Here at Its All About The Leaf, we were recently contacted by Adagio – asking if we were interested in reviewing their new line of gourmet tea bags. Now, I have been following Charles Cain of Adagio on twitter, and on the tearetailer.com website, and on several occasions the issue of loose leaf tea vs. teabag has arisen. Often it is brought up by new “tea retailers” in a bit of a snobby attempt to differentiate themselves from other store-bought teabag companies. Claims of the non-teabag faction include:

- teabags contain only fannings – the tea “leftovers”
- the teabag interferes with the taste of the tea
- teabags are for old ladies and young children not hip middle agers
- only loose leaf tea will give you the full taste and experience of tea.

I have to admit, that at one time, I thought all of these things exactly. However, since starting this website, I have had a chance to review tea in all different forms and fashions, from teabag to loose, to dried, even baked in chocolate. And I have come to the conclusion – it is not the container the tea is in, it is the quality of tea.

And with that, I come back around to Adagios’ offering. This collection includes Jasmine Pearls, Silver Needle, Dragonwell, Wuyi Oolong, Golden Yunnan and Oolong Goddess. Each tea is packaged individually in a sealed wrapper, and in each wrapper is a teabag *GASP* containing just enough for one cup of tea. The tea bag its self is a good quality, pyramid teabag, allowing plenty of room for the tea to expand as it infuses.

Now, lets compare these teabags to the most popular claims by the anti-bag groups:

1. Teabags contain only fannings -> not here folks. The Jasmine Pearls for example, contained ACTUAL Jasmine Pearls – kind of a waste in my opinion, since it is such a high quality tea that’s neat to watch unfurl, but it is clear, that these are no fannings. The same goes with the rest of the teas – we are talking full leaf tea, not broken down old leaf.

2. The teabag interferes with the taste of the tea -> what are you, a supertaster? The fact is, 75% of people do not even have the capacity to tell the difference between good and bad tea, never mind to detect if a teabag interferes with a teas taste! I will tell you, I consider myself relatively picky with tea, that comes with the territory of drinking it daily and in great variety, and in not one single tea I had from this collection, could I taste the “teabag”.

3. Teabags are for old ladies and young children -> I am neither. Nor is my family, or friends. All of them mix teabags and loose leaf. Lets be real, how many old ladies do you know that will pay $19.00 for 30 bags of tea – not many I warrant. And kids? Rarely will they even do the buying. Lets just drop this myth entirely, it smacks of 50′s England, and I have never seen anyone in North America drink tea with a pinky out!

4. Only loose leaf tea will give you the full taste and experience of tea -> nope. That is plain old tea bigotry. Anyone who says this without qualification is either willfully ignorant, or is trying to sell you something. The reality is the quality of the TEA is what gives you the taste and experience – not the delivery mechanism. I have had loose leaf that is garbage, and teabags that sing (i.e. the Adagio Silver Needle in this collection) – it is about the tea folks, not the wrapper.

So – now that we have dispelled the myths, lets again, focus on this collection.

Jasmine Pearls – the taste is exactly what I would expect out of a good quality Jasmine tea. I enjoyed it very much, but the Pearls part is a bit of a waste since you cannot really see them unfurl. From a marketing point of view, I get it, but the same quality Jasmine tea would have accomplished the same experience. None the less – I loved it, it reminded me of my youth at home in the kitchen with my Grandmother!

Silver Needles – By far, I am a Silver Needle guy. No matter where I am, if Silver Needles are on the menu, I am buying/drinking/taking it home. I have had some stinkers, but this one is NOT! I loved every drop, and even got 3 good steepings out of it. There would have been more, but the teabag mysteriously disappeared in a whirl of kitchen cleaning…

Dragonwell – I am not a huge Dragonwell fan, but enough so that I know good green when I taste it, and again, this is it. Adagio has not skimped on the tea part of these teabags!

Wuyi Oolong – Oolong can be a lifelong study. There are so many kinds, from a greener Oolong to a dark, rich Oolong, to buttery light Oolongs. Wuyi is one of the more recognizable (see a pattern in this collection?) and is a good mid-range Oolong, appealing to a wider audience than say, a Formosa Oolong. It tasted… just as it should. No teabag flavours, no bitterness, just smooth, Oolongy goodness.

