One For The Money, Two For The Show, Three for Adagio, and Here We Go!

Several weeks ago I was sent a very nice review package from Adagio Teas. I have long adored Adagio and looked up to them as a benchmark to test other tea companies against. Some of their blends have been long favorites of mine, so it will take some work to be non-biased for this review.

I'll mention what was sent in the package, initial impressions on each item, and then I'll list my favorite of the teas that they sent and why it is my favorite of the set.

Included were 4 sample tins of various teas, several samples of their excellent teabags, and a Jasmine Pearl. Also included was a box of extra-tall teabags made from recyclable fibers (including hemp fiber, which I'll certainly have to say something good about) to put loose blends in, and their excellent short book "A Guide to Tea."

The four sample tins were "Casa Blanca Twist," Almond Oolong, Vanilla Green, and White Peony. Each is delicious, and has it own separate merits from the others.

The White Peony was very good - A fine quality white tea with a very pleasant mellow flavor. I really like white teas, so I hold them to a high standard when I review them. Compared to other White Peony teas I have had, this one is on the higher end of the spectrum. Quality is a big deal with Adagio, and it reflects in their products. I have only had a couple of brews of this particular tea that were better, and those were also considerably for expensive. For the price, this is the best White Peony you'll probably find. Great economically-priced white tea for anyone to enjoy - although tea snobs might opt for more expensive versions.

The Vanilla Green was also very good. I often am wary of green teas that aren't specifically categorized. There are so many types of green tea, and you don't know what you might get. Often, when buying a "green tea," you end up with something that tastes as generic as the name suggests. Adagio's flavored green teas are a notch above in regards to quality. The vanilla flavor was easy to pick up on even without sweetening, and a touch of honey brought it out perfectly. I might suggest that a little more vanilla flavor be present, though, as the vanilla flavor in this blend was a little outdone by the green tea flavor.

The Almond Oolong was simply delightful. I really like Oolong teas, and almond seems to be a great sidekick flavor to it. The amount of almond flavor was just right - it blended with the oolong perfectly, so neither overpowered the other. This tea is best with a little sweetener, as it really helps to bring out the almond flavor more.

The "Casa Blanca Twist" was my favorite of the lot. It has a very nice blend of flavors. A nice blend for whenever you want a nice and well-rounded mint tea. This was particularly pepperminty, which I appreciated. The amount of mint was well-conceived also. Not overpowering, but enough to wake up the senses and blend will with the high-quality green tea that undertones it. One thing I noticed about this tea is that the leaves were broken - even the tea leaves, which left me a bit disappointed. I tend to look at whole leaves or at least larger pieces of leaf as a trademark of quality. However, this only ended up as an aesthetic disappointment, as the finished brew was quite excellent anyway.

Next, I'd like to address the coffee table book, "A Guide to Tea." For the $5 that they charge for this, it is a good value, and well worth it. This is a very informative book for someone one new to the world of tea, and I myself even learned some interesting things from it. Well-printed and nicely bound, and very very easy to read. Nice display piece for when you have a guest over for tea. I'd also like to mention that they are giving these books away when you purchase one of their gift sets, which also come with free wrapping.

The paper filters that I received were impressive. I'll be keeping a bunch of these in my travel pack when I do my traveling with the Weber State Ethics Bowl team. Very portable, and very high quality. These are made from unbleached fibers - a fact which relieved me, since I often worry about what sorts of chemicals they use in my teabags to make them so white. These also won't leave your tea tasting like paper, since they're made from hemp and wood fibers, which don't impart flavor. I was thrilled that they used hemp fiber - It is a superior alternative to wood fibers in papers, since it is both more sustainable and stronger. I always get the warm fuzzies when I see a company supporting the use of hemp products - I've always been a big fan of this on both the conceptual and environmental levels. It's a high quality fiber, and the hemp plants grow far faster than trees, making hemp-fiber a more eco-concious choice.

Adagio's customer service is also fantastic - very fast response to questions, and you can often get live help from their tea master. They are definitely out there for more than just profits - I believe that they genuinely believe in giving people the best tea experience possible, while making it affordable for the common man.

