Are you looking for a little adventure in your cup of tea? Then check out the new Chili Lime Coconut Green from Adagio Teas. It will make your skull sweat!
Adagio’s Chili Lime Coconut Green is a blend of green tea, chili pepper, lemon grass, apple pieces, coconut, orange, key lime pie flavor, safflower, and natural coconut flavor
I went into this experience not really knowing what to expect. I’ve certainly had savory green teas before, like a gen maicha or a sencha. But with the citrus flavors, the apple, and the coconut in this blend, I thought this was going to be a sweet and spicy tea. I was very, very wrong, so when expectations and reality didn’t match, it affected my first experience with this tea. That is to say, “I was happy to try it, but I wouldn’t be quick to drink it again”. I am happy to say, this tea is growing on me.
Adagio’s Chili Lime Green Tea is very much a savory tea– one very reminiscent of a green curry because of the coconut, lemongrass, chili flakes, and lime flavoring. And luckily for me, that’s my favorite kind of curry!
The most prominent flavor in the Chili Lime Coconut Green is the creamy coconut, and of course the spice from the chili flakes will catch you in the back of the throat each sip. This tea is definitely spicy, but it’s not a spice that lingers. Finishing notes are bright citrus flavors, especially lime, which brings a brightness and acidity to balance out this blend. The Adagio Teas website mentions that the coconut offers a sweetness to finish rounding out the cup, but I’m not picking that up as I sip.
The Chili Lime Coconut Green isn’t an everyday drink, but it is a fun way to spice up the afternoons! (See what I did there?)
Have you ever tried a spicy tea before?
If you can’t handle the spice, check out this tea instead:
I generally consider myself level-headed when it comes to finances…except when it comes to tea. Then I am guilty of being impulsive. I’m supposed to be on a tea buying ban, remember? Except I indulged in the DavidsTea semi-annual sale. And…can I let you in on a secret? I only shared half my haul. (Don’t judge me!)
It’s not like I needed any of the tea. Nor had I been eying any of the teas in the collection for any amount of time (except Forever Nuts!). I just picked out teas to try haphazardly, which I’m sure is why the Cotton Candy blend ended up in my cart.
I mean, Cotton Candy flavored tea? That’s ridiculous. How do I go from sipping a tie guan yin to a cotton candy flavored Rooibos? I never claimed to be a connoisseur, but common’!
Except…the Cotton Candy Rooibos from DavidsTea is really, really good. It is a blend of Green rooibos, purple sprinkles, mango, hazelnut brittle, and natural and artificial flavoring. It’s really does taste like cotton candy, but in the best way possible. It’s sweet, ambiguously fruity, and creamy.
The drink does have a natural (“natural”) sweetness already from the Rooibos, the sprinkles, the brittle, and the mango pieces, but if you’re looking for decadence, add some milk and your favorite sweetener for liquid dessert! Or sip it iced for a fun summertime treat fit for the county fair!
Have you ever tried Cotton Candy Rooibos from DavidsTea? Or what is the most frivolous tea you ever tried?
If you like Cotton Candy from DavidsTea, check out these other sweet dessert teas:
Forever Nuts from Davids Tea is a fan favorite. It is one of their best sellers, and lauded as a “gold standard” for herbal/fruit infusions by many of my favorite tea vloggers, so I gave in to peer pressure and purchased a bag for myself during DavidsTea’s recent semi-annual sale.
Forever Nuts is a blend of Apple, almonds, cinnamon, beetroot, and artificial flavoring, and the moment I opened the bag, I was greeted with the warming scent of nuts and sugary sweet cinnamon and vanilla; it smelled just like the candied nut vendor’s stall at the county fair.
I sipped this tea iced and with just a splash of milk, although it tastes equally delicious when sipped hot as well. And this tea is total eye-candy! Because of the beetroot, Forever Nuts steeps to a fun, vivid pink.
The flavor of the tea is very similar to the scent of the tea– very much like candied nuts. Or even like the crumble on top of an apple crumble! It’s nutty and sweet and there are cinnamon and creamy vanilla flavors that come through as well. This tea makes me wish Autumn were already here! (Then again, I wish it was always Autumn, so…)
Forever Nuts tea was such a treat, and I’m already looking forward to buying another (much bigger) bag of this as Autumn draws near.
Have you ever tried Forever Nuts, and what did you think of it?
If you have been a fan of Adagio Teas for any length of time, surely you have heard about their Masters Teas. It’s a relatively small collection of hand-processed, premium teas, and to be honest, even though I knew they existed (and even purchased some Formosa Ali Shan Oolong), it’s a section of their site that has a tendency to fly under my radar. I find myself easily distracted by their more robust collection of colorful, blended teas. But now, Adagio Teas has launched a sister site to give their premium teas the attention they deserve.
Masters Teas offers direct-from-the-farm teas, and to ensure freshness, tea is processed in small batches and only becomes available on the website upon harvest. This means, you might see “coming soon” on product pages from time to time. Masters Teas also embodies the Roots Campaign, which encourages tea drinkers to “Know Your Farmers”. Each tea page provides information about the tea’s geographical origin as well as the tea farmer; Masters Teas strives to put a name and a face with the tea.
I had the wonderful opportunity to try some tea samples (for free in exchange for reviews), and I’m eager to share my experience with you. I debated recording a video for today’s post but decided to take it slow instead. I decided to go back to my roots and just write. It’s a process that makes me feel nostalgic. It reminds me of slow, Saturday mornings back when Jon and I first moved in with each other. Back before crazy, stressful jobs. Back before a mortgage and trying to decide if we should replace the roof. Back before we had two cats that wake me up in the middle of the night. Back before baby. Mornings were just quieter back then. As were afternoons, evenings, 1 AM, and 3 AM.
