Cold Brew Adagio Iced Teas

A couple months ago, Adagio.com gave me a gift certificate in exchange for some social media love about their teas. I already like their teas, but I took the opportunity to order some teas I hadn’t tried yet.

TL;DR—Jasmine Silver Needle was the favorite, cold-brewed at 2 heaping tablespoons per 2 quarts of water, and my second favorite was White Peach (loose-leaf, not iced tea pouches), cold-brewed at 2 heaping tablespoons per 2 quarts of water.

Adagio sells loose leaf teas as well as teabags, but I bought some of their Iced Tea pouches. Basically, it’s their loose leaf teas pre-measured in a pouch that you can use to cold- or hot-brew iced tea.

I first tried their White Blueberry Iced Tea pouches. There’s approximately 3 tablespoons of tea in each pouch, and the instructions say that one pouch is for about 1 quart of iced tea. I cold-brewed the tea—I steeped a pouch in a quart of water in the fridge overnight. However, I found that the resulting tea was a bit strong for my taste, so I diluted it with 1 quart of water to make 2 quarts of tea.

The white tea in the pouch is really nice when cold-brewed—smooth and sweet. However I wasn’t nuts about the blueberry flavor until I added the juice of one lemon to the iced tea. Then suddenly the blueberry flavor seemed to really perk up. It reminded me of the lemon blueberry muffins I love to snarf on.

Next I cold-brewed the White Peach Iced Tea pouches. As with the Blueberry, there’s about 3 tablespoons of tea per pouch, and I found that one pouch in 1 quart of water is too strong, so I diluted it with 1 quart of water.

The peach flavor is super awesome! The white tea makes the peach flavor very pronounced.

Thirdly, I cold-brewed the White Peony white loose-leaf tea. I used 2 heaping tablespoons per 2 quarts of water. It was a nice white tea, very mild in flavor. I tried using more tea, but it became more bitter rather than more flavorful, so I think the mild flavor is the norm.

Fourth, I cold-brewed the Jasmine Silver Needle white loose-leaf tea. This was by far my favorite out the teas I purchased. The Jasmine flavor was subtle without being too florally, and the white tea was mild and even a little sweet. The Silver Needle white tea was much smoother than the Jasmine Chun Hao green tea that I usually cold-brew. The Jasmine Silver Needle tea was especially refreshing when I added some lemon to it.

(On a side note, I was looking at the Adagio website and noticed a Jasmine Jin Hao green tea that I’ve never tried cold-brewing yet, so I will order that and try that sometime as a cold-brew.

Next, I cold-brewed the two Oolong teas I had ordered.

The Peach Oolong Iced Tea pouch was WAY too strong when I used one pouch in 2 quarts of water and cold-brewed it, so I cut open the pouch. I brewed 2 Tablespoons of the peach oolong tea in 2 quarts of water, and I also tried 1 Tablespoon of tea in 2 quarts of water, and I found that I preferred the more dilute cold-brew.

I’ve had the peach oolong as a hot-brewed tea before, but I tried it again here to compare with the cold-brewed tea. Hot-brewed, the peach oolong has a strong peach flavor and a rich tea flavor, not as malty as a traditional black tea but definitely a stronger tea flavor than a hot-brewed white tea.

Cold-brewed, the peach oolong becomes more floral and slightly malty in flavor, but with the same peach flavor. I think I prefer the cold-brewed white peach tea over the cold-brewed peach oolong tea, but it might also be dependent on my mood. I definitely prefer the hot-brewed peach oolong over the hot-brewed white peach tea.

Lastly, I cold-brewed the Jade Oolong Iced Tea pouch. Like the Peach Oolong, I found that I preferred to cold-brew 1 Tablespoon of tea (I cut open the pouch) in 2 quarts of water. The cold-brewed Oolong flavor was nice, a little malty, and not tannic at all. It especially tasted good when I added some lychee jelly (like the kind they put in boba tea) and a splash of milk.

Whew! That was a lot of tea. It takes me 2-3 days to finish a pitcher of tea, and I had tried different tea/water ratios for several of the teas, which was why it took me so long to write this review. Bottom line: I loved the Jasmine Silver Needle white tea and will definitely be trying that again. However, it was also one of the pricier teas. My second-favorite was the Peach White iced tea (they sell it loose-leaf, which is what I’d use rather than the iced tea pouches).