1/24/08

I went yesterday to the Kalesia Tea Lounge, and had a giant cup of Yunnan Gold...whooo wee... a large cup. I had too much of a headache to enjoy it much, though. They have free wifi, but I didn't have my computer...They only have about 6 or 7 black teas, though there are a number of tea combinations, and oolong, green, and white teas, along with a few other things, like teaware and such...I should have had the Assam tea instead, though. I was more in the mood for that.

Today, I'm drinking a bit of the last of my Ceylon sonata. I'm still pondering what I'm going to buy from Adagio...The ceylon tea is very smooth today. I didn't steep it as long, so that may have something to do with it. I don't know how long I did brew it...meanwhile, I sent and received more correspondence from Adagio...I'll post it later.

Jan 8, 2008

I mixed the last of my Assam Harmony and Darjeeling...it turned out pretty good. I liked it a lot. It was strange at first, but then it turned out well.

I sent another email to adagio:

Hi Russell,


Thank you for your note. Unfortunately we do not any suggestions for
recycling the sample tins, nor do we offer a recycling program. As you may
know we do offer refills of our larger tins. We know that other customers
have discussed what can be done with used sample tins at www.teachat.com.
Maybe they would be the best people to ask. Hope what little information we
had to offer may be of help :)

Thank you for visiting Adagio Teas!

Kind regards,

Customer Service
http://www.adagio.com



Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 15:32:07 -0500
To: Adagio Teas
Subject: E-mail

Hello! I wrote you a week or two ago...here's another: what do I do with all
of the tea tins? When they are empty, it seems a shame to have to throw them
in the trash. Do you take them back for recycling? Or do you know if there are
local programs that would?

Thanks for being so great!

Russell

----
They are great. I added my blog to their list o' blogs...so this hopefully means I'll get some readers. I read a few of the other tea blogs with more than 30 posts, and they are nice, with pictures...I wonder where they get those pics from. I haven't put anything nice like that together...not sure I could.

Lately I'm thinking I need to develop some kind of contact out in India...or maybe explore teas grown in the US...wikipedia seems to think that tea is grown here, but I can't imagine where...

12/13/07

Well, I'm almost out of Golden Monkey. Everyone at my job laughs at the name, but I love it. It is a unique tea. It's a bit too hot to taste, but I can already tell, as it cools, that it will be a great tea again today. It is a unique flavor, and very subtle...I don't have the vocabulary for it...it's also one of the best, I think. I'm going to buy a much larger tin of that just for me.

I'm noticing that the other teas are starting to blend in with each other in my mind. Not enough distinquishes them. I like them each a lot, but while they are unique, they aren't different enough...vocubulary failing me again here...I like the Ceylon Sonata, it's a great black tea. I like the Keemuns, too...though the Encore is better than the Concerto. I'm staying away from the Darjeeling #22, but the Yunnan Jig is pretty good...Assam Melody...haven't had that in a while.

11/29/07

When I do it right, I love it! The Assam Melody I did with the just the right strength, and it turned out wonderfully! I don't think I was as much a fan of this before, but it had the right color, and taste, where I could taste it without it being too powerful. This tea turned out great. It's moved up in my list of 'teas that I like'.

Meanwhile, I have found that with the infuser, the tea dust that settles in the bottom of the pot doesn't usually come out until I hit the dregs. So I get good tea out of two cups, and then the dregs I can just pour out. No cloudy tea, no tea dust, no leaves.

11/21/07

Today we're having Assam Melody. I'd tried it at home, in my teapot, but at first I'd made it too strong, and then tried it again and it was too weak. The process I use for making tea is different at home, since I have a teapot, than at work, where all I have is a coffee cup (with different words for coffee on it, like espresso, or roast amaretto -- I love the irony of it), and a stainless steel infuser, about the size of the cup. It works out well. I have a better idea of how much tea to put in the infuser than in the teapot.

The teapot didn't come with an infuser, which is a pain, since you have to pour all of the tea out of the pot when it's done steeping, since you can't take the tea out. What's worse is that there's no hole in the lid for the chain of a basket infuser, and no space for one that sits in the pot.

Back to the tea itself: it's not a very distinctive tasting tea. It's kind of plain, and ordinary. Doesn't really stand out.