Back then, Jon worked Saturdays, so I would start my day with a cup of coffee while soaking in the brisk Autumn air out on the balcony. (For some reason, it’s always Autumn when I reminisce about the apartment.) Then, I would go to the library and spend an hour trekking through stacks, searching for books to read. Afterward, I would come home, put the kettle on, photograph the books I would never actually finish reading, and then I would write about tea. I’d write out my tasting notes, sure, but more importantly, I would reflect on how I would experience the tea, how it would make me feel, and definitely the weather. (I can’t tell if the weather was used to create atmosphere, or if I’m just so guarded that even in my writing, I couldn’t move past small talk). Still, some of my favorite pieces of writing came from those slow Saturday mornings, sipping tea.
I shuffled through a selection of eight teas before settling on a familiar, yet wholly different Muzha Tie Guan Yin. This kind of oolong is no strangers here on my blog, though the ones I’ve tried in the past were from the Anxi region in China and were only lightly roasted. The Muzha Tie Guan Yin from Masters Teas comes from Wen Shen, Taiwan, and compared to its Anxi cousin, it’s highly roasted, which impacts both the physical appearance and the tasting experience.
The dried tea leaves are a dark, muddy brown color. The leaves are tightly rolled, but unfurl to full leaves after steeping. The smell is of minerals and wet grass clippings that are slightly composted, and makes me think of rainy, late-springtime afternoons. After steeping, the wet leaves smell charred, vegetal, and like dark salad greens.
I steeped this tea three times, as recommended by the Masters Teas website, at 212 degrees starting at three minutes and increasing the steep time one minute with each subsequent steep.
Steep One:
The color of the liquor is the color of golden syrup, and it has buttery and spiced aromas with sweet blossom undertones. The tea has a medium-to-full bodied mouthfeel, and it is not nearly as astringent as I anticipated. The predominant taste is of buttered rice with mineral undertones. The butter rice flavor stays with you long after you sip, too.
Steep Two:
The liquor is still golden syrup-colored, but it smells smokey instead of buttery. The mouthfeel is still medium bodied, but again it lacks the butteriness that was present in the first steep. It also is slightly more astringent than the first steep. The flavors do become more complex during the second steep though. I tasted dry grass clippings. I tasted a spiced flavor that came through after the tea sat on my tongue for a while– earthy cinnamon. I tasted light, powdery blossoms as the tea began to cool.
Steep Three:
The final steep had a medium-to-light body, and a flavor that reminded me of dried clover and hay from late summertime. (Maybe something akin to the Chunmee Green tea I tried recently).
Overall, the Muzha Tie Guan Yin was a beautiful tea with complex flavors that peaked during the second steeping and one that I I can’t wait to experience again. If you are interested in premium, direct-from-farm teas, make sure you check out Mastersteas.com. Also, stay tuned because I have several more teas from Masters Teas to try out. I’m especially looking forward to the Formosa Ruby 18 Black tea, the Sincha Genmai Cha, and the Yu Qian Anji Bai Cha.
I don’t think I have ever openly declared my nerdom here on my blog, but I have demonstrated it here, here, here, and here. Now however, I would like to declare it:
I. Am. A. Nerd.
Like a stay-up-well-past-my-bedtime-even-though-my-infant-son-has-me-sleep-deprived-so-I-can-sneak-in-some-video-game-playtime kind of nerd. Or a I-lost-track-of-how-many-times-I’ve-read-Harry-Potter-kind-of-nerd. Or a I-used-to-write-Lord-of-the-Rings-fan-fic kind of nerd. I can’t believe I just admitted to that last one, but you’re beginning to see the picture, I hope. And now I can add to this list: a visited-the-Motor-City-Comic-Con kind of nerd!
A couple of weeks ago, Jon and I visited the Motor City Comic Con, and it goes down as one of the coolest things we’ve done together. Over 60,000 people visit the Motor City Comic Con over a weekend, and the convention floor is filled with comic book vendors, artists, cosplayers, celebrity guests, tabletop games, and celebrity guest-led panels.
Since this was our first comic con, we were a bit overwhelmed when we first arrived, but shortly we found our home in artist alley. We spent most of our time (and perhaps way too much money) there, but it was rows upon rows of artists and crafters selling fandom-inspired prints and coasters and comics and candles and postcards.
Here were some of my favorite pieces of artwork:
I love these clever pop culture mash-ups by Steve Jencks, especially Robocop replacing the Tin Man on the yellow brick road and Alien preparing to dine on ALF, while ALF prepares to dine on a cat. [WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM]
Okay, okay, so Jon may have chosen the wrestler prints, and I may have chosen the X-Files print, but I still love how they look like the covers of comic books. Artwork by Erik Hodson [INSTAGRAM]
These images hardly do the artwork by Sean Anderson justice. What you don’t see are the metallic and holographic leaf elements that make his superhero artwork truly impressive. He also had a series of superheroes set against Detroit landmarks, which was cool to browse through. [INSTAGRAM]
The artwork by Andrew Heath was perhaps my favorite. I loved it so much that along with a TARDIS print I also purchased a book of his artwork to display on the coffee table (that I will someday soon buy). [WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM]
As much as I loved Artist Alley, I know we missed out on the cosplay contests, and I would have loved to visit some of the guest panels (especially the Doctor Who After Hours event!) but, toting around Oliver made that challenging to do. Maybe we can look forward to that next year though.
Have you ever been to a comic con? What are some of your favorite fandoms?
About the Blogger
My name is Jackie, and I am a millennial / mother / Michigander / blogger / wannabe runner / accountant / local library enthusiast / gamer, kinda. This is a personal blog, which means I’m not entirely certain what you’ll find here, but it will definitely not show up on the first page of Google search results.
By Golly, Ollie! 