Golden Yunnan – a Chinese black “standard” – it is again, a good mid-range selection that appeals to a wide variety of palates. You get the boldness of a black tea, without the over-astringent flavours of a poor quality Black. I would have liked to see this replaced with a good Darjeeling or Assam, but to keep with the theme, it does work

Finally – Oolong Goddess. To be honest, I have not had a chance to try this out of the sampler, but I can assure you, that it will be a good example of this kind of Oolong, it will be fully leafed, and it will not suffer in the least for being presented in a teabag!

The Gourmet Tea Collections from Adagio are not meant for established, hard core loose leaf tea drinkers, nor are they meant to replace Adagios’ high quality loose leaf tea offerings. As Charles Cain has pointed out in the past, too many people are “scared” of loose leaf tea, I think because it has been made out to be too exclusive a club. These tea bag collections are intended to assist people in the transition of poor quality teabags, to loose leaf, being the intermediate step along the way. I think that they accomplish that admirably. High quality tea in a teabag is NOT a new concept, but the presentation of these in a retail environment like Adagio is doing will only serve to convert more people to good quality tea, and for that, Adagio gets kudos for a great effort, and I am looking forward to more collections just like this!

If you have gotten this far, you have probably formed your own opinion – and I am dying to know what it is! Leave me a comment, and I will reply to each and every one of them, pro-teabag or not, this website is about the everyday tea drinker – which you are! So let me know your thoughts!

You can purchase the Gourmet Tea Collection – Artisan Comfort directly from the Adagio website.

Gunpowder is one of my personal favourites, for green tea. However I have only ever purchased it from one or two sources, so I was excited to be able to try it from a company whose gunpowder I had not tried before. Gunpowder is a simple green tea, but sometimes the differences between the same tea from different companies can be quite noticeable.

The dry leaves hold the intense grassiness I have come to associate with most gunpowder greens. After steeping this tea and straining off the leaves, I notice that the steeped leaves have a very dark, almost smoky scent, and I worry that I’ve accidentally heated the water too hot and scalded them. One whiff of the prepared tea banishes that negative thought from my mind, as I am greeted by rolling vegetal tones with a touch of sweet grassiness.

These same aromas swell in the flavour of this tea, and the grassy sweetness permeates all taste buds. The smokiness of this tea is stronger than other gunpowder greens that I have tried, and it is a good addition, in my opinion.

I give this tea a 77 out of 100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the Gunpowder directly from the Adagio website.

I was so excited to sample Adagio’s version of Chocolate Chai, which is one of my favorite blends. I just cannot resist the classic pairing of chocolate and peppery spice, as celebrated in movies like “Chocolat” (with the irresistible Johnny Depp) and as celebrated in the fragrant Mexican mole poblano sauce. So, with fantasies of Johnny Depp and I savoring a romantic meal at a beachside restaurant in Mexico floating through my mind, I had high expectations for this tea. Unfortunately, the reality collided with fantasy.

Succinctly, this tea is just “Meh…”. The aroma in the tin was fragrant with cinnamon notes and upon inspection, the blend did contain pieces of chopped cinnamon sticks. However, the chocolate flavor had an odd chalky after- taste. The chai flavor was not a well-rounded spicy flavor and mostly tasted of cinnamon and cloves. The overall flavor of this tea was a watery-chalky- cinnamon-y brew. So, bottom-line, this is not my favorite version of Chocolate Chai.

You can purchase the Chocolate Chai directly from the Adagio website.

I gave this tea two tries before I wrote up my review because the first round was rather rushed and I felt I could have gotten a better feel for the tea.

The dry tea is an interesting-looking dark-green/grey colour, shot through with silver.  It has a scent sort of like fresh hay with a bit of nuttiness.  But wow, does it ever change drastically when I add the water!  The smell morphs into something that I can only liken to dried seaweed – some people have called it ‘fishy’ but it’s not really that – to me it smells like the nori used to wrap sushi.  It’s a surprisingly pale-looking tea for all the scent and flavour that it has – a light, clear yellow.

