Review: Adagio Chocolate Chai

 

Overall Rating:

Taste: 4 of 5 leaves – Quite a good cuppa!

Steepability: 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

Abby says:

Tea type: Loose leaf
Temperature: @200 (just below boiling point)
Steeped: 4 minutes
Served: Nothing added to start, then milk and cinnamon honey

We’ve been on a bit of a chai kick lately, but can you blame us this time or year? Today we’re reviewing a spin on the traditional favorite, Chocolate Chai from Adagio Teas. In addition to all of the wonderful chai spices we’re used to, cocoa nibs are added to the blend. Like most chai teas, this teas is so pretty before steeping. As it steeps you can start to smell the chocolate blend with the chai spices and black tea. For me, the taste was just what I wanted it to be, spicy and strong with a hint of chocolate coming through. The only thing I didn’t love, was the texture – it was too thin. I added a touch of milk and some cinnamon infused honey. That did the trick and I ended up with the perfect cuppa!

Taste: 4 of 5 leaves – Quite a good cuppa!
Steepability: 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

Katie says:

Tea type: Loose leaf

Temperature: @200 (just below boiling point)

Steeped: 4 minutes

Served: With milk and honey

 I like my tea with milk and honey. Typically I like strong tea so I’m able to add lots of both. This tea would have gotten a 5 if it was a bit stronger. It was slightly weaker than I’d like but with a small splash of milk and a good squeeze of honey it was quite tasty. The honey enhanced the chocolate flavor for sure. If you like a strong tea add a little extra loose leaf then you would normally in the cup. Nice flavor, a bit like dessert for breakfast! This is a perfect fall and winter tea and I’ll be keeping some in my cabinet for the next few months.

Taste: 4 of 5 leaves – Quite a good cuppa!

Steepability: 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

Review: Douglas Sweets The Full VermonTEA Black Breakfast by New England Tea Co

Abby says,

Tea type: Loose
Temperature: @200, boiling)
Steeped: 5 minutes
Served: Nothing added

What we have here is a lovely strong breakfast tea. The long curled tea leaves are perfectly black and crispy, beautiful to look at. Once steeped, the create a deep chocolate brown tea that gives off a warm nutty aroma. The taste is just what you would expect from a breakfast tea, strong. I found hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, making this tea a great fir for the fall and winter.

My husband found this tea on his recent travels in Vermont and New Hampshire. I assumed that because it was under the Douglas Sweets label, that it could be purchased online. However it was not found on the site. There are other teas for sale but not this one. So, I can provide you with my thoughts on this tea, but not how to get some for yourself. Keep your eyes out if you are traveling the the New England area, you might find it in stores.

Taste: 4 of 5 leaves – Quite a good cuppa!
Steepability: 5 of 5 — this tea is easy to make!

These are the teas tat I keep seeing on all of the import sites! The sales clerk told me to pick-up some Bewley’s when I purchased my Irish tea pot. I should have listened! Well, until my next trip it’ll be off to the import store for me.

Taste: 3 of 5 leaves: A decent tasty tea
Steepability: 5 of 5 — this tea is easy to make!

Review: Teavana Mango Black *Iced Tea*

 

Abby says:

Tea type: Loose
Temperature: @200 (@ boiling) – then chilled for iced tea
Steeped: 5 minutes
Served: Nothing added

Isn’t this tea just beautiful to look at: a slurry of colors and textures?!? Teavana tea blends are always to pretty coming out of the tin, both dry and steeped. This one is a blend of primarily candied mango chunks and black tea, but also contains apple chunks, pieces of passion fruit and marigold petals.

As an iced tea, I tasted mostly mango and fruit flavors, but not much tea. For me, it’s just the right amount of sweet for an iced tea, but I did miss the balance of a strong tea taste that my iced tea usually offers. Overall I liked this tea and would make iced tea with it again, the fruit flavor is quite nice. It was a nice change of pace compared to the usual iced tea I make, even other fruit blends.

