Adagio Teas Review by Litmosphere
I came across Adagio Teas through an advertisement on Facebook. The look and feel of the website is really fun. They have a lot of flavored teas (which is what I always have a tendency to go straight for) but I was really impressed with how much variety they have - seriously, I discover new things on their website every day. Their tea selection is huge and well-organized, they have a great selection of teaware, including cast-iron pots, they have GREAT gifts, and they even have a "pantry" section with freeze-dried fruit. They have not one tea subscription service but three, as well as a scheduled delivery service. I could go on and on about the website and selection, and to top all of that off, the prices are almost unbeatable. Where many fancy tea websites sell their teas for $8-$10 an ounce, Adagio teas are around $3 an ounce!
For their subscription services, they have a really cool option called the CommuniTEA. For $20 a month, you get a box of different kinds of tea individually wrapped for each day. Everyone who subscribes gets the same selection, and customers are encouraged to share their experience and opinions each day!
Another option if you are just dabbling is the Better Tea Club. For $7 a month, you get a small shipment of tea samples and can choose either loose, bagged, or iced. They also have a list of the teas included at the bottom of the page. For November 2020, for example, the loose-leaf box includes earl grey moonlight, chamomile, and chocolate truffle. The bagged box has earl grey and chestnut. The iced tea box has earl grey moonlight, thai chai iced tea, and samurai mate.
The Tea of the Month Club has a whole LOT of different options. You can choose from flavored, herbal, white/oolong, black, decaf, and green. You can select either a 6-month subscription or a 12-month subscription (they don't offer a month-to-month subscription). The 6-month subscriptions are between $60 and $70 and the 12-month subscriptions are between $100 and $120 per month. At the bottom of the page for each option is a complete list of the teas that will be sent. For this club, you get shipments every two months, and each box includes two 3-oz. bags. You will get your birthday zodiac tea sample at some point (I got mine with my first shipment) and they have free samples that you can get from doing polls and other things.
I was so immediately impressed by this company that I purchased the subscription to the year-long tea of the month club. When I started comparing prices of these tea subscription services, I was honestly stunned at how great of a deal Adagio Teas is. The price per ounce is wildly different than others like SipsBy. (By my calculations, I'm spending around $2.75 per ounce with the flavored tea yearly subscription from Adagio!)
For my November/December shipment, I got:
-A 3-oz. bag of pumpkin spice black tea. (November's tea). We opened this bag yesterday, and I was very impressed. Pumpkin spice is so ubiquitous this time of year, and some of them are just bad. The main mistake most tea companies make is going the chai route with pumpkin spice, and I will tell you right now that I cannot abide chai. Both rooibos and chai make me physically ill, so I am usually very skeptical about "spiced" teas. But this tea is WONDERFUL. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It's a perfect fall tea honestly, and that's coming from someone who could drown in all the fruity teas.
-A 3 oz. bag of candy cane black tea. (December's tea). We are going to wait until after Thanksgiving to crack this one open, but I imagine the kids will really love it. I'm not a huge mint fan myself, so I am not sure about this one. But my husband likes mint, so I am sure this will get consumed eagerly by someone. :)
-A small tin of the Libra zodiac tea. Apparently they know what they are doing with these teas, because this black tea is a blend of strawberries, chocolate, and cream. Like, seriously, do they know me? Especially after looking at some of the other zodiac blends (none of which appealed to me as much as this one), I am impressed at this. Can't wait to try it.
-A sample of cherry marzipan oolong. They were doing a poll on their website, and this is the one I voted for, so they sent it to me for free with my shipment. Yay! Have not tried it, but it looks very interesting - a combination of cherry, apple, cinnamon, and almond.
-Rock sugar, which is some kind of natural sweetener that "doesn't change the flavor of the tea." Seems interesting!
Needless to say, my jaw was pretty much dropping as I was going through the shipment. For January and February, they are sending a chocolate Ceylon and a "Valentine's" chocolate/strawberry Ceylon. Can. Not. Wait. <3
Here is my review on the subscription services.
At a glance: $8.25 per month, 3 oz. of tea per month, $2.75/oz., personalized but not curated, GREAT rewards program, great presentation, fast shipping, overall excellent value.
Price per month: For the 6-month subscriptions, the prices range from $10.00 to $11.67 per month. For the yearly subscription, prices range from $8.25 to $10 per month. The lower-priced subscriptions are their flavored, herbal, and white/oolong, and the higher-priced subscriptions are the black, decaf, and green.
Amount of tea per month: Each "month" you get 3 oz. of tea, but since the shipments come every other month, every box comes with 6 oz.!
Price per ounce: Depending on the subscription you choose, the price per ounce is between $2.75/oz. and $3.89/oz. Super amazing.
Choices/personalization options: Although they don't have a quiz or a way to sub-in teas, their selection when you sign up is pretty great.
Payments and rewards program: They do accept coupon codes for subscriptions (yay!) and they accept most forms of payment (including PayPal, which is a must for me.) But let's talk about their rewards program. It's very extensive. Right off the bat, I received one point for each dollar I spent on the tea of the month club. You can earn points by posting reviews and by recommending Adagio teas to your friends. You can earn points by participating in discussions on Twitter and by reviewing teas on their partner websites. SO many ways to earn. And the rewards themselves seem pretty cool too. They have free shipping, bags of tea, candles, tins, and even teapots!
Presentation: As you can see from the picture above, it's a lovely box, and I was so excited to open it! It's very simple and neutral but wonderful.
Shipping Speed: I ordered my box on November 2 and got it on November 7, which is extremely fast, especially compared to some of the other companies I have ordered from. That's a huge plus for me!
Overall Value: This subscription service has by far the best value of any I have seen. I would recommend this one to anyone interested in a tea subscription service with a larger amount of tea since they don't send only sample sizes - you get a very reasonable amount of tea! Taking into consideration all the factors I mentioned above, it's pretty unbeatable. I actually don't have a single complaint. The only thing I have seen others mention is that they don't change their yearly schedules, so once your year is up, you will start back at the beginning with the same exact teas. I will see if that's the case, and if it is, I will just switch to another one such as the white/oolong or green.
Please leave me a comment to request a special $5 off coupon code - Adagio codes don't "keep" well (they expire after a short time). But you can check them out here.
Happy tea shopping!
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