Tea tastings: Adagio Green Vanilla and Chocolate Black

Adagio Tea's Vanilla Green tea (http://www.adagio.com/green/vanilla_green.html) is a solid, but unremarkable green.  The vanilla survives in the aroma, but not such much in the flavor.  The teaspoon of wildflower honey that I put into the second cup completely obliterated any trace of vanilla.  Despite the lack of a prominent vanilla flavor, the quality of the underlying green tea makes this a worthwhile afternoon's drinking.

I ordered a fresh sample and did a re-tasting of Adagio's Chocolate Black tea ( http://www.adagio.com/flavors/chocolate.html).  The freshness of the tea makes all the difference in the world.  The tea now smells overwhelmingly of dark chocolate.  Upon tasting, it has tones that are more coffee-like than chocolate.  Adagio's website says the tea is designed to taste more like chocolate liquer than like chocolate cocoa powder, so the coffee tastes may be intentional. Not really liking coffee, it doesn't appeal to me.   I think for someone who likes the coffee flavors, this tea would be great.

Rather than trash the small tin of faded chocholate black leaves, I did an experiment combining half portions of the older, faded tea and the new, fresh tea.  That blending evened out the coffee-like flavors into more chocolate-y tones.  I'll finish the blended leaves, but I'm unlikely to buy more of this.