Tag: darjeeling tea

Adagio Masters: Rohini First Oolong

I can definitely see the lilly of the valley vibe on this one.

In the bag it has a similarly banana-y flavor to Gold Wire, but while that one smelled like cooked banana, this one reminds me of banana chips–dry and shiny and sweet. After being open a minute, the floral notes come out, and in the cup it’s almost all floral!

The leaves are big and light, and the brew at 3m is super light but smells great. Like, it looks barely brewed but it already smells and tastes like a good oolong.

Leaving it in deepens the floral and general tea-like notes, darkens the color a little, but doesn’t bring on even a hint of bitterness at all! It’s really good, guys! And the longer the tea sits, the more those fruity notes they talked about on the label come out. Still very floral, but taking on sort of an apricot background taste.

The leaves have opened up huge in there! This one would be good for a teapot, without a lot of little bits getting through to your cup.

It doesn’t need anything, and like most fancy teas, would be wasted by putting sugar and milk in it.

I think I scorched it when I went to rebrew it and the water boiled too far, but it still smells and tastes good! A little less strong, but that’s to be expected from a second brew. The third brew is definitely the darkest one, too.

It’ll be up for sale on Adagio.com soon!

Adagio Masters: Rohini Gold Wire (Feb 2021)

(did not get any of those flavors??)

In the bag, it smells like…banana bread? Like that specific tang of cooked banana, a little sweet, but without all the other smells of sugar and such. And then after it’s been open a minute, more floral.

At the black-tea appropriate three minute mark, it’s a moderately light gold brew, much lighter than I was expecting! It doesn’t smell like much, just sort of earthy. And the taste is really mild and earthy too–honestly, it doesn’t even taste that much like what you’d expect a standard tea to taste? There’s almost no tannins so it’s super mild. Maybe this is what tea leaves taste like themselves, under the usual bitterness?

But in a pleasant way. Very refined and you can tell it’s quality, it has that Fancy Tea sort of time to the flavors.

After leaving the tea in the cup (because I’m a savage who doesn’t take it out), it darkened a little and got a bit stronger, but mostly it stayed gentle and gold and not bitter. Maybe took on a little more of those floral notes.

On rebrewing, it got darker and a little bitterer, closer to what might be a more typical tea taste, but lost that floralness.

Conclusion:

  • A lovely gentle sipping tea! Doesn’t need anything but leaves and hot water.
  • Sugar and cream would definitely overpower this tea, and are entirely unneeded.
  • I really want it to have those toasty fruity flavors, so I think I’ll try this tea again with better water.