Adagio Bees - new Honey from the Adagio Tea company

Complimentary honey samplers were provided by Adagio Tea for me to try and share my experience.

A while back, I noticed that Adagio Teas had expanded their product offering to include honey. I was intrigued. As with tea, there was a time where honey was not high on my list but over the years, I had come to enjoy honey as an addition to my tea. Then, this summer, I bought some Vanilla Honey coffee pods and there was something so soothing about that flavor and aroma.
I started by exploring their site. They offer several options for jars of honey and sampler sets to let you try the different varieties and styles.

They currently offer 5 varieties of tea honey. Sold by the jar, these raw honeys were specifically selected for use in different tea varieties.

tea honey
Honey has long been a source for sweetening a variety of foods and beverages for over 10,000 years. The sweet nectar has also been used for medicinal purposes, served as currency, and been a symbol in many religious and cultural celebrations. Each offers the promise of making your cup of tea just a little bit sweeter. Glass jars. Made in the USA.

They also offer 11 varieties of raw honey by the jar.

raw honey
Honey, one of the world's oldest sweeteners, comes from flower nectar that has been consumed by the honey bee. Known as the "nectar of the gods" as far back as 5,000 years ago it was used for medicinal purposes, in cooking, and as a preservative in cosmetics, soaps, and even the beeswax has been used for candles. Our raw honey is packaged without the use of high temperatures to provide as close to the experience of heating out of the hive as possible- positively irresistable!

The third variety that they offer is whipped honey, in 3 varieties.

whipped honey
Whipped Honey (also known as creamed honey, cream honey, honey butter, honey spread, granulated honey or shipped honey) is the most popular state of honey in Europe. Whipped Honey is honey where a slow and controlled crystallization process has taken place. With controlled temperature and large sugar crystal size, the result is a spreadable honey with a silky mouth feel, almost marshmallow-like! This delicious honey that has earned its place on the breakfast table. Spread it on toast or eat right off the spoon!

After reading through all the descriptions of the varieties, I couldn't choose just one to try and decided to try the samplers.

Isn't that box awesome. Check out the side of it, I would be lying if I didn't do more than one double-take thinking there was a bee crawling on the box.

Here you can see the varieties that came in my sampler boxes:

The weekend the samples arrived, I had made biscuits for sausage gravy and decided that it was the perfect vehicle to start to taste some of the honey. I really liked how smooth the honey was on my palate. It was sweet but didn't have any of that too sweet flavor that I had at time experienced with my normal squeeze jar of honey. It also seemed to be a slightly thinner texture, which I think worked really well for enjoying it on the biscuit. I was able to taste the notes and differences in the different varieties of honey.

Also on that day, I tried the two whipped varieties as well. The whipped cinnamon honey had a terrific balance of sweet honey and cinnamon, reminding me in flavor of the mixture that I put on Cinnamon Sugar toast but without the bite that you get from the sugar crystals. It was really strange to me to get that flavor without that bite. I enjoyed it though. The chocolate was also good, although the ratio of honey to chocolate seemed pretty even and I would have preferred more of the chocoalte flavor coming through.

Over the next few weeks, I enjoyed the different honeys in my tea. It was interesting to try the tea varieites in the tea style they were selected for. Then, most recently, I enjoyed the Tupelo Raw Honey in my coffee with a bit of vanilla cream, helping to bring back the falvors from the coffee that I enjoyed this summer. I don't tend to sweeten my coffee (outside of the sweetness from the cream) but it definitely was a nice treat to have a sweet honey and vanilla coffee in the early afternoon (with a few vanilla wafers on the side).

I really enjoyed the honey. I really like that they come in glass jars, make them easy to store and serve. I would recommend that if you enjoy honey in your tea, on your biscuits or just on it's own that you give Adagio Bees honey a try. The samplers are a great way to check out several varieties at once.

Have you tried Adagio Bees honey? Have you tried whipped honey before? What is your favorite?


No compensation was received for this review. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family. Complimentary product was provided for my review.

Limited Edition Bella Luna Blue Tea from Adagio - Available Today (8/22) Only!

I received a complimentary sample of Bella Luna Blue so that I could try it and share my expierence.

The blue moon is finally here and with it comes our most elusive tea, combining fresh lemongrass, ripe blueberries and the exotic hues of butterfly pea. Do not miss the indigo experience of rare Bella Luna Blue!

Limited Edition Bella Luna Blue Tea. A customer favorite and magical tea that brews blue, and when you add lemon juice, it turns purple! It is an exclusive that is only sold on days of a blue moon. Today is your chance to order it because on August 22nd there is a Blue Moon.

I had a chance to try the tea and I really enjoyed the experience. I used a clear mug so that I could enjoy the beautiful blue hues brought to us by the Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

and see the cool transformation when I added the lemon juice to the tea.

Seriously, don't waste this tea on a dark mug, make sure you can enjoy not only the taste but the visual experience of this tea by using a clear or white interior mug.

