Riddle's Tea Shoppe and Curiosities

Love the rich flavors of this tea, and appreciate the dedication to theme in all of the creative blends from Aun-Juli and Riddle’s tea shoppe!

Swap Sample Sipdown! (2 | 71)

Swap from VariaTEA!

This one is Adagio fandom blend by another name.

It’s not bad. The rooibos isn’t too overpowering, and there’s a somewhat tart lemon flavor. I see that there is cream-flavored black tea in this, but I don’t really pick up on that. It is interesting how the fruit and hibiscus tisane does makes the lemon more realistic. I do taste a bit of strawberry as well, so it sort of reminds me of a strawberry lemonade rooibos.

But it’s definitely nothing special IMO.

Swap Sample Sipdown! (42)

From VariaTEA! I think this is a fandom blend from Adagio that the designer has since started selling on their own website? Which seems a bit disingenuous to me since the website doesn’t actually specify whether or not they blend their teas in-house. At least the price is somewhat reasonable, at $11 for 50g compared to Adagio’s price of $12 for 85g.

I will say, to me an elven-inspired blend should be a green, oolong, or herbal base. But that’s okay!

Mostly this just tastes vaguely peachy with a hint of cinnamon and perhaps some caramel or vanilla. The base is extremely generic and doesn’t taste like much. It has a slight mustiness.

So anyway, it’s okay but I wouldn’t call it “good”. But that’s what I generally expect from Adagio teas (though this once isn’t specified as being an Adagio blend).

Watermelon Juice Cold Brew Sipdown

I kept trying to think of what flavors went well with watermelon and mint is what came to mind. Then I was packaging a swap and had a touch of this left and thought to myself that watermelon lemonade could be nice. This is lemony but with a lot of sweet watermelon. It’s like a watermelon lemonade candy. Very, very sweet. I think future cold brews in the watermelon juice will be diluted with water.

Sipdown (337)

Having a sample of this before I pass the rest along. Like so many other Adagio teas, this isn’t my favorite. There’s a hibi tartness that sort of blends with a fake strawberry/cherry flavor that is drawing to mind cough syrup. Interestingly enough, I don’t get any of the rooibos flavor so that’s a plus. All in all, this wasn’t for me. Hopefully *Cameron B.” is more successful than I was.

Typical Adagio black tea base, brisk and astringent and a little like dirt, with some orange and ginger. Definitely not my favorite.

This tea seems to be very highly rated and perhaps it is because my mug cooled quite a bit but I just don’t understand why. Like so many other adagio black teas, this is quite bitter and astringent and has a slight dirt quality to it. It has a stonefruit flavor which is nice but that bitterness just overshadows it. There is some sweetness that could be caramel but again it is being drowned out. Perhaps I need to try this hotter to get the love?

Another peppermint chocolate tea made both plain and as a latte. Of the two my preferred was the plain tea which had a milk chocolate sprinkled with peppermint sort of vibe to it. The latte, though made with milk, felt watered down and like a memory of a peppermint Mexican hot chocolate with a focus on mint and cinnamon. It was an alright enough tea but I’ll probably stick to one of the many other chocolate peppermint teas that I can get in Canada.

Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/12/13/the-lucky-snitch-from-riddles-tea-shoppe-and-curiosities/

Sipdown (337)

I decided to brew this up a few different ways: hot, iced and as a latte.

I tried the hot tea first and though it is slightly caramel, it is diluted but a smokey adagio black base and hints of rooibos.

The latte has more of a chocolate caramel flavor to it but still the base is strong.

Weirdly enough, the iced tea is fruity and gives way to caramel. I think this is the best version of the three but even this is only alright.

This might have oversteeped a bit which could be why the base is so strong or it could be the Adagio teas/flavors that are always just okay. I just didn’t love this one anyway I had it.

Sipdown (299)

I think it was because I was cold or because of the rain but I found myself wanting a latte with spice. I am not one for chais often so I took a quick browse through my stash and found this tea with cinnamon, ginger, caramel, chocolate, and all the other chai-like flavors that were calling my name. Alas, this might have been slightly underleafed as it is watered down.

Not only watered down but this tastes almost muddy. There isn’t a great spice kick. Instead there is a muddled mess of ingredients. Nothing stands out and everything is sort of just a hodge podge of meh.

This one was a little better…likely because it’s not a black tea. this is a creamy lemon tea and wasn’t half bad.

Ha ha ha ha ok so my inital reaction when drinking this one was that it tastes like adagio teas. there’s something to them that i just can’t take…it wasn’t until i looked this one up that i discovered they ARE in fact adagio teas. funnily enough..this also reminded me of amaretto…adagio amaretto…so i guess my taste buds were just out of wack.

Scent is like spiced cider. The flavor could use a bit more apple-ness, but it’s comforting and likeable.

I’m not getting any of the sweetness that others are tasting in this tea. It is oddly savory and I’m not sure I like it. Where is the caramel? The blueberry? The dried leaves smelled so good! I don’t taste any of those tasty delicious things in here. One of the reported flavors for this is “chicken soup” – how apt. It is very soup-like. Meh.

