Tea Order Disappointment :(
So I was really excited to blend a custom mate from [removed] a tea company when they had free shipping last week. I took a risk and got mate, caramel rooibos, vanilla honeybush and Apple pieces. I called it “Caramel Apple Mate Delight” because I have no imagination.
The first bag they sent was another person’s caramel Apple black tea blend. They were very kind about the mistake, though, and shipped me out the correct order promptly.
I just got the tea in the mail and made a pot. I knew something seemed wrong about the flavor…. There were no Apple pieces in my bag! Totally crushed! Can’t have caramel apples with no apples!
I emailed them, but don’t really expect them to send me a THIRD bag, even though THEY did screw up… I might tweak the flavors before I order it again anyway… I think one of the base flavors is way overpowering the rest… I’m guessing the vanilla, though it tastes caramely… WHich base tea (besides mate) usually has the most POW??
Anybody else have a disappointing tea order lately??
EDIT: I don’t want anybody to think I was creating a "bashing"thread; I just knew nobody else would understand my woes like Steepster!
Well, I did have a very disappointing experience but, since the tea vendor did more than enough to make up for the issue, I’m not going to name names. I was very pleased with the outcome, but it was a little frustrating while everything was going on.
Basically, my order was shipped elsewhere, I don’t know why, but, it took about a month to get the order right. Fortunately, though, as I said, the vendor was more than willing to get the order fixed and went above and beyond what they needed to do to fix the situation.
I mostly replied to this thread because I wanted to mention that adding some apple pieces to this blend probably won’t give you a whole lot of apple flavor. Dried fruit pieces really don’t contribute a lot of flavor to a tea, especially since you’ll have some other flavors going on like the caramel and vanilla and the mate tends to have a rather distinctive flavor of its own. When you get an apple flavored green tea, for example, and you see bits of apple in the tea, it isn’t the bits of apple that are adding the apple flavor to the cup, it is a flavoring essence (or oil) that is added to the tea that provides the majority of the flavor, and the apple bits add mostly visual appeal.
Do you think Apple black tea would go in this mix or is that too much? I can always go with just blacks and mate….
I learned that the hard way. I tried to make some of my own blends, especially with coconut, by just adding fruit pieces…yeah, that doesn’t work at all.
I know I’ve tried blends with Mate and tea in them, and I’ve liked them fine. You can try it! It might be quite nice.
Maybe I’ll mix the mess up caramel Apple black I got with the caramel Apple Mate and see what I get Haha :)
As a tea vendor, I would like to validate LiberTEAS comments about pieces of fruit in tea blends. All garnishes and fruit pieces add very little flavor to the tea. 95% of the flavor is coming from either extracts, oils or liquid flavorings. The added bits of everything are for color and presentation. It’s nice to see something besides tea leaves in your bag when you open it. The only exception are ground spices, which will give you provide some nice flavor.
Adagio is really good about fixing things even when you feel you’re being ridiculous. They sent me the wrong tin of Chicago themed tea. Then, when they sent the right one, the lid didn’t sit right. I really didn’t want to ask again but I didn’t want the tea to go stale quickly, and emailed again. They sent me a new empty tin, no questions asked.
The only other problem I have ever had was with Tropical Tea Company’s site, where my order would just vanish every time I tried to pay, so they worked with me over the phone to complete the order, which ended up being on the house. Most places really want to make it right for you, thankfully.
I wish Adagio had a way to let you test out blends first, but that just would not be cost effective at all for them. The blender kit would work but really that’s just the sample sized bags in a cute package. So I guess if you were really serious about your blend you’d buy all 3 separately and mix it up yourself first, but then that feels like taking it too seriously for blending on there.
I REALLY wanted to get the mixer kit because it has the add ins, which I think are fun, but I don’t think you can get those separately!
I’ve only ordered from Adagio once and I found it quick and easy. And it arrived fast even though I’m in Canada! I heard that in years past, if you ordered the larger size it came in a tin, and now you have to buy your own tin for it? That’s kind of lame. :(
Adagio does come quickly to Canada I just didn’t like any of the teas for some reason… but they are very good with customer service :D
I remember when Adagio used to send the teas in tins, and they discussed swapping to pouches. The consensus on their tea forums was this was a better way to go, but to make the tins available. I agree that the tins were better!
ive been very disappointing in a tea order and i LOVE the place i was Ordering from, problem was they had a lot of problems with there web sight and then they have taken over 3 weeks for me to get my order even with express I cant say whether its just out USA mail system SUCKS or what but it taking over 2 weeks with express shipping??? then i was disappointed with what i got and NOW im waiting another 2 weeks and still going on getting the fixed one sent out to me! its just soo frustrating!! I can only hope with a month before Christmas i get it before then!
I agree with the others (even though I think we might have established which company this is). If you ordered something and didn’t get it right, you should contact them. You’re paying for a service and you should get it. PERIOD. If customer service is important to them, they’ll make it right.
I remember one of my teas went rancid and I emailed the company… they sent me a replacement tea and samples to go with it.
Unfortunately, it seems that the blend just tends to go bad sooner rather than later. Five months later, same thing happened and I had to throw out the 25g out of 50g I had left. Never emailed them about it because it wasn’t really their fault… just how the blend is. Since then, I’ve seen something similar with another blueberry rooibos.
Point is, the company was more than willing to fix it.
One time I e-mailed DavidsTea about something and sort of offhandedly mentioned that I didn’t like the tea I bought and they offered to send me a new one for free. Wows! I wasn’t expecting it.
I’ve never had issues with Adagio. Sometimes they send random free samples too, which I always enjoy.
The worst I’ve had was shipping issues…waiting up to almost a month to get a tea I paid express shipping for (it was a gift)! Needless to say I only order from this company when I’m not in a huge hurry to get something.
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