Taste: 3.5 of 5 leaves  – A decent tasty tea.
Steepability: 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

 

Review: Harney & Sons Black Currant Fresh Brew *Iced Tea*

Abby says:

Tea Type: Bagged –  1 over-sized iced tea sized bag
Temperature: Iced
Served: Nothing added

Here we are again, smack in the middle of iced tea season! My favorite style of iced tea is unsweetened black tea with a hint for fruit. I like other styles as well, don’t get me wrong, but this is my favorite. Which is why I was so excited to try this Black Current iced tea from Harney & Sons. This tea is specifically packaged for making iced tea with an over-sized tea bag stuffed with tea.

When making it I followed the directions precisely, see below, and I ended up with a tasty iced tea ready to go. This tea has the strong flavors of black tea that I love and the slightly sweet fruit flavor of the black currants. The blend for me is spot-on, with the black tea as the star and the black currant just noticeable. This tea would be great for a crowd because its pretty mellow with a traditional blend. I enjoyed it a lot and expect to go through the 8 cups that this batch made pretty quickly.

Here’s how to make this tea properly: Boil 2 cups of water and pour over tea bag and let steep for 15 minutes. Then add 6 more cups of water and you’re done!

 

Taste: 4.5 of 5 tea leaves – quite a good cuppa!
Steepability: 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

 

Review: Atlantic Spice Company China Black Tea BOP

Overall Rating:

Taste – 3 of 5 leaves – A decent tasty tea.
Steepability – 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

Abby says:

Temperature: @ 200 (about boiling)
Steeped: 5 minutes
Served: Nothing added

Looks like coffee. Kinda smells like coffee. Tastes like tea! Just the way I like it. Atlantic Spice Company China Black Tea BOP is one of those teas. Its a loose leaf tea, but the leaves are chopped up into tiny pieces that almost look like coffee grounds. When you smell this tea there are hints of coffee in the earthy aroma, but the flavor is all tea. Although not at rich as I like my black tea to taste this one has a nice hearty, toasty taste.

If you buy this tea in bulk it is quite inexpensive and who doesn’t  love a giant bag a loose leaf tea around to tempt you to make another cuppa? This tea is nothing fancy, but does make a nice everyday tea. Easy to drink and also makes great iced tea.

Taste – 3.5 of 5 leaves  – A decent tasty tea.
Steepability –  4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

 

Katie says:

Temperature: @ 200 (about boiling)

Steeped: 5 minutes

Served: With cream & sugar
I ordered this tea from Atlantic Spice Company, a wholesaler I like quite a bit. I hoped it would be a big hit for me like their BOP Assam that I LOVE (review coming soon) but I found this one wasn’t really my favorite. It’s an OK inexpensive tea but it wasn’t strong enough to hold up to adding cream & sugar the way I like my tea. So I gave it to Abby and luckily she likes it! 🙂

Taste – 2.5 of 5 leaves – This tea is just OK

Steepability – 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

Review: *ICED TEA* Honey Ginger by Impeach Tea

Overall Rating:

Taste: 4 of 5 leaves: Quite a good cuppa!
Steepability: 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

Abby says:

TeaType: Loose Leaf
Temperature: @200 (@ boiling) – then chilled for iced tea
Steeped: 5 minutes
Served: Nothing added

Taste: 4 of 5 leaves: Quite a good cuppa!

Steepability: 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

As a northerner “sweet tea” is quite foreign  to me, and frankly, something I just don’t understand. This being said I was nervous to try something with honey in the title. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this tea is perfectly sweet.  Just a touch of sweetness.

For steeping I used two heaping tablespoons of tea in three cups of water. Let it steep for five minutes then added two cups of cold water and one cup of ice and let it chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes. This yielded some really tasty iced tea! There is some sweetness, but mild enough to be suitable for a Maine lady. The ginger also adds an interesting flavor and blended well with the black tea and honey flavors. Will def. be adding this to the summer iced tea rotation!

Katie says:

TeaType: Loose Leaf

Temperature: @200 (@ boiling) – then chilled for iced tea

Steeped: 5 minutes

Served: A little honey 

 Unlike Abby, this New England Girl likes her tea sweet and almost always adds a touch of honey. I like to add honey to the warm tea and then store in the fridge for later. (Unless Abby is visiting, then I leave some plain!) Even though this tea has peach ginger and honey I find peach to dominate the flavor. I do get tiny hints of ginger and I played up the honey taste by adding more. Be careful, this tea will get bitter if you oversteap, so be sure to remove the tea after 5-6 minutes. 

