Adagio's 'Savoury Teas'
Adagio Teas produces a lot of flavored teas and they've got a huge array of flavors in all tea types. When I got my most recent order from them it came with a free sample set of their new Savory Teas. The idea of which was, instead of the usual 'sweet' tea flavourings, they would produce a handful of teas that were based on savory foods instead. So feeling adventurous (and not being able to say 'no' to free tea) I decided to be their guinea pig and try them all out. Here's my thoughts and each of the teas:
Toasted Sesame - (boiling water) The first thing I noticed when I opened the tin is how oily the leaves look, like the whole container was dropped in a pot of sesame oil. The smell made me think of Chinese food, or maybe teriyaki. When I started steeping though, the smell reverted back to being just like a bag full of sesame seeds. I goofed on the steeping time so I'm not sure how long it was, but it's probably somewhere around four minutes. When I rescued it, the surface of the tea was covered in a distinct sheen of oil. The flavor is very much like what I'd expect toasted sesame to taste like; so Adagio gets points for authenticity. It seems to also work quite well with the tannins in the tea base.
This isn't a flavour I'm used to tasting in my tea (obviously) so my tongue is sending my brain rather mixed signals and confuzzling the poor dear. I think I'm leaning towards liking it, but not loving it - further testing is required!
I also resteeped the same leaves and the tea came out as a light-tasting black tea with a rather nutty/grainy flavour but nothing that tasted distinctly of sesame.
Artichoke Green - (3 minutes, steaming water) I've never really eaten much artichoke and it's always been mixed in with other ingredients - such as in a calzone or an omelet - so I don't really have a definitive taste pinned down in my mind except that it always tasted rather pickled and salty. The smell of the dry leaves and the brewing tea is surprisingly fruity - in fact it almost smells like peach or mango to me. The dry leaves are of a nice size and a bright, fresh-looking green shade and they brew up to make a clear, pale-green coloured tea.
The taste is almost as fruity as the scent and it's sweet, though in a rather subdued manner. It's only on the aftertaste that I get a faint hint of what I'm used to thinking of as artichoke - savory and pickled. Of the four this is probably my favorite.
White Cucumber - (7 minutes, steaming water) Pulling off the lid of the sample tin I caught a whiff of the dry tea. The only thing I can describe it as is a cross between cinnamon and light dill pickles. Yeah, I don't get it either. It's not that I don't like it - I LOVE dill pickles - it's just such a non sequitur for me and my nose.I'm glad to see the large number of buds in this tea instead of the crumbled up bits you sometimes get. Taste-wise this tea is actually very close to the taste of raw cucumber, though I'm also still picking up a very minute trace of cinnamon or some other spice. Weird.
Sweet Potato Pie - (3.5 minutes, boiling water) The smell of the dry leaves is slightly sweet in a starchy way and while I was brewing the tea the odor of sweet potato unfolded quite clearly and pleasantly. The taste wasn't so pleasant unfortunately, it was starchy and bitter, although I did get a more distinct yam/sweet potato flavour on the tail end of things, which actually wasn't too bad - although I was hoping for more toasted marshmallow, like the description on the Adagio website suggested.
As the liquid cools, I could taste a bit more of the 'sweet'; it's not a very sugary sort of sweet, more like a muted, starchy sort of sweetness. Meh, I'm not terribly impressed with this tea; go fish, Adagio.
X-posted to teafortwo
Toasted Sesame - (boiling water) The first thing I noticed when I opened the tin is how oily the leaves look, like the whole container was dropped in a pot of sesame oil. The smell made me think of Chinese food, or maybe teriyaki. When I started steeping though, the smell reverted back to being just like a bag full of sesame seeds. I goofed on the steeping time so I'm not sure how long it was, but it's probably somewhere around four minutes. When I rescued it, the surface of the tea was covered in a distinct sheen of oil. The flavor is very much like what I'd expect toasted sesame to taste like; so Adagio gets points for authenticity. It seems to also work quite well with the tannins in the tea base.
This isn't a flavour I'm used to tasting in my tea (obviously) so my tongue is sending my brain rather mixed signals and confuzzling the poor dear. I think I'm leaning towards liking it, but not loving it - further testing is required!
I also resteeped the same leaves and the tea came out as a light-tasting black tea with a rather nutty/grainy flavour but nothing that tasted distinctly of sesame.
Artichoke Green - (3 minutes, steaming water) I've never really eaten much artichoke and it's always been mixed in with other ingredients - such as in a calzone or an omelet - so I don't really have a definitive taste pinned down in my mind except that it always tasted rather pickled and salty. The smell of the dry leaves and the brewing tea is surprisingly fruity - in fact it almost smells like peach or mango to me. The dry leaves are of a nice size and a bright, fresh-looking green shade and they brew up to make a clear, pale-green coloured tea.
The taste is almost as fruity as the scent and it's sweet, though in a rather subdued manner. It's only on the aftertaste that I get a faint hint of what I'm used to thinking of as artichoke - savory and pickled. Of the four this is probably my favorite.
White Cucumber - (7 minutes, steaming water) Pulling off the lid of the sample tin I caught a whiff of the dry tea. The only thing I can describe it as is a cross between cinnamon and light dill pickles. Yeah, I don't get it either. It's not that I don't like it - I LOVE dill pickles - it's just such a non sequitur for me and my nose.I'm glad to see the large number of buds in this tea instead of the crumbled up bits you sometimes get. Taste-wise this tea is actually very close to the taste of raw cucumber, though I'm also still picking up a very minute trace of cinnamon or some other spice. Weird.
Sweet Potato Pie - (3.5 minutes, boiling water) The smell of the dry leaves is slightly sweet in a starchy way and while I was brewing the tea the odor of sweet potato unfolded quite clearly and pleasantly. The taste wasn't so pleasant unfortunately, it was starchy and bitter, although I did get a more distinct yam/sweet potato flavour on the tail end of things, which actually wasn't too bad - although I was hoping for more toasted marshmallow, like the description on the Adagio website suggested.
As the liquid cools, I could taste a bit more of the 'sweet'; it's not a very sugary sort of sweet, more like a muted, starchy sort of sweetness. Meh, I'm not terribly impressed with this tea; go fish, Adagio.
X-posted to teafortwo