Tea Review – Adagio Tea’s Almond Oolong
So this is my fist foray into the loose leaf tea business as well as into an Oolong. This was one of the many that came in my sampler pack I bought.
Name: Almond Oolong
Company: Adagio Teas
Type: Oolong
Ingredients: (from website) Almond slices and Formosa Oolong tea
Packaging: Loose Leaf. I do have one gripe with the tins from Adagio Tea. They are really quite small and the tea is a bit tightly packed in there, so it makes it a little hard to scoop out. I had to empty it into a little espresso cup I have so that I could properly scoop it out.
Dry Scent/Look: The dry smell reminds me of pastry. It makes me want to go to a high priced bakery and buy something sweet but not overly sweet, just enough to know that it’s a pastry. That is exactly what this tea smells like, a rich and buttery yet sweet pastry. I can see only a few almond slices in the tea but the smell is just bewitching.
Brewed Scent: The scent mostly comes from the Oolong, you can smell the earthy tea in it very distinctly but also get the small nutty undercurrent of the almond along with it.
Brewed Color: It’s a nice slightly reddish amber color
Taste: Since this is my first taste of an oolong I can really taste the leafy earthy flavor of the leaves. It reminds me slightly of Green with the leafy flavor but it doesn’t annoy me as much as Green tea does. The almond that was so sweet smelling when in the container is mostly noticed now as a slightly nutty aftertaste. The nutty flavor starts to come forward more as the tea cools, it could be a very nice iced tea, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that step yet.
The nutty flavor becomes a little more pronounced when you add a little sugar to it, reminding me almost of a dessert tea. I do love how mellow the tea is though. Black tea always seemed to have a bit of a “bite” to it, almost coppery/peppery in flavor. I’m not sure all of the oolong teas are mellow or if it is just the addition of the almond, but I’m sure I’ll find out later.
Additions: I added just a little raw sugar after tasting it straight up. Both were good but I probably would end up adding sugar to it every time I drink it. I like the nutty flavor that comes out more pronounced and is complimented by the sweetness the sugar adds.
Overall Opinion: So far I like oolong. It doesn’t have as much of the grassy flavor that green tea has, and less of the peppery/coppery flavor that most of the black teas I’ve tasted. I really am digging the mellow and slightly nutty flavor of the almond. With all of the samples I bought of the oolongs, I hope the others are as nice as this one. My own personal preference would be to add sugar, but that may change over time as I get used to the leafy/earthy flavor of the tea leaves. I still like to open the tin and smell the tea though. Since I’m such a baker and a fan of pastries, the smell really IS bewitching.