For a sweeter tea, mix in a teaspoon of lemonade mix. This is a summertime favorite of mine! *This will make the tea a bit cloudy, see the photo above.

Pro-tip: store in a mason jar on your countertop. Even though this tea comes in a nice tin I’d suggest sorting it in glass to see the pretty blue and orange petals!

Taste: 4 of 5 leaves: Quite a good cuppa!

Steepability: 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

*Note, this tea was provided to us free of charge by the supplier. We were not paid for the review, we simply received free product. We always review every tea to the same standard. If we receive free tea that we do not like we simply choose to not review it. (Who wants to read a bummer of a post?) If you’d like to submit a tea for review please email: delecteable@gmail.com.

Review: Tiesta Tea Passion Berry Jolt

Abby says:

Tea type: Loose leaf
Temperature: @ boiling
Steeped: 4 minutes
Served: Nothing added at first, then touch of honey

Fruity and fun is the best way to describe the latest tea up for review here at DelecTEAble. This week it’s Passion Berry Jolt from Tiesta tea. As you can see from the photo, this is a very pretty tea – a blend of black tea leaves, natural passions fruit flavors, cornflowers, marigold petals and raspberry bits. I didn’t spot any of the raspberry bits in this serving, but the tea still pretty to look at!

I love the idea of combining my favorite elements of fruity herbal tea blends with black tea. Most mornings I need caffeine to get going, but sometimes I like something light and fun to drink. Combining the fruit flavors with strong black tea gives me that option anytime. When tasting it the fruit flavors are the most bold. In fact I can’t really pull out the tea flavors, but can tell its there because this is isn’t just fruity. There is a nice balance, so I know the black tea is there. As per usual with fruity teas I needed to add a touch of honey after the first few sips to mellow out the tartness and bring out the sweetness of the fruit flavors.

So far I’ve only tried this tea hot. Yes, I know its April, but we are in the middle of a snow storm today, so no iced tea around here yet. I am looking forward to trying it iced, I think it will be great!

Taste: 3.5 of 5 leaves  – A decent tasty tea.
Steepability: 4 of 5 leaves — this tea requires very little effort.

*Note, this tea was provided to us free of charge by the supplier. We were not paid for the review, we simply received free product. We always review every tea to the same standard. If we receive free tea that we do not like we simply choose to not review it. (Who wants to read a bummer of a post?) If you’d like to submit a tea for review please email: delecteable@gmail.com.

Review: Presidential Peach by Impeach Tea

Overall Rating:

Taste: 4 of 5 leaves: Quite a good cuppa!
Steepability: 5 of 5 — this tea is easy to make!

Abby says:

TeaType: Loose Leaf
Temperature: @200 (@ boiling)
Steeped: 4 minutes
Served: Nothing added

Looks like there’s a subtle, or not so subtle political message here. Impeach tea. What do you guys think? Yeah, I’m pretty sure this company is trying to say something. All I know for sure is that I love trying new teas! Presidential Peach is a blend of black tea, flower petals (red, white, and blue, of course) and peach flavor. This tea really is beautiful with little flecks of color sitting among the dark black tea leaves.

The taste is pretty good too! The primary flavor is certainly of strong black tea. Then there are notes of peach as well, not so subtle either. The peach flavor tastes good, not artificial. This tea is easy to drink and it a fun addition to the mix. Up north, we don’t drink peach tea the way they do in the the south. The caffeine in this flavored tea is enough that it could easily become part of the morning routine.

It’s still cold here, although everyone else in the country seems to be in this funny 4th season called spring, here in Maine we are still in winter. So, I haven’t tried this tea iced yet, but I’m looking forward to it. This is going to make a great summertime tea for sure!

Taste: 4 of 5 leaves: Quite a good cuppa!
Steepability: 5 of 5 — this tea is easy to make!

