How to Select Your Tea for Summer

Let’s talk tea! It’s one of my favorite subjects. There are so many options to choose from, and my tea preferences change with the seasons. Because of this, it helps to know how to select your tea for summer.

I recently received a lovely variety of blends from Adagio Teas and it gave me the notion to dig a little deeper and explore all the options for summer tea enjoyment.  I really like them all, but the most popular are black, green, white, herbal, and matcha.  Let’s take a look at each variety:

Black tea is the most common – it’s easy to find, inexpensive, and usually what you get when you ask for “iced tea” in a restaurant. Black tea is more oxidized than the other teas we’ll talk about below, which is what makes it stronger in flavor as well as higher in caffeine content.  A black tea variety that caught my attention is the Golden Monkey, a famous Chinese black tea that’s rich, smooth and definitely a “royal” treat for summer sippin’.

Green tea is less processed and also a tea known for its extensive health benefits. It’s a very mild flavored tea, but if you steep it long enough, you can get a stronger flavor out of it. Green tea has also been used in traditional Indian and Chinese medicine for hundreds of years. They believe it helps with many maladies, from boosting metabolism to killing cancer cells. This type of tea is also very easy to flavor and budget-friendly, which makes it a favorite.

White tea is even less processed than green, and therefore is reported to be even more beneficial when it comes to antioxidants and incredible health benefits. White tea can be one of two things – entirely unprocessed tea leaves or tea that’s made from very immature buds of the plant. Either way, white tea has a very mild flavor and also easily flavored.  Consider flavors like White Tangerine, White Cucumber and White Peach and its easy to see why this would be a refreshing choice for summer.

Herbal teas aren’t made from the same plants as black, green, and white teas. They’re made from the plants they’re often named after, like hibiscus, elderberry, and ginger. The leaves or petals of the plant are dried and steeped just like the other types of tea, but herbal teas are caffeine free, which makes them a great choice for children, too!  Kid-friendly flavors are easy to find in this variety like the Story Time collection from Adagio Teas.

Matcha (pronounced like match-a) is actually green tea that’s been stone ground into a powder. Instead of steeping, the powder dissolves in liquid and is consumed that way. Plants for matcha are grown in the shade, producing a different result than if they were grown in direct sunlight.

Now that you know the difference, let’s get to the fun part! How will you take your summer tea? Do you prefer iced or regular?

You’d think that an ice cold iced tea would be perfect to cool you down on a hot summer day – and it is. However, experts say that drinking hot beverages can make you even cooler, because they make you perspire. So you have good reason to enjoy both!

One of my favorite new iced tea varieties is Wild Strawberry Iced Tea from Adagio Teas.  The tea arrives in a special cold brew pouch that is simply brewed overnight in a pitcher of cold water.  You wake up to a refreshing caffeine-free herbal mix that’s a delight for all your senses.

I really enjoy making teas in the summer from different blends. For example, for someone who loves the sand and surf, a white tea with coconut, pineapple, and hibiscus sounds delicious.  If you love flowers and gardening, you could try hibiscus, honey, and orange for a sweet and tangy flavor.

There’s really is no end to the combinations! The more you play around with it, the more you’ll come up with. You can even make up some fun names and serve the combos at a garden tea party!   You can also find some really cool Fandom Blends at Adagio that are based on popular films, television shows, characters and more, like the Elixer of Life (pictured above) from the Harry Potter Magic Potions collection.  So fun and quite refreshing!

There are no rules, really. Each type of tea will brew differently, and if you want to make iced tea, you’ll need to make it in bigger batches, obviously. It’s also a good idea to let iced tea steep a little longer so that it doesn’t get watered down as fast when those ice cubes start to melt.

Do you love tea as much as I do? How do you like to prepare your tea for the summer?