It’s sunny as hell, and the first day of Penn State’s summer break. Yet here I sit with a pumpkin spice tea. Because I break ALL THE CONVENTIONS. I’m standing strong against The Man. Resist where you can, kids.
Pumpkin spice is tasty all. year. round. Yum.
Throw in a little chocolate for taste and mate for kick, and I am ready to roll. This is a great blend.
It contains mate. Mate is a caffeinated genetically-not-technically-tea. Its influence varies from person to person. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this in any previous posts, but I feel like I should probably point it out to you now. My best friend could drink a mug of it and fall asleep for the night shortly thereafter. However, she has no idea how it would affect her baby (she’s breastfeeding), so she can’t drink it right now.
She’s worried her baby might react to mate the way I do.
Mate makes ME feel like a kid at Chuck E Cheese, though.
SORT OF RELATED FACT: Did you know that Chuck E Cheese’s full name is “Charles Entertainment Cheese”? I’ll wait while you Google that.
Regardless of whether you love giant mouse mascots, video games, pumpkin spice, chocolate, or caffeine, this is the tea for you!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Mate
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
That perfect delicious drink, invented and served by Levi to warm any girl’s heart. He’s sorta brilliant that way. This black tea is filled with the smooth sweetness of pumpkin and spices mixed with warm cream. A touch of mocha nut mate with accents of cinnamon, apples pieces and cocoa nibs might just blow your mind.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Tree House of Tea from Adagio Teas. . . . #TeaRex #MonsterBrew #RocketFuel
Beyond the wonderful madness of custom fandom blends on Adagio Teas’ website, they do have a few blends and custom sets of their own. I tried one of their more whimsical sets, the Tree House series. The vibrant, attractive designs of dinosaurs and monsters on the tins was enough to sway me into giving these teas a try. The Tree House series are all herbal decaf teas, and meant to be kid-friendly in style, contents, and taste. Fair warning: these teas brew up strong, fast, so feel free to keep the steep times shorter than you expect. It’s easy to stop the steep time as these teas are all already in silk, pyramid teabags.
This tea smells like Adagio’s Valentine’s blend, though this is a decaf version. The smell and taste are full of rich cocoa and dark berries. Even though cherries are a strong element of this blend, it does not taste like medicine. This tea is dark and full-bodied, almost makes you think it’s a black tea or a mate, but it’s all herbal. If you’re not into chocolate dessert teas, this might not be your favorite. But if you’re looking for a decaf version of the Valentine’s blend, this will be a winner.
Monster Brew
In the tin, this tea smells the most distinct from the three teas in Adagio’s Tree House series. This green rooibos blend focuses on orange and berry. It’s sweet with raspberry and blueberry flavors, but it never gets too syrupy, thanks to the bright citrus notes. Smooth, playful, and easy to drink. This blend has the perfect balance between sweet and sour fruits, and the right balance of a nutty rooibos base with more saturated berry flavors.
The strongest flavors in Rocket Fuel are apple and hibiscus. The hibiscus is subtle, but present, so don’t worry about it overwhelming the blend, but be cautious if you hate the flavor. The hibiscus adds pink to the brewed color, and gives a little pucker to this decaf berry blend. Luckily, there’s enough apple to keep the tea sweet and fresh without getting too tart. Apple is so often paired with cinnamon and spice, it was nice to just taste the crisp fruit and its natural sweetness.
This set is a great gift for a young tea-drinker, or a lover of fruity-decaf teas. Or just a nice gift to yourself– the colorful, illustrated tins will brighten anyone’s tea shelf!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal and Rooibos/Green Rooibos
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description:
Every cup of tea represents an imaginative journey. Our Tree House gift set helps build creative minds one cup at a time. Become an astronaut, scare away monsters hiding in your closet, and roam dinosaur inhabited lands without leaving your home.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Happily Headless from Adagio Teas. . . GoT Inspired Tea!