Initially I followed Adagio’s steeping recommendations and steeped it for three minutes, but the second time I drank this tea I backed off on the steeping time a bit because I’ve noticed that Adagio tends to set them rather high.  Despite people’s opinions of the scent, the tea doesn’t taste fishy (thankfully).  It does have a savory note to it that gives the tea more body – this isn’t a fresh, light, delicate-tasting green. It has a nutty quality to it and a sort of green sweetness as well and it actually reminds me of some Dragonwell (Lung Ching) teas that I’ve tried in the past.  There wasn’t a huge difference in taste that I noticed between the first and second time I drank it, however the quicker steep the second time seems to have done this tea some good as the flavour is more subdued, but not dulled and I can still taste all the various nuances of the tea.

The tea seems to resteep well (@3:30 min), but it lacks much of the flavour profile of the original steeping. It has sort of lightly nutty, sweet flavour with little trace of the earlier savory notes.

I’m not sure what I think of this tea – I don’t love it, but it’s isn’t gack-worthy either. I think I’d have to be in a particular mood to drink this tea – I don’t think it’ll become my go-to green or anything like that.  Steepster Rating: 71/100

You can purchase the Xue Ya Ballad directly from the Adagio website.

I love the look of the leaves! The leaves are a nice dark green, long stems and mixed in are big chunks of spices. The smell of the leaves dry left me a bit disappointed as all I could smell was an unrealistic cinnamon flavoring. I love ground cinnamon, but this was more like cinnamon red hot candies.

The wet leaves carried over the red hot candied scent, and left the liquor a light yellow green. The first few sips are very lightly spicy. I taste the cinnamon candy flavor first, followed by a bit of cardamom. I think I may have brewed this too light. I used 2 tsp for 16oz water. I think I will double it next time and do 2 tsp for 8oz water (as I think that’s what I have left of the sample). I don’t care for this blend. I’m not a fan of cinnamon flavoring, I prefer ground cinnamon or cinnamon sticks to this flavor. I won’t pour it out, and wouldn’t refuse it if it were my only choice for tea, but there are plenty more teas I enjoy much more than this one.

You can purchase the Bengal Green Chai directly from the Adagio website.

Keemun is a variety of Chinese black tea, possibly China’s most famous.   The region centered around the town of Qimen, between the Yangtze and the Yellow mountains, produces mostly black tea.   Keemun used to be a component leaf in many traditional English Breakfast blends.  It contributed a smoky, rich character, while not imparting much bitterness.   Economics and politics led to most English blends toi use Indian and African sourced teas.  In China, Keemun is drank unadulterated, but also serves as a basis for a mid morning “milk tea” common in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

This Keemun from Adagio Teas, is a Mao Feng style tea.  Mao Feng denotes a tea that is picked with a bud set and two leafs of equal length – and is the preferred pick of most good quality teas.    Long thin. rolled & twisted black leaf, with a good amount of lighter tips, with a spicy aroma.  As it is a black, it is a one -steep tea:  1tsp/3g tea per 6oz water @ 205 F for 5 minutes. (Adagio recommends 212F, but I like letting the water cool a bit so as not to blast or scorch the flavor).   Bright & clear brown with a bit or orange in the cup.  Faint aroma of dark chocolate, with a hint of spice.  A light sweet flavor, with suggestions of cocoa, moderate body and almost no astringency.  Wet leaf shows the two leafs and a bud, brown in color, with a nice chocolate and spice aroma.  

It doesn’t have the smokiness I associate with Hao Ya Keemuns.   The Mao Feng is the first pick, and its emphasis is on the subtle flavors of the bud set.   Hao Ya is second pick, the pickings are separated by a matter of 7-10 days.  Both teas are finished in the same way.  It is amazing the difference in tastes of the teas produced.

This is a very good Keemun, very smooth and inviting.  This is the highest grade of the three Keemun’s Adagio offers, and it shows.   

You can purchase the Keemun Rhapsody directly from the Adagio website.

I was surprised at the size of this infuser. It is small. When you see it online, it looks really big. Filling it to the brim gets 16 ounces in the infuser. In reality, you are only making 12-15 ounces of tea with this infuser.

Now, I have water and tea leaves in the infuser. I wait the prescribed amount of time depending on the type of tea. A word of caution here, make sure the cup you intend to use is large enough to hold 12-16 ounces of tea and that the brim of the cup is as wide as the bottom of this infuser. When the tea is ready, place the infuser over your cup and gravity does all the work. Thank you Sir Isaac Newton! When you lift the infuser off your cup, the mechanism closes. No drips.

