keychange said

Making your own adagio blends-a few questions

…as if I needed more things to preoccupy me at work….

But I was on their (marginally accessible) site, and got caught up in the “create your own blend” section. I’ve read about other people creating their own blends, but was kind of confused.

The page that prompts you to select the teas to include in your own signature blend seems to have three boxes—so presumably three different types of tea/flavour, and then a percentage that corresponds with each tea i.e. 50% vanilla, 20% chocolate, 30% strawberry. But I have two questions.
1) Supposing you choose those three things, what is the base tea? I know you can choose an unflavoured base as one of the three teas for the overall composition, but assuming you don’t, is there just some random base they decide to throw in?
2) in reading the descriptions for some other blends that people have created, I read things like:
“Whole cinnamon sticks, a sprinkling of cloves, peppermint, vanilla, Indian spice, orange, and a sprinkling of coco nibs” That’s like five million more ingredients than seem to be available in the aforementioned three-choice composition guide. Am I missing something? I’m assuming I am.
Someone please simplify this for me so I can start my tea-creating career and spend even more money I don’t have.

Thanks!

17 Replies
Dexter said

Keychange – I haven’t done this but just looking at the web site, I think the idea is to choose a tea or two (there are a gazillion of their teas listed) and then add a flavor to that tea.
So you choose chocolate chai (30%) and honeybush hazelnut (60%) then you decide you want to add a little strawberry flavor (10%).
They will take their chocolate chai tea and add some honeybuch hazelnut tea then add some strawberry flavor. You are seeing like 5 million ingredients in some other people blends because chocolate chai is: black tea, cinnamon bark, ginger root, cocoa nibs, natural cinnamon flavor and natural chocolate flavor
They would have to list all the ingredients in each tea that you choose.
I’m not 100% sure, but that’s what it looks like to me. Maybe someone else has more info.

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keychange said

Oh oh oh! ok, it’s starting to make more sense now, thanks.

So like, “strawberry” is a tea, not a flavour? Because each “tea selection” seems to have the same five million options. Or maybe only the tea-sounding things are teas and the ones that don’t have some sort of tea name are flavours? i.e. strawberry is a flavour, whereas “vanilla honeybush” is a tea…?

I’m going to investigate further. Thank heavens for google.

Thanks for helping!

Dexter said

Yes – strawberry is a flavor – vanilla honeybush is a tea – as I wrote below, there are heading for the different bases – black, green, white, pu’erh etc – anything under those headings are teas and anything under the flavor heading is just a flavor.

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keychange said

Ok so every single flavour in that list is a tea of its own. So you’re right. But it’s so annoying that there isn’t one page that lists the ingredients of all five million teas. But I suppose that would be asking for too much.
Alright, I’ma go make some tea now.

Dexter said

I’m not sure how it is showing for you but on the list I’m seeing, there are headings – black, pu’erh, herbal, rooibos etc – those are teas and then there is a heading flavor – I think under the “flavor” heading – it’s not a tea, just an add in flavor – at least that’s how I’m reading it.

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keychange said

???

I don’t have headings. There are just three combo boxes. Each is identical.

So wait. “Strawberry” doesn’t refer to the tea called strawberry? rather, it’s a flavour? because they also have a tea called “strawberry tea” and it’s black……….

Thanks for eyeballing this. I am wondering if I’ll ever be able to create my own blend. It would have been easier if every single thing in each combo box was a tea, which I sort of thought it was (because if you google adagio, strawberry tea" you do get the description of a strawberry black tea…although maybe that’s to be distinguished from the strawberry flavouring you can add to your own blend…

Dexter said

No you are right – I’m wrong. On the adagio website they have categories of teas and one of them is “flavor” everything listed in the blends under flavor matched their tea list. So yes, everything on that list is a TEA.
As for the headings – under each box is a drop down list – on that list is a variety of headings with tea choices underneath…

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keychange said

Aaaahhh just when I thought I had it figured out…LOL

Dexter said

I think you were on the right track and I messed you up – but between us I think we’ve finally got it. :))

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keychange said

Ok, so let’s pretend I’m making a blend. I’m gong to pick:
Cream
raspberry
coconut
Would the blend not have these things in it?
From the cream (Which comes first, the cream or the tea? If you’re not sure, don’t worry… neither are the English. However, its unanimously agreed that, whether you prefer your tea first, or cream first, this dairy-free cream flavored Ceylon black tea is a treat for your teacup! Sweet, inviting and warm, with a delicate creamy consistency and aroma of fresh black tea. Pleasantly brisk and very refreshing. Teatime calls…)
From the raspberry:

A blend of crisp of Ceylon black tea from Sri Lanka with sweetly tart red raspberry flavor. Very candy-like aroma, delicately tangy and jammy raspberry flavor.

and from the coconut:
Few things can pull off sweet and savory quite like coconut. And few teas can play with other flavors quite as seamlessly as a classic Ceylon. In one cup, you’ll get the dense, creamy texture of fresh coconut with the balanced brightness and tang of Ceylon black tea. This Coconut blend showcases a perfectly sweet, warm and aroma, as well as a soft finish. Such a well-blended flavor, it’s like they never existed without each other.

Or, are there different descriptions for those same things under the heading of “flavour”?

Again, thanks for giving me the sighted perspective!

Dexter said

That would be correct, you would get a blend of those three teas in the amounts you specify by using the percentage box. You can make it a lot raspberry with a little coconut and cream or a lot coconut with a little raspberry and a little cream.
I think all (at least most) of the “flavors” are black teas.
Just be careful, further down the list are names like wild strawberry, sour apple, and spearmint – those are herbals. It would be easier if you could see the headings to know what section of the list you are on.

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keychange said

Oh oh ok. So even though I’m not seeing it broken down by heading like you are, my composition based on my understanding would ultimately yield the same combination you’d get?

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keychange said

No no you weren’t wrong! As long as we’re on the same page I’m happy.

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keychange said

Yaaay! thanks dexter!

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Uniquity said

I don’t want to rain on your tea-blending parade but Adagio has atrocious shipping to Canada so you might not want to get too attached unless you’re up for $30 shipping. :(

TeaLady441 said

Yes…. sadly that is the case.

I was inspired to create Pride & Prejudice blends but never put anything into it because a) I’d prefer to try them out before I bought 3oz, and b) the shipping. :| Although last time I made a massive Adagio order (with the 10 tin sampler and 7 teas), and had it redirected from someone else, it was so heavy that the shipping was actually pretty similar at the end of the day…

TeaLady441 said

This thread reminded me about Adagio’s shipping. I emailed them in Feb to discuss if they would consider switching to First-Class International instead of Priority and after a few emails were exchanged they said they would take it to their shipping department for discussion. :P I just emailed them again to follow up and see if they’ve gone anywhere with it. :D

Because seriously, I need some Thor.

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