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Peppermint Review

Image from Adagio.com

Dried peppermint leaves to make a minty, refreshing drink that is highly satisfying both hot and cold. A native of the Mediterranean, peppermint leaves were often used to crown luminaries in ancient Greece and Rome. It continues to be revered for its refreshingly light aroma, as well as its natural, caffeine-free taste. If you have yet to try gourmet peppermint tea, you'll be pleasantly surprised by its superior flavor.
Description from Adagio.com

Scent:
When you pop open the lid of this tea, you will get a huge mint aroma coming right at you. Even after brewing, the strength of the peppermint will remain consistent. When I smell this brew, it's like I left peppermint candies to melt in the microwave for a minute. After they've melted, you open the door, and out comes a huge steamy rush of peppermint in your face. That's what I feel from this brew.

Taste:
It's just as expected. This tea is the definitive liquid form of those peppermint candies and chewing gums I'm so used to as a kid, but without the sugar and the calories. It would probably taste more complete with honey, but anything tastes good with honey. After drinking a good amount, my breath is fresh and hopefully it has a great positive effect on my lung system.

This tea would be perfect to drink after eating or if you don't feel like using mouthwash for the moment. While drinking this tea, I feel as if it needs something added to it. Yeah, this tea is good by itself, but I can't see myself drinking this tea everyday. That is why you should either look for blends that utilize this tea or mix and match with other teas that you think would be even better with the mintiness addition of this tea.

Overall:
The mint scent is very refreshing, but this tea needs something to accompany its flavor. This tea would be put to good use for someone who is sick and needs the freshness of peppermint in their respiratory system. However, for a person like me, I wouldn't drink this every day. Maybe every other day, but not daily. I like this tea and I wouldn't mind seeing it blended with something!

Score:
3.9 out of 5

Valentines Review

Image from Adagio.com

Have you been looking for true love in a teacup? Then you're sure to fall 'head over heels' for our Valentine's tea. It deliciously combines the luxurious flavor of fresh-dipped chocolate-covered strawberries with the taste of premium Ceylon black tea. Don't wait until February to treat yourself to this romantic tea, give it a try today.
Description from Adagio.com

Scent:
This tea smells a lot more chocolate-y. I feel as if the chocolate component outweighs the strawberry a lot more. Even though it feels strange to smell this kind of scent from a tea, it's really refreshing. This has to be a pivotal tea for any couple to have on Valentines day. Essentially, the smell of this tea is like Nesquik powder dumped on some poor strawberries.

Even if you won't drink this tea Valentines day, I'm sure that on any festive day, you can pop this tea out and people, who are unfamiliar with tea, will probably mistake this tea scent for hot chocolate. Trust me on that one.

Taste:
The taste is surprising. I was expecting a more upfront chocolate flavor, but it's a lot more subtle than expected. This is as expected of some teas because you might expect things from the smell, but the taste will be something the complete opposite. For example, that bottled medicine can smell like candy, but it'll taste terrible when you drink it.

I say that tea has more ceylon in it. Keep in mind that this is not a herbal tea. This is a small blend of ceylon and strawberries with cocoa beans (I think). The obvious ceylon will hit your tastebuds upfront. I get the taste and the tangi-ness of the strawberry component more around the mid palette from this tea. At the end, this feeling that I get has to be from the chocolate.

I think I can describe this as you chewing strawberries, then drinking ceylon black with the strawberries still in your mouth, afterwards eating dark chocolate once you're done.

Overall:
I think that this tea overall, is not too bad. It's something completely different. I'd say, if you're not a big fan of drinking black tea, I'd stay away from this tea… but if it's on Valentines day, it wouldn't be too bad if you put some sugar in this tea. Besides, Valentines day is full of sugar and sweets.

However, to any serious black tea drinker who likes their tea without any added sweetener in it, I probably wouldn't recommend this tea. After reviewing the Keemun Rhapsody, I can say that I like the Keemun better if you're looking for more chocolate flavor. I also think that Keemun goes down much more smoothly, for me that is.

If you're ordering from the Adagio flavored tea section, expect all their flavored teas there to be mixed with Ceylon black. So the flavored tea section title is a bit misleading. It should be renamed flavored black tea. If you're leaning more towards the strawberry side of this tea and want more, I'd definitely buy Wild Strawberry, which is a decaf herbal tea without any black tea at all.

Rating:
3.4 out of 5

Keemun Rhapsody Review

Image from Adagio.com

Black tea from the Anhui region of China. Keemun tea, perhaps the most famous of Chinese varieties, is prized for its rich chocolate-like flavor, and sumptuous aroma. Our 'Keemun Rhapsody' is a hand-made, limited production 'superior mao feng' grade tea. It is a rare embodiment of this tea's wonderful potential, with taste bud entrancing cocoa notes, biscuity nuances, a whispering fruitiness and a flickering shadow of classic Keemun smokiness.
Description from Adagio.com

Scent:
The smell of this Keemun Rhapsody is phenomenal for a black tea. It has a hint of this cocoa (or moccha?) component going on. It's somewhat subtle, but it adds something great to the scent. I don't have much experience with black tea, but to me, this tea smells awesome. The overall aroma of this tea isn't too powerful either, which is good. For someone who enjoys the subtlety of green and whites, one can easily access this tea.

