Tea Info

All of our teas come with temperature and steeping time recommendations written on the label and in the description on the product page on our website. For leaf quantity, the general recommendation is one teaspoon of loose leaf tea per cup of hot water (8oz).

For more detailed information check out our Tea Preparation article on how to make the perfect cup of tea.

Multiple infusions make our inexpensive tea offer even greater value!

However, not all varieties re-steep with equal success.

The teas that taste best with multiple infusions are our Oolong varieties. Sometimes a second or third infusion may taste better than the first.

You may also re-steep Black, Green and Pu Erh teas, though the first infusion will likely offer more flavor than the subsequent ones. To compensate for this, we recommend slightly higher water temperature and longer infusion times when re-steeping your tea.

You'll be pleased to know that a pound of tea (16oz) makes about 200 cups! The 3oz package makes about 38 cups, and the sample pouch, about 10 cups (depending on type).

The cost-per-cup appears next to each packaging size we offer. We hope you may be pleasantly surprised that our fresh, artisan teas may cost so little to enjoy.

We have many different ways to enjoy our fresh, artisan teas!

Our loose teas typically come in three sizes: sample, 3 oz, and 16 oz being the most common. Check our our Packaging page to see our pouches!

Most sample sizes contain 0.8 ounces of loose tea, enough for about ten cups, and comes in our resealable, airtight pouch. They make trying new teas easy.

Some flufflier varieties of tea, such as our White Teas assortment, contain 0.4 ounces per sample. These provide about five cups of tea and give you ample opportunity to see if you may like the tea before committing to larger quantities.

The final form our loose teas come in is our brand new portions! One portion contains approximately 3 grams to brew one cup of 8 oz tea. Fluffier varieties come in 1.5 gram portions.

Most of our teabags contain 2.5 grams of leaves. Flufflier teas contain 1.5 grams of leaves per bag. Our teabags do not have strings.

Finally, we have our pre-measured Iced Tea Pouches! Each iced tea pouch contains approximately 10 grams of tea and makes one quart of delicious iced tea. Some flufflier varieties of tea may contain less, but are perfectly measured to make one quart of tea.

Search
To search our website, look for the 'magnifying glass' icon in the upper right, in the orange menu bar. Click it, and you'll see the field open where you can type your search term.

Advanced Search
Please use our advanced search feature to search our teas for specific attributes like caffeine level, country of origin, as well as specific ingredients and taste profile.

We hope this feature will make finding the items you're searching for much easier.

Still Can't Find What You're Looking For?
If you are searching for a particular tea on our website, and coming up empty, it may be that we don't offer that variety. Please email us to confirm. We also suggest posting your inquiry on our TeaChat bulletin board and our online community of tea lovers may point you in the right direction.

Shelf Life
Tea doesn't go bad if stored in a moisture-free environment. However, over time it will diminish in flavor. We generally recommend consuming tea within one year of purchase. However, the specifics will vary according to variety. The Japanese green teas are most delicate, and may begin to show age after only six months. Black and oolong varieties will stay fresh much longer, and may continue to delight for years to come.

Do not freeze!
There's no need to store tea in the freezer to prolong its freshness. Freezing teas would produce the opposite effect, introducing moisture that is damaging to tea leaves. For this reason, we recommend keeping all tea leaves out of the freezer. Keeping tea in a dry place, and away from light is all that's needed.

Storage
Tea is an easy product to store, provided you observe a few simple precautions. The first is to keep it dry. The second is to keep it closed, as tea will easily absorb neighboring scents and flavors. Lastly, keep it out of direct sunlight, and its damaging UV rays.

Please carefully close the zippers atop the pouches in which our teas are packaged to ensure that the last cup is as fresh as the first. Should you prefer others means of storage, we recommend either metal canisters or glass jars. Both offer an air-tight seal to keep tea dry and insulated from external scents. Both also offer protection from UV rays, allowing you to display tea in the open, without worrying about damage from the sun.

