Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Adagio’

Moroccan Mint is one of my all time favorites – first discovered it by accidently making some. Had bought some gunpowder when I was in Chinatown, got home and brewed some up but found it boring. Added some Adagio Mintastic, perfection. It was my morning drink for years and now I have been reintroduced to it and I’m thrilled to try it.

The dry tea smells and looks fresh, with a generous amount of spearmint mixed in with small and shiny pellets of Gunpowder. Looks perfect and today is the perfect day for some Moroccan Mint – definite winter chill in the air. Steeped the leaves in boiling water for three minutes, the pellets exploded and unrolled and the water turned a nice, light orange yellow color. The taste is slightly peppery with a bit of a grassy flavor.

This is definitely one of the better Moroccan Mints that I’ve had and I’ll be recommending it to people when they’re struggling to find a source of warmth this winter.

You can purchase the Moroccan Mint directly from the Boston Tea Company website.

Gunpowder is one of my personal favourites, for green tea. However I have only ever purchased it from one or two sources, so I was excited to be able to try it from a company whose gunpowder I had not tried before. Gunpowder is a simple green tea, but sometimes the differences between the same tea from different companies can be quite noticeable.

The dry leaves hold the intense grassiness I have come to associate with most gunpowder greens. After steeping this tea and straining off the leaves, I notice that the steeped leaves have a very dark, almost smoky scent, and I worry that I’ve accidentally heated the water too hot and scalded them. One whiff of the prepared tea banishes that negative thought from my mind, as I am greeted by rolling vegetal tones with a touch of sweet grassiness.

These same aromas swell in the flavour of this tea, and the grassy sweetness permeates all taste buds. The smokiness of this tea is stronger than other gunpowder greens that I have tried, and it is a good addition, in my opinion.

I give this tea a 77 out of 100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the Gunpowder directly from the Adagio website.

I was so excited to sample Adagio’s version of Chocolate Chai, which is one of my favorite blends. I just cannot resist the classic pairing of chocolate and peppery spice, as celebrated in movies like “Chocolat” (with the irresistible Johnny Depp) and as celebrated in the fragrant Mexican mole poblano sauce. So, with fantasies of Johnny Depp and I savoring a romantic meal at a beachside restaurant in Mexico floating through my mind, I had high expectations for this tea. Unfortunately, the reality collided with fantasy.

Succinctly, this tea is just “Meh…”. The aroma in the tin was fragrant with cinnamon notes and upon inspection, the blend did contain pieces of chopped cinnamon sticks. However, the chocolate flavor had an odd chalky after- taste. The chai flavor was not a well-rounded spicy flavor and mostly tasted of cinnamon and cloves. The overall flavor of this tea was a watery-chalky- cinnamon-y brew. So, bottom-line, this is not my favorite version of Chocolate Chai.

You can purchase the Chocolate Chai directly from the Adagio website.

I gave this tea two tries before I wrote up my review because the first round was rather rushed and I felt I could have gotten a better feel for the tea.

The dry tea is an interesting-looking dark-green/grey colour, shot through with silver.  It has a scent sort of like fresh hay with a bit of nuttiness.  But wow, does it ever change drastically when I add the water!  The smell morphs into something that I can only liken to dried seaweed – some people have called it ‘fishy’ but it’s not really that – to me it smells like the nori used to wrap sushi.  It’s a surprisingly pale-looking tea for all the scent and flavour that it has – a light, clear yellow.

Initially I followed Adagio’s steeping recommendations and steeped it for three minutes, but the second time I drank this tea I backed off on the steeping time a bit because I’ve noticed that Adagio tends to set them rather high.  Despite people’s opinions of the scent, the tea doesn’t taste fishy (thankfully).  It does have a savory note to it that gives the tea more body – this isn’t a fresh, light, delicate-tasting green. It has a nutty quality to it and a sort of green sweetness as well and it actually reminds me of some Dragonwell (Lung Ching) teas that I’ve tried in the past.  There wasn’t a huge difference in taste that I noticed between the first and second time I drank it, however the quicker steep the second time seems to have done this tea some good as the flavour is more subdued, but not dulled and I can still taste all the various nuances of the tea.

The tea seems to resteep well (@3:30 min), but it lacks much of the flavour profile of the original steeping. It has sort of lightly nutty, sweet flavour with little trace of the earlier savory notes.

I’m not sure what I think of this tea – I don’t love it, but it’s isn’t gack-worthy either. I think I’d have to be in a particular mood to drink this tea – I don’t think it’ll become my go-to green or anything like that.  Steepster Rating: 71/100

You can purchase the Xue Ya Ballad directly from the Adagio website.

I love the look of the leaves! The leaves are a nice dark green, long stems and mixed in are big chunks of spices. The smell of the leaves dry left me a bit disappointed as all I could smell was an unrealistic cinnamon flavoring. I love ground cinnamon, but this was more like cinnamon red hot candies.

The wet leaves carried over the red hot candied scent, and left the liquor a light yellow green. The first few sips are very lightly spicy. I taste the cinnamon candy flavor first, followed by a bit of cardamom. I think I may have brewed this too light. I used 2 tsp for 16oz water. I think I will double it next time and do 2 tsp for 8oz water (as I think that’s what I have left of the sample). I don’t care for this blend. I’m not a fan of cinnamon flavoring, I prefer ground cinnamon or cinnamon sticks to this flavor. I won’t pour it out, and wouldn’t refuse it if it were my only choice for tea, but there are plenty more teas I enjoy much more than this one.

You can purchase the Bengal Green Chai directly from the Adagio website.