Adagio Tins no more?

We're always open to a little constructive criticism.


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Jun 25th, '10, 21:39
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by Geekgirl » Jun 25th, '10, 21:39

Seems to be a lot of posts missing from this thread, so I'm not sure where the conversation has traveled. I'd like to make one observation though, regarding the use of fossil fuels/environmental impact:

Last year, some of us on forum participated in a box pass - a sort of bulk tea tasting whereby many different Adagio personal blends were sent around by mail for people to sample. There were a LOT of teas in this box by the time it got to me. When it arrive, it came in a very large cardboard box approximately 22" x 14" x 16". (I measured. I'm weird like that.) The box also had bubble wrap and other packing material. What is more, the box was ripped beyond salvaging. All of these teas were in Adagio tins. The box was very heavy - 15- 20lbs!

Since the box was destroyed, and the expense to mail the teas had jumped to around $30, the decision was made to repackage the teas into smaller bags. The repackaging itself was not eco-friendly- but it had the effect of halving the weight of the box, requiring less protective packaging and the size of the box itself was just a touch over 1/2 the original size.

When environmental impact of a product is assessed, more things need to be considered than just the re-usability of the product.

So I was left with very many "recyclable" tins. Turns out that you can't recycle them without taking them apart. Turns out that you can't take them apart without the proper tools or aggressive destruction. Turns out that you can't recycle these consituent parts curbside, nor, indeed, at the local recycling facility. They'll take the tins, but not the fastener, nor the plastic tops.

This produced a great deal of waste in my trash pickup because, although technically "recyclable," what good is that technicality if one is unable to find the means to do so.

Now, assuming one can successfully break down and recycle the entire tin, what about the shipping? I don't have access to the precise numbers, but something tells me that shipping twice as much weight back and forth across the country will eventually consume fuel far in excess of the amount it takes to make the so-called less environmentally friendly packaging. Add to that the fuel consumption required to make a more complex piece of packaging, the fuel required to run an assembly line in addition to manufacturing, and the fuel required to ship these hefty little things from their overseas manufacturing, so they can then be packaged up with twice as much filler packaging (to protect the tins so they're not dented in shipping,) put them in a much larger box, and finally, mail them to the end user... who may or may not recycle all of this paper, cardboard, not to mention the tins.

This is the REAL environmental impact. "Recyclable" is only a small and very misleading piece of the entire equation.

Jul 23rd, '10, 19:36
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by hwilsonvt » Jul 23rd, '10, 19:36

Ok..so I got the bag and didnt get a tin. For someone who is used to the tins this is upsetting BUT what is worse is the bags the tea come in is not sealable!!! REALLY, REALLY..ok so you are cheaping out and moving to bags..i can live with that...BUT should the bags be sealable. If I am buying 8oz. to 1lb. of tea I at least deserve it to be sealable. WHY ARE THEY NOT SEALABLE?????? :evil:

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Jul 23rd, '10, 20:48
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by ilya » Jul 23rd, '10, 20:48

hwilsonvt,

Our new packaging does contain a zipper that allows the pouches to be resealable. If you can, please snap a photo of the bags to I can see what happened.

Thanks,
Ilya

Jul 23rd, '10, 21:47
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by hwilsonvt » Jul 23rd, '10, 21:47

Here is a snap of the very pricey DaCong...hope it helps to figure out what is wrong..or maybe I am missing something.
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Jul 23rd, '10, 21:50
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by hwilsonvt » Jul 23rd, '10, 21:50

One more a little closer!!
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Jul 26th, '10, 23:07
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by ilya » Jul 26th, '10, 23:07

Hmmm.... I'm not sure why your bag does not have a zipper. I will check the warehouse tomorrow to see it I can make some sense of it. In the mean time, I'll send you an empty bag so you can transfer your tea.

Sep 7th, '10, 21:24
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by Arundel » Sep 7th, '10, 21:24

I don't like my tea in bags either. Those silly bags don't even store nicely in the cupboard like the tins did. They just fall over and lay there.
I am disappointed with Adagio.

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Sep 9th, '10, 13:37
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by TwoPynts » Sep 9th, '10, 13:37

I can understand bags for smaller quantities, but for 8oz or over, a tin would be nice. All of the bags I've received from Adagio have zippers, but 2 of them simply don't work. I know how to close a resealable bag, so that's not the issue. I had to stuff them in ziplock bags. :x

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Sep 9th, '10, 14:16
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by PamEast » Sep 9th, '10, 14:16

I know I"m in the minority here, but I actually like the bags. I buy a lot of samples and they take up less space than the tins. And the bags themselves seem very well made and air tight.

