Newbie help with adagio tea

I am new to loose leaf tea and my first experience was with adagio raja black tea sampler. I couldn’t get the teas strong enough; no matter how much I used. I generalized weak tea to loose leaf, until one of my friends looked at me like I was crazy. So, I tried a diff brand—teavana loose leaf. With the recommended amounts, I got the strength I was looking for.

Reading around on this site, I can’t find where anyone else has had weakness issues with adagio. Am I doing something wrong? Did I get an old sampler pack that had lost its flavor?

7 Replies

If the tea leaves are big, measuring them out with a spoon doesn’t work sometimes as the leaves take up more space than they should, so I use more leaf or a scale (if the tea instructions provide a weight to be used).

Another thing, what temperature where you using and what are you steeping the leaves in? I don’t know that Adagio tea’s recommended temp, but maybe you need to up the temperature, increase the time. If you are steeping in a cup or gravity steeper (like the ingenuiTea) they tend to lose heat, so make sure to cover your cup while steeping.

Finally, yeah. I personally haven’t had that many good Adagio teas. Maybe I too got duds, but only a few of mine weren’t stale.
Teavana’s overly expensive, so how about hitting up http://www.butikiteas.com/, http://shopmandalatea.com/, http://www.teavivre.com/

Login or sign up to post a message.

I will try the scale. I steeped at 212, like instructed. I have a mug steeper that does have a lid that I don’t always use, so I will try that as well.

Thanks for the other tea sites; I knew going in teavana was probably overpriced (it is a specialty store in a mall). As a newbie, I wanted to be able to talk to people and see/smell. What I didn’t know was that I would be walking into the used car lot of tea shops! Talk about high pressure, and a little shady (like being told I had to buy a tin or that one of the sample teas was only sold in 8 oz quantities in a tin for $40). I also did not like the health claims approach; although I shut that down pretty quickly and the salesman realized this was not the way to approach me (I have a PhD in nursing, so throwing out anecdotal health claims goes against my nature as a researcher and my knowledge of the human body. I am open to actual scientific evidence, but not a cup of this blend a day and your immune system will be so strong you won’t have a cold all winter!).

Despite my not so good in store experience, I have enjoyed the teas! I did branch out from limited preferences and try a different tea that I really love. I think from now on, I will web shop for my teas and use tasting notes from here to help guide me. I will check out those sites! Thanks again.

Login or sign up to post a message.

I’ve invested in some scales from amazon to weigh out the right amount of tea, paid about £6 but its an investment that means I will always get the best from my teas.

Adagio look ok but I’m sure other people on here would recommend better companies to buy from. Butiki looks the nicest if you are based in the US

Login or sign up to post a message.

ifjuly said

I find most Adagio teas very weak and watery as well (similar disappointment with David’s usually too) and was happy to discover it just so happens I generally don’t care for those companies (which is a shame because I love the fandom custom blends thing Adagio does), but like lots of others, some in the same price range and as nice customer service-wise. Just don’t like the tea bases they use and always find even when they smell good they don’t have much flavor. There’s tons of other spots that do similar tea types and blends at around the same price you might like better. But yeah just to reiterate, it’s not just you/you aren’t weird, at least I don’t think so. (:

Login or sign up to post a message.

Kat said

I have trouble with Adagio. The teas always sound so great, and the vast number of flavors offered are amazing. But the tea never really surmounts average for me. I’m continuously disappointed. I have a LOT of trouble with the base for their flavored teas, which I almost never like. (Except in the Guanabana tea, which they are discontinuing. :(. Anyone know another tea that’s Guanabana flavored or similar?)

However, the rewards program on Adagio is kind of great. I like the way the rating and comment system works. And I love the fan blends, which are so much fun to gift people. (Going to get my best friend Princess Peach themed tea, because when we lived in the same city, we played very competitive very drunk Mario Party, and he always plays as Peach. This is a cool thing I can do.) They ship really well and really fast too. And you can get tweeted updates to where your package is, which is kind of annoying and kind of really charming.

So I think it’s a matter of deciding whether or not you want cheaper less good tea or buying from another company.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Or ask the question why buy something you won’t enjoy

Login or sign up to post a message.

Kat said

I wouldn’t say I don’t enjoy their tea. I’m just never super impressed with it. It just isn’t as good as other venders, and it never quite lives up to how exciting it sounds.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.