We establish a characterization of adequate knots in terms of the degree of their colored Jones polynomial. We show that, assuming the Strong Slope conjecture, our characterization can be reformulated in terms of "Jones slopes" of knots and the essential surfaces that realize the slopes. For alternating knots the reformulated characterization follows by recent work of J. Greene and J. Howie.2010 Mathematics Classification: 57N10, 57M25.