All in all, I think Adagio is a fantastic company. They're teas are of excellent quality given the price that they charge, and they have enough varieties available to please not only the tea commoner, but also the connoisseur. Sometimes I wish they had a more premium line that they charged a little more for to appease the tea snobs, though.

If you're looking for a quality and affordable place to purchase tea, consider Adagio. Also, if you haven't yet done so, please feel free to request a $5 gift certificate from Adagio by using the box on the right of the blog at the top.

Over and out,
Relz

Coffee Tea For Me?

How many times have you walked into a Starbucks or other coffee shop and seen posters of a coffee plant? I know I've seen it before. Those pictures of dark green glossy leaves and rich red berries that leave you wondering why you never actually see these parts of the plant? Well, I recently received some samples from Astral-Natural that shed some light on this.

The package I received contained a number of samples of a product called "CoffeeTea," and a nice ceramic mug emblazoned with the product's logo. As you might have guessed from the name, CoffeeTea is an herbal tisane made from the leaves of the Coffea Arabica plant. The idea seemed interesting to me, and seemed like the sort of thing I should support. It's essentially a way to cut down on waste by using more parts of a plant than would traditionally be used. This seems like a good plan, and triggers my underlying "liberal green-o-meter."

As an enjoyer of both coffee and tea, this idea also seemed an interesting way to bring those two worlds closer together, and to some extent it does. The research offered on their website is interesting, and seems to suggest that the health benefits of coffee leaf are at least as high as those of green tea, as well as having less caffeine. This I was dubious of. Being a skeptic, I generally try to avoid studies that are posted on a product's website, as such studies are certain to have bias and probably false context. The website also claims that CoffeeTea is not an acquired taste, and that people prefer it to green tea from the first cup. This I was also dubious of.

Upon doing some research of my own, I found that pure coffee leaf does indeed have a comparable ORAC (antioxidant) score to that of green tea, however has a much lower ORAC than white tea. Additionally, the antioxidant compounds found within coffee leaf are different than those found in green tea, so although it may be the case that comparable amounts of antioxidants are found (which is how the ORAC is calculated), it's not the case that they are antioxidant equivalents, as specific antioxidants behave differently than other antioxidants, and can achieve specific tasks. One example of this is EGCG, a green tea antioxidant, that has very specific functions towards heart function and neurotransmitter creation.

Regarding the claims that Astral-Natural makes about the taste preference of CoffeeTea, I would say that their test was taken in a bad way. The way their study worked was to have average people off the street sip each beverage (green tea and coffee leaf tea), and recorded their responses. They received a result such that 75% preferred coffee leaf over green tea. It occurs to me, however, that this shouldn't be the only factor. CoffeeTea and green tea are each consumed for different reasons, and taste differently. Green tea might taste better in one situation, and CoffeeTea in another type of situation. Additionally, there are many types of green tea, each of which taste different. Cultural variation might also come into play. I would love to see this test repeated in a larger number of locations (even international), with the assurance that it would be a blind test.

Now, with all this being said, I must say that I give this company an A for uniqueness. This is a product I had simply not seen or heard about before, but it does indeed seem intriguing. Their packaging is attractive and well done (despite the fact that it only comes in bagged form), and their website, aside from the research aspects which I have mentioned (which they are not alone in - most companies seem to do this in one way or another), is very well-designed and easy to
navigate.

Now, you might be asking "Now, that's all well and good Relz, but how does it taste?!" Very pleasant. This beverage has a similar flavor to "drugstore green teas," meaning the sort of bagged teas you can buy at your neighborhood grocer (lipton, bigelow, etc.) I can see why some sorts of people would prefer it over green tea. It has a nice and mellow flavor with no astringent or bitterness. It has a nice cup color with no cloudiness, and it tastes good both iced and hot. I, however, am not one of those that prefer it over green tea, for several reasons, the primary being that it lacks variation. There are dozens of types of green tea, which each have distinct characteristics. CoffeeTea, however, lacks that diversity, which is not their fault, but which is a good reason why CoffeeTea will not be uprooting green tea from it's comfortable market position.