I had a big crystal bowl from my grandmother collecting dust in the closet. I got it, cleaned it up, and now I store all my tea samples in it. It's pretty and makes it easy to find what I want rather than having them flop around in the cabinet.

I do have a question about all my old sample size tins. I have quite a few that are empty and I would like to use them to send samples to friends. But some of them smell quite strongly of whatever was stored in them (at first I was ordering a lot of flavored teas). I'm afraid if I put a nice, unflavored tea in there, it's going to end up "scented". Is there a way to get the smell out of them?

Pam

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Sep 9th, '10, 14:52
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by laura99 » Sep 9th, '10, 14:52

I agree that the bags are a big improvement over the sample tins. Although those tins look really cute all lined up (my husband made me a special sample shelf in the pantry :)), they are tough to open up.

But the larger bags I agree that I don't trust the zippers at all. Any tea's that were not samples I moved to another bag/tin right away.

Pam - for the smell on your old tins, have you tried the dishwasher? It seems to help a bit. Now I have some that had Roobios Chai in them, no other tea will ever go in those tins :)

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Sep 10th, '10, 06:52
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by PamEast » Sep 10th, '10, 06:52

I did buy some larger tins and an air-tight ceramic cannister set with seals for my larger quantities of tea. The bags are lovely for the samples, but I move them into better storage when I buy more.

I was afraid to wash the sample tins. I thought they might rust or that water would get trapped in the seams and come back to damage the tea. I suppose I could put them in my dehydrator after washing them. I'll give that a try.

Pam

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Sep 10th, '10, 12:20
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by laura99 » Sep 10th, '10, 12:20

I have not actually tried the dishwasher myself, but have washed many by hand. I dry them as well as I can, and wait at least a day before putting in any tea to be sure they are completly dry. Not seen any rusting.

Oct 6th, '10, 08:14
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by denholma » Oct 6th, '10, 08:14

I just received an order of several different teas from Adagio. I had noticed that their order screen no longer listed tins as an option, so I was expecting to get the tea in bags. However, I was expecting some kind of resealable bag and what all but two of my teas came in was tall brown paper bags very much like the bags that ground coffee comes in in the supermarked. There is no way that these bags could be even remotely resealable - I had to cut them open with a scissors to even get at the tea and because the seal went right down to the tea in the package there wasn't even room to staple the bags closed again. I am VERY glad I kept my old tins! One of my honeybush teas actually came in a tin, the large tin that isn't even available to buy. Also, another tea, a blend tea, came in a nice resealable package. But the vast majority were just in paper bags that definitely didn't function well as tea storage. So - basically I am pretty dissapointed in the crappy bags most of my tea came in; I mean it is obvious they have the nice bags or my blend tea wouldn't have come in one so why did all my other teas come in crap bags? And I am also dissapointed that they don't sell the large tins along with the short ones - most of the 3oz teas don't seem to fit well in the short tins - my rooibos would never have fit. I understand that it is probably getting too expensive to ship the tea in a tin all the time, but I would love an option to add a tin to your tea order right on the tea order screen and I would like to see the tall tins available. Also, I think that those crappy brown paper bags need to go away. I thought Adagio was better than that.

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Oct 6th, '10, 18:07
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by ilya » Oct 6th, '10, 18:07

Sorry about the crappy bags. In the transition to our new packaging, the California warehouse was forced to use these temporary non resealable bags. We have completed the transition to the new packaging in the NJ warehouse and hope to do the same in CA in the next 2 months.

Oct 6th, '10, 19:22
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Re: Adagio Tins no more?

by BJones » Oct 6th, '10, 19:22

Are the bags recyclable? I just received an order today, my first with the new packaging and I have mixed feelings about the pouches. The tins were nice because they could be easily stacked on a shelf. I do appreciate that the pouch has a resealable closure. I would appreciate if the labeling was more consistent. One of the bags has the tea name on the label and brewing instructions, another package has the same info but the ingredients. I ordered 4 different types of chai, some packages have an ingredients list and some don't. All of the packages should have an ingredients list.

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