Adagio Holiday Stocking Stuffers Review

The cute little tins

These are pretty similar to the other tiny tins I have, although the Adagio ones are slightly bigger

  

To give you some background, I got this giftset during Black Friday weekend when they were offering free shipping.  I honestly felt a bit ambivalent about the holiday blends since they were all black tea and the only two that seemed unique were the Chestnut and the Pumpkin Spice, but I figured it was a good way for me to see what Adagio had to offer.  Plus, I'm a sucker for cute little tines.

This is a sampler set so don't expect a lot of tea in each tin.  It's $14 for 6 ounces, which is a bit overpriced but you are getting reusable tins.  There's also a teabag option but it's 30 teabags for $14 so that's pretty exorbitant.  You can probably get 8 cups per tin so it's a pretty good sized sample but not something that would last too long (unless you're like me and have way too many different varieties of tea to drink).

As a general note, I don't care for this black tea base.  It's not the worst black tea, I just find that it lacks flavor and gets bitter really fast.  These teas can only steep 3 or 4 minutes tops or else they'll become practically undrinkable.  The bigger issue i have is that the black tea just doesn't have as robust of a flavor as I'd like and expect for the price Adagio asks for their tea.  Maybe the black tea they have in stock isn't very fresh but there has been a consistent lack of....OOMPH to their product.  

Anyway, TO THE FLAVORS!

I did individual reviews on these but some of these ratings might be different since certain teas tend to grow on me.  For people who are new, Buy it is the top rating and means that I imagine the vast majority of people enjoying this and it's a good value, Try it means that it's good but you shouldn't really go out of your way to get it (I'll have Try/Buy as well which basically means Buy it if you need a tea like that, Try it if you don't), Pass is for a variety of different reasons but mostly because a tea is average in taste or you can find better value and taste elsewhere and Stay Away which means it's terrible.

Pumpkin Spice:  A nice blend of tea and spices, although I'm not 100% sure what is in pumpkin spice and Adagio doesn't really make it clear.  Although the flavor is mild, it's enjoyable in the fall and has a nice desert quality to it.  Try it!

Candy Apple:  I'm just going to add a picture below this of the ingredients because I have no idea what "Candy Apple Flavor" is supposed to mean, but it doesn't matter because this tea did not impress me.  Where was the apple flavor?  Pass.

Candy Cane:  I actually like this one as a mint black tea.  It has a nice, balanced peppermint flavor and is probably the best mint black tea I've had past putting homegrown mint in black tea.  Try it!

Chestnut:  Easily the standout favorite for me.  The nutty flavor might be strong for some people, but it has an almost buttery aroma and a wonderful warm flavor.  Buy it!

Cranberry:  While Chestnut was the favorite, this one was a big epic fail.  The Raspberry leaves added completely offset the flavor balance and make this tea taste more bitter than the other ones.  Plus, it doesn't even taste like cranberries, just a BAD raspberry tea.  Stay Away!

Gingerbread:  The negative sounding but not necessarily negative way to describe this is a weak non-spicy chai.  It's a nice spiced black tea but not incredibly unique.  Pass.

Overall, I feel a bit meh about this set.  The tins are nice and I'll certainly be using them after I finish (or in some cases, throw away) the tea but you can buy tins for less money.  I'd recommend getting samples of the teas you want the buy (especially Chestnut) but you or whoever you're getting this for probably doesn't need this set.

My Rating (for the whole set):  Pass.

Adagio is an online tea vendor with a wide variety of products.  They have a lot of $5 coupons floating around and if you feel like getting one, my twitter is @teaandpolish.