Be sure to stock up on this caffeine free tea with the flavors of lemongrass and blueberries, since it is only available once in a blue moon (hehe). I really enjoyed the tea but will tell you I doubled up on the tea to make it a little stronger flavor and adding the lemon juice helped the lemongrass and blueberry flavors have more pop than they do without.

Over the past couple of years, I have really been enjoying a variety of new teas that I found at Adagio Teas, you should check out their many loose leaf tea options. You can also get some great teaware to help you enjoy your tea. I still use my toasTEA travel mug that I got a couple of years ago to enjoy hot tea on the go (or even just on my deck). I find it a little 'fun' that you flip it upside down to allow it to brew and then when you flip it back the leaves sit above your hot tea in the mug.

No compensation was received for this review. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family. I received a complimentary sample of Bella Luna Blue so that I could try it and share my expierence.

The Taste Experience of Adagio Teas

Complimentary product was provided by Adagio Tea for me to try and share my experience.

There are some things that you gain a taste for over time. When I was a kid, tea was not on my list of favorite beverages. At some point, one of my friends offered me hot lemon tea and because I didn't want to be rude, I gave it a try with a good amount of added lemon juice and sugar. I decided it wasn't so bad and not what I had remembered from other tea experiences. From that point forward, I found myself trying different teas over time, in hopes of finding more that I enjoyed. As I have grown older, the varieties of tea that I enjoy have evolved and grown. I can't recall the last time I had hot lemon tea, but there are several other varieties that I have on a regular basis. In fact, I have a few varieties that are staples in my pantry, typically herbal teas or rooibos teas. When I have a cup, I usually enjoy it with a bit of honey or sugar and if enjoying one in the evening at bedtime, with a splash of milk. I have a tea kettle for warming water on the stove, I have multiple tea balls for loose tea and a pot that has a perforated column in the middle that allows me to make a full pot with either loose leaf tea or bagged tea. (For the record, I'm still not a big fan of iced tea...but have tried some recently that aren't so bad.)

Several of my friends had been sharing about Adagio Teas through Facebook, so when I was invited to try some of their products, I was excited to discover what they offered. I explored their different products and decided on a mix of full size bags and sample packs, to maximize my taste experience. Most of their teas are loose leaf, but they do offer some pyramid bag items too. I decided to stick with all loose leaf varieties for my experience.

I ordered two Rooibos varieties - Rooibos Vanilla and Rooibos Caramel. If you aren't familiar, from the Adagio site I share the following description: Hailing from South Africa, red bush tea is caffeine-free and produces a sweet, flavorful cup.

I also ordered two Herbal Tea varieties - Peppermint and Raspberry Patch.

Lastly, I tried out the Hot Cinnamon Spice tea. It is a flavored tea, which is not caffeine free, but is one of my favorite flavors.

I also decided to check out the toasTEA Portable Tea Infuser. I have enjoyed using this infuser to try out all of the new teas.

It is easy to use and I love that it relies on inversion to brew the tea and that when you flip it back upright the leaves are above the water line and no longer brewing.

In addition, the insulated tumbler keeps the tea hot for a long time. I typically poured the tea from the tumbler and put it into an open mug, because to me drinking tea is a full sense experience and the open mug allows for full immersion into the aroma and the visual aspects of the experience, in addition to the taste.

Each tea provides the amount of loose tea to use per cup and the temperature and time for steeping.

The Raspberry Patch is my favorite of the teas that I tried. It offers a full flavor of summer raspberries with an appealing sweet, berry aroma. I added a small drizzle of honey to provide a sweet flavor match to the sweet aroma. This is the one that I go to for a mid-afternoon tea break.

The two Rooibos varieties have a nice, soft aroma and an appealing flavor with notes of vanilla or caramel. I find them to be a perfect evening treat with a drizzle of honey and a splash of milk, and occasionally a couple of thin ginger crisp cookies for dipping.

The Peppermint is refreshing and I have found it a great way to start the day, paired with a couple of slices of toast. I haven't tried the Hot Cinnamon yet, mostly because it feels like a fall flavor and hasn't been the one that drew my interest when I sat down to enjoy a mug of tea.

I love that the toasTEA infuser makes 17 oz of tea, perfect to have a first cup and a top off to warm the tea back up in my mug. It also is a great travel option and allows me to steep my tea on the drive to work and enjoy it on arrival. The Rooibos Caramel seems to have a few more fines in it than the other teas and resulted in a bit of the tea coming up into the drink spout while inverted. Otherwise, it has worked fine with all of the teas that I have brewed and even on immersion, does not leak.

My only concern is that the tea comes in a stand up pouch with a zip closure, which makes storage a bit of a challenge. I think that I need to find a basket that I can set in my cupboard to corral them and keep them from falling over and 'disappearing' under other items in the cupboard. Or, if I stick with a few varieties only, I might pick up some small glass storage containers that I can put the tea in and place in cupboard.

Have you tried Adagio tea? What is your favorite?


No compensation was received for this review. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family. Complimentary product was provided for my review.