Pumpkin Potion — Adagio Teas

Enrol in a School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, think magical thoughts and drink this.

Ingredients: black tea, cinnamon bark, natural pumpkin spice flavour, cloves, ginger root, natural vanilla flavour, natural caramel flavour, marigold flowers, cardamom

The teas used to create this blend are: pumpkin spice, vanilla and caramel, accented with apple pieces.

Pumpkin Potion is one of the blends in the Magic Potions sampler box by Adagio Teas. I absolutely adore the spiciness of pumpkin pie and was delighted when the wizarding world was revealed to drink pumpkin juice in the same way the Muggle world drinks orange juice. 

It was the drink I was most excited to try at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and the one I loved the most (sorry frozen Butterbeer, although you were amazing). Sadly, it isn’t available outside the US as it’s not transportable, so I have to make do with tea instead.

I have tried both this and Adagio’s Pumpkin Spice tea which is the base for it and I love them both (I really must do a taste test to see what the difference is between them at some point although I suspect with the addition of apple it’s trying to replicate the flavour of the pumpkin juice). 

The apple gives it the slight sweetness it needs to counteract all those spices but it has a nice full flavour and smells lovely. It’s hearty and warming and perfect for misty autumn days.

It is drinkable without sugar, although as it’s a strong black tea it goes without saying that I prefer it with a teaspoon of demerara and it’s quite nice to drink cold, too. 

I have tried it with milk and while it is definitely drinkable, I feel it’s one of the few blends in the Magic Potions sampler that isn’t improved by adding it. Obviously, this is personal taste but I prefer this tea without the creaminess. Actually, in some ways, I preferred the milky version when cold.

Adagio recommend brewing this tea for 3 minutes and I would agree with that, or maybe just a little longer. If you leave it for too long it can make it quite bitter, but I’ve found that adding milk diminishes the bitterness considerably.

This does have a high caffeine content and so once again it isn’t the sort of thing that I would be drinking late into the day, sadly. My dream is to have a strong and spicy pumpkin tea that has a base that isn’t black because it’s the sort of thing I want to drink nonstop in the autumn but I don’t need the caffeine keeping me awake at night – I already have enough problems with insomnia.

The Cinderella tea bags from Adagio come close as they are a honeybush-based pumpkin tea, but as they are made for children they are delicately flavoured – great for when I have a migraine but a bit too subtle in taste for me the rest of the time.

I know the Bluebird Tea company have one in their autumn collection, but having just checked the ingredients it’s a black chai-based tea, which won’t stop me trying it when it returns (assuming it does), but it means my search will have to continue.

Pumpkin Potion was in my original Top 10 tea list but was knocked off by other seasonal blends. However, I fully expect it to be back up there once autumn comes along again as it is definitely a favourite.