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 & Papaya from Tea-Shirt Teas. . . .
I’ve been in a green tea mood lately, tasting all the flavors and mix-ins that go best with those lighter tea leaves. It was the perfect day to try Orange and Papaya from Tea Shirt Teas.
I was immediately impressed by the delicious scent of the tea in the dry leaf. It was amazingly fruity, and hard to resist smelling the dry leaves in my mug while I waited for the water to boil. The leaves themselves are all dressed up for the occasion, with big chunks of dried papaya and orange slices mixed in among the green tea.
Along with the papaya is a hefty dose of lemongrass, but despite all the lemongrass in the dry leaf, the brewed blend tastes most strongly of orange and papaya. A hint of mango comes out at the back of each sip. It all makes for a vibrant cup of citrus and green that can’t help but jazz up your afternoon.
This blend is sweet and fruity enough to love it hot or iced, and either way the luscious fruit flavors were super satisfying and thirst-quenching. Though I tried the blend both hot and iced, with all these tropical flavors, this blend is absolutely calling out to be the next pitcher of iced tea in your fridge. Drinking it cold, the fruit makes the tea almost candy-sweet, like a more mature fruit punch.
This is a great blend for when you need to brighten your day and imagine yourself in a sunny grove of tropical fruit.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Tea Shirt
Description:
Ingredients: green tea (60%), lemon grass, apple pieces, freeze-dried apple pieces, orange slices, mango flakes, papaya flakes, flavouring.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Strawberry Guava Tropical White Tea from Simpson & Vail
Strawberry Guava Tropical White Tea from Simpson & Vail. This is delightful in every way! I’m always excited to try Guava flavored things! Pair that with strawberry and you have the best of two worlds! Use that flavor duo with a delicate white tea base and you have something incredibly special.
Simpson & Vail have done it again! They have come up with a delicious white flavored tea! Ingredients include White tea, organic hibiscus, cornflower petals, marigold flowers and Guava and Natural Strawberry flavors. The white tea is delicate – like you would expect it would be. There is just a touch of hibiscus which is nicely done due to it NOT being overdone and draws the flavor all together. The guava and strawberry flavors were MADE for each other! They are sweet, juicy, and slightly puckery-tangy.
The tea base is a quality Pai Mu Tan white tea. This is fabulous hot or cold. It’s sweet enough as-is but I’m sure there are fans of this tea out there that infuse it with additional rock sugar, too! I wouldn’t change a thing about this flavored white tea. It takes me to another place…a Tropical Place…at that!
Strawberry Guava Tropical White Tea from Simpson & Vail is more than A O K in my book!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White Tea
Where to Buy: Simpson & Vail
Description: This delicate pink cup is truly scrumptious! Our Pai Mu Tan white tea is the perfect base for the delicious guava and strawberry flavors, with their complex, fruity aroma and full flavor. Delicious hot or cold!
Ingredients: White tea, organic hibiscus, cornflower petals, marigold flowers and Guava and Natural Strawberry flavors.
Brew: 2 tsp tea in 8 oz. water (at 175°), steep for 4 minutes.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Tropical Storm Warning: Coconut Blizzard – Teana Colada from Tea Geek’ery
Wow look at those curls of fresh coconut! There’s more flaky, white goodness in this tea blend than all the snow we have had in this New England winter. Teana Colada is a simple blend with a cute name and quality ingredients: red rooibos tea and coconut chips. Brewed hot, there is so much coconut, the buttery blend is almost savory, like butter on toast. As it cools, the tropical notes of the coconut shine through and mingle with the nutty red rooibos. This isn’t a true pina colada blend, as there isn’t any pineapple or fruity flavors, but it is a coconut dream tea.
As a cold brew, the rooibos comes through more strongly, making the blend taste like a creamy, vanilla rooibos tea. On its own, the cold brew is a little one-note, but it might be a winning secret ingredient in a tropical iced tea summer blend. The upside of a rooibos blend is that it is naturally caffeine-free, so you can steep a cup of this blend at any time in your schedule.
This is a tea for nutty coconut fans, or someone who is looking for an exceptionally creamy, buttery rooibos blend. If you really want to take this tropical theme to its height, drink Teana Colada out of a tiki mug with a big wedge of pineapple on the side!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Tea Geek’ery
Description:
This herbal tea is naturally sweet with hints of cream & nuts. Phenomenal blended with ice & your favorite coconuttie adult beverage.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Organic Mango/Pear Deluxe White from ESP Emporium
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: ESP Emporium
Tea Description:
The natural friendship of “East meets West” is portrayed when we look at the flavor composition mango and pear in this organic blend. Any possible early shyness as to whether this is really the perfect match was gone the minute these two fruits met on the delicate white peony tea. A must have organic creation!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Mango isn’t always a flavour that appeals to me, but I’ve tried a few paired with a white base and they’ve all been pretty enjoyable. On top of that, I really like pear though honestly I’m unsure how the pairing will do. It’s not one I’ve seen done often, and I’m worried that the mango may mask the pear if it’s not over the top.
I made this one as a cold brew, and honestly I’m not loving it though I don’t hate it either. The white base is acting as a very good blank canvas for the flavour; you can hardly taste any contributions from it except for maybe some lighter honeysuckle notes. Whether that’s good or bad would I guess depend on your personal tastes. The main reason I’m not all over this is that it might as well just be a mango tea; I can’t taste the pear at all. The mango is nice though; it’s got a light ‘spritzer’ kind of vibe to it, and is tropical but almost in a citrusy tangerine sort of way. I’m enjoying what I’m tasting, it’s just totally not what I was hoping for.
That’s alright though; you can’t love every tea and somewhere out there someone’s looking for an organic mango tea on a white base and this is probably perfect for them.
