Tea tasting: Mighty Leaf's Wild Berry Hibiscus

Ignore the weird sickly rotting fruit scent of the tea bags as they come out of the box.  Mighty Leaf's Wild Berry Hibiscus tea makes some mighty fine iced tea.  It's strong and flavorful without being cloying or overly sweet.  There's a nice tartness to the finish that makes it particularly refreshing, the way an iced tea should be.

The berry flavors are supposed to be elderberry, blueberry and strawberry, but I honestly can't parse out the individual berry elements.  On the other hand, I also don't get a strong hibiscus flavor, which is all to the good as far as I'm concerned.  

Tea Grotto's Fig and Lavender Black Tea

On my recent trip out to Salt Lake City, I picked up Fig and Lavender Black tea from the local tea house, the Tea Grotto.  This tea is one of the ones the Tea Grotto has available for on line purchase.

For various reasons, it's taken since early May for me to get around to tasting this tea.  It's . . . I suppose the best word is interesting.  

I definitely like the flavor, but it is not going to be for everyone.  The fig flavor predominates, leaving the lavender to come out in the aftertaste and in the aroma.  On top of that, there's also a mineral-like quality that lingers.  I find this mineral water flavor in other black teas -- predominantly the black teas from the Fujian area of China -- so it may come from the base tea used to create the blend.

This is a rich tea, but not really a sweet one, much like actual figs rather than Fig Newtons.  The brew is brisk and palate-cleansing.  It ices extremely well.   It sweetens best with a buckwheat honey.

Tea tasting: Mango Coconut Water Iced Tea

Republic of Tea's Mango Coconut Water Iced Tea pouches produce perhaps the most mediocre cup of iced tea I have ever consumed.  It was not bad enough to spit across the room in disgust, but wow, it wasn't remotely satisfying.  It tastes of coconut water, but there is barely any hint of mango involved.  It's as though an anemic coconut browsed a mango's profile on Facebook.   Drinking this iced tea is marginally better than drinking straight water, but only marginally.

Revisiting Adagio's Red Bloom

I was disappointed in Adagio's Red Bloom tea at first.  While blooming teas are always fun, this one was sort of bland.  So, I decided to try some experiments.  I'm sharing the best of these experiments with you.

2 cups water + 1 adagio Red Bloom + 1 bag of Republic of Tea's Downton Abbey English Rose

Steep for about 10 minutes, which is longer than the usual recommendation.

Adding the English Rose brings a light raspberry flavor to the Red Bloom, which is precisely what the tea needed.  It's not sweet, just flavorful.  If you like your tea sweet, I recommend using a raspberry flavored sugar or a tiny bit of agave nectar.

Tea tasting: Koalas in the Rain specialty blend

One of the Adagio specialty blends I designed is Koalas in the Rain, named after a little NSFW ditty from zefrank's True Facts About Marsupials video.  If you watch it, be sure to wait until the end for the song. 

This decaf tea was inspired by the Peach Melba dessert -- it blends raspberry, peach and vanilla flavors, all tastes that I find summery and soothing.

I discovered something interesting about this blend since I received it in the mail a few weeks ago.  It has gotten noticeably better tasting and smelling the longer I have let it sit in the tin.   The first batch brewed right out of the tin, the same day I received it (so within maybe 3 days of its being blended) was unimpressive.   I was deeply disappointed, because I thought the flavor blend was a good one.

However, when I went back to this tea a few days ago, I found that time since blending had drastically improved it.   Now it has the fruity tone I was looking for, with a rich vanilla over-layer.  I prepared it for icing, and steeped some fresh raspberries in the brew as well.   It made for a fun, summery tea that was tasty without being overly sweet.

Tea tasting: Three Black Teas from Adagio

Adagio's Yunan Noir is a black tea grown in the Yunan province of China.  The leaves are hand-rolled, curled in to what is called a "black snail" shape.  It's a lovely black tea for people who like their blacks unflavored, complex and deep.  It's a black tea and tastes like a black tea, but there are so many different hints of flavor worked in under that.  There's a bit of honey and cinnamon in the finish, with a couple of other layers I haven't yet pieced out.   This is a tea worth spending time on, drinking slowly and appreciating.


Adgaio's Blackberry black tea is pretty much precisely what is says on the tin:  A good quality black tea flavored with blackberry.  It's not heavily fruity.  The blackberry is an underlayer to the black tea, providing a little bit of sweetness and a little bit of tartness.  It's not spectacular, but it's a great basic drinking tea for the mornings when I need the caffeine but I want some flavor.


Adagio's Red Bloom is a black tea rolled into a ball around a red flower.  It unfurls as it is brewed in hot water revealing either a lovely floral display or a mini-Lovecraftian tentacle monster, depending on how your brain works.   I just finished the latest Laundry Files book, so no points for guessing which one occurred to me this morning.   Unfortunately, while these blooming teas are amazingly fun, the taste of Adagio's Red Bloom is just good, not great.  It's a high quality black tea, but all of the complexity seems to have gone into the visuals, not the flavor.   Make no mistake, this is still vastly better tea than, say, Lipton or Tetley, but it's nothing incredibly special.   I've been spoiled by some of Adagio's other spectacular blacks (see Yunan Noir above).

So here's a request for Adagio -- find a way to use your Peach Oolong to create a Yellow Bloom, or incorporate a slightly "red"-flavored tea into the Red Bloom (raspberry, strawberry, etc.).