CoffeeTea is a delightful and unique beverage, and I very much like the flavor. It is very relaxing and very mellow, and I will probably drink it from time to time as I do other herbal tisanes. To suggest that it will be replacing the whole of green tea, however, is an unjustifiable comment.

The bottom line: CoffeeTea is delicious, and makes a great herbal tisane. It's a unique and very ecologically friendly product that encourages us to make more use of what we grow. It's more sustainable than other types of beverages, and it is packed very nicely. However, it won't be replacing green tea any time soon.

I would, however, encourage you to give it a try and see what you think - you might be surprised at just how good brewed coffee leaf can be.

If I could make suggestions to Astral-Natural for this products improvement, I would suggest that they use a larger and higher quality teabag. I would also suggest that they make the product available in loose-leaf format, and would further suggest that they adopt into their product line coffee leaf grown at different elevations, in different regions, etc, to give it more of the variability and versatility that green tea has. I'd also love to see a fair-trade certification displayed on the packaging somewhere.

Thanks, Astral-Natural, for allowing me to review your product, and thanks, readers, for reading my review!

Over and out,
Relznuk Zero Relznuk

An Aura About Them.

Greetings.

There's a new tea company on the block. I was contacted a short time ago by a representative of Aura Teas (aurateas.com.) who offered some samples and asked if I would review them. Since on the one hand I never turn down an opportunity to try new teas and on the other hand I seldom turn down a review, I quickly accepted the offer.

The representative was very informative about exactly which teas she'd be sending, and even linked me to pictures and other information on the teas. I learned something aside from getting to try the new offerings of a new company, which is always a plus for someone like me.

I'll start the review by explaining which teas I received, and then posting an evaluation of them one-by-one. I'll then address some other issues which merit a mention.

The first and perhaps most interesting of the teas is a "Formosa Natural Wuhe Honey Black Tea." The tea has a very pleasant flavour, with a lovely subtle sweetness to it. It's probably got one of the nicer flavors I've tasted in a black. I was very pleased. It produces a great colour in the cup, with no clouding, and retains it's unique flavor both hot and cold. It's also very easy to brew, with no real specific instruction required. The tin contains nice whole, non-broken dried leaves with a nice colour, texture and odour.

What is most interesting about this tea is how it is created. It is grown in Wuhe, Hualien, Taiwan (which, by the way, is a beautiful city) without pesticides or other harsh chemicals. It's probably the closest to organic that a traditionally grown tea gets these days. The reason that it is grown without pesticides is very important - the sweetness of the tea actually comes from the leaves being bitten by a certain insect that favors the tea plant. Before harvest (which always occurs in the summer for this type, as the tea bugs only come in the summer), the leaves are left in the garden until the tea bugs do what tea bugs do best. After this, they are then fermented into what we know as a black tea.

I would recommend this tea, it being both unique and of a particularly high quality.

The second of the teas is "Formosa Pinglin Baihao Oolong Choice Grade." This tea is of a similar quality to the black I've just mentioned, and shares many of the same characteristics. This tea is also (and perhaps more commonly) known as "Oriental Beauty" or Formosa Imperial. This tea also has a subtle sweetness to it, which is imparted in the same way as in the case of the Honey Black - via Tea Bug! I sometimes have strange thoughts along these lines, but I tend to support safe natural product production, and shun pesticides when possible. This type of insect can't harm the tea - it only adds that subtle sweet honey-type flavor.

Being an oolong, it has a less tannic flavor than the black, and also seems to be more complex and contain more flavor elements. The natural sweetness comes out in this one somewhat more than in the Honey Black. This tea also has a very nice color in the cup with no cloudiness. The flavor, however, changes slightly when it is cool versus when it is hot, in the sense that the cooled version seemed to have a slightly more prominent nutty note.

The third and final sample I was sent is called Formosa Alishan Jinxuan Oolong. It is also popularly known as Golden Lilly Oolong. This is a newer tea, having been developed in the 1990's. This is one of the half-ball oolong teas, and should be brewed at just under boiling. This tea is very different from the first two, and is somewhat more expensive. Processed in the Dongding Oolong style, it is a very lightly fermented oolong, and has some very intense characteristics. The tea starts with a somewhat floral aroma, and is very smooth throughout the entire cup. It finishes smoothly with a creamy flavor. The color of the brewed tea is much lighter, and has a significantly different flavor than the first two, although it still maintains Aura's high quality standards.

