tea

I decided to forgo a new tea strainer ball and upgrade to Adagio's ingenuiTEApot. The finely-ground rooibos vanilla tea not only slipped out of my tea strainer ball, but also the Assam tea press we received as a wedding gift. The tea press was stained and worn out anyway - it no longer slowly pressed as it once did five years ago.

I'm happy to report that the ingenuiTEApot works like a charm. This morning I selected cinnamon tea (again). I placed two teaspoons in the teapot, poured in boiling water, and steeped for five minutes.



Then I placed the teapot on top of my mug which opens a valve at the bottom of the pot. The tea poured into my mug and stopped when I lifted the teapot off the mug. Not one tea leaf leaked into the brew; not even when I used the ingenuiTEApot for rooibos vanilla last night!



For a second cup of morning tea, I tried Adagio's paper filters. They are long tea bags that fit in cups or various teapots. I love this idea. As I grow more fond of loose gourmet tea, I don't want a typical grocery store tea bag. Now I can make my own with better quality tea.



Adagio is a musical term that means "in slow tempo", a perfect description for this company. They make both exquisite tea and nifty teaware in the hopes that we'll slow down and enjoy the ceremonial aspect of tea-brewing, even if we use a modern ingenuiTEApot.

I thought that cinnamon tea was the perfect autumn beverage, but no - Adagio has holiday teas. My last receipt mentioned I had previously acquired 154 points in Adagio's "frequent cups" rewards program within my order history. 100 points = $10, so unbeknownst to me, I earned a $15 gift certificate! I quickly ordered a 4 oz. tin of pumpkin spice and a sample of spring Darjeeling. PUMPKIN SPICE TEA - just making sure you understand the grandeur.

I love so many details about Adagio. For instance, the canister lids contain a UV shield to protect the tea leaves. But not all of their tea is organic. The good news is that all of the rooibos teas are organic and so is the spring Darjeeling I ordered. I'll send an e-mail to find out if they plan to expand their organic tea selection, yet I support this company 100%. Their tea and packaging are exceptional. If you want to try some for yourself, scroll down past all of my links and enter your e-mail address to receive a $5 gift certificate. That is precisely how I got hooked on Adagio tea.

In other tea-related matters, I reviewed Traditional Medicinals' organic ginger tea for The Sustainable Scoop today.

My tea reading this evening: IMAGE journal #55.