The ingredients of our various teas and blends appear on the individual page that describes the product as well as its packaging. Simply scroll down below the customer reviews.

However, many of our teas contain just one ingredient: tea leaves. In such instances, a list of ingredients is not provided.

Nutritional information for brewed tea depends on factors such as: the amount of tea steeped per serving size, the temperature of the water, what is included in the blend, etc. For this reason, we don't necessarily have readily available nutritional panels for our teas.

We offer Nutritional Information for some of our products, like our honey, rock sugar, tea cookies, and Matcha Sticks - Sweet. This information is found past the reviews on each product page.

Calories
For our selections of black, green or white tea, in which the only ingredient is tea leaves, the brewed teas contain zero calories, and less than 1% of any other nutrient. This is in part due to the fact that we don't actually consume the tea leaves.

Herbal blends which include fruit pieces range, but may contain 5-9 calories for an 8oz cup on average.

Matcha is a different example because we do consume the leaves. We'll be happy to provide more information upon request.

Carbs
You'll be happy to know that tea can be a fantastic addition to a low-carb diet. Most teas are virtually carb-free, containing less than 0.5g of carbs per cup.

Herbal blends that contain fruit pieces are also low in carbohydrates, ranging from 1g to 5g of carbs per cup. This makes tea among the healthiest sweet treats you can include in your low-carb diet.

Sugar
Great news! We do not add sugar or other sweeteners to any of our teas (the only exception being the "sweet matcha" sticks and liquid chai concentrates).

Our fruit herbals contain dried apple, mango and other fruit pieces. The drying process removes the sugar naturally found in fruit, so while tasting sweet, they contain very few calories.

If you like to sweeten your tea, we recommend honey. However, if you prefer your teas unsweetened, our products are sure to please.

First, please view our handy comparison chart!

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to how much caffeine is in each tea, as this depends on the temperature of the water, the amount of leaves per cup, and the length of the infusion.

However, we may offer rough guidelines to select black teas when seeking lots of caffeine, and herbals when seeking none. Oolong, green and white teas have moderate amounts of caffeine, though all considerably less than coffee.

We offer many options with no, or low caffeine!

Our Herbal Teas are all naturally free of caffeine, as they're not blended with tea leaves, but other delicious fruit and herbal ingredients. The exception on this page are the Mate Teas; please keep in mind that Mate teas do contain caffeine, and they are marked with a badge on the page to alert you!

Our Rooibos & Honeybush Teas, or 'Red Tea' (although not from the actual tea plant), are made from a naturally caffeine-free herbal plant that grows only in South Africa. Along with Honeybush teas (also no caffeine), we have many flavor varieties.

Finally we have our selection of Decaf Black Teas . These teas are decaffeinated using the superior carbon dioxide (CO2) process, which retains the most flavor and antioxidants. Our direct-trade advantage ensures superior taste, freshness and value. However, please keep in mind that decaf teas contain a small trace of caffeine, typically less than 5mg. per 8oz serving For comparison, black tea contains about 40mg. The decaffeination process removes most of the caffeine naturally found in tea, but is unable to remove all.

We hope this helps in your search! Please let us know if you have more specific questions!

Decaffeination Process
Our decaf teas are decaffeinated using the superior carbon dioxide (CO2) process, which retains the most flavor and antioxidants. Our direct-trade advantage ensures superior taste, freshness and value. Please keep in mind that decaf teas contain a small trace of caffeine, typically less than 5mg. per 8oz serving.

Decaf Green Teas
Unfortunately, we do not offer Decaffeinated Green Teas.

Many of our customers prefer white teas instead, which contain a very low level of caffeine and cost significantly less than the high price which would come from the costly process of removing caffeine chemically from green tea leaves. Please see our selections of White Tea.

Our teas are sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, vegan, and in virtually all cases, contain zero calories (as long as you don't add milk and sugar). They're created in a facility devoid of nuts. Our teas are quite good for you too! See our health benefits page for details.

