Custom-Adagio Teas, Aun-Juli Riddle

Mint and chai, two flavours I love to have in my tea cupboard. Yum!!
Thank you to Cavorax for sharing!
The blend of spices and mint was perfect in this cup. I really enjoyed it. Though I can’t pinpoint what was in it exactly as the mint seemed to obscure things a tad. Not that I mind, delish is delish and I’ll take it :)

Sipdown! 128/365!

Not bad. I like the candy cane mint and the spicing is interesting, though it’s not a tea I’d reach for.

Did not realize this was a GoT tea, probably because I only started watching it around season… 6? I assume the name refers to the first season (I’m seeing the picture of the tea, and that seems likely correct?) Anyhow, this is a share from Cavo – thanks again! I actually rather enjoyed my most recent cup of this. I apparently like candy cane bits in tea… who knew. I drank it in a tired fog though, so only remember that I liked it, and that’s about it.

Thanks for sharing this, Cavocorax!

It’s definitely very minty, which would be expected given that it contains candy cane, plus I can taste the chai elements as well. Not bad, though definitely more appropriate for Christmas. Also, the only blend out of the four I brewed up tonight that wasn’t astringent! Woo!

Sipdown (117)!

Thank you VariaTEA for sending a sample of this one my way! It’s my first tea of the morning; I had it set aside for yesterday but never quite made it to the sample.

I have to say, I’m quite happy I watched enough GoT to understand the character reference here! I think the ingredients picked out by this blender are pretty well thought out too; though I do think there might just be a bit more “Fire” than “Ice” – although to be fair there certainly are a lot of very visable candy cane pieces in the dry leaf.

This is essentially a Chai, though an unconventional one, so I wasn’t the most excited about this blend but it came out pretty tasty! The clove is easily the strongest flavour here, and since that’s the one ‘conventional’ Chai spice that I personally feel you can never have too much of that works very well in my favor.

The rest of the flavour is pretty nice too; there’s an even dispersal of ginger, cardamom and cinnamon with just the faintest little touch of smoke from the Lapsang. The candy cane isn’t as strong as I expected given how much I could see in the leaf and the fact that this is inspired by Ned Stark which obviously ties into the whole “Winter Is Coming”/Ice thing. It is present, but subtly so and it’s more acting as a sweetener than really contributing any strong mint flavour. The finish is a little bit peppery, with maybe a touch too much cardamom.

Overall I think this is better than most Adagio fan blends though; they tend to get pretty muddled because blenders pick out ingredients that are either too similar so there’s no contrast or playing off one another or they pick ingredients that fit the ‘character’ but clash with one another/don’t compliment each flavour. This kind of avoids that for the most part, while still being fairly thoughtful.

I definitely wanted more “ice” – but maybe it’s poetic irony that the “fire” was the most dominant thing…

For a non chai fan like myself, this was great! It wasn’t overly spicy or overly ginger-y. It was very subtle and reminded me of a sweet potato with butter and cinnamon. I can see this as being an everyday kind of tea. Plus its a fandom tea so you gotta enjoy that!

Here is the full review:
http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/04/22/dragons-dream-tea-signature-blend-by-adagio-teas/

Completely forgot I had this tea as it got a little lost at the back of my tea cupboard… It tastes of almond, marzipan and cream and its decent but not a favorite… not too upset that its a sip down this afternoon.

“Winter is Coming” http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/01/08/happily-headless-from-adagio-teas-got-inspired-tea/

Eggnog latte for the morning and though I’m not getting much in the way of mint, I am getting the chai spices which combined with the eggnog is making for a spice cake sort of flavor. Really kinda lovely and cozy this morning :)

I made this as a latte and I am not sure what happened but the mint has subsided and is only present in the aftertaste. What do I get when I am actually drinking this then?! Spice cake! Moist, rich spice cake! It is really good! It’s weird since the flavors in this are ones I would usually pass on trying but they are really working for me. I am passing the rest of the samples on to my tea twin so she can try it out but I am incredibly grateful to Cavocorax for the share! I would actually consider buying this if I were placing an Adagio order.

Thank you Cavocorax for sharing. I actually quite liked this. The clove and chai spices provide a nice warmth to the cup (the fire) while the mint smooths everything out and leaves you feeling refreshed at the end of the sip (the ice). However, in this cup the peppermint is definitely the strongest element which maybe doesn’t 100% suit the inspiration of this tea seeing as Ned (the representative of the north/winter/ice) certainly did not win in this scenario.

