Blog: "Fancy a cuppa?" (Adagio teas review)

If somebody asked me about five years ago, whether I prefer coffee or tea, the answer would have been wholeheartedly tea. I did develop a certain addiction to coffee, and even invested in some of the coffee making paraphernalia.  

But my love for tea has stayed strong. It got someone dampened by the fact that I struggle to find a good quality tea in Toronto. Especially, loose leaf. I tried grocery stores, Homesense stories, and speciality tea stores. I am yet to find what I like.

One of the online stores that I like is Whittard of Chelsea, but, sadly, they are a UK company, so shipping to Canada can be a bit pricey. Although the quality is great.

I have heard of fandom teas before. I spent at least 6 years being very active in several fandoms on tumblr, so I was familiar with the concept. I was, however, always wary of self-made blends as I thought that it was difficult to guess the correct (or tasty) blend of ingredients, although I have several online friends who enjoy creating custom blends.

And, of course, I have heard of Adagio teas before.

I was approached by Adagio with an offer to review some of their teas, in particular Fandom Blends. I was very intrigued and jumped at this opportunity, as it had been awhile since I had any good teas.

Here is the list of all the samples that I ordered and the review for each will follow. I went through all of my favourite fandoms but eventually ended up going with Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter fandoms.

Reviews

Shot In the Dark [His Last Vow]

created by Bran Mydwynter

Fandom: Sherlock

Link: https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=107533

Ingredients

Blended With Black Tea, Pu Erh Dante, Lapsang Souchong, Natural Caramel Flavor, Cocoa Nibs, Natural Chocolate Flavor, Natural Vanilla Flavor

Teas: Tiger Eye, Pu Erh Dante, Lapsang Souchong

Accented With Cocoa Nibs, Cocoa Nibs And Red Peppercorn

Rating: 2 (of 5) stars

Comment: I liked the description of the tea ingredients (and the title - let's be honest), but I didn’t take into account peppercorn, which was way too strong for me in this tea. If you are ok with peppercorn - then you will enjoy this tea way more than I did.

Earl Greg [Greg Lestrade]

created by Bran Mydwynter

Fandom: Sherlock

Link: https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=78894

Ingredients

Blended With Black Tea, Rose Hips, Hibiscus, Apple Pieces, Natural Blueberry Flavor, Orange Peels, Blueberries, Natural Bergamot Flavor, Blue Cornflowers,

Teas: Earl Grey Bravo, Berry Blues

Accented With Cornflowers

Rating: 4 (of 5) stars

Comment: This tea works great, but I love everything with bergamot. The flavour of berries and flowers only adds to it. Will definitely order again.

John

created by Katy B

Fandom: Sherlock

Link: https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=103514

Ingredients Blended With Green Tea, Gunpowder, Orange Peels, Rose Hips, Hibiscus, Natural Spice Flavor, Cinnamon Bark, Ginger Root, Natural Orange Flavor   Teas: Spiced Green, Gunpowder, Blood Orange

Rating: 3 (of 5) stars

Comment: I am a bit on the fence with this tea. I like Gunpowder, and ginger, and hibiscus, but added blood orange was just not for me. I felt as if it dominated the flavour too much.

Worth A Wound [johnlock]

created by Bran Mydwynter

Fandom: Sherlock

Link: https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=91273

Ingredients

Blended With Green Tea, Black Tea, Orange Peels, Rose Hips, Hibiscus, Natural Orange Flavor, Ginger Root, Natural Ginger Flavor, Marigold Flowers, Natural Lemon Flavor  

Teas: Blood Orange, Citron Green, Ginger

Accented With Hibiscus, Orange Peels And Ginger

Rating: 5 (of 5) stars

Comments: I loved this tea! I was so disheartened by some other samples, that I was taken by surprise after tasting this one. It has the same blood orange that I didn’t like in another sample, but it works perfectly well in this one! Will definitely order more.

House of the Loyal

created by Mallory Walker

Fandom: Harry Potter

Link: https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=68297

Ingridients

Blended With Oolong Tea, Chamomile, Black Tea, Natural Peach Flavor, Apple Pieces, Natural Forest Berries Flavor, Marigold Flowers, Raspberry Leaves, Apricots, Raspberries, Strawberries

Teas: Forest Berries, Peach Oolong, Chamomile

Accented With Marigold Flowers And Orange Peels

Rating: 3 (of 5) stars

Comment: I felt really ‘meh’ about this tea. I think chamomile didn’t really go well for me with other berries. Although I liked the tones of other fruit in it.

