Received a loose-leaf sample of this last week from Adagio. Appearance, taste and fragrance indistinguishable from “Jasmine Dragon Pearls” sold by Tealyra. Plenty of reviews on the Adagio product here to inform you, and I rate it a 75 (just like the Tealyra product).
My major complaint is Adagios inadequate labeling on the packaged tea— specifically the ingredient listing. I have uploaded a photo of the foil packet, which lists “ Ingredients: jasmine phoenix pearls”. That is not a legal ingredient list! Green tea is not included as an ingredient! Jasmine is not present, only the infused floral volatiles. Phoenix is a mythological creature, not an ingredient! Pearls are a marine product, and are not in this blend. Ingredient lists should be technically precise, complete, and accurate! People depend on this information, and I do believe it is a legal requirement. Adagio could be more accurate here. What they are showing on their product is IMO insufficient.. The website lists green tea as the only ingredient, which is incomplete because the jasmine volatiles are not shown. And I question whether the website is the proper place for the ingredient list.
My secondary complaint is the photograph on Adagios website which shows the pearls, along with what appears to be dried jasmine flowers or petals. There were no jasmine flowers or petals either mixed with or inside the pearls of my sample. I have attached a photograph of my steeped leaves, clearly showing their size, beautiful green color, and the absence of any jasmine petals. While it conveys the concept of a floral component, the photograph on their website could be misleading.
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I think it’s a bit of a special case because the tea is scented with jasmine, which is different from jasmine flavor or oil being added. On their website they don’t bother to list ingredients at all, probably because it’s considered to be an unflavored tea.
There appear to be jasmine petals in the photo, so I would think they would at least list that? In any case it would be clearer to say “jasmine-scented green tea” or something.
Cameron, after posting my review I noticed those apparent petals in the photo, and examined my steeped leaves closely, and found absolutely no jasmine petals present. I have further edited my review now to include that information, and uploaded a picture of my spent leaves. I agree that it is a bit of a gray area on how to describe a volatile infusion, however, I think there is a proper way to do it.
Chiming in to say that from a regulatory standpoint “green tea” is correct ingredient labelling because the petals (or essential oils) of the flowers themselves are not physically present in the blend. Scenting is a processing step that impacts the taste of a tea, sort of like how roasting impacts the taste of a product but is not adding an ingredient either. It’s definitely better to list as “jasmine scented green tea” or, in the case of roasting, “roasted green tea” but to simply declare as “green tea” is just as compliant.
The petals in the photography are interesting to me because they fall into a more grey area. Bare in mind I’m certainly looking at this from a biased lens given my position within the industry, but a lot of people aren’t very capable of looking at pure tea leaves and picturing a flavour to go along with them – so, at least to me, the photo reads more as “set dressing”.
Like if the name of the blend was “Yunnan Berry Bliss” and I saw a photo of a bunch of black tea with fresh sliced strawberries around then I think it would be a reasonable assumption to assume that the company was trying to evoke the tea has a strawberry note and I wouldn’t be buying a tea with unprocessed strawberry in it. The grey area here is that flower petals are a fairly common ingredient in tea blends (processed or not) but also can just be a tasting note. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely don’t always have the warm and fuzzies towards Adagio – but I genuinely don’t think the intent here was to be bad/deceptive. Just to paint a better flavour picture for the average consumer (of which most of us on Steepster are not).
Honestly, the fact there was even an ingredients list on the packaging for a straight/traditional tea is more than you’d get from most tea companies. Truly, the amount of straight up non-compliant tea products I see from companies in North America from both an ingredient/nutritional declaration perspective is STAGGERING…
Thank you for your feedback and insights, Cameron and Ros! I have softened my wording accordingly in the review note.
Interestingly, as I explore the Adagio site, I noticed that the page for these jasmine phoenix pearls uses “dragon_pearl” in its URL. I surmise that Adagio has re-named the product, possibly to obscure their supplier and comparisons of this tea with the identical product supplied to other retailers:
https://www.adagio.com/green/dragon_pearl.html
Furthermore, Adagio sells another product “Jasmine Pearls” in pyramid sachets:
https://www.adagio.com/teabags/jasmine_pearls.html
and on that page, reader Rachel asked how they differed from the dragon/phoenix pearls. The Adagio reply was “They are the same tea, different packaging.” and actually gave a link to the phoenix pearls page! And yet, the two teas have different photos: one with visible jasmine petals and the other without petals! This kind of sloppiness in documentation really aggravates me, as I am a scientist who has worked in a food chemistry laboratory!