Cream and Creme Flavor
Our cream and creme flavorings are totally vegan and dairy free!

Sugar Exceptions
The only exceptions to the above are teas that contain sprinkles, marshmallows, white chocolate chips, chocolate chips, sweet matcha, and latte teas. These ingredients and lattes do contain sugar. Teas with added sugars may contain corn byproducts.

Other Dietary/Allergy Exceptions
Other dietary exceptions include: sprinkles that may contain non-vegan ingredients (including egg-derived ingredients and carmine) as well as soy lecithin, marshmallows that contain gelatin.

Teas are processed in a facility that packages cookies containing wheat and eggs.

Avoid Your Allergens
Do you have allergies that concern you? Allow us to assist you in safely navigating our website and avoiding particular allergens. Go to your Account page and select "Allergens". From, there, simply choose the allergens from the provided list that you wish to be careful about. Afterward, any teas containing those ingredients will be highlighted, simplifying the process of avoiding them.

Our teas contain no ingredients that would make them unkosher. In most instances, they are simply dried leaves, with nothing else added.

In cases of added flavors, these come from natural sources, with no ingredients that would render them unkosher.

However, to certify our teas as kosher is a very expensive undertaking, needing rabbis to visit China, Japan, India and all the other countries from which we source our teas.

So the complicated answer to your question is we're not kosher certified, but there's nothing in our teas that would render them not kosher with the exception of teas that contain marshmallows or sprinkles.

Superior Teabags
The teabags sold in your local market typically contain low-quality tea grades called fannings or dust. These yield dark color, but very little flavor.

In contrast, our gourmet bags contain the same quality of full-leaf teas as do our loose tea offerings. Almost all of our loose teas presently come in bagged form to ensure you have access to quality tea when preparing loose varieties may not be convenient.

Individual Teabags - Wrapped and Identified
The many varieties of our individually-wrapped and labeled teabags may be found on one page. There are about two dozen varieties for you to chose from. Our individually-packaged teabags may also be purchased as gift assortments.

Teabag Material
Our pyramid-shaped bags are made of PET, the safe material used to make water bottles. While not compostable, they are easy to use and provide ample room for tea leaves to expand and infuse fully, placing more flavor in your cup.

No Strings
Please note, our teabags do not have strings.

Our Iced Tea pouches contain the same wonderful teas that we offer as loose tea, or in teabags. The only difference is the packaging.

Each iced tea pouch contains approximately 10 grams of tea. They're designed to be the perfect amount to brew a quart-size pitcher (4 cups). 10 grams of tea and makes one quart of delicious iced tea. Some flufflier varieties of tea may contain less, but are perfectly measured to make one quart of tea.

We recommend the cold-brew method: simply place 1 pouch in your pitcher of water, and store in your refrigerator overnight! Awake to perfectly brewed, cold iced tea!

Check out our Iced Tea selections today!

Check out our in-depth brewing article here!

To brew 16 ounces of iced tea, please start with these instructions and adjust according to taste:

Start with two heaping teaspoons, add 8 oz of hot water, and brew for the recommended time in the brewing instructions on the pouch.

Then, add 8 oz cool water, cold water, or ice- depending on how quickly you'd like to drink the tea.

Set in the refrigerator until the desired temperature is reached!

Check out our in-depth brewing article here!

Thanks for your interest in teas that promote calm and assist with sleep. We offer many such products.

Among the most popular is our 40 Winks tea, part of our line of Wellness Teas. Another tea to consider is our Egyptian Chamomile, available both loose and in tea bags.

We're happy to help you select teas for brewing kombucha.

Any green tea, white tea or oolong tea will make a good base for kombucha. If you're selecting black teas, we recommend avoiding any that contain added flavors, like Earl Grey.

