After taking a bit of a hiatus, we are happy to be back! Can’t say how often we will be posting but happy to kick off the new year with a particularly famous tea from Adagio Teas.
If you are familiar with Adagio Teas, you are familiar with their holiday and themed teas. A particular tea I have recently heard quite a bit about and seen quite a few posting about- Brigadoon, Adagio’s Leap Year blend.
Brigadoon is a blended black tea comprised of Asam and Keemun teas. Also added into the mix is Silver Needle white tea and blue cornflowers. I originally though this tea was an earl grey blend but to my delight- this tea is a Scottish Breakfast Tea.
After taking a small hiatus from caffeine, I was a bit hesitate to try this tea as I’ve noticed a sensitivity to caffeine recently (increased headaches). As I took my first sip of this tea, instant love formed for this tea and I knew immediately why this tea is so highly regarded.
This black tea prepped hot (212F- steeped 4 minutes) is smooth and malty with a robust feel. No notes of astringency whatsoever. There are hints of sweetness and floral moments here and there. After a couple sips, I decided this tea would be a beautiful latte and I frothed up milk to add in. The combination of the frothed milk just increased my admiration for this tea.
Big fan of this one and even though I need to be careful with how much of this tea I drink in a day- I have a feeling I’ll be stocking up on this one. As an FYI, if you do intend to stock up on this one (which I highly recommend doing), this tea is only available for a short time starting on 2/29/2024!
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
Celebrate Leap Day with this Scottish Breakfast Blend of Assam and Keemun teas. We’ve added a touch of Silver Needle and blue cornflowers to evoke the blue and white of the Scottish flag that Brigadoon would fly.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Advent Calendar/Adagio Teas (Spoilers)
Each year during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, I always look forward to the tea advent calendars our beloved tea companies offer. I have enjoyed several from a variety of different tea companies, but one of my favorites each year is the advent calendar offered by Adagio Teas.
This tea calendar is filled with a lovely assortment of teas to enjoy for the avid tea drinker to the occasional tea drinker to the tea drinker who just started their tea journey. The variety of flavored teas is always lovely and this year was no exception. This year I even picked up a few advent calendars for my kiddos to enjoy and I can’t wait to see them sipping their teas while enjoying time off during the holidays. 
Starting on December 1st- there was a lovely single loose leaf serving waiting for me to enjoy. The listing of teas is on the site if you want to take a peek but I won’t spoil too many of them here.
The first tea for December 1st was Honeybush Pumpkin Chai– one of my favorite decaf blends from Adagio Teas! This blend is so versatile- by itself the tea presents as a lovely way to enjoy the spices of fall without the caffiene. The pumpkin flavoring is a bit hit or miss but brewed up as a latte, you have yourself a delightful autumnal treat with notes of cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla notes.
What I personally love to do with this tea is blend the tea with Adagio’s Vanilla Flavored Black tea or Adagio’s Cranberry Tea. Both create such unique layers of flavor and (IMO) umpfs the flavor profile and really highlights the lovely fall notes… especially when the Honeybush Pumpkin Chai is blended with the Cranberry Black Tea. The tart notes combine lovely with the chai spices and provides this unique underlaying tone of freshness. 
Passionfruit Tango was the second tea of the calendar and this tea was fabulous! I remember trying this tea once and not being a fan but this little serving of the blend changed my mind on the tea completely.
This blend is a unique blend of passionfruit flavoring, cinnamon, rose petals and more. Right there the blend seems a bit odd but truly the cinnamon and rose create a spiced floral scene for the passionfruit flavoring to connect with. I really enjoyed the fruity spiced floral notes- more than I thought I would. I was actually a bit sad when my sample was done giving after a few steepings. This will be one I’ve already earmarked for a future (fingers crossed) birthday purchase down the road.
All in all, a great start and even tho I am a few days late, I believe there is still time to order this awesome collection of teas. I love how each tea is packaged in single servings so you can try out a variety of teas that Adagio Teas offers without committing to a larger size.
If you are looking for a delightful gift for the tea enthusiast in your family or just a lovely way to celebrate the holidays, highly recommend the Adagio Teas Advent Calendar.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Variety
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Autumn Mist Green/Adagio Teas
Continuing on our fall/spooky theme- I thought I would try a tea that I have quite a bit of- Autumn Mist Green. Autumn Mist Green tea is a blend of gunpowder green tea, dried apples, and creme brulee flavoring. Once I saw that- I think my excitement won over vs my wallet and I ordered the big bag.
But since I took a bit of a hiatus from tea, I hadn’t really taken a moment to enjoy the blend. So over the weekend, I brewed up a pot to enjoy while watching a few spooky movies.
Brewed with water at 180 and allowed to steep for a few minutes- this tea is a unique blend that I can’t really say is what you would think of as a fall blend, but nevertheless, I really enjoyed it.
