Adagio Teas

Wow. I may never buy tea in a market, tea shop, or restaurant ever again. I got my shipment of Adagio teas today and was really impressed by how cheap and high quality their tea is. I got an assortment of teas I've never really seen in stores, but I may have to just start buying all my tea on line. Except for Taiwan tea. I have an unlimites supply of that through family (tea shop owners in two branches of the family, always contending for our favor. Life is good). My rough estimate is that Adagio's tea costs half what you'd pay for a pricey, well-marketed tea like Mighty Leaf or Republic of Tea, but is higher quality and isn't pre-packed into bags. I don't care; that's what an infuser or teapot is for.

For $20 (I e-mailed myself a $5 certificate), I got:

• Medium sized tins of rooibos, blood orange, and passionfruit black tea
• Sample tins of foxtrot (a chamomile blend) and pear black tea

All of them smell incredible. I don't like too many herbal teas, but I begin to suspect I've just had bad herbal teas in the past. Rooibos is great because it's high in antioxidants but is naturally caffeine free. It tastes like black tea, which I tend to like more than green tea. The passionfruit tea is intended for Hong Kong style fruit tea (make tea, steep oranges and apples in it), and the others were just for fun. I have enough tea to last me several months. Cheaper than coffee, and way more fun.

I've tried the passionfruit black so far. Great passionfruit smell, strong black tea flavor, and a touch of fruity sweetness. Perfect. And the tea's fairly strong, not cheap leaves that I have to use two tablespoons of at a time.

I'm also very impressed by Adagio's packaging. The tins alone would have cost me $15 at Ross. And when I'm done with the tea, I'll have all kinds of containers to use for other kitchen items. Each tea is briefly described and subject to user comments, so you can play it safe by only purchasing teas that everyone else liked.

Adagio Teas