Finally, of possible interest to Steepster user ashmanra, I see that Adagio offers, under their “Masters” section, yet another grade of jasmine pearls called “yin hao long zhu”, said to contain more buds and to have a more delicate flavor in a paler yellow liquor. I have not tried it yet.
https://www.mastersteas.com/teas/yin-hao-long-zhu.html
I think it’s a bit of a special case because the tea is scented with jasmine, which is different from jasmine flavor or oil being added. On their website they don’t bother to list ingredients at all, probably because it’s considered to be an unflavored tea.
There appear to be jasmine petals in the photo, so I would think they would at least list that? In any case it would be clearer to say “jasmine-scented green tea” or something.
Cameron, after posting my review I noticed those apparent petals in the photo, and examined my steeped leaves closely, and found absolutely no jasmine petals present. I have further edited my review now to include that information, and uploaded a picture of my spent leaves. I agree that it is a bit of a gray area on how to describe a volatile infusion, however, I think there is a proper way to do it.
Chiming in to say that from a regulatory standpoint “green tea” is correct ingredient labelling because the petals (or essential oils) of the flowers themselves are not physically present in the blend. Scenting is a processing step that impacts the taste of a tea, sort of like how roasting impacts the taste of a product but is not adding an ingredient either. It’s definitely better to list as “jasmine scented green tea” or, in the case of roasting, “roasted green tea” but to simply declare as “green tea” is just as compliant.
The petals in the photography are interesting to me because they fall into a more grey area. Bare in mind I’m certainly looking at this from a biased lens given my position within the industry, but a lot of people aren’t very capable of looking at pure tea leaves and picturing a flavour to go along with them – so, at least to me, the photo reads more as “set dressing”.
Like if the name of the blend was “Yunnan Berry Bliss” and I saw a photo of a bunch of black tea with fresh sliced strawberries around then I think it would be a reasonable assumption to assume that the company was trying to evoke the tea has a strawberry note and I wouldn’t be buying a tea with unprocessed strawberry in it. The grey area here is that flower petals are a fairly common ingredient in tea blends (processed or not) but also can just be a tasting note. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely don’t always have the warm and fuzzies towards Adagio – but I genuinely don’t think the intent here was to be bad/deceptive. Just to paint a better flavour picture for the average consumer (of which most of us on Steepster are not).
Honestly, the fact there was even an ingredients list on the packaging for a straight/traditional tea is more than you’d get from most tea companies. Truly, the amount of straight up non-compliant tea products I see from companies in North America from both an ingredient/nutritional declaration perspective is STAGGERING…
Thank you for your feedback and insights, Cameron and Ros! I have softened my wording accordingly in the review note.
Interestingly, as I explore the Adagio site, I noticed that the page for these jasmine phoenix pearls uses “dragon_pearl” in its URL. I surmise that Adagio has re-named the product, possibly to obscure their supplier and comparisons of this tea with the identical product supplied to other retailers:
https://www.adagio.com/green/dragon_pearl.html
Furthermore, Adagio sells another product “Jasmine Pearls” in pyramid sachets:
https://www.adagio.com/teabags/jasmine_pearls.html
and on that page, reader Rachel asked how they differed from the dragon/phoenix pearls. The Adagio reply was “They are the same tea, different packaging.” and actually gave a link to the phoenix pearls page! And yet, the two teas have different photos: one with visible jasmine petals and the other without petals! This kind of sloppiness in documentation really aggravates me, as I am a scientist who has worked in a food chemistry laboratory!
Finally, of possible interest to Steepster user ashmanra, I see that Adagio offers, under their “Masters” section, yet another grade of jasmine pearls called “yin hao long zhu”, said to contain more buds and to have a more delicate flavor in a paler yellow liquor. I have not tried it yet.
https://www.mastersteas.com/teas/yin-hao-long-zhu.html