Late last year, Adagio teas offered a free set of “rebound teas” for recent customers of David’s Tea and Teavana. While David’s Tea isn’t going anywhere as far as I know, Teavana has been closing its doors and sold out of the final stock in its online shop. Adagio’s rebound teas were blended to be familiar to tea lovers from those other shops in the hopes of encouraging these tea-fanatics to try out more teas from Adagio’s selection.
Now, I am a little biased because I got my loose-leaf start with Adagio, but I feel as though different tea suppliers have different specialities, and I’ve enjoyed tea from both David’s Tea and Teavana. David’s Tea and Teavana tend to have more specialized themed blends. They are a great choice when you want a tea that tastes like a peanut butter cup or an over-the-top tropical peach iced tea. Not to mention, they have some very cute tea tins, mugs, and accessories to jazz up your tea shelf.
Adagio’s Rebound Sampler featured 5 teas (though they are adding new rebound blends all the time, see their listing of comparable teas here)
Teavana had a few popular peach teas, so this sampler has two peach teas of its own: Peach Bellini and Peach Serenity. They are subtly different, with Peach Bellini focusing on more tropical flavors like mango and papaya, and Peach Serenity with more herbal ingredients like lemon verbena and chamomile. In both blends, the strong peach flavoring drives the smell and taste. I think these would be best suited for cold brews, where the sweet candy peach flavor can add sweetness without sugar. These teas are great if you are a fan of peach rings candy. I’m always in favor of having more herbal blends, but I think I prefer the more subtle peach taste in Adagio’s peach black tea or peach oolong.
Raja Oolong is an oolong blend with lots of delicious inclusions like chicory, ginger, and cocoa nibs. Likewise, White Ayurvedic Chai is a white tea with a long list of flavorful spices and fruits, like cloves, pineapple, lemongrass and cinnamon. Despite the varied ingredient listing for both blends, the strong cinnamon flavoring takes over. These teas would be great for fans of Adagio’s hot cinnamon spice tea, or for fans of Hot Tamales candies. I’m all for a spicy tea, but I wish there was more variety in the spice. It would be great to have some sweet ginger heat or herbal black pepper spice share the spotlight. I would recommend trying Adagio’s original White Chai blend as another take on the white tea and spice combination.
Samurai Mate is a sweet and tropical mate blend, with lots of sweet papaya flavoring. The fruit pairs well with the green yerba mate, but it is a little one-note. This might be more subtle when iced, not to mention a cold brew would suit the tropical fruit theme. Not the blend for me, but a very striking fruity blend.
If you were able to take advantage of the rebound deal, I hope all the Teavana and David’s Tea fans out there enjoyed your first taste of Adagio. I think Adagio’s strengths lay with their more naturally flavored or unflavored teas. Let’s not forget their lively fandom blends where customers design themed flavors using the tea blender tools. If there’s a discontinued tea flavor that you’re missing, why not try your hand at creating a signature blend of your own to bring it back?
Here’s to a healthy rebound in your loose leaf tea life!
Here’s the scoop!
Where to Buy: Adgaio Teas
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Orange Cranberry Yum. . A Custom Blend from BlendBee
Custom blending tea can either turn out amazing or not so much. I’ve used a few different custom blending tea companies but this was the first time I used BlendBee to create my own unique designs.
For Christmas I received a little extra spending money so I decided I would put those dollars to good use. I emailed Jamah at BlendBee and asked her a few tips and tricks on how to properly blend a tea and viola! Orange Cranberry Yum was born. (Yes, I named the tea too. I’m not so clever when it comes to naming tea it seems)
With being a part of the SororiTea Sisters, I’ve been given the amazing privilege of trying to many different flavored teas, but the one flavor that I don’t seem to get a chance to try often is a really solid orange tea. A lot of times, orange teas are cinnamon spiced and I have to be in the right mood to enjoy one of those teas. For this custom tea of mine, I wanted more of an orange cranberry dessert flavor. This tea was inspired by the Fiber One Orange Cranberry Scone bars that I’ve fallen in love with.
