Toasted Sesame

Meghann tucked a sampler tin of this into my box o’ goodies. I love trying new and different tea flavors, and Toasted Sesame is definitely new and different!

The leaves look wet, they are so oily-looking. And, after brewing, there’s an oil-slick-like sheen on the top of the tea. The taste, to me, is more sweet black tea than sesame seeds. It’s pretty good. Would have liked it a bit less sweet and more toasty. I’ll try it at 5 minutes next time and see if more toasty taste comes out.

I am a sucker for good Japanese food. Or good Chinese food. And one of my favorite elements about it is the sesame – either as an oil, paste or seed. Needless to say, I was excited about this tea as soon as I read about it.

The fabulous Lena provided it to me in a swap (thank you!!), and I am really glad I’m getting to try it!

I see what others have mentioned with the leaves being “oily”. They look and smell for all the world like they’ve been coated in sesame oil. Yum. Sesame oil…. :)

Brewing up, it smells like I’m at my local sushi joint rather than lounging around the house in natty sweats. The brewed aroma is a meld of the sesame and the tea – I’d expected the sesame to be a little stronger than it was, but the two were evenly matched.

The taste is nice. I first taste tea, and then taste tahini as almost an afterthought. It also tastes warm, not as in temperature or spice, but like the feeling you get when you’re warming up after a day outside in the cold. Comfortable.

I would definitely agree with shortening the steeping time – I cut it down by about 30 seconds, and next time I’ll cut it down further. There’s a hint of bitter I think can be cut out.

From the HHTTB

I have toasted sesame oil in the fridge, which we use often in cooking. I kind of thought this would taste somewhat like it, but I didn’t really get much of a sesame taste from it.

HH teabox…. I think Adagio’s black base could work with any flavor. This is no exception, though I’m not really sure what toasted sesame should taste like (a sesame seed bud?) It does have a hint of toasted, nutty flavor. I seem to love many other Adagio flavors more though. There will be some left in the teabox!

I’m freaking terrified of this tea.

I purchased it during my last Adagio Teas order, got it, smelled it and promptly put it on my cupboard and it got shifted to the back. Once in awhile I’ll find it and sniff it, then the shifting happens again.
Then I started to think that I should save this tea next time I make Korean food or bring home some kimbap. Of course, I never remembered to make this tea when I had Korean food.
This tea was requested to be traded and it was weird I never tried this tea, but I was shipping some of it away. I figured I should actually taste it.

DRY: Smells kinda oily and of course, like sesame oil. The leaves look almost oily.

STEEPED: typical Black tea look. Smells mysteriously nutty. Odd film on the top… maybe my cup or steeper wasn’t clean… or is it the tea? Oh man I’m scared.

TASTE: BITTER!!!!! Bitter black tea with an aftertaste of nuttyness once I got past the bitter. Then there is more bitter taste. Never ending bitterness. Why is this so bitter?!?!?!?

COMMENTS:
Okay – maybe using boiling water and 4.5minute steep is too much. Next person needs to try this tea at like 185 or 2 minute steep. That might save you from making the OMG BITTER face. If I finally work up enough courage to try this tea again, I will do that.

One upside to this tea, I think it would taste great with kimbap, it goes with more sesame oil and the bitter tea could offset the salty soy sauce.

I was expecting this to taste like a sesame oil slick. Okay, maybe not. I think when I ordered it I was hoping it would taste like black sesame bubble tea. Hey, I think sesame tea could be pulled off! A tea with creamy stuff (like white chocolate/yogurt), and black sesame bits. OOOOOOOhhhh Yeah! Someone make this, now!

Sorry to the nice person I traded this tea to. I hope it goes over better with you.

I’m in a Japanese immersion ‘camp’ right now, so I thought this one would be fitting (thanks, silvermage!)- we’ve eaten plenty of Japanese food while here, although not enough sweet sesame desserts for my liking :) Also, right now I need to wake up, so a black tea seemed like a fine idea.

This isn’t the first time I’ve tried this one, and I keep finding myself really missing the taste of sesame. It’s there in the dry tea, but brewed this mostly just tastes like okay black tea to me- slightly bitter, slightly dry, good to wake up to.

I am considering just combining this with the sweet potato adagio tea- that one is a bit too sweet, and this one just tastes like nothing when brewed, so voila, diluted s.p. tea.

So funny- I didn’t drink black tea before this immersion program, but as stress caused my tummy to get a little bit unpredictable I found black tea was one of the most effective remedies- more so than the ‘tummy’ herbal teas I have. I have been loving my black teas here.

Anyway, unimpressed by this one.

Brewed in Tiny White Teapot

I opened the tin with these leaves, smelled them, and was completely disgusted by the strong, burnt sesame smell—almost like soy sauce. I like sesame and soy sauce, but the smell was so gross to me that I almost didn’t make the tea. I’m glad my grandparents always told me that “you have to try everything once.”

After steeping, the cup had a very faint sesame smell, and almost a spice to it. The taste is great: solid black tea with sesame notes and nothing “soy sauce” about it. This was a very nice surprise!

I can’t smell or taste sesame in this at all, in the dry leave or the liquor. I had Mr. Kupgup try it, just in case my nose was being unreliable—he declared that it tasted just like plain old black Lipton tea.

It’s nicer than your cheapie bagged Lipton (Mr. Kupgup isn’t very interested in tea). Not a bad tea at all. It’s just not a SESAME flavored tea, as far as I can tell.

I was thinking I might have received some variety of plain black tea by mistake, but I see some other reviews here also noting a lack of sesame flavor—and also reviewers who are noticing plenty of sesame. I guess it’s just something that varies from person to person?

2 infusions (5 and 6 min respectively) @ Thanksgiving dinner.