Teavana vs. Adagio Teas

Teavana is a large chain of retail tea stores, briefly its own publicly-traded corporation, and recently bought by Starbucks.  Adagio Teas is a smaller company that is nevertheless a leader in the online tea world, with a network of interactive websites.

It is hard to compare the prices of Teavana and Adagio across the board, because the companies stock somewhat different teas.  But there are a few types of teas where a very similar tea is carried by both companies.

• Golden Monkey - Adagio's version of this tea is $17 for 3 ounces, whereas Teavana's is $18.50 for only 2 ounces.  In this case, Teavana is considerably more expensive.
• English Breakfast - Adagio's is $12 for 3 ounces, Teavana's is $3.80 for 2 ounces.  In this case, Adagio is more expensive
• Gyokuro (A high-end Japanese Green Tea) - Adagio and Teavana come very close on this offering, with Adagio's at $39 for 4 ounces and Teavana at $40 for 4 ounces.

Although it is tempting to expect that Teavana is more expensive, this is not necessarily the case.  When comparing similar teas side-by-side, Teavana is sometimes more expensive, but is sometimes cheaper.

But what about selection?

The selections of Teavana and Adagio are quite different.  Teavana's selection is heavily skewed towards blends, especially blends of tea with many other ingredients (including mate, rooibos, and various caffeine-free herbs), whereas Adagio is a clear leader in pure, single-origin teas.  Adagio has far more selection among oolong teas, and slightly larger selections of pure white and pure green teas.  Since I tend to prefer single-origin pure teas, I definitely prefer Adagio's selection to Teavana's.

I run RateTea, which is an interactive tea rating website.  Although I have my own personal opinion on the relative quality of various teas, running RateTea has given me a good sense of a broader popular opinion.

On the question of Teavana vs. Adagio, I will say that there is no clear winner.  One tea from each company is currently rated in the top 10, and there are other teas from both brands that rank considerably lower.  There is no clear trend of one company's teas being rated higher, either for value or flavor or overall quality.  Teavana's teas tend to attract more reviews on the site, but this doesn't mean that they're better, just that it's a more mainstream company that has reached a broader audience.

You can read Teavana tea reviews and Adagio Tea reviews on RateTea for yourself.

My personal opinion echoes this.  Although I like Adagio better as a company, I would hesitate to say that their teas are uniformly better.  I personally think Teavana does a slightly better job of their fruit-flavored blends, whereas Adagio does a slightly better job of pure teas (which is something I tend to prefer anyway).  I also like Adagio's selection better, in the pure tea department.

One point on which Teavana and Adagio Teas greatly diverge, in my opinion, is in their sales practices and corporate ethics.

I have personally experienced Teavana's pushy sales firsthand.  While my experience was not as negative as some of the worst experiences I've seen described online, and while my experiences have been more negative in some stores than others, I've noticed things like:

• Salespeople always suggesting the most expensive teas first, when I ask for a suggestion (regardless of what I say I'm looking for).
• Salespeople measuring out more tea than I asked for, and then being very slow about putting it back when I object to the quantity.
• Salespeople presenting me with unsubstantiated health claims about the teas.

Some of the things I've seen described online from a variety of sources include:

• Hiding the register display from the customer and asking for the credit card and swiping it, before showing the total amount of the purchase
• Including accessories like tins in a purchase when the customer did not explicitly ask for it, and without telling the customer that the tin costs extra, or what it costs

For one of the harshest accounts I've read, I recommend reading Teavana Salesperson Throws Involuntary Tea Party, an article in The Consumerist.

I've never experienced or heard anything from anyone suggesting that Adagio Teas has ever engaged in any practices like this.  Adagio Teas sells primarily online, but I have had the opportunity to meet many of the company's staff at the World Tea East expo.  I have a very good feeling about that company, whereas Teavana is one that I have serious ethical reservations about.

Adagio Teas is primarily an online tea company.  Although it is not strictly 100% online, it is primarily so.  Adagio recently opened three retail stores in Illinois, but an overwhelming majority of Americans only have access to Adagio online.  I have seen a few of their products, rarely, available in stores, and this availability has increased somewhat in recent years, but the company still is primarily an online tea company.

Teavana is a completely different animal.  Although they do have a website for buying tea online, they are best-known for their stores, which are widely distributed throughout America and tend to be located in high-end shopping malls.

I think there's something to be said for physically going into a tea store and seeing and smelling the tea.  Not only can you get a sense of the freshness of the product you're buying, but you can learn more about teas, including teas that you don't necessarily buy or sample, just by looking at them and smelling the dry leaf.  On this point, Teavana has a clear advantage, although I would caution you about Teavana's pushy sales practices that I mention above.