiwan. However the pearls themselves vary in size quite a bit so if you’re measuring by pearl that is not a perfect system. Some of them also unfurled VERY quickly, and others retained their ball form for quite a few additional steeps, which I found really interesting.

In terms of taste, I would describe this as smooth but ultimately very thick and full bodied with a lovely mix of darker sweet notes and more umami/savory leaning elements. Stand out notes were dark & bitter cacao or baker’s chocolate, malt, and what I want to call like a smoked cumin kind of note? Smoked spice of some kind, anyway. Really coating on the throat, and even had a hint of that tickle you get in the back of your throat sometimes that feels kinda good?

Was it mind blowing? No – but it was very solid.

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

(First photos that I took for instagram with my new phone; the camera quality makes a world of difference!)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLJVEvRuPA4

This is another sampler that came to me a few summers ago from Meowster’s cupboard destash, so thanks Meowster! I honestly don’t have the highest expectations, though. For one, because it is a pu-erh, the one type of tea that despite me trying again and again, it just always taste like dirt or swampwater to me and I can’t quite understand why it’s considered the “fancy coffee” of the tea world and be a “true tea connoisseur” you should be drinking expensive puerh and nothing else… when it tastes like dirt or swampwater. I’ve been okay with a few flavored puerh blends I’ve tried, but that leads to my second point… the only other Adagio pu-erh I’ve tried was their Pu-erh Chorange, which I personally found awful, like a very fake, artificial-tasting orange was dropped in a pile of dirt. So… ya. Maybe the sheer age of this sampler at this point may have improved it?

So, this one falls into the “swampwater” realm. Again, not really a flavor I enjoy, but I suppose it is slightly more preferable than the “dirt” ones. It’s like a strong, vegetal, marine/earthy taste. It isn’t undrinkable and actually very smooth for what it is. There is an earthy taste that lingers in the aftertaste, as well as some minerality. It actually is better than the Pu-erh Chorange, since it doesn’t have that awful artificial orange flavoring smothered over the top of such a conflicting flavor. But it still isn’t really a flavor that is for me. I wonder how many pu-erh samples I’ll try, trying to convince myself to “like” this stuff because proper tea-drinkers are “supposed to like it”…

I finished off my Keemun Concerto, and while most of Adagio’s Teas have been very hit-or-miss for me, that one was definitely a hit for me… it will be very missed. This is another of their Chinese blacks that I have a small sampler of back from Meowster’s cupboard destash a few summer’s ago, and I have just enough for a small pot, so I decided to brew it up for breakfast this morning.

The tea has a strong warm, baked bread aroma, and a subtle hint of warm cherries. The tea has a strong malty, bready flavor, with a more subtle note of smoke, and some minerality that comes out toward the end of the sip. I get a very subtle cherry note left on my tongue after the sip, as well, but more of a malt and burnt toast note during the sip.

It is a nice breakfast tea, but I still like the Keemun Concerto better. Thanks for the sample!

Cold Brew!

I’ve moved on from my kombucha now, and am onto what is possibly my last tea of the night. I liked the dry aroma of this white tea a lot, though the tea leaf itself looked quite broken up. It had the same citrus note that I get from chenpi blends, which is sort of a mix of the natural orange oils (which have a little sweetness to them) and a bit of a pithy “zest” or rind kind of note. Not anything tangy, sour or acidic – or “juicy”, but still a deeply natural type of orange…

Steeped up, it really is reminding me A LOT of the flavour of those white tea stuffed mandarin/tangerines – exactly the same type of citrus notes. It’s nice because it’s so clean tasting and finishing, with a highly refreshing element to it from the white tea. I’m also getting notes of flowering cucumber as well, both flesh and skin. I imagine this would probably also be good hot, but cold it’s really hitting the spot tonight. So natural, and a good sweetness level.

If Celestial Seasonings made a zinger with a hint of vanilla and without the convenient bag, it would be this. Sure does taste like hibiscus, rosehips, and assorted berry flavorings. Mediocre as both a hot and cold brew.

First, I love Adagio teas and shops. The staff is always knowledgeable and friendly and want to share their tea love.

Second, when I was in buying tea a few years ago, I decided it was finally time for me to try matcha. The employee took me through the ritual and I instantly fell in love.

As this was the first matcha I had ever tried I didn’t know much about it and have since done a lot of research. While I do still like Adagio matcha and drink it every day,, and am not an expert, I don’t believe this is ceremonial grade. The color is dull and muddy, not vibrant and green as with other matches I’ve tried.

Once my stash is gone I will likely not buy Adagio matcha again.