Here are a list of pros and cons to help you decide if the IngenuiTEA is right for you:

Pros
It is clear, you can watch the agony of the leaves as they unfurl. And with it clear, you can easily get it clean.
With it being gravity fed, it is effortless to pour a cup of tea.
The IngenuiTEA is microwave and dishwasher safe. I personally would never put it in either appliance, but you could if you wanted.
This is great for using loose leaf tea to make iced tea. It fits right on top of my iced tea pitcher.

Cons:
It is plastic.
The lid does not come off, so it sits at an angle in the drain board.

I would recommend this to any tea drinker. It makes the using of loose leaves easy and fun. This is great for anyone who travels or wants to make great tasting tea at work. The IngenuiTEA is smart looking. It would certainly start a conversation about tea.

You can purchase the IngenuiTEA directly from the Adagio website.

Let me start by saying, I am not a coffee drinker. For me, the tea I choose to drink throughout the day will be dependent on my mood. This tea would be one that I would use to start my day, as I think it has the ability to give you that initial morning burst that many people claim to get from that first pot of java.

My first impression of any teas is usually in the form of smell. I was a little surprised to find the aroma of the Yunnan Noir to be earthy in nature, as I was expecting a soft and supple aroma. I do like teas that are full bodied and stronger in taste!

The tea leaves were noticeably large in size, and looked like they had been tightly rolled up, possibly to keep in their flavor. This tea has a woodsy smoked flavor bordering on bitter, but not quite. It has an almost rustic taste. As with many of the other teas that I consume on a daily basis, I added milk and 2 sugars. I don’t think I would drink this after a fine meal or sitting down at the end of the day.

I think, for anyone trying to transition from coffee to tea, this will hit the spot, unlike many of the store bought nationally branded products I used to buy!

I would definitely drink it again, without hesitation. If you are looking for something to give you a little pick me up, it will fit the bill.

You can purchase Adagio Yunnan Noir directly from their website.

From Adagio Teas Bengal Green Chai is an eastern fusion blend of green tea from China and a traditional mix of chai spices from India. It is described by Adagio as ” Our smooth China green tea with a chakra warming spice combination. Its natural sweetness and fiery kick will bring you back to center, no matter how polarized you’ve become. OOMMMMM OOMMMMM”

The loose tea presents very well, long leaves of green pekoe tea, lots of cloves, big chunks of cardamom pods, cinnamon bark, ginger root and orange peel; once brewed it makes a cup of tea that is a nice amber color. The aroma of the tea is rich and spicy and stays with the tea even after it is brewed.

I found the flavor of the cloves to be the most pronounced, almost a little too strong, but the ginger, cinnamon and cardamom worked nicely together as an underlying flavor. Overall, I liked the tea but I think that the mildness of the green pekoe was overpowered by the spices. I often add milk and sugar to a traditional black chai blend but I found that this tea isn’t robust enough to hold up to the addition of milk and sugar without losing too much of it’s color and taste.

I followed Adagio’s suggested brewing instructions of two heaping teaspoons per 6 oz cup – 3 min at about 180 degrees. This actually seemed like a lot of tea required to make a cup but I guess it has to do with the loose mix of big leaves and spice pieces – the more tea you use the more likely it is to get a consistent proportion of cloves, ginger, cinnamon and cardamom.

You can purchase Adagio Bengal Green Chai directly from their website.

There are a ton of health aspects associated with Green tea. I’ve always had a hard time finding a good green tea that doesn’t leave my mouth with a strange woodsy aftertaste. I decided to try this particular tea 2 different ways and exactly as it’s recommended to brew. 180 degrees for 3 minutes. The first cup was brewed with no additions and the 2nd I added a teaspoon of honey. I never add honey to tea, but decided to see the difference. I’m not a fan of sweet hot tea but I have to say it was this was a pleasant surprise. The first unadulterated cup had a nice fragrance, an earthy, mossy smell I attribute to green teas but not over powering. I would drink if served to me, but would choose something else given the choice.

The second cup with the addition of honey was a soothing refreshing experience. The small bit of honey took away some of the woodsy flavor without adding a ton of sweet to it, almost neutralizing the earthy aftertaste without compromising the actual integrity of the tea. There was a hint of honey aftertaste that was much preferable to the cup without the honey. This was a cup I would happily make for myself after a long cold winters day or as a beginning to one.

You can purchase Adagio Xu Ya Ballad directly from their website.