All of these teas are very excellent and highly recommended. Another point of mention for Aura Teas is the packaging - The tea comes packaged in nice aesthetically pleasing round tins, which clearly detail the time and temperature of brewing, some interesting information about the tea, and the specific amount of tea recommended for each cup. The tin labels are also very aesthetically pleasing, containing a very nice blend of colors and good designs.

The company is also VERY supportive. Great to answer questions and concerns very quickly and professionally, and in a friendly manner. I'd recommend this company strongly, and I hope you'll all at least consider giving them a visit - they really are a very nice new company.

Over and out,
Relznuk Zero Relznuk

Travette and Tea.

Hey all,

I hope you're all enjoying having more than one or two posts a month. Considering the amount of product reviews that I have in the works, this should last easily until the end of November! Remember - product reviews and reader suggestions are what most posts are made of!

Recently, Steve of Timolino sent me their Travette Tea Pot to see what I thought. The first thing that hit me when I removed it from it's shipping box was the product packaging! The box itself is definately pleasing, and looks very nice all by itself. The box, however, is certainly not the best feature of the Timolino.

When I took it out of the box, I was actually surprised at just how nice it looked on my table. It definately has appeal. But often I receive a pretty product that does nothing besides look pretty - not what you want in a Tea product! The Timolino, however, is as functional as it is aesthetic.

If you look at this picture of it, you can see the elegance that I am referring to. The teapot consists of several components. First is the base with the black handle. The base of the Travette is very durable, and has some rubber on the bottom for traction. Inside, it contains polished stainless steel with what appears to be a safety coating (which is why it is a slightly different color than the brushed steel on the outside) - a good move!

The second component is the filter-lid, which contains two parts: The filter cup and the lid. The lid sits on the pot very well, with no twisting required. A gentle push sets it firmly on the base and a gentle pull removes it. The effort required to take the lid on and off is also very important to the overall quality of this product!

With non-twisting lids, you often have a lid that either takes too much effort to remove, which can result in a mess if you're dealing with liquids (especially hot tea!), or a lid that doesn't affix firmly enough, making it somewhat difficult to handle the product without removing the lid. The Travette represents a fantastic balance between the two. It's seems to require just the right amount of pressure to install and remove the lid. I couldn't imagine it working any better.

The filter mesh is also impressive. It's quite large (probably the largest I've seen on a portable product like this), and able to handle any herb or tea you might place in it, while allowing plenty of room for the leaf to expand. The filter mesh is easily removed from the lid for filling, and slides back into the lid just as easily, with no clicking or pushing required. A great feature of the lid is the cover that closes over the filter mesh. You can lift the cover to watch your beverage brew, or you can tightly close the cover to avoid any spillage. One particularly good side effect of this is that you can add to the filter mesh while the beverage is brewing! I found this to be especially useful.

The third component is an optional one. When ordering the tea pot, you can add $2 to have it included. That third component is a drinking lid. This has definite implications regarding convenience - you can brew and drink your tea from the same pot easily, however if all you use the pot for is basic brewing, and prefer to pour your tea into smaller teacups, then you'd not have need for this. I feel that making it optional was a very appropriate move.

Now, considering some of the very positive advantages of this teapot (including it's ease-of-use, aesthetics, etc), I must consider disadvantages. One thing I might note here is that the filter mesh is made of nylon rather than the higher quality stainless steel that many other pots use. The advantages of stainless steel over nylon are durability, and less residue (nylon sometimes can leech chemicals). Nylon is, however, slightly cheaper, and some might find that it is easier to clean.

The Travette is one of the best designed products I have reviewed to date. It is simply done very, very well. It's convenient, it's easy to use, it's aesthetically pleasing, and it does everything it claims to do - and does so quite well.

I'd recommend this product for anyone looking for a small and portable one to two person teapot.

Thanks again to Steve from Timolino for making this product review possible!

