Our daughter, Tiffany bought a Groupon for a tea experience at Adagio Teas. She thought Art would especially enjoy it since he was trying to be healthier and not drink too much coffee.
"Besides that," laughed Tiffany, "It will be a bloggable experience for you!"
I thought there would be a lot of people at some kind of class learning about teas. Instead, the lesson was for just the two of us. We first walked around the store looking at the incredible selection of tea pots. We have NEVER seen so many different kinds of teas from around the world.
We were told to select three teas to sample.
I chose chocolate chai because well....
I like chocolate and I like chai.
Art chose Dancong Aria and Sencha Premier.
The Dancong Aria is described on the Adagio website as being, "A rare tea from Phoenix Mountain in Guangdong province, China. Perfumy, orchid and almond. Smooth and refined texture with flavors of fresh apricot, peach pit and honey."
He chose the Sencha Premier because it was one of the most expensive teas in the store and he was curious to know how a costly tea would taste.
We were told that all Japanese and Chinese teas come from the Camellia sinensis plant. It is a flowering, evergreen bush.
Japanese teas are made by steaming the leaves and Chinese teas are pan fired.
It was pretty surprising to see the wide range of teas there are available.
On the left side are the Japanese and Chinese teas. I think somewhere in the middle is the mate from South America and on the right half somewhere is the rooibos of South Africa.
After tasting the teas, we found that my chocolate chai wasn't to our taste. The ginger flavor in it was too biting. The sencha tasted like any other green tea we've had, but the Dacong Aria was our favorite with it's smooth, mild flavor.
At the conclusion of our tea experience, we discovered that we would each be getting a personal tea pot. They were really pretty and elegant. We chose a white one for ourselves and a purple one for Tiffany that we knew KC would love looking at. Purple is her favorite color too.
We also decided to get that tea maker on top where the tea is strained and made to flow through the bottom of the pot. The store uses this for their demonstrations. We've been using it since returning to Hawaii and like it.
All in all, we had a great time and learned a lot. And as Tiffany said, "It was a bloggable experience!"
"Besides that," laughed Tiffany, "It will be a bloggable experience for you!"
I thought there would be a lot of people at some kind of class learning about teas. Instead, the lesson was for just the two of us. We first walked around the store looking at the incredible selection of tea pots. We have NEVER seen so many different kinds of teas from around the world.
We were told to select three teas to sample.
I chose chocolate chai because well....
I like chocolate and I like chai.
Art chose Dancong Aria and Sencha Premier.
The Dancong Aria is described on the Adagio website as being, "A rare tea from Phoenix Mountain in Guangdong province, China. Perfumy, orchid and almond. Smooth and refined texture with flavors of fresh apricot, peach pit and honey."
He chose the Sencha Premier because it was one of the most expensive teas in the store and he was curious to know how a costly tea would taste.
We were told that all Japanese and Chinese teas come from the Camellia sinensis plant. It is a flowering, evergreen bush.
Japanese teas are made by steaming the leaves and Chinese teas are pan fired.
It was pretty surprising to see the wide range of teas there are available.
On the left side are the Japanese and Chinese teas. I think somewhere in the middle is the mate from South America and on the right half somewhere is the rooibos of South Africa.
After tasting the teas, we found that my chocolate chai wasn't to our taste. The ginger flavor in it was too biting. The sencha tasted like any other green tea we've had, but the Dacong Aria was our favorite with it's smooth, mild flavor.
At the conclusion of our tea experience, we discovered that we would each be getting a personal tea pot. They were really pretty and elegant. We chose a white one for ourselves and a purple one for Tiffany that we knew KC would love looking at. Purple is her favorite color too.
We also decided to get that tea maker on top where the tea is strained and made to flow through the bottom of the pot. The store uses this for their demonstrations. We've been using it since returning to Hawaii and like it.
All in all, we had a great time and learned a lot. And as Tiffany said, "It was a bloggable experience!"
I admit to knowing next to nothing about tea but i am always intrigued to learn new things. I've actually been thinking about beginning to drink hot tea!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I'm still more of an iced tea fan. It might be because of our warm weather here in Hawaii. My husband prefers his tea hot though.
DeleteTo bloggable experiences may there be no end.
ReplyDeleteThat is a quite interesting introduction to the world of teas. I also thought it was quite wonderful of your daughter to be feeding you some blogging ideas.
ReplyDeleteI like black tea and know little about the differences in flavor. Long ago I drank Earl Gray and liked it, but I tried it not long ago and found my taste has changed. Great experience to learn about teas! :-)
ReplyDeleteWe have several tea pots, I tend to like darjeeling and Earl Gray, but they do have certain levels of caffeine, which I hope to reduce.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting experience and how nice to have a permanent memento of it. I like rooibos, Earl Grey and Rose Garden.
ReplyDeleteI'd never even heard about rooibos until that tea experience.
DeleteLife is just a series of blogging experiences, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI've never drink any kind of tea, though I've never tried anything outside of "regular" tea.
ReplyDeleteI love herbal teas-my favorite is peppermint! It's amazing all the different types of teas...