 

Katie says:

TeaType: Loose Leaf
Temperature: @ boiling
Steeped: 5 mins, extra strong (~3t to 10oz water)
Served: with honey

I tried this tea hot first, then iced. It was nice hot. Hot I got a strong but still natural tasting peach flavor and lovely peach aroma. I really liked the sweetness that came from the flower petals and just a touch of honey. Plus, petals make this loose tea gorgeous! I tend to drink my hot tea at double strength, similar to how you would make your tea when you try it iced. That being said, if you like a strong tea go ahead and double. Even when made strong it still tastes nice and not bitter but make sure to not oversteep. (Keep it at or under 5 mins)  If you like iced tea then definitely double using 2 teaspoons per 6 ounces of water and cool before pouring over ice.

As often happens to me, time got away and my hot tea was lukewarm. I poured it over homemade tea ice cubes (made from freezing leftover tea) and it was great. Pro tip: if there’s tea left in the bottom of your teapot always freeze it and save for iced tea. When you use tea ice cubes it doesn’t matter if your tea is lukewarm when you pour it over ice. When the tea ice melts it just melts into tea flavor instead of watered down flavor.

Also, note this is called “impeach tea.” Abby and I don’t tend to offer political statements on the blog…but you can guess that we’re a touch liberal from this posting, Huh?

Taste: 4 of 5 leaves: Quite a good cuppa!
Steepability: 5 of 5 — this tea is easy to make!

*Note, this tea was provided to us free of charge by the supplier. We were not paid for the review, we simply received free product. We always review every tea to the same standard. If we receive free tea that we do not like we simply choose to not review it. (Who wants to read a bummer of a post?) If you’d like to submit a tea for review please email: delecteable@gmail.com.

Review: Harney & Sons Wild Pu-ERH 1998

 

Abby says:

Tea type: Loose leaf
Temperature: @210 (boiling point)
Steeped: 3-4 minutes
Served: Nothing added

While visiting the Harney & Sons tea shop in New York, Katie and I spent some time talking to one of the wonderful tea experts in-house. I told him that I’ve tried a lot of various Harney & Sons teas over the years and was looking for something a little different, out there. I have several go-to Harney & Sons tea that I always keep in stock like Paris, SOHO and Organic Bancha, but on that day I was looking to try something outside the norm. Our tea expert came through for sure! This tea is very different and so delicious!

Pu-erh tea is a type of fermented black tea from China. After processing the tea leaves are then pressed into a cake. I love this because before steeping you break into this pressed cake patty to get the right amount of tea.

The flavor of this tea is unique. There are earthy hints of beets and grass.  There is also hints of something else, that I can’t quite put my finger on. Although the flavors are earthy and vegetal, they remain very clean and crisp. this is not always the case for pu-erh teas and certainly appreciated in this tea.

If you are looking for something try that taste wonderful, but isn’t the traditional black tea we think of here in the USA, give this one a try. Keep in mind that if you are pairing this tea with food, head to the savory side instead of sweet.

Taste: 5 of 5 tea leaves – Quite a good cuppa!
Steepability: 5 of 5 tea leaves – This tea is easy to make.

 

 

Review: Adagio #HarryPotter Fandom Polyjuice Tea by Robert Pirlot

Abby’s Thoughts…

Tea type: Loose left
Temperature: @200 (just below boiling point)
Steeped: 5 minutes
Served: Nothing added

You wont get it from the name, so I’ll break it to you right away – this is a chai blend! I LOVE chai! I also LOVE all things Harry Potter! Soooo, yeah, I’m in love. This tea comes from the Adagio Harry Potter fandom sampler set I got from my husband awhile ago. The little tins the teas came in are just the cutest things.  With all this hype the tea better be good, right?

Don’t worry kids! It takes great! It isn’t strong and spicy like a typical chai tea, but it has plenty of flavor. The Polyjuice tea is a blend of black tea, rooibos tea, cinnamon, ginger root, cardamom, coconut, lemongrass, orange peel, cocoa nibs and vanilla. That’s a lot of stuff – just like the arduous potion in the Harry Potter books for which it’s named. This tea blends together for a light and sweet flavorful tea. Its fun to drink because all the different flavors shine in their own way. I love the addition of coconut and cocoa to the more traditional chai ingredients.

So give this brew a try if you love Harry Potter, if you love trying never versions of chai teas, and if you love the flavor of vanilla and coconut in tour tea!

Taste: 4 of 5 tea leaves – Quite a good cuppa!
Steepability: 5 of 5 tea leaves – this tea is easy to make!