Over and out,
Relznuk Zero Relznuk

Sparkling Beverages - Oh, the (Insani) Tea!

Greetings Readers!

First and foremost, I’d like to announce the design change on the blog! Yay! It’s more aesthetically pleasing now, and a lot more useful to me. If you’ll take notice of the new features on the right side, I’ve added a $5 gift certificate generator from Adagio Teas. With the help of Adagio, this is my way to show a portion of my appreciation to me readers. You’ll also notice that there is a contact box. If you have an idea or suggestion for me, or if you’d like a product reviewed (the product will need to be provided), feel free to drop me a line!

With that being said, I’ll now jump right into today’s post:

A few years ago I got the idea to design a new soda. I experimented with lots of different flavor options, which I added with sugar to tap water to stem the flavor. I spent a significant deal of time getting people’s opinions on flavors and trying new combos. One day, I attempted to make this soda at home. The idea ultimately flopped – I attempted to add granulated sugar to a bottle of club soda. What a mess! So I didn’t pursue the idea further.

Recently, however, I received, graciously provided by the manufacturer, a new device called the Edition 1 from Soda-Club USA – A home carbonator! You can imagine the memories this device brought back. But at least I wouldn’t have to run to the store for club soda! The device is also very aesthetically pleasing and looks good in my kitchen.

Since receiving this device, I’ve been using it quite a bit. Besides making very passable sodas without gushing all over the place (so far I have tried the Root Beer, the Cola, the Orange Mango, and several of the diet flavors, all of which are very good), it’s also good for several other things, including making seltzer to add to other beverages, or even making carbonated teas (fruit flavors work best.)I’ve even developed a new appreciation for seltzer.

One of the very nice things about this device is that you can control the carbonation level. You can make things very, very fizzy (even far more fizzy than you can get in the store), or just add light carbonation to make it sparkle.

I was a bit dubious about making carbonated teas, (bad memories of trying Nestle Enviga (The horror! The fear! The false health claims!) came to mind) but I gave it a try. I tried one of the nice fruity Revolution Tea flavors, and it actually came out very well. Just like a lightly flavored sparkling herbal tea. I don’t recommend sparking your tea too often, as it can take away from the health benefits, but it is quite nice every once in a while.

If you decide to make sparking teas or tea seltzers at home, I would recommend a very light carbonation, as having too much takes away from the tea flavor)

The carbonator is also environmentally friendly. It uses no electricity, as it is powered by a proprietary CO2 tank under license from Soda-Club. It also comes with reusable carbonating containers so you aren’t constantly throwing away club soda bottles.

Now that I’ve covered the good points of this product, I need to provide a bit of critique. While this product is nice, and very convenient, it is slightly expensive. You’d have to drink quite a bit of seltzer or soda to make this profitable. If your family consumes a significant amount, however, it actually ends up being a good deal and saving you money. You can read about this at this page on their website for seltzer, and at this page on the website for soda

Also, the actual carbonating tank is proprietary, and can only be refilled by Soda-Club. If you trade a couple of new tanks for a couple of fresh tanks, it’ll run you about $40, which isn’t that bad, but isn’t exactly a value either. It’s also technically the property of Soda-Club. You don’t actually own it, and have to return it every three years (or when you need a refill.) This, however, is relatively minor, and makes sense to me. It’s a good money-generator for them, and only a minor insignificance to the consumer.

So, in short, this is a great device. And carbonated herbal teas are somewhat more delicious than I figured them for. If you use a lot of carbonated soda, I’d highly recommend this machine.

The link to their website, in full, is:

http://www.sodaclubusa.com

Over and out,
Relznuk Zero Relznuk

Losing Your Mind? Drink Tea!

Greetings readers!

I was chatting with Jinx recently, and she passed some information along to me that I thought you might enjoy. I has to do with a couple of alleged (although I tend to find it credible upon considering the research) benefits of green tea, and one which seems pretty interesting.

According to The Canadian Press (CTV.ca), new scientific research has demonstrated it to be the case that green tea can have a rejuvenating effect on injured brain cells and lower an individual's risk of developing dementia and other diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. The research was presented recently at Fourth International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health in Washington, D.C.

