Adagio Teas is a high quality gourmet tea distributor. They sell loose full-leaf tea, which gives the best flavor. To quote Adagio's website:
"Adagio Teas began ten years ago with the desire to introduce customers to an array of gourmet hand picked, whole leaf teas and herbals sourced directly from growers around the world. When we started, many tea drinkers were accustomed to having low quality bags filled with tea dust as their only option. It has been our mission to bring tea lovers in all corners of the United States and Canada fresh seasonal teas with abundant flavor and intoxicating aromas that will delight them daily. Whether you enjoy whimsical blended teas or serious single origin varietals, you will always have many choices at Adagio.
That being said, Adagio is also pretty expensive. The price varies with the kind of tea you are buying, of course, but it's generally much more than you'd pay for 'regular' tea at the grocery store, and you have to pay shipping, which is $3.75.
The gift certificate above can only be used for a purchase of $5.00 or more (and I think it might only be for first time adagio customers), which means that you *have* to pay at least $3.75 no matter what you choose to buy. If you want to try loose full-leaf tea, what I would advise doing with the gift card is buying a sampler of 2 or 3 kinds of tea. Each type of tea has a sampler that is usually $2.00, although a few are $4 and a (very) few are $1. For instance, I wanted to try a flavoured and an herbal tea, so I bought:
One sampler Christmas Tea -- $2.00
I really liked this tea. It smelled *amazing* and tasted really good, too. I think I would have preferred it with a tad more orange and spices, but on the whole I was very pleased with this. I had it plain and with milk and sugar and liked it both ways.
One sampler Foxtrot Tea -- $2.00
I really enjoyed this tea. I would have never thought of mixing Chamomile, Peppermint, and Rooibos (I don't even *like* rooibos), but I really liked this. Unusual, but yummy!
One Sampler Spearmint Tea -- $1.00
I needed something to fill out my order, and this spearmint is really good stuff. I liked it best with just a tad of sugar. It also tasted pretty good mixed in with the Christmas tea.
So, if you'd like to try 'gourmet' tea at a discounted price, you can get the gift certificate by putting your e-mail address in the box at the top of this post. They also sent me a free sample of the Virgo tea, which I didn't like *quite* as much as the others. Of course, you don't have to make the same sort of purchase I did. They have a *huge* variety of tea on their website to choose from.