Now that Game of Thrones is six seasons in and the books have been around even longer, I think it is safe to say that referencing Ned’s death doesn’t really require a spoiler warning. I mean you would basically need to have lived under a rock to not know the shocking decapitation that befell the Stark patriarch. I guess people should have seen it coming when the show cast Sean Bean in the role given he is known for being killed off. In fact, this particular blend is merely one of a series of teas inspired by the many Sean Bean deaths.
One of the biggest appeals of Adagio is their fandom blends. They don’t have the best quality ingredients but something about pairing a tea with beloved characters just gives them an edge. Nostalgia is probably to blame but slapping a name like “Happily Headless” on a blend just makes me enjoy the tea that much more. Maybe its just me who feels this way though.
This is a black tea/green tea blend with chai spices, cream flavor, orange, and bits of candy canes in the leaf. The combination creates a sort of spice cake flavor that is rather intoxicating. The green base is slightly vegetal and the orange can be a bit pithy but mostly this is a whole lot of delicious. The peppermint from the candy canes is lacking just a touch but I am not sure how well it would blend with the other flavors that are present anyways, so perhaps that is for the best. If anything, the candy canes contribute a bit of a winter bite as you finish the sip – perhaps a nod to Ned’s famous warning?
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
You’ll lose your head over your loyalty to this kingly brew!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Spiced Apple Chai from Adagio Tea
This tastes spot-on like spiced apple cider. It tastes precisely like something one would buy at a farmer’s market from an Amish person. You could imagine them hand-mashing it, mulling it, and dropping in a dallop of cinnamon. Totally real ingredients, all the indulgence, with none (or almost none) of the calories.
You’d then carry your cup of this cider into a pumpkin patch, with your partner, who wants to “share” it with you. But really, s/he wants to drink 75% and not hold their own cup. Then, when it’s drunk down, you didn’t get enough (there is NEVER ENOUGH of something so tasty). AND you’re left holding an empty cup in your hand and no trash can.
In vengeance, you make them carry the pumpkin in line to the weighing station, and then make them pull the goop out of the pumpkin’s head at home while you drink wine and watch reality TV.
You insist on a “cute” pumpkin this year instead of an “elaborate” pumpkin.
You get your way. Because you gave them some of your cider (or tea that tastes like cider, in this instance), and it was the bomb.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
Our Spiced Apple Chai features the timeless, comforting combination of apples and spice. A lively blend of black tea, classic spices from Indian Masala Chai and bright notes of crisp apple. Juicy and pleasantly sweet, like warm applesauce, with a clean, refreshing texture. We suggest two heaping teaspoons per 8 oz cup. Sugar, cream or soy if desired
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Halloween Caramel Apple from Woodie Barnes-McWhirter, An Adagio Signature Blend
It’s Halloween! Time for all the things to go bump in the night come out and play. I’ve always been a huge Halloween fan and love all the scary movies and scary television themed shows. My kiddos and I are especially fond of Halloween Wars on Food Network. We love watching the pumpkin carvers and bakers create amazing spooky scenes.
So the other night while we were watching our Halloween shows, I brewed up a tea pot of this lovely brew. I’m quite a fan of Adagio Signature Blends. Ever once in a while you do end up with a heavy handed blend, but for the most part, they are pretty good and are fun.
This particular blend of different black teas- Candy Apple, Caramel, and Vanilla. Brewed up and allowed to steep for a few minutes, this tea delivers on that sweetness you would expect from a tea named Halloween Caramel Apple.
The caramel and vanilla flavors are what come across the most with that candy apple flavor following behind. The black tea base is a bit heavy but topped off with a bit of cream, that heaviness really mellows out. I almost wish the apple flavoring was a bit stronger but with the dessert like notes, it still works.
A great tea for the spooky night and one we will be brewing up again. I think this time we will top the tea with some whip cream and some pumpkin sprinkles to add a bit of flair to the tea. That would be a treat!
This tea is enough of a sweet that it should keep me out of the kids’ candy buckets this Halloween. At least let’s hope so!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
Its not Halloween…until you taste a caramel apple. This blend consist of Candy Apple (Caramel and Apple) with more Caramel and some Vanilla black teas.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