ReplyDeleteHmmm... I do like peppermint. I shall look into that.
DeleteWhat a fun experience and what a nice thing it is that Tiffany made it happen for you.
ReplyDeleteAdagio sounds like an interesting place. I have never been to a tea shop like this before. I love a nice cup of tea. Before I moved to the States I only ever tried English tea but then friends here slowly opened up my world to all the different varieties. The only thing I have never enjoyed is iced tea and I know that is very popular.
ReplyDeleteI'd never tried tea with milk until we were in England and fell in love with it. However when we got back to the states it just didn't taste the same. I figured it must have been that I was just loving everything English during the trip and probably wouldn't be able to capture that same magical taste when we got home.
DeleteSo how was the Sencha Premier? And this WAS such an interesting experience!! For me, too!
ReplyDeleteWe just returned from Maui. What a beautiful, beautiful place! Not sure which island you live on, but imagine they're all paradise!
The Sencha was fine but it was like any other green tea we've had. It just wasn't very special.
DeleteI forgot to mention that I'm so pleased that you enjoyed Maui. It's a really beautiful island. I live on Oahu which is a different experience. Lots of beauty here but also lots of traffic snarls.
DeleteI drink tea occasionally. I do like Chai with milk. Jill is a tea connoisseur, and loves places like this tea shop. Her Christmas list always includes tea or a tea shop gift certificate.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a lovely gift from your daughter.
Tell Art, coffee is not bad for you. Recent research shows it is good for you…loaded with antioxidants. Tea is also good. I drink coffee in the AM and tea in the evening. I would love a tea experience. Thanks for sharing yours. Dianne
ReplyDeleteActually I think he's just trying to avoid the caffeine which he read was not good for his condition. He still drinks coffee occasionally, but he tries to make sure it's decaf.
DeleteThis sounds like fun. I buy my rooibos tea, in various flavours, from a tea emporium in Bath where they have a little tea shop, where I always try a different tea each time I visit. I didn't like chocolate tea either, though I did try some chai tea latte the other day which was good, though a little sweet. I also have some china mugs with a filter in the top, which are brilliant for herbal teas, which need longer to brew.
ReplyDeleteThe China teapot had a filter on top too which we thought was great and the other one had it at the bottom. Is it Earl Gray that the English put cream and sugar in?
DeleteWhat a cool shop. I didn't know about the differences between Japanese and Chinese tea harvesting.
DeleteI've got the mango flavor tea bags from the same company as the Hawaii Gold coffee. I make pitchers of plain tea and "Constant Comment" tea bag combined.
Of course, decaf coffees and teas do still contain some caffeine. For some cardiac tests, you shouldn't drink any caffeine-containing stuff (coffee, tea, decaf anything, chocolate,) a day or so before the test. Be sure and ask the docs/NP/techs.
I'd heard that tea contained more caffeine than coffee, but don't know if that's accurate. I had one patient with arrhythmia problems, in the hospital for tests. When he kept ordering refills of his coffee all day, we found out he "usually" drank 7-8 cups per day, even saying he couldn't sleep until he had a cup just before bed! Problem solved! If I have more than 3 cups in one day, I can feel my heart racing, so I just use it to wake up.
I'd read Rooibos is just an herbal tea without caffeine and was good to become calm before sleep. It's the only one I can drink without any sweeter.
Love Earl Grey and English Breakfast too.
Instead of drinking soda, I've put a pitcher of water in the fridge with those Meyer lemons sliced infusing in it. (Didn't know Meyers had so many little seeds.) Even a splash (1/8 cup?) of orange juice in my glass of water keeps me from wanting soda. Maybe Art can try that if he's been a big caffeine drinker.
I love how your daughter had scheduled field trips for grandparents! Amazing family!
DrumMajor
Actually what we also do is keep frozen lemon juice cubes in the freezer and add it to our carbonated (Sodastream) water. That's also a nice drink.
DeleteThanks for sharing an interesting and educational experience!
ReplyDeleteHi there, thanks for visiting my blog.. Hope you get to visit my wonderful state of Tennessee sometime. I hope to get to visit your Hawaii…..
ReplyDeleteMy hubby worked several different times in China ---so he developed a real love to hot tea. I had never drunk it much---but we really enjoy it now. We order most of our tea online (Teavana and David's Tea)---and are always trying a new flavor. Some we like better than others --but we definitely have our favorites…
Hugs,
Betsy
Hi Betsy, Thank you very much for stopping by. I really enjoyed seeing your blog. I shall be by to visit again when I get organized.
DeleteI do love tea and would love that place. I have one whole cupboard full of various teas (mostly herbal) though not loose tea. I use the bags and have been known to mix and match till I create a flavor I like.
ReplyDeletewhat a lovely experience, I would also be curious about the most expensive tea, lol!!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely fascinating. I just brew a cuppa Earl Grey or Lipton. I shouldn't admit this, I know. And I probably drink it all wrong too. I do like this entry too.
ReplyDeleteBlogable! LOL
ReplyDelete