Taste:
Although my experience with black tea is quite lacking, I have to say that this tea is amazingly good. I feel as if that cocoa component that was described on Adagio.com hits your taste buds when it first enters your mouth and kicks them once again when it leaves the back-end. In the mid palette of this tea, there's a very smooth black tea flavor going on, which I really like.

I can't say much here because the only black teas I've tried are Ceylon and Earl Grey. Keemun tastes like neither of them. Maybe, it's leaning more towards the more subtle Ceylon side because the Earl Grey I had a bergamot citrus thing going on. Although I would probably prefer this over Ceylon.

I can compare this to the feeling of eating a Reese's peanut butter cup. You bite it and you taste a delicious chocolate coating. In the middle there's that creamy peanut butter, which is the good middle flavor in this tea. And at the back-end, the chocolate coating is still there.

Overall:
I enjoyed this tea fairly well. This has to be a very very good morning tea. I can see people who enjoy black tea enjoying this tea very much. I don't have much to say or complain because this black tea is SOLID.

Rating:
4.3 out of 5

Genmai Cha Review

Image from Adagio.com

Unlike the affordable luxury it had become today, tea was historically a pricy commodity. The Japanese peasants found it difficult to afford much tea, and would mix it with roasted rice, which was abundant and cheap. Thus, they were able to squeeze more cups from the same amount of leaves. A recipe born of poverty, Genmai Cha had now acquired an uptown chic. This tea had outgrown its humble origins to become a favorite of many urban dwellers in both Japan and the West.
Story from Adagio.com

Scent:
I think that this tea's scent is out of this world. I've never experienced anything like this before, haha. It smells exactly like what it's supposed to be. Popped rice and popcorn, although it's not buttery like the popcorn you're used to. It's more of a fresh popcorn smell with a little green-ness accentuating it.

Taste:
This tea has a very interesting taste. Once again, something I've never had before. It comes in with a full rush of green tea taste surrounding that will be a slight hint of smokiness (or toasti-ness?) of the rice and popcorn in your mouth. At the back-end of this tea, there's a strange "freshness" to it? It's hard to describe.

It leaves your mouth and I get this soothing feeling. It reminds me of that feeling I had with the silver needle tea at the back-end once you finish drinking. It doesn't leave an incredibly dry feeling in your mouth either, which I've encountered in some teas and never noticed until now.

Overall:
I didn't think that I would like this tea at first right after brewing it, but I really really enjoy this tea. I would definitely drink this while watching a movie, which I might do in a bit. This tea would be great in the afternoon or if you want to stay up late watching something good on television or on your computer.

It might not be the cup of tea for everyone because everyone has a different taste in tea. I can see people being turned off by the toasti-ness of the flavor in this tea. I'm sure the feeling of having a popcorn-like flavor in your mouth by drinking tea might put off a few. Just make sure that you don't over-steep this tea, it will definitely be too overpowering by then.

Rating:
4.3 out of 5

Bearonica's Berry Zinger Review

Image from Adagio.com

I'm quite unfamiliar with earl grey and black teas. The only experience I had was of Divine Delectable by Moujan Z, but that was a blend of black and herbal tea. I've been so excited to review this blend, but this one has taken me two brews to get my real opinion on it.

Scent:
Now that I'm more familiar with earl grey and these berries, I have a better sense of where I am. The scent is something else. It smells like you put berries on top of a bergamot orange peel and poured some earl grey on it. This would be a great tea to wake-up to in the morning. I also get reminded of a medicine vibe thing. It could just be me, haha.

Taste:
Again, it has that strong earl grey thing going on. I can get a small hint of berry, probably because there was a small amount of forest berries in the teaspoon that I used. I like how this tea tastes when you first take consume it, but on the back, I think its where the earl grey kicks in. It leaves me with a strange citrus-like tart aftertaste. Maybe I'm just not used to earl grey teas, haha.

After tasting this, I can say that I can drink this tea for breakfast. It needs something. You could try this with some cream and sugar and see how it goes. Although cream and sugar = the devil for some tea drinkers out there.

Further Analysis:
Forrest Berries = Ceylon Tea and Summer Berries
Earl Grey = Earl Grey and Bergamot Orange
Cream = Cream flavored Ceylon Tea

So let's see… The berry component only makes 1/4th of this tea. Don't count the bergamot orange because that is what makes that citrus component to this tea that I'm getting. So essentially, this tea is more of a blend of ceylon and earl grey with a minor dash of forest berries and the oil of a bergamot orange.

Overall:
I think the reason why I'm slightly put off by this tea is because of the name. Sure, I love what Veronica Belmont does on her show, Tekzilla, but the name of this tea is slightly misleading. Sure, there's a forest berries component in this tea, but I think that's why this blend is called "Berry Zinger". Since they had to put the emphasis on the berry part of the name.

This should've been called Earl Ceylon/Citrus Zinger. The berries zing away and you're left alone with earl grey and cream, pondering if there will be more.

If you want more berries (like me), you might as well try the Berry Blast or if you want to remain drinking black tea, go for Divine Delectable by Moujan Z.

Score:
3.5 out of 5

You can buy Bearonica's Berry Zinger from here:
http://www.adagio.com/tekzilla/blend.html?blend=3813