I love tea, it’s the one thing I NEED to have in the morning otherwise I am grouchy and miserable. I dread it when I have to have a fasting blood test, I instinctively reach for the kettle to boil water in readiness of my morning cuppa before I realise I can’t have my much needed fix. Although I have this immense love of tea, I am no tea connoisseur as you may know from my AfternoonTea posts and I am not very adventurous when it comes to tea choice always settling for my perhaps boring but favourite, English Breakfast Tea. I’ve tried countless herbal teas, teas that have been recommended for various health benefits and ailments such as nettle and dandelion tea – seriously, if I were able to swallow a few mouthfuls, it would be for vanity reasons only!! They really are foul smelling and foul tasting herbal messes, reminiscent of putrid medicine only common in Victorian times – apologies to herbal tea lovers out there. On the other hand, there are a handful of herbal teas that I do enjoy, for instance, chamomile and peppermint, can you call jasmine tea herbal tea? If so, it is my ultimate favourite in all it’s forms whether it’s loose tea, teabags, tea pearls that unravel into tiny flowers and a unusual Hessian in appearance and texture, large ball that when placed in boiling water in a big glass teapot, unravels into the most beautiful flowering bloom, it’s a work of art. Yes, exotic jasmin tea is by far my favourite.
My other joy is green tea which I can definitely tolerate, perhaps it has something to do with knowing that it accelerates the metabolism for weight loss, always a good thing, regardless, I do enjoy it and find it refreshing. Also on my list of herbal teas that I drink now and again is matcha green tea. Did you know the ancient Japanese tea ritual which is an important ceremony in Japanese culture uses matcha green tea? It really does have many health benefits and it’s all the craze now. Finally my other love is raspberry leaf tea, I discovered it whilst in the latter stages of pregnancy as it’s suppose to help induce labour but I just love the taste of it, whether it helped or not is another matter.
So, you can imagine my absolute delight when out of the blue, I got an email from the tea company, Adagio Teas which is a US company with a UK division in Regent Street. They were offering to send me a variety of tea and tea accessories as a gift and as a new blogger, I was completely taken by surprise and a lovely surprise it was too. I mean really after two months of blogging, the fact that I was making an impression in the social media world was an absolute surprise and a dream. A wonderful box of goodies arrived a few days later with an assortment of all kinds of mysterious and exotic sounding teas and beautiful tea sets. I’ve always wanted to own glass teapots and mugs that retain heat, feel cool to the touch and have tea infusing capabilities incorporated into them, I guess I just never got round to buying any so far. I think that’s why I have never really been into herbal loose tea as much because of the inconvenience and mess that loose tea brings. Disposing of used tea leaves is a real struggle but as my mum says, they make fantastic compost so I was absolutely delighted when I discovered that in my package was such a glass teapot and mug with infuser.
The first thing I did was try some jasmine tea in the glass teapot, I was like an excited kid at Christmas. My daughter used the mug with infuser and used the more exotic sounding teas like the pina colada however as lovely as it smells, it wasn’t her favourite, she much preferred the chai tea like the spiced apple and chocolate. The interesting thing about some of these more exotic teas is that there are dried chunks of fruits in the form of peel or as in the pina colada tea, dehydrated pieces of real pineapple which further adds to the aroma and flavour of the tea. In my box were various sample boxes of tea which is great way to try a mix of teas. I had a herbal box which included peppermint, lemon grass, spearmint and chamomile which are my favourite herbal teas. Also a sample box of my other favourite, jasmine tea with a selection that included jasmine phoenix pearls, the really rare and expensive jasmine silver needle tea, jasmine chun hao and jasmine yin hao, I enjoyed all the jasmine teas, there is no favourite!
The other teas in my gift box from Adagio are artisan teas from China, India and Taiwan, oolong teas and rooibos tea which hails from South Africa as well as the more popular English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey tea. There are a few blends that are definitely too whacky for me such as the pina colada, coco mint green tea, earl grey lavender and chocolate chai but that’s not to say that I won’t try these. What surprised me more than anything is the Match Tea Set that Adagio sent me as I know how expensive matcha tea is. As I referred to earlier, matcha is a part of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, it’s an intense green powder, highly scented and is made by grinding young shade-grown gyokuro tea leaves which are high in health boosting chlorophyll to a fine powder. My tea set has everything I need to replicate this ancient Japanese tea ceremony in my very own home minus the Geisha girls unless I dress up as a Geisha! In essence what you do is place a teaspoon, (that’s all you need as it’s very strong) in the bowl provided with hot water, not boiling and use the whisk to blend the tea and water together, a froth will be formed but that’s part of the whole process, my whisk is in fact a traditional bamboo whisk and my matcha is a 57g tin which will go a long way.
Matcha teas’ health benefits are renowned the world over, very high in antioxidants, minerals and precious enzymes, they boost the immune system, help with weight loss, menopausal symptoms, it’s energy giving and health boosting, is it any wonder why the Japanese are known for their long life and now you know why.
I’m super grateful to have been sent this fantastic present of wonderful, exotic artisan tea by the company Adagio. As a new blogger, being gifted something so generous is a huge delight and I am so grateful, I can completely say with confidence that I am now hooked to their teas and will use the on line facility to purchase more in the future. Please click here to find out more and please keep an eye out for my jasmine tea panna cotta recipe and a surprise recipe using matcha tea which will be in the recipe category of my blog in a few weeks time. Further information can be found by clicking the following social media links and website.
Adagio Teas UK Head Office
207 Regent Street
London
W1B 3HH
https://www.adagiotea.co.uk/
They can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram & Pinterest
https://www.facebook.com/AdagioTeas/
https://twitter.com/adagioteas @adagioteas
https://www.instagram.com/adagioteas/
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