To create your own tea with Blend Bee all you need to do is check mark what you want. Check mark the base you want, inclusions, spices, extracts and a few other options to develop your own tea blend. I wanted this tea to be a buttery rich tea, so I went with a green tea base, more specifically I picked Young Hyson Green Tea.
To give the tea the orange and cranberry flavor, I picked Cranberry, Custard & Orange Extract. For some of the inclusions, I went with some herbals to give the tea a healthy aspect, named the tea, and that was it. Jamah emailed me a few other questions, because she is the mixing expert) and gave her advice on a few different ways to finish the tea off and we were all set.
For 10 cups or 1 oz of this tea, it is $9.95. From previous BlendBee blends I’ve had, I know that I will be able to get at least 20 cups out of this pouch. BlendBee’s teas are perfect for infusing a few different times.
So today, happily, this tea with the other teas I custom blended, arrived at my door. Orange Cranberry Yum (I know, such a terrible name) was the first one I had to try. So I brewed up my tea with water prepped for green tea and allowed the tea to steep for about 4 minutes. The water slowly turned to a gorgeous pink-lilac color (from some of the inclusions).
While this tea was steeping, a delicious creamy orange flavor was drifting in the air. I mean I’m talking creamsicle flavor. I couldn’t have been happier and was hoping the flavors would translate into a similiar flavor.
And those flavors absolutely did! This tea is a lovely lush silky orange delight with a hint of a tartness here and there. The overall feel is just this smooth flavor that makes you squeal. I honestly can’t say I’ve had a tastier creamy orange tea before. The flavors are so light and airy. But not so light and airy they don’t deliver a good flavor. The flavor is spot on.
I’m currently on my second infusion of this tea and the flavor is still there. I’m thinking I may even be able to get a third steeping. Delicious, quality, and flavors that are spot on.
I couldn’t be happier with this tea and am so excited to see what other flavors I can come up with. The custard flavor is what I love the most out of these tea and the flavor that is bringing the rest of them together to make this more of a dessert tea.
So the moral of the story. . .if you are craving a tea flavor that you can’t find anywhere. . .check out BlendBee’s custom option. Can’t wait to check out my other teas I made!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green Tea
Where to Buy: BlendBee
Description
The Blending Station allows you to create custom tea blends. Choose from all natural teas (ie. black, green, or herbal teas), spices, herbs, flowers and flavors that suit your fancy.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Peach Spice from Design A Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Design A Tea
Tea Description:
It’s time to order the best tea you’ve ever tasted. Why? Because you choose the flavors! The concept is simple, choose a base and one or two flavors to blend your own unique tasting tea. Top it off with a personalized name and brag to your friends about your gourmet style or give it away as a gift.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Designing your own tea can be so much fun. Peach Spice from Design a Tea is one of my favorites. It has a lovely flavor, a good oolong base, and reminds me a of a peach beer. In a way there is also a slight banana ester which is interesting since banana ester is something used in beer brewing.
As many of you may know, I love peach lambic. I had Stacy with Design a Tea make me my perfect peach lambic tea blend. However, if you want to give blending a try, and spare the expense while testing out a few concepts, design a tea is an excellent place to begin! Their prices are more than fair and they have a lot of flavors and bases to select from.
I have designed many teas with Design a Tea and Brian, the owner, is a really nice guy. The process is quite simple. If you click the link above you will be taken to a page where you can design your very own tea. Not all of my creations have been perfection, but more often than not I come up with a really great idea. Brian does his part in making your tea the best it can be by adding other items when necessary even if not on the list.
I am sipping my last cup of Peach Spice right now and I will probably get this one mixed for me again. I may ask for a little more spice this time, but that is the beauty of your own creation! You can always tweak it and make it better. At 4.75 USD for 30 grams, its a great deal and a wonderful way to explore those creative notions you have.
Brian has always included coupons with my orders which is a nice touch, I just have to dig one out for a reorder!