Sagittarius

created by Kali Levon

Fandom: Zodiac signs

Link: https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=116131

Ingredients

Blended With Black Tea, Assam Melody Tea, Ceylon Sonata Tea, Orange Peels, Natural Coconut Flavor, Blue Cornflowers, Dried Coconut, Natural Vanilla Flavor, Natural Bergamot Flavor, Natural Creme Flavor  

Teas: Earl Grey Moonlight, Irish Breakfast, Coconut

Accented With Cinnamon, Coconut And Lavender

Rating: 3.5 (of 5) stars

Comment: I found this tea rather pleasant - fruity and nice. However, it reminded me of many other teas I had in the past. I might order it again, if I am in the mood.

Sagittarius

I also got a free Sagittarius sample based on my birthday month. Not sure if they changed the size of a sample or something, but it is not the same as the one I got sent (same blend though).

Link : https://www.adagio.com/gifts/sagittarius.html

Ingredients

Blended With Black Tea, Raspberries, Natural Vanilla Flavor, Natural Creme Flavor, Safflower, Natural Raspberry Flavor And Natural Bergamot Flavor

Rating: 2 (of 5) stars

Comment: This tea was too bland. It tasted like English Breakfast tea and I barely tasted any particular flavour. Might do well with milk, but I drank it black and was disappointed.

I also got 2 other freebies with my order.

Cherry (a sachet)

Link: https://www.adagio.com/flavors/cherry.html

Ingredients

Blended With Black Tea, Natural Wild Cherry Flavor, Rose Petals And Dried Cherries

Rating: 2 (of 5) stars

Comments: Very disappointed with this tea. Mostly because the flavour of cherry (that I love) wasn’t that strong and I am not a huge fan of black teas in the first place. This blend is too caffeinated for me. Might be okay with milk, but I definitely oversteeped it when I made it for the first time. I will try it again, but I was not impressed by overall flavour.

Cocomint green (a sachet)

Link: https://www.adagio.com/green/cocomint_green.html

Ingredients

Blended With Green Tea, Cocoa Nibs, Natural Chocolate Mint Flavor And Peppermint Leaves

Rating: 1 (of 5) stars

Comments: I tried two sips of this tea and had to pour it down the drain. No, just no. I am okay with peppermint chocolate but not in my tea, apparently. This was a huge mistake. I want to forget I have ever tried it.

Conclusion

I deeply thankful to Adagio for providing me with a coupon to taste their teas. However, I found that I am a rather picky tea drinker and I need an option of smelling a tea before purchasing it. Some of the blends sounded very good in description but turned unpalatable for my taste. Which is absolutely fair as tastes differ.

There is also a small matter of shipping. Since I live in Canada, the shipping costed me almost $15 CAD, which is a bit steep for a couple of tea samplers.

Still, I consider my experience with fandom teas a success as I did find some that I liked. I heard of Sherlock blends by Bran Mydwynter for awhile and always wanted to try them. Even though I didn’t love all of them, I feel like I might return to Adagio to sample some more.

My book reviews

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Allow me to talk about Harry Potter series first.

Unlike many people who are in their (late) twenties now, I discovered Harry Potter books when first 3 or 4 books were already out. I remember hearing all about Harry Potter books but not really getting the hype. I was 23 years old and picked up "Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone" only after my manager, who was 10 years my senior, told me that had read it and loved it.

I read it and fell in love with it too, naturally.

But for me Harry Potter books have never been as life defying as for some people. I have always been an avid reader, ever since I was a kid. I have always loved fantasy: I grew up reading adult fantasy, and only as an adult, quite recently, started reading YA novels.

I have never been that much influenced by the series because I was already an adult and a reader and a fantasy lover before that. I loved the books and I loved the movies, but I have never been obsessed.

That is why even though I was excited by Pottermore, I never really explored it.

And that is why I was not really following any news regarding The Cursed Child. I did understand that it was a story in Harry Potter universe in a form of a play and will be released as a book. I was confused as to why it was so expensive and why they would want a script (something that is usually pretty short) published, etc. But I never expected it to be a real novel.

And here is where lies a problem for other readers: unless you are completely aware and okay to read a play - you will like it. Because it has all of our darling characters and familiar world, but IT IS NOT A NOVEL.

I stressed it out before but will do so again. And again. And again.

IT IS NOT A NOVEL.

It is a rather well written play. It is a script. It has enough production notes for a reader to recreate the actions in one's mind, but it is not written as a novel, therefore doesn't have the same character development and world building. It is not intended to be a novel. It is a whole different medium and is meant for producers and actors. Thus, it reads to some people as a very poorly written fanfiction instead of something written by J.K.Rowling.

And here comes problem number 2:

IT IS NOT WRITTEN BY J.K. ROWLING!

