Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey there Teacups! I know I don’t usually post on a Wednesday here on my blog anymore but after not being able to post at all last week I wanted to catch up with my planned posting schedule as quickly as I could. So today I’m going to be reviewing Adagio Teas – London Collection (sample set) this was sent to me to try out by the team at Adagio UK a while back but I’ve only recently gotten round to trying all of the blends in this set and of course I wanted to make sure I tried them all multiple ways to make sure I could give you the most well rounded review of this sample set, these sample sets on both the UK and the US website seem really popular but you never see review of the sets in full so I wanted to make sure that I reviewed it this way rather than splitting the teas up and reviewing them separately.

Here’s what Adagio have to say about this blend on their website: ”the London Collection sampler set which includes six community favourites packaged in spiffy metal tins. Perfect for displaying in your tea cupboard or for refilling as a tea transport vessel while on the go. Also makes a great gift for your Fandom and tea-loving special someone.”

There are six blends in the sample set on the UK site but this collection is also available on the Us website and the collection actually includes nine blends over there (the ones they have that we don’t have in the UK are Strawberry afternoon, Black cab and Walk in the park). For the purpose of todays post how ever I am going to only be including the blends that were included in the box I was sent, if I do ever get chance to try those other blends I’ll do a part two of this post reviewing all three though I’m not sure if I will get to try them so I can’t promise anything. For this post I’ll give each tea it’s own Overall Cup Rating and then I’ll give the Set overall it’s own rating as well and I’ll also incudes the ingredients list for each blend. The set overall is priced at £19 and should you enjoy one blend specifically you can purchase 85g bags of each separately.

Tea & Tisane Tasting Notes

Earl Of Westminster | Ingredients: Black Tea, Natural Chestnut Flavour, Orange, Natural Bergamot Flavour, Blue Cornflowers. – Out of all of the blends in this set this was by far the one that I enjoyed the most. I tired this on it’s own, as a hot latte and as an iced latte and it is 100% at it’s absolute best as a hot latte the black tea base its strong and sturdy and the perfect pedestal for all of the other ingredients in this blend. Other than the black tea the chestnut is deffinelty the most prominent followed by a smidge of orange breaking apart the heavy indulgence and then the bergamot come through softy at the end of each mouthful. I was expecting the bergamot to overpower everything but this has been perfectly blended so that it has that the earl grey feel to it but it’s not all earl grey and the other ingredients add some nice layers of depth to it setting it apart from just a classic Earl Grey. OTR: 5/5

Piccadilly Citrus | Green Tea, Orange, Marigold Flowers, Natural Mandarin Flavour, Natural Orange Flavour, Natural Lemon Flavour – I tried this particular blend quote a few ways to try and find the best way to prepare it but by far I think that my favourite way to have this was iced. While it was nice hot, I’m just much ore of a fan of fruit green teas iced. This blend is a citrus powerhouse. The Mandarin and orange notes in this are well balanced, they add both sour and sweet notes to the overall flavour profile and work perfectly with the soft vegetal notes of the green tea base. I thought I was going to need to sweeten this a little bit but it find without any sweetener both hot and iced. If you’re a fan of fruity/citrusy green teas you’ll love this and it’s deffinelty a perfect blend for the summer time. It’s every so slightly drying not matter how you prepare it but I find that can be the case with iced green teas so it was to be expected. OTR: 4.9/5

Covent Garden Chai | Black Tea, Cinnamon, Ginger, Cardamom, Orange, Cloves, Apple Pieces, Natural Apple Flavour, Blue Cornflowers, Natural Vanilla Flavour, Natural Bergamot Flavour, Natural Cinnamon Flavour, Natural Creme Flavour – As you all know I’m a massive fan of chai but when I first read the ingredients it did initially seem to me like it was going to be a bit too much as there are deffinelty quite a lot of ingredients to it. Luckily that wasn’t the case at all the black tea base carries all of the spices perfectly and they are all balanced perfectly with the cinnamon and cardamom being most prominent. The orange has a slight citrus and pairs well with he strong cinnamon notes. The Apple isn’t really prominent in terms of adding a apple note but it does add a strong enough natural sweetness that meant I didn’t need to add in any sweetener. The vanilla and the creme notes do perfect job of creaming a creme patisserie like note and the bergamot comes through really lightly right at the end of each mouthful. This blend was a really pleasant surprise and I really enjoyed it both on it’s own and as a latte. OTR: 5/5

Oxford Steep | Oolong Tea, Black Tea, Natural Almond Flavour, Cinnamon, Orange, Natural Spice Flavour, Cardamom, Cloves, Ginger, Natural Ginger Flavour, Natural Cinnamon Flavour – This is a blend I thought I was going to adore because it has both oolong and black tea in it but I couldn’t really pick the oolong out as the black tea kind overpowered it and all it really added was a faint roasted note. I deffinelty would have liked the almond to be stronger and in terms of spiciness the cinnamon and ginger were the stand out and I would have preferred for the cloves and the cardamom to have been much stronger and balanced with the other spiced notes. The orange provides a soft citrus which was a nice background note which I did enjoy. It doesn’t really do what it says it’s going to on the tin but for what it is, it was enjoyable and I’ll finish the tin. OTR: 3.9/5

Double Decker | Assam Melody and Ceylon Sonata – As a big fan of black tea of course I enjoyed this blend, sometimes blends that combine Assam and Ceylon aren’t very well balanced and are all Assam but this one has a really nice balance to it and I was able to pick out the Assam and Ceylon separately from each other and they blend really well together. The Assam providing a fantastic strong/robust malty woody thick notes and the Ceylon providing a slight floral and a hint of citrus. The cherries add a hint of sourness and a subtle sweetness which does a great job of cutting through the heavier notes of the black tea. I had mostly on it’s own hot and I deffinelty thin it works best that was without adding anything it to it. Without honey or milk it is bit astringent and somewhat drying in the back of the mouth but really that’s only to be expected. OTR: 4.8/5

The Crown Jewels | Rose Hips, Hibiscus, Orange, Cranberries, Natural Forest Berries Flavour, Natural Orange Flavour, Blueberries – I’ll be honest blends like this aren’t normally my cup of tea because they are usually too tart for me but I wanted to give this blend a chance and see if it would surprise me. I tried it both Hot and iced and I have to say I deffinelty prefer it iced, because it was deffinelty too tart for me hot with the hibicus, rosehip and orange in it. I did add some honey to it when I had it hot but I still found it a bit too tart for me. Iced though its a bit calmer in terms of it’s tartness and the citrus from the orange and the blueberry undertones were deffinelty the stars. The hibiscus was still very prominent but the tart bite you normally get from it was deffinelty muted a little bit just by simply cold steeping and it was much less drying in the mouth than the hot version. I don’t know if I would purchase more of this in the future but I’ll drink what I have left of it iced and probably experiment with it a little bit. OTR: 3.9/5

If you want to find out more about Adagio and Purchase this sample set for yourself, you can do both here (for the UK) and here (For The US). A always if you have any questions al all either stick them in the comments or send them to me on Twitter/Instagram @teaisawishblog and I’ll answer them all as soon as I can.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping -Kimberley

*The tea sample set featured in this post was gifted to me for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and have not been paid for.*