Also, I hadn’t realized there was ginger in this when I placed the order, and I’m not sure if I can attribute my ambivalence to my hatred of ginger, or if this tea is just doesn’t work.

Maybe I’ll try a shorter steep.

Huh.

I don’t like this. I think it’s a combination of flavor loss due to age and what flavor is there is kind of like very old spices. Too bad too, because spiced Apple tea should be tasty.

Adagio blends have been pretty hit and miss for me in the past, but I do like their caramel flavoring. So when I saw this was supposed to be a caramel blueberry tea, I got excited! The scent was delicious caramel-sweet fruity goodness. The flavor was heavy on the caramel with little hints of fruitiness that didn’t really taste like blueberries to me, but it was still a very pleasant combination. I enjoyed this one!

It’s like apple pie in a breakfast tea. Hmmm. Yum.

2nd TARDIS blend today! I really wanted to compare this one to the Cara Mcgee TARDIS while I had it fresh in mind.

Dry, I couldn’t figure out what this reminded me of. It’s a sort of odd smell, savory, yet comforting. For some reason I was reminded of tea+soap+lemongrass. Definitely have to shake the bag up, the white leaves will gravitate to the top, and the black towards the bottom, it’s kind of hard though, this is 4oz in a 3oz bag! (Because Tardis is bigger on the inside, lol.)

Brewed the leaves remind me of tea+soap initially. Have you tried that Lemongrass scented soap by Dove? THAT. The liquor was more cream flavored tea+lemongrass. (Mellow lemongrass, not sharp.)

I was hesitant about the brewing instructions, it is a white and black blend. But I followed the recommended directions, 200*F@3min. 2nd Steep 195*F at 4min.

A sweeter smell developed as it cooled to drinkable temperature. I really could start to pick out the notes: creme, blueberry, lemon. I think that it’s the cinnamon and ginger that translates the bergamot into lemongrass for me.

This is a much more savory type tea than Cara M’s TARDIS. The overall effect isn’t extremely savory, bit for me it makes it more of an ‘all the time’ tea than Cara’s, which is dessert sweet. It’s also easier to drink being a white+black blend, it’s much lighter on the senses. It’s a good tea that you don’t really have to worry about much if it’s going to pair well with your food, or with your mood.

I’ve drank several teas today, but didn’t really get around to posting about them.
This is my last tea of the day,
It’s another one from Sil, sent to her from Schmiracles.
This is a black tea with peach flavor, & it’s not bad if you add a bit of sweetening, though it does get bitter as it cools.
Another sipdown!

Keychange is talking me into an adagio order so I’m going through a few more samples to decide what I’d like to get! This is another one from shmiracles!

It’s a nice black tea with peach, and peach, and apricot and more peach! This might go on the list. It makes me think of spring. Those elves, they know their stuff! The base isn’t quite as good as some of the black teas I’m used to but the fruit is nice, and so long as it doesn’t get bitter as it cool, I’d say it was a winner!

Ok. It got a little bitter. Good but not insta-buy good.
(Sipdown 182)

Thanks Schmiracles for sending me this tea! Had this one last night before bed. I mainly got the peach, but there wasn’t definitely some apricot as well and some sweetness that could have been the caramel. I forgot about this and over steeped it so I will make the remaining cup of this on the weekend and see if I can pick out the caramel a little more.

So this brings me to 140. In March. So there. neener neener lol I’ve been sipping on this since i got home, trying to figure out what i need to do to get my other half to get his darn tax info to me so that i can file for him….what needs to be done for work tomorrow and what the heck i want to do with my hair tomorrow. CHOP CHOP CHOP!

I’ve been sick of peach teas lately..but this one isn’t overly cloyingly peach because the base comes through a bit more. Also, i think the caramel in this one helps…or at least i think that’s caramel. It’s not in your face either. mostly…just a good cup tonight for what i was puttering around with haha

Woo! I was right! From my sniff, I decided it was apricots and peach. :)

Taste-wise, it’s not as good as others I’ve had. I tend to prefer apricot or peach mixed with ginger for a tea, so that might be why. I also don’t get any caramel, which is interesting, as I almost always get the caramel in these blends! The base is also quite prominent on this tea, and it has some flavours I don’t enjoy. Almost… cardboard. Under the fruit. Hmm. :/

It’s also not what I’d think Elven Nectar would taste like… it’s been so long since I read the books, I have no idea what the description was. But I’d think a melomel, but potentially not fermented long. Maybe just fermented for some fizz. IDK.

Thanks for the sample, Shmiracles! It’s so fun to try all these fandom blends. :)

Hmm… peachy-apricoty black tea. My nose sadly doesn’t detect any caramel. :( That is me with a very sad face. I love caramel. LOOOOOVE it.

Anyways. Steeped up, with a drop of liquid stevia stuff (that is so, so old because I don’t really like stevia. But a drop in a tea that needs a little sweet to bloom really works), it’s pretty good. Nothing to write home about, sadly. Peachy-apricoty, slightly sweet, black tea.

And I can’t imagine elves drinking caffeine. Really? Elven nectar to me is… a mixture of really weird plant clippings. Some extremely light and honey-tinged grassy herbal mixture of weirdness. But YMMV. :)

Thank you, Shmiracles. :)