Share Your Love of Tea with Coffee Fans

Tea lovers can always find ways to connect over favorite tea salons, shared passions for certain teas or tea service styles, and of course, one more accessory to enhance the pleasure of tea at home. But what about those friends who are diehard coffee drinkers? How can we convince them that they can have full flavor and aroma, get energized, and a great time to boot drinking tea? One way is to meet them where they are.

Pu-Erh for the Diehard Coffee Lover

Coffee drinkers love the deep rich heartiness of coffee, the intense aroma, the varietals, and different roasts. Many coffee lovers like grinding their own beans and making a ritual making each cup, choosing the best filters, brewer, etc.

For them, the most fascinating tea to suggest is our Shou Pu-Erh with their exceptionally soft, earthy flavor and woodsy complexity, flavors that linger through several steepings. (Coffee lovers can’t re-brew coffee grounds, can they? That means Pu-Erh is a great value, too!)

Our selections of this classic tea from Yunnan, China include natural and flavored ripened Pu-Erh (shou) that are intentionally aged and oxidized before gently dried. The result is a deep, rich body without the signature astringency attributed to many teas. We offer eight choices, including unique flavor combinations like Spice, Hazelberry (hazelnuts and berries) and Chorange (chocolate and orange. For the sophisticated, the choice should be our artisanal selection, Pu-Erh Wuliang Green.

Pu-Erh is an integral part of the history of tea where it was carried, sold, bartered, and drunk along the ancient Silk Road. To preserve its integrity, the teas were cleverly shaped into bricks and round cakes. This ingenious step led them to often be used for currency. Share this history or add a little entertainment by entertaining introducing them to our delicious Pu-Erh Pearls. When your friends watch the pearls of tea unfurl in a clear cup or glass pot, they’ll realize that coffee brewing pales in comparison. Of course, no new experience should be approached without the right accessories, so we may we suggest Yixing teapots or gaiwans in which to brew the tea.

For those who choose a beverage based on its health benefits, Pu-Erh is perfect: it’s a natural digestif, perfect after a heavy meal, and is a natural antidote to fatty foods, so much so, that Chinese cooks often use it to clean pots of stir frying. While this does indeed work for the busy chef, we think the best use of Pu-Erh is to drink it. Brew in boiling water (212ºF.) for 5 minutes, and enjoying several steepings of deep flavor to make tea-drinking a welcome after-dinner event for coffee drinkers everywhere.

Mate may be the best.. Mate!

Do they fear a lack of caffeine? Then get them a packet of Jump Start tea, pronto.

This clever combination of toasted mate and black tea will give anyone a kick of caffeine albeit without the traditional caffeine jitters of plain coffee. Mate (aka Yerba Mate) does indeed have xanthines, in this case mateine, which is absorbed into the body differently than the caffeine in coffee because Jump Start has the theine and L-theobromine from the addition of black tea. Like all true tea, those elements contribute to a feeling of relaxation for the body coupled with mental clarity that’s sure to get them through any deadline or challenge. Best of all, tea neophytes can brew this tea with boiling water (212ºF.) then steep 5 to 10 minutes without sacrificing flavor or adding unwanted astringency. Its nutty flavor is highlighted when using maple syrup, although no sweetening is needed.

Or, try Coffee Leaf Tea

One alternative, if tea really isn’t their jam, is Coffee Leaf Tea.

Yup, tea brewed with leaves of the coffee plant is now available and it definitely has caffeine, but a moderate amount. We suggest Arabica Mocha made from both the beans and the leaves of the coffee plant.

This drink has been made for centuries in Ethiopia and Indonesia where residents of these stellar coffee-growing countries call it kuti. It has more healthful antioxidants, a mild buzz of caffeine, and classic mocha taste. Arabica Mocha is blended with toasted mate, chicory, and cocoa nibs, with a whisper of hazelnut to offer a nutty, toasty taste with less jitteriness than a drink made solely from the coffee bean and layers of flavors. Brew with boiling water (212ºF.) for 5 minutes. Delish!

Adagio offers a sampler of Arabica teas as well to check out.

Matcha to the Caffeine Rescue

If your friends are particularly ambitious, and ready to really try something new, then introduce them to our finest matcha.

This stimulant-laden green tea is made with care and precision from the finest gyokuro green tea grown in the Uji province of Japan and is the “espresso” of tea. To a teaspoon of the powdered matcha tea, add a teaspoon of hot water heated to about 160ºF. Stir to make a paste, then add 4 ounces more of the hot water. Whisk to a froth and serve in a small bowl or cup, and enjoy several sips, just as you would a traditional espresso. With fine matcha, the maxim of quality over quantity is supreme. Using a whisk puts the fun into functional!

Adagio's gift set is the perfect way to introduce this delightful tea-drinking tradition.

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, you could even offer a personal, one-on-one show-and-tell demo of tea brewing whether it’s pu-erh, matcha or Jump Start so that they’ll feel like a veteran tea sommelier in no time. Add a box of candy or their favorite dessert, and this could be the best February 14th ever!

P.S. Your coffee lovers still not convinced? Adagio understands. That’s why they've created a coffee company under the name Ladera Coffee. Go to www.lardera.com for more information and samples from our upcoming line of ground coffees and whole beans. You can even log in with the same information as your Adagio account!