According to Carol Greenwood, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto, it's likely the drinking green tea daily has direct impact on on brain health by assisting in cell function and cell repair.

Most of these effects are linked to the main antioxidant in green tea called EGCG.

So there you have it - one more reason to enjoy green tea daily. As an aside, I'd mention that white teas all have the same benefit, if not greater benefits on this as green teas, although it might not be the case that black teas are as effective.

This seems really interesting, but I'm sure that I have not addressed it adequately, as I am not well-endowed with medical knowledge, so you should really have a look at the original article, found here.

Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for several new product reviews, as well as some interesting and unique ideas that might stem from those products.

Until then,
Relnuk Zero Relznuk

P.S.: Thanks to Jinx for the material!

New Loose Teas From Revolution.

Greetings Readers.

Recently, I was sent some samples of some new loose teas to be released from Joe of Revolution Tea. As most of you know, loose tea is by far my preference, followed by large pyramid-shaped teabags (which mostly are filled with full leaf tea anyway). Small, scrunchy paper teabags, however, are never my friend, for a number of reasons.

It therefore delighted me to hear of this company, who previously only offered teabags (although they were the high-quality sort that gives plenty of room), venturing into the world of loose teas. Although these are not for sale to the public yet, they will be something to watch for.

The blends come in a number of varieties. They have herbal blends as well as blends made from white and black teas. One variety that I particularly like is Swiss Herbal. It's a delicious fruity blend with a great color in the cup, and a nice mellow, subtle flavor. I served some iced to some guests I had over recently, and they seemed to really enjoy it. They're not typical tea drinkers, but they did admit to quite liking this herbal blend.

Another especially impressive variety is their White Himalayan blend. It seems to have just the right blend of accompanying herbs to really bring out the delicate floral notes of the fine silver-needle white tea. And it is indeed some of the finer quality white tea I have consumed.

The scent of all of these teas is absolutely amazing. When I first opened up the packing envelope, I nearly drove myself mad. So many enticing aromas. They must have but great effort into creating such well-blended aromas for each of their teas. No one scent in any of the blends is particularly overpowering. They all seem to blend quite nicely.

Now, while these teas do definitely demonstrate a step forward, in order to provide a fair critique I must note some areas which need improvement.

One such area is in the packaging. The teas come packaged in nice zip-seal bags. The zip-seal on top is quite secure, however the pressure seal along the bottom of the bags is not. The seal is not secure enough, and when the bags arrived, the bottoms of two out of five of them had opened up. Upon my handling them, the bottom of a third one opened up. While this is a minor flaw, it is certainly something that needs to be resolved, if it has not been resolved already.

Another point I might make is that although the bags do provide the name of the tea, they do not provide an explanation of the herbs that went into that particular tea. Unless you are familiar with a wide variety of herbs, in both appearance and taste, you might never know what is in a given blend.

Now, I realize that the samples I was sent were something of a "prototype," but the purpose of prototypes and evaluatory samples is indeed to help find and correct flaws before the product is released to the public.

All in all, I would rate the actual quality of the tea itself as an 8 out of ten. It is very good tea, and meets some serious quality standards. It is not the best tea I have had however. That mark would go to some imported Darjeeling Rungmook Estate tea that I received from India.

The tea provided by this company, Revolution, is of high enough quality that the average tea purchaser on a reasonable budget would be hard-pressed to find much better.

The packaging for this tea, in it's current state, I would give a 6 out of ten. Some serious improvement could take place there. Even so, the packaging they used is a good idea, and if it can be made to work correctly (and give more information) then it will perform it's task with excellence.

I would recommend these teas when they are released on the market, rumored for sometime next year, to the general tea-drinking crowd. Most people should be extremely pleased with the quality and flavor of these blends. I'll post an update when the final product is released.

I hope you'll all try these when they are released, and form your own opinions. I'd love to hear about it if you do!

Thanks again for the samples, Joe!

Over and out,
Relznuk Zero Relznuk

Note: I have received a response from Revolution to the effect that the weak packaging problem has been resolved and will certainly not represent the final product.