It is a script written by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne based on the world and the story by J.K. Rowling, but IT IS NOT ACTUALLY WRITTEN BY HER. She, obviously, wrote the story (the plot, the outline or an actually story - we do not know, but she came up with the idea) that the play was based on. But the actual script is not written by her. Naturally, the book has her name all over it, as you can imagine she holds all rights for anything that has to do with Harry Potter (which is reinforced by a very stern copyright warning inside the book). But having rights and having your name first on the book cover in big letters does not equal to being the person who wrote the script.

You see what I am saying?

A lot of people were misled, unintentionally, into thinking that this naturally would be a real, full fleshed novel. It looks like a book, so it must be a novel, right?

The hype surrounding the play, plus the plot that was kept as a mystery (I remember how many times Rowling had to post on Twitter over and over again how this was NOT a prequel), the fact that we were getting SOMETHING from Rowling again created this craze that completely blinded most of the readers.

You can't treat a script which was intended to be a script and nothing more, written by someone else, as a novel written by J.K.Rowling. It is not fair to the script and the work that was done by Tiffany and Thorne.

All those eager readers who anticipated something from Rowling herself let themselves down by overhyping this book. Believe me, I would have preferred to read a novel by her, or even a novella - heck, I'll take a short story - than get a quasi-HP novel written by someone else. But it is better to have something from hat universe than have nothing. Whether you want to accepted as canon is a whole different thing.

I personally liked the plot and I really enjoyed reading this script. I love plays and I could envision some parts - I bet they look amazing on stage! I know that I will never be able to see it live on stage, so for me reading the script was worth my time and money.

It was not perfect, but it was very good for a play. Lots of exposition, naturally, but lots of inside jokes too. At times it was hard to keep track of who is in the room and who left, but it was good. It was fun to revisit the world.

I don't want to talk about spoilers here. I thought about it and decided that the best thing to do is for you to go and read it and make your own opinion. So, I won't be doing a full spoilery review here.

Two things though (might be slightly spoilery, so if you'd rather know nothing - DO NOT READ FURTHER) that I want to mention.

One.

I disliked the fact that they turned Ron into a huge joke and kept him around for comic relief. This is not how Rowling wrote Ron (at times yes, but not always by far) and I expected him to grow into someone more stable and serious and not a tamed version of Mad Hatter.

Two.

I liked Scorpio way more than Albus, for many reasons. One of them being that Albus turned out to be in many ways like Harry, who was at times a bit of a prick, to be honest. His father James even more so. Albus has boldness and righteousness that was so typical for Potter (both James and Harry) at times. I did not like it, although I do understand that it is done for a reason and we do see character development for both Harry and Albus in this play.

Three (or two point five, if you like).

Queer baiting. If you read this book, you probably know what I am talking about it. It was mentioned by Jen Campbell in one of her videos and she didn't really say anything, so I can't claim being influenced into thinking this by her review. No, it is just something that is very clear once you get to the very end. (I still don't know why they wrote this the way they did.)

I liked the play. It is a very easy read and it can be pleasurable and fun if you leave your expectations of this being a novel before starting it. I can easily see myself reading it again and again. (And shipping Scorpio and Albus till the end of times.)

Because of some problems that I had with this script, I can't give it full 4 stars, so it is more of a 3.5-3.75 stars read for me.

Now I desperately want to re-read the whole series! Who is with me?

Book Review: "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling

I picked this book up as I wanted to have some sort of basic knowledge of what the movie is going to be about (this book was also my pick for BookTube-A-Thon readathon). I don't know why I expected it to be helpful, but it is really not. I haven't watched the trailer (just bits) but what I have seen gave me an idea about the movie. You don't need to read the book to watch the movie - I can tell this right off the bat. I did enjoy the book but since it is written as a textbook, it is no way as entertaining or engaging as Harry Potter books.

I think I enjoyed the introduction and some notes on the margins way more than the content itself. Rowling came up with a lot of unique magical beings and even reading the series I wasn't able to remember them all, so reading this book was a bit "meh" and it is NOT the reaction that I am used to associate with HP series.

Was it interesting? Somewhat. I think I was engrossed in the book only because I haven't read any Harry Potter books in awhile and being emerged in the world again was very exciting.

Do you have to read it to watch the movie? No. Read it if you are a hardcore fan and you want to read everything in HP universe (which means that you have probably already read this one).

I expected this book to have more notes from Harry and Ron on the margins. The fonts used for their hand writings looked a bit similar and it was hard for me to tell at times whose note that was.

It was a great pick for the readathon though as it is an easy read.

Personal rating: 3 stars