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!
Cola déthéiné Black from Dammann Freres
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Decaffeinated Black
Where to Buy: Dammann Freres
Tea Description:
Coming from the ‘Little Cristal’ collection, Cola is a decaffeinated black tea with a cola flavor that children have so dear.
At tea time, a flavored tea to enjoy the “Five O’clock” like grown people.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Prior to trying this blend, I’ve had exactly three cola flavoured teas: Cola Matcha from Red Leaf Tea, Cherry Cola & Cake from Della Terra Teas, and DAVIDsTEA’s Cherry Cola black tea. I remember that so specifically because all of them were super memorable experiences, and not for a good reason. In fact, DT’s Cherry Cola blend may actually be the worst black tea I’ve ever had. Cola just seems to be something that doesn’t apply well to tea, so I’m going into this tasting with extreme reservation and fairly low expectations.
I probably wouldn’t have purchased this one at all if it weren’t for the fact I got some in a group order, and therefore got to pick up a small size of it. It also helps it’s from Dammann Freres – I’ve yet to really find a “flop” from them, though there have been a few blends that just didn’t click because of personal taste. I have faith that if any company can pull off a cola tea they’re likely to be the ones to do it.
I’m cold brewing this – I just personally think that cola flavor kind of only works cold. I’ve had hot coke before (it was a dare) and it didn’t go over well. I have to say, the dry leaf of this smells pretty wonderful. It definitely conveys the smell of coke without any of the chemical/artificial qualities that I’ve experienced with every other coke tea. I don’t know how they do it! There’s even a whiff of vanilla to the smell as well!
I’ll come right out and say it; this is easily the best cola tea I’ve had. Simply put, it tastes like those shimmery silver cola ball candies that are basically pure sugar – though not as cloying as you’d imagine. There’s a really nice freshness to the tea and more natural notes as well like very mild citrus and possibly also pear. It’s ‘fancy’ cola ball candy! Definitely no sweetened needed with this one though; it’s just barely treading the line between natural sweet and ‘cavity’ sweet. I like that the base is also pretty strong, but not overly brisk. The fact it’s decaffeinated is a huge plus – as a generalization black tea is my favourite type and being limited with how much I can drink at night without the jitters is definitely a concern of mine; this will fit seamlessly into my evening routine.
I can totally see why this is marketed towards children as well; it’s something familiar flavor-wise, definitely sweet enough on its own, obviously healthier than actually giving a child a bottle of Coke, and what parent is going to complain about the lack of caffeine!?
My opinion on cola teas has been completely changed; and I’m already imagining interesting ways to try this one: tea soda, as a latte (because ‘floats’), and possibly even hot…