If you're looking to replicate the taste of a tea you've enjoyed in a Chinese restaurant, the possible options are two: oolong or jasmine. We hope you may enjoy our versions of these teas as much, and hopefully much better.

Thanks for your interest in our fresh artisan teas! We offer many varieties that are similar to Teavana teas. To make locating them easier, we've grouped them all on this page. You can search for our recommendation for the tea you miss by its Teavana name using the drop-down list.

All our teas are available as inexpensive samples, making trying them to see which you may best enjoy both easy and affordable.

Our shipping fee is just $3.75, and free on orders of $49 or more. Please give our teas a try!

The flavoring process for our teas begins with the black, green, oolong, white or herbal teas sourced directly from countries of origin. Upon arrival in our blending room, the teas are mixed with natural flavors derived from nature.

These are completely plant-derived and extracted from vanilla, cinnamon, or any of the other flavors present in our collection.

Once the tea leaves dry, we add inclusions of apples, cinnamon, ginger, or anything else that the recipe may call for. When the mixture is complete, the teas are packaged and made ready for sale.

Here at Adagio we are disappointed in the efforts of the Fair Trade program. For example, Fair Trade coffee growers receive only 5 cents more per pound of coffee over market price. This trivial amount is meaningless when it comes to gourmet tea, where a pound of product costs five to fifty times more. In lieu of forcing our suppliers to join the Fair Trade program, we've devised our own means of supporting the people who grow our teas, called the Roots Campaign. Please visit to learn more.

'What is the grade of your teas?' is not an easy question to answer as these designations have grown meaningless in recent years.

Decades ago, when Chinese tea industry was government controlled, the grades assigned to various teas were uniform and informative. These standards loosened with privatization and every farmer claiming that his crop is always 'first grade.'

The best way to assess a tea's quality is to try it. For this reason, we offer small inexpensive samples of all our products. We also invite you to read unfiltered reviews submitted by verified customers.

Our teas come fresh, directly from origin. We hope you'll enjoy.

Pesticides
Tea is a natural product that grows in an open field, making it susceptible to many hungry critters.

To prevent them from feasting on tea's succulent leaves, farmers apply small amounts of low-solubility pesticide (they don't easily dissolve in water). This allows the pesticide to be effective in the field, shielding tea leaves from bugs, yet not appear in your cup due to its low ability to dissolve.

Not only do our teas comply with the US safety standards for pesticide use set by the FDA, but they also meet the more stringent requirements set by the EU.

Fukushima and radiation
Our Japanese teas are farmed well outside of the radiation zone, with the nearest being Uji in Kyoto (which is well outside of the danger zone on radiation maps).

If you are very concerned still, we have plenty of green, black, and oolong teas from China and Taiwan, and even some herbals from South America and Argentina that may prove to be a great new treat for you. Please use our Advanced Search to assist in finding these teas!

Foreign Objects
Our sincere apologies if a tea you selected contained a foreign object that soured your experience. This is exceptionally rare and we do our best to remove anything that is not tea prior to the products reaching our customer. If this has happened to you, please email us!

We unfortunately do not offer free samples of our products. However, we make discovering our teas very easy and inexpensive with a $24 package that may introduce you to loose teas.

Most samples contain 0.8 ounces of tea, enough to steep about ten cups. We recommend trying samples of unfamiliar tea to ensure that you like it before committing to a larger quantity. Some lighter varieties of tea contain 0.4 ounces per sample. However, these still provide about five cups of tea to ensure you have ample opportunity to decide if you like it.

We also offer these small, inexpensive samples of almost every tea in our catalog. These allow you to try a few cups and decide if you wish to purchase a larger quantity of a particular tea. However, because they are so small and inexpensive, these are not eligible for return or exchange because the cost associated would outweigh their value.

From time to time, you may be receive an email with a free sample of a tea we think you will enjoy. To view it, you must be signed in. This is the reason the link directs you to an "account" page. Once you've signed in, you'll see the free sample in your cart.