Tag Archives: artisan tea

Tea Time If There Ever Was One

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Bai Hao Yin Zhen -- young, fuzzy tea leaves just harvested in April in Fujian, China.
Bai Hao Yin Zhen — young, fuzzy tea leaves just harvested in April in Fujian, China.

Some meditate. Others do yoga. I find tranquility in a great cup of tea.

And some of the best are now available, harvested just this spring by Adagio Teas. Its selection of Masters Teas by Adagio offers up the freshest specialty teas of the season.

If you’re used to sipping tea from bags that have sat on supermarket shelves for months, these will be eye and palate awakeners, as I found when I recently was sent samples to try.

If all you’re accustomed to is shriveled black tea leaves, you’ll be amazed at the appearance of these, which were just harvested in April. For instance, Bai Hao Yin Zhen from Fujian, China, are slender, pale green leaves that almost look like dried tarragon. When steeped, they create a tea with a gentle grassy taste.

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Adagio Teas for the Gourmet Tea Lover

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Genmai Cha from Adagio Teas.

Genmai Cha from Adagio Teas.

 

Born in Moscow, Michael Cramer (he Anglicized his original surname of Kreymerman after immigrating to the United States) grew up with tea as a staple.

So it may not be surprising that the former investment banker decided to establish a tea company in New Jersey in 1999 with his brother and mother.

What is remarkable is that Adagio Teas was profitable in its first year.

But when you taste the teas, you can see why.

There is a real vitality and vibrancy to them, as I found out when I was sent samples to try recently.

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Piggish for Tea

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Steeping my Teapigs.

Steeping my Teapigs.

 

I am piggish for tea after trying samples of Teapigs.

I mean, you just gotta love the name right off the bat, right?

Plus, you have to smile at a tea company that has a sense of humor. Its Chamomile tea has a drawing of an easy chair on the package, while its Chili Chai is decorated with an image of a fire extinguisher.

The company is called Teapigs because the the founders are greedy for great teas. Get it?

On top of that, the company, which started in the United Kingdom in 2006 and opened a New York branch last year, works with the communities from where it sources tea to try to improve them in some way. Case in point, it’s now helping raise money for the Noel Orphanage in Rwanda, which is located in the same region where Teapigs produces its English Breakfast blend.

Of course, the real question is how does the tea taste?

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