Tag Archives: Adagio teas

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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Coffee, Tea & You

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Dripdash — Kyoto-Style Coffee

Dripdash takes coffee to another level.
Dripdash takes coffee to another level.

Japanese aesthetics are all about precision and perfection — even when it comes to a simple cup of coffee.

Palo Alto-based Dripdash brought that sentiment to the United States this year with its Kyoto-style, cold-brewed, slow-dripped coffee.

How slow? Apparently, only one drop of water per second gets poured over the grounds in a process that takes 16 hours.

The glacial-pace process makes for a highly caffeinated brew. And the taste?

I had a chance to experience it for myself when I was sent samples.

This is one incredibly smooth coffee. The pronounced acidity I’ve often found with other cold brews is decidedly missing here. Instead, what you get is coffee that tastes more balanced, with tempered bitterness, a silkiness on the palate, and a long, soft finish. If coffee can be somehow relaxing and invigorating at the same time, Dripdash nails it.

One smooth operator.
One smooth operator.

The 6-ounce bottles are available on GoodEggs for $3.99 each. Or in a six-pack on the Dripdash site for $37.

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