Adagio Teas - Online Edit

Similar to how I feel about David’s, Adagio gets a lot right by making tea friendly and cutely accessible for the masses—I love the “anyone can submit a blend online” thing they do, and their teaware accessories are decent-quality and affordable. But the tea, like David’s, sometimes disappoints me—I guess I like big strong pure flavors and less sweetness in general. That said, I have noticed some of their herbal offerings and more widely cast blends (Foxtrot, Elevenses) are quite good.

I’ve purchased a couple teas online and generally find this supplier to be of good quality and price. Their sample options are great for those of us who have too much tea at home! Their electric water kettle is fabulous as it allows you to select temperatures based on the type of tea and is not wildly expensive. I have one at home and one at work!

Love the online store, since the store by me downtown is smaller then the other locations they have, which means they don’t offer everything they have to sell.

http://steepster.com/places/2897-adagio-teas-online-naperville-illinois

Overall Experience: POSITIVE
I made one purchase with them in late 2011 (during Black Friday)

General Information:
They have a great selection of loose-leaf tea in each class of tea, including lots of flavor-added teas, tisanes, fruit teas, and iced teas. They offer teabags as an option for most of their teas. Although they have decent descriptions of each tea, they do not offer any information on location and year of harvest for their green teas. They offer samples for most of their teas at a reasonable cost. Rarely do they have sales (they had one during Black Friday in 2011 — free shipping). They are starting to advertize some of their teas as coming direct from the farmer (with a little bio on the spotlighted farmer). How much of each tea you can buy seems to vary for each tea, but there seems to always be a price break for buying more.
My Experience: Their prices are fairly reasonable for the quality of tea they offer. Their tea has not best the freshest tea I have had, but overall it has been acceptable.

Website:
The website is easy to navigate. You have the ability to review the status of your order and other ongoing personal information through an account system. They have a very active blog, which I believe is called TeaChat. They have tons of reviews of their teas on the page of each tea.

Shipping:
Ground is a flat $3.75, and free if over $50 http://www.adagio.com/pages/shipping_domestic.html?SID=a2aeb61d04bdf0a2f24b5f29b46e2791
My Experience: Everything came as ordered (with a one-cup teabag sample) in a reasonable amount of time.

Contact Experience:
Other than placing my order online, none.

Packaging: Samples: fairly standard, resealable Mylar bags with their company logo and the weight and the name of the tea on it; the back has some general information about Adagio.

Would I buy from them again?:
PROBABLY.
With the exception that they offer a wide variety of tea for reasonable prices, to me there is nothing that really stands out about them. Still, I do like that they seem to have samples for just about every tea. They also offer custom made, ‘signature blends’. Overall, they seem to be a good place to start if you are just beginning to get acquainted with loose-leaf tea. If I could I’d rate them 3.5 stars, but as it is I gave them a 3.

I stumbled upon Adagio Teas when I started getting into loose leaf teas.

I find their tea selection to have a good variety. I find their flavors are usually well done. There are one or two that I might not like, but overall, there are a majort of flavors I enjoy immensely.

I cannot rave enough about their customer service! I have only had one issue with an order, out of about a dozen or so, & I was treated fairly. They always take care of me & I appreciate the attention.

I love their selection of teapots & cups. I bought a glass teapot from them that I love. It’s the most used teapot I have. And even though I broke the lid, I still highly recommend the teapot!

I find living in a one day delivery zone is also a major bonus.

Overall, I enjoy their teas & their service. I find Adagio Teas to be reasonably priced. I will definitely keep buying from them as long as they maintain their level of standards for teas & service!

I don’t like a lot of the Adagio teas I’ve tried, but I am always on their site looking at things. It’s been very hit and miss, but thankfully with the opinions of others I trust, I can sort of find what I might like instead of blindly selecting things because the description sounds good.

I really like their redesign, it’s a lot more attractive and it gives you a better idea of what the teas look like without having to click to each individual page.

They give you lots of opportunities for free shipping or credit towards an order and other incentives. Right now any time I put something in my cart, I get a sample of their peach black tea because it decided I would like it.

I like the blending concept, but I wish they didn’t set it at 4oz or nothing. If you make one I think you should be able to buy a one time only sample sized package first to make sure it’s actually decent before you go blowing $10 on it. I am always creating things but I don’t buy them because it seems way too risky.

My Adagio experiences have been mixed, but this is mostly due to my taste preferences.

I’ve really enjoyed some of their teas, while I’ve really not enjoyed some others. I’ve only really loved a couple teas, but even then I don’t die if I run out of them.

Overall, I give them high marks. They have a great website that’s very easy to use and is aesthetically pleasing. I’ve never had a bad experience in terms of receiving the right teas, quality packaging, affordable prices, and reasonable shipping rates and delivery timeframes.

But I’m not overly wow-ed either. They aren’t my go-to tea company when I’ve got some extra cash. I’m afraid I can’t really articulate my feelings in any other way. Although I can’t say exactly what or why, they leave something to be desired in my book.

However, do not let me discourage you from placing an order! They have,
by far, the fastest shipping I’ve ever received on a tea purchase and offer a wide selection of flavored teas and original blends by Adagio fans. I think it’s pretty cool that you can make your own tea blend and order it, but other people can too! They also have a frequent cups rewards program.

So, even though they don’t carry my favorites, Adagio is definitely worth checking out.