Yuletide Toddy

Fairly nice spiced fruit tea, but the flavors are a little muddled.

Adagio Advent Calendar – Day 23

There was a sad little amount of leaf in this packet, so I got out my little 8-ounce teacup and hopefully it doesn’t taste like water… XD

Well, it’s not weak, which is good. However, something here is reminding me of bubblegum? I wonder if this is the same issue I sometimes have with Dammann teas with gingerbread and orange flavoring. There’s a nice amount of hibiscus, it’s pleasantly tart but not sour. Apparently it has cranberry flavor, but I’m not sure I can distinguish that from the hibiscus/orange/apple combo. I can taste the ginger and a little bit of cinnamon.

Overall, it’s not bad. The bubblegum part is weird, but that’s likely just me…

(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJJTedoAugd/)

Wow, I didn’t realize I hadn’t reviewed this yet. I’ve had this since Christmas. This one smells lovely in bag, but I was concerned with the large number of apple pieces in it. I haven’t had much luck with Adagio’s Fruit Tisanes in the past, so I fear this won’t be much better.
Brewed Western style, 2 heaping teaspoons for 12 oz, 6 minutes at 212 F.
Taste plain is ok. It suffers much like the usual fruit blends that it isn’t too nice on its own.
Added a Single Splenda, and the taste greatly improves. The sweetness makes the flavors pop, and even brings out a bit of spiciness. I’m getting Apple, Rose Hips, Berry Blend, Hibi, and a lovely underlying spice mixture that very much improves the fruitiness of the tisane. This one is actually not too bad. It’s not my favorite, but I would drink this again. I suppose I can recommend it. But only if you add sweetener to it. It’s just MEH on its own.

046/365

This is a fruit blend, and I was expecting it to be the usual hibi-heavy affair that I experienced with most Adagio fruit tisanes back when I first tried them. In actual fact, that’s not the case. While there is hibiscus in this blend, it’s actually really subtle, and not heavy-handed/overdone at all. I first felt the happiness when I realised it hadn’t turned bright pink/red almost immediately; the packet suggests a 10 minute brew time, I gave it 5-6, and it was still a pale orange.

There’s an inevitable downside to this, which is that I couldn’t actually get this one to taste of very much at all. There’s a faint spiced apple kind of vibe going on, but very little else. I think I’ll need to experiment a lot more with this before I find a happy place with it – I’m pretty sure it has the potential to be good, if only I can work out how to release it…