First sip in and you are greeted with a sweetness that masks the smoky flavor you usually get from gunpowder green tea. The sweetness reminds me of caramel more than creme brulee but I’ll take it. I do see the big chunks of apple and what I’m assuming is cinnamon but those notes are not really coming across. I wish they were, this tea would be a sensational caramel apple tea.
I did do a second steeping and I actually enjoyed this cuppa a bit better. The flavoring wasn’t as strong and the gunpowder notes were coming in a bit stronger. I still didn’t get any of the apple notes but the cinnamon did pop a bit more.
I’m planning a proper cold brew for this blend and I’m excited to see how it turns out.
All in all, a great tea if you are looking for an alternative to the typical chais or pumpkin flavored teas you usually see during the fall.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Green Tea
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
Autumn is a season of transition. For many, it marks the end of summer break and the start of the school year, for others a transition from shorts and tank tops to warm sweaters and blankets. It’s when the leaves start to change colors and when farmers switch from the growing season to harvest. For many tea drinkers, it also marks the shift from iced teas to hot, from tall, cool glasses to steaming, palm-warming mugs. So fill up your thermos, put on your best flannel, and get ready to fall for fall. It’s tea time, y’all.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Pumpkin Gingerbread Black Tea/52Teas
Continuing on the theme of Spooky Season. . . Pumpkin Gingerbread seemed to be a good fit. Of course pumpkins are a huge part of spooky season but there is also a horror franchise about a Gingerbread that comes to life so when I saw this tea in my stash, it was just meant to be.
If you aren’t familiar with 52Teas, I highly recommend you check them out. Readers of this blog know that the current owner of 52Teas is one of the co-founders of the SororiTea Sisters and to be honest- a personal friend of mine. But, even if that wasn’t the case, I would still highly recommend 52Teas.
52Teas blends up new teas each and every week- providing an amazing array of new high quality tea blends to check out. The only issue is that if you fall in love with one of these blends, you need to get yourself to the site and quickly pick up a few more because once these teas sell out, they typically are not reblended.
Pumpkin Gingerbread Black Tea is a black and honeybush tea blend with pumpkin, ginger root, cinnamon and a variety of other spices and natural flavors. The aroma of the blend reminds me very much of a chai tea. Since the weather is becoming very fall like, I thought this tea would be best enjoyed hot so I brewed up water at 212F, allowed the tea to brew for right around 3 minutes and allowed the cuppa to cool for about 5 minutes.
First sip in and you are greeted with all of the fall flavors- pumpkin, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, clove. . .simply delicious. The ginger is the flavor I am picking up the most but the flavoring doesn’t come off as overpowering. I’m not the biggest fan of ginger but I easily drank down a few cuppas of this blend and finished off the package with ease. I do wish that the pumpkin shone through a bit more but I did love the gingerbread with a dash of pumpkin vibes I was getting and the black tea finish to end each sip was lovely. This is one of those teas that would be amazing as a latte enjoyed during my morning commutes.
This tea was the perfect companion to my spooky viewing of As Above So Below- one of my favorite spooky movies to enjoy to get the Spooky Season officially underway.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
Our handcrafted teas are vegan, Gluten-free & Allergen-friendly because you deserve tea you can sip with confidence.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Spooky Season Countdown! Cotton Candyman/Brutaliteas
Tis that time my friends! Time to enjoy all things spooky!
Being a massive horror fan and all things spooky enthusiast – I normally enjoy spooky season all year long but recently I have started to see a trend with more and more tea companies offering more spooky inspired teas. So all this month, we will be reviewing and featuring spooky and fall related tea goodness to get in the Halloween spirit.
If you aren’t familiar with Brutaliteas and enjoy scary movies, highly recommend taking a moment and checking out their website. Their tea offerings combine their love for tea and heavy metal/horror with delights like Back in Blackberry and Chaiday the 13th.
Last year, I picked up their tea advent calendar but never tried all of the teas . Thought this would be the perfect time to dive back in and brew up a few cuppas before this year’s advent is released.
Cotton Candyman- an herbal blend of butterfly pea flowers, blue raspberry flavoring and cotton candy flavor powdering is based off of one of my favorite horror franchises- Candyman. This movie terrified me as a child and still to this day, I have a healthy respect for mirrors.
This blend screamed for a cold brew so I set this blend up in my iced tea press for an afternoon treat. First taste and I was hooked! This tea has an overwhelmingly delicious cotton candy flavor. Truly is just like enjoying the delicious treat without all of the sticky mess that cotton candy can leave behind. The butterfly pea flower lends itself beautifully to the sweetness and if I would have had more of the blend, I would have added in a touch of lemon juice to create a cotton candy lemonade.
I did try for a second steeping and the cotton candy flavor lessened (which makes sense) and the butterfly pea flower stands out more- which was a different kind of lovely in itself. The blue raspberry flavor was a bit more pronounced in this second steeping.
All in all, such a lovely treat to enjoy and one I will be picking more up of soon. Is it a proper homage to Candyman? I say 100% yes! I think he would approve.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Brutaliteas
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!