Jump start your car with a blast of electricity. Jump start your brain and your day with this high caffeine cuppa! For tea lovers everywhere, it’s no secret that mate tea is a powerful pick-me-up, and often cited as a great alternative to coffee. Well Jump Start blend from Adagio teas has toasted mate and so much more.
There’s not just mate, there’s traditional black tea in the blend as well, a staple of every breakfast blend around. But let’s take this caffeine level a step further: kola nuts. Kola nuts are caffeine-containing tree nuts, previously used as an ingredient in sodas, hence where we get the term “cola.” So there’s caffeine from the mate, from the black tea, and even from the kola nut inclusion. This tea should come with a warning, like roller coasters: don’t brew this tea if you have a heart condition. You’ll be rocketing out of your socks in no time!
So how do all of these ingredients taste? The toasted mate brings roasty, earthy, dry hay notes, which serve as a compliment to the more traditional boldness of the black tea. With additions like smooth, sweet cocoa nibs, and warm, spicy cinnamon bark, it’s hard not to imagine the kola nuts adding their own kind of cola sweetness. I brewed this blend black, how I take most of my tea, but it is bold enough to hold up its flavor, even if softened with a bit of milk.
This will be an amazing tea for those of you who just can’t seem to get enough caffeine. Skip your espresso-laced red-eye cold brew coffee, and just brew a cup of Jump Start instead!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black/Herbal
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description: Mate, Kola, and Black tea make up this well-caffeinated blend to make your mornings deliciously efficient.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Hazelnut by Adagio Teas. . . .
Aha! A morning tea to appease coffee drinkers. The loose leaves of this hazelnut (also known as filbert if you’re botanically savvy) tea smells earthy, warm and dare I say sweet!?! It creates a rich, henna colored infusion. Seriously, I want my hair this color… you are what you drink, right?
Oh, somehow a milky taste snuck in for a full rounded, creamy mouthfeel. I had my rock sugar on standby, wary of bitter tannins, but no sweetener was needed, which is really saying something. It is bold and at the same time, smooth, with a lingering earthy nutty aftertaste.
This tea is the highlighting and contouring of tea, emphasizing what’s already amazing in a way that seems natural. Still tasty after 3 steeps, this is definitely making its way into my regular stock, for my coffee snob friends.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description:
This flavor combines the full, bright taste of Ceylon black tea with the cozy creaminess of hazelnuts. Very nutty and aromatic, slightly roasty with a rounded, sweet flavor. Toasty dryness. A mellow, very well-blended cup of tea. Great with just a touch of brown sugar.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Boba Fett Fandom Blend from Adagio Teas. . . .
The fandom blends section of the Adagio website is a wonderful, wacky, wild west of tea blends. Any movie or video game or book you can think of has a series of community-made teas meticulously blended and designed for your tea-brewing pleasure. One downside is that the blend creators can change or remove their blends at any time. I’ve got a tea today from the Adagio fandom vault, a blend that’s no longer posted, but we’ll still take a look at it’s fun, fandom flavors: Boba Fett from Chelsea Drangsholt.
This green tea blend is fruity with a bit of earthiness. I have a sneaking suspicion that this tea might be an early draft of her current Bossk blend, made with gunpowder green, rhubarb green, and sour apple herbal teas, Bossk being a fellow bounty hunter with Boba Fett. Either way, this Boba Fett blend is green and striking like Boba Fett’s signature armor. This tea has a well-balanced mix of sweet and sour fruit flavors, over a masculine, musky green teas base. The fruit flavors give this tea an energetic pop, but the green tea won’t over-caffeinate you, so this blend can be enjoyed at any time of day.
While this exact blend isn’t live on Adagio right now, you can check out other Star Wars teas from Chelsea.
I know I’ll be brewing up a cup of this tea the next time I need some energy to kick-ass on my own adventures. Or when I need to get hyped for one of the upcoming Star Wars universe movies.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
This tea is no longer available but click below for Star Wars teas that are.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Cream from Adagio Teas. . . .
Just the notion itself of a cream tea (meaning a full tea service, scones + jam + clotted cream, etc.) brings up all the good feels for me, you guys. During my brief study abroad stint in London in college, this was my regular treat-yo-self to myself– a book, cream tea, some quiet.
So while this tea (aptly named “Cream”) from Adagio isn’t making me any specific promises including scones and jam, it certainly has some significant memories to live up to. And live up it does! It’s a lightly sweet, slightly vanilla-ish, mostly sweet-cream flavor that blends beautifully with the Ceylon base. It, unsurprisingly, takes cream and sugar incredibly well, and is especially delightful on a rainy morning with the windows open and a good book nearby (ask me how I know). The reviews from fellow tea-lovers tell me that this one is an awesome accompaniment to other teas, and bumps up the creamy factor in everything from herbal infusions to Earl Greys. I haven’t tried this yet, but you’d better believe it’s how I’ll be finishing the rest of my stash. Along with scones + jam + clotted cream, of course.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
Which comes first, the cream or the tea? If you’re not sure, don’t worry… neither are the English. However, its unanimously agreed that, whether you prefer your tea first, or cream first, this dairy-free cream flavored Ceylon black tea is a treat for your teacup! Sweet, inviting and warm, with a delicate creamy consistency and aroma of fresh black tea. Pleasantly brisk and very refreshing. Teatime calls…
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Forest Friend blend by Leslie Kiesler on Adagio Teas
Adagio Teas is where I credit my loose leaf tea beginnings. They have a variety of teas for both beginners and experts, but their success comes from their lively fandom blend community. There’s a themed-blend for every movie, book, and video game out there. I know I’ve had a great time designing my own flavors, and I’m always interested in trying new blends from other tea lovers.
My favorite summer blend of late has been Forest Friend by Leslie Kiesler. This blend is a homage to the main creature in the film, My Neighbor Totoro, of Studio Ghibli fame. To me, Forest Friend is tea-blending at its best. It is mixed from Adagio’s white strawberry, white pear, and rooibos jasmine flavors. On their own, none of these teas are really my favorite: I found the strawberry to be a bit too sweet, the pear to be a bit too earthy, and the rooibos jasmine to be overwhelming floral. But when mixed together in these proportions, I can’t seem to get enough of this tea. It’s magical, like finding out you have a big fuzzy, forest friend as your neighbor.
I prefer this blend iced, with our without sugar depending on my mood. This is a blend mainly made up of white tea leaves, so keep your water temperatures a little cooler than usual to avoid any harsh notes. The strawberry makes this a delectable summer blend, almost like sugary kool-aid, but the pear and white tea gives the sweetness just enough grounding that it doesn’t become too much like candy. The rooibos jasmine is amazing when added to a blend in smaller quantities. It adds some tart, herbal rooibos flavors, and relaxing floral overtones. There are even blue cornflowers and golden marigold flowers in the dry leaf to make the blend look vibrant in my pitcher as it brews.
Top off the great taste with Leslie’s cute label on the tin and you’ll realize why it is so hard to resist this blend. Forest Friend is always in my wish list for when summertime comes around and I need a sweet, magical way to cool down and brighten my day.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White/Rooibos
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description: There’s a friend waiting for you in the forest, but he’s snoring the day away. Wake him up with a cup of tea so you can begin a magical adventure!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!