Picked this one up from Shadowfall

Yummy!! This one is for sure a great blend. Adagio’s Custom Blend are hit or miss for me. I think they can have a real “muddy” flavor where none of the flavors really stand out. But this one is not one of those blends. I might just have to get a whole 3 oz of this one. I’m not a fan of chai or spiced teas. I’m trying to expand my horizons in that regard which is why I was happy to see this one. I recommend this one to anybody who isn’t a huge fan of chai like me. It has green chai in it which makes my soul happy. Love my green tea. The spice is light and combined with the buttery flavor the green tea provides and the apple and cinnamon flavors, all I can say is delish! More Please!

I put off trying this in the LoTR pack, mostly because I’m burnt out on apple/cinnamon combinations. However, this is delightful and I’m glad I have the rest of the tin to sip on. Clove takes the front seat, and clove is one of my favorite spices. Easy to drink straight up, which is my preference in tea.

Sipping my last mug of this tea. I’ve enjoyed drinking it this week. The flavor is very subtle, but pleasant.

The flavor is very subtle. I’m getting some blueberry if I think about it. The tea is not bitter at all, with a creamy texture that definitely lends to the scone description. A nice cuppa on a grey day.

Fourth from the set (technically 5th since I skipped White tea of Kings)

Dry smell wise I get not quite chai, not quite lemongrass/vegetal, but definitely sweet, creamy strawberry scent. The chai is there, but it’s a different sort of chai than is in the other blends. This is more, errr, mellow?
Totally nope on the flavor for me though. I took two sips and couldn’t do more. I’m not sure if it was chai part, or something about the strawberry but it just didn’t agree with my palate. I did get an impression of strawberry/berry sweetness. But it was kinda grassy too.
Maybe this might do better as a cold brew for me, though I don’t really feel like making an attempt after this first impression. Lol!

Third one from the sampler.
Light almondy/marzipan sort of smell with a smooth creamy background. Taste wise I get the same sort of impression. I think it was kinda redundant to have both vanilla and cream, especially since I feel the vanilla gets lost in the almond. It’s kinda there, but I have to focus on it to realize it is. Either that or it just melds so well with the almond that it makes one sweet tasty impression. Mostly this is mellow, easy tasting sort of tea. I did end up adding a bit of truvia and am on the fence whether or not it helped. On the one hand it make it even more candy/sweet, but on the other, it might’ve make it too sweet/candy like. Lol. Never happy it seems.

Second one out of the sampler.
Nope. Can’t get past the bergamot in it. Just totally not for me. I’m also skipping the ‘White tea of Kings’ tea in this set for the same reason. Just can’t get past that taste.

Ugh. I give up on my backlog. Time to just start from scratch. ^;
So I took a week off of work for just laziness and maybe some housework and ebay listing. Currently I’ve spent the last two days playing D3. Oops. I figured I should drink some tea while I’m at it, and I’ve had one of the older 10-tin sampler sets sitting lonely next to my kettle waiting. In my defense, I’d actually already tried a good number of the teas within and I mostly got it for the tins/art. ^; But I figured I should at least give them all a second try, just incase.

After a random mixing up, this was first.
Spicy chai smelling with some apple/fruit lurking in the background. I really wanted to like this one, but alas, the chai didn’t agree with me. It was good for the first half cup I drank and I thought ‘Hey, I can drink this’, Then after sitting for a handful of minutes I took another sip and was all ‘nah uh’. /sigh/
Most unfortunate was that I didn’t get much of any apple from this. The chai was too strong for me. I have a feeling that’s mostly because I tend to shy away from chai since they’re always so forceful and strong on my palate so my mind just tends to focus on the chai as something ‘do not like’ sort of mentality. Oh well. Onto the next one. XD

Not a bad tea. I may have over leafed. I seem to be getting in a bad habit of overleafing blacks like I overleaf many herbals. The herbals can handle it but the blacks can’t.

I can taste the ginger and the caramel but the black tea overwhelms it. As I said, I think it’s me. :(

I’ve been doing it wrong.

I was pleasantly surprised when this fandom blend tasted decent on it’s own- I really wasn’t expecting much. The Mother had a sip from my cup and approved of it too, but requested her’s to be made with steamed milk. Much to my chagrin, this green based chai tastes even better with milk. The vanilla flavour oozes out like honey, blending seamlessly into the smoky spice of the cloves and cinnamon.

I’ve been doing it wrong and now she’s drinking the last of this sample. Darn.

Funny that I’ve sent this to others and have yet to try it. For months! Smells amazing, like a creamy chocolate treat. Tastes more like cream than anything, which is lovely, but I want the chocolate, dammit!