Tazo

Sipping on this, trying to wind down on a Sunday evening after an extremely busy weekend. Warm, vanilla, sweet, apple, cinnamon, comfort. Taken with honey.

I picked up a tin of this at Starbucks as I was getting some coffee beans. I am looking for some low/no caffeine teas for evenings (my poor husband was up ALL night the evening we had the Tiger – literally not a wink of sleep!! Me – I’m pretty sure there is actually coffee and tea in my veins, and not blood, and it doesn’t bother me. ANYWAY!).

This was in the new pouches with the full leaf tea – well, as full as rooibos gets – they were like twigs (which is actually fuller than the plain rooibos I have which looks almost like a powder). There were all kinds of bits and pieces of Stuff in there too (the tin tells me licorice root, blackberry leaves, cinnamon, apple pieces, peach pieces, vanilla extract, chamomile flowers). I put a touch of tupelo honey in our cups – maybe half a teaspoon each.

This was really good! The tisane tasted a little like an herbal apple pie to me, crust and all :) I did a resteep at 6 minutes and it was a little watery- I would try it at perhaps 8 minutes. It was a real treat.

It’s a little expensive (a little over .46 an 8 oz serving if you don’t resteep) but really nice. Good job Tazo and Starbucks! I would definitely repurchase and now I’m curious about the other full leaf offerings! If you’ve had one you enjoyed, do tell!

Hubby and I had these while shopping at our local Target. I tried mine with no water, and it was quite creamy. I think it’s much more spicy when it has water added. I think I’ll keep drinking it that way. Or just keep drinking my full leaf bags at home with a splash of cream and a packet of splenda. I haven’t found a loose chai blend I like better than their full leaf yet. I’ve tried a few, just haven’t tried Rishi or Samovar’s yet.

Had a coupon for a free drink at Starbucks so I opted for this. I do like the Tazo chai tea bags with milk, but this is too sweet for my liking. It does have strong cardamom and pepper with cinnamon, which I like. I really need to find some loose leaf chai to try, there are so many options out there, where does one start?

We stopped at a Starbucks for this one. Its not a bad tea, but its nothing to write home about either. It was bold and brisk and wasn’t bitter. It will wake you up. The tea bags are huge.

This tea was much improved by controling my temperature and brew time at home.

1 teabag to 16oz water @ 170F for 7 minutes.

This tea has such a great aroma, getting such a strong cranberry (tart) and a softer calmer berry aroma.

The taste is much richer this time, still a white tea, but more fruity notes to it. Much improved on the cardboard water taste of my last brew attempt.

I tried this tea at lunch today.

Used hot (nearly boiling) water from the water spigot at work.
Steeped 1.5 minutes
Liquor was a pretty cinnamon bark brown, darker than I thought white tea would get, maybe from the berries?

I think the temperature of the water really hurt this brew of tea. At first sniff I didn’t smell anything but a very faint berry. First sips while still very hot tasted like infused cardboard. After cooling down for a few minutes I noticed a bit more of the berry, but not really any tea flavor. Quite a bit of cardboard like aftertaste.

I’ll give it another shot with a much cooler controlled temp, but first taste this was awful!

Had this tea with hot water from the water spigot at work. Let it steep in a paper cup the whole drive home while sipping throughout.

This tea smells great: ripe red apples with a bit of floral undertone (not sure where the floral is coming from, maybe part of the apple?). I didn’t taste much apple, but I did taste a very creamy (the roobios?) with spice (cinnamon) that got stronger the longer I kept the teabag in.

I really thought I’d love this tea after sniffing it, but it tasted different then it smelled. I don’t know what it was about this I didn’t like, but it kept turning up a floral note in my taste buds that just didn’t sit right.

I’ll try again soon with a smaller cup and steep time I can control.

Finished my tin of the full leaf “sachets” of this today. Strong, brisk, and about how I remembered it from the first note I wrote. Pretty consistent in that respect, at least when brewed at home. A bit smoother when brewed for only 3 minutes. Will I buy again? Probably not, as I expect there are better breakfast blends out there.

I had the full leaf bag version and I brewed it in my huge Wedgwood Shakespeare/Stratford-on-Avon 1964 anniversary commemorative mug so I used two bags. Mine didn’t come out bitter, luckily.

To me, it’s similar in aroma and taste to Twining’s English Breakfast, but stronger, maltier and with some bite to it that hit me right in the back of the tongue and at the throat. The taste notes are somewhat easier to taste individually than in the Twinings, which may mean the Twinings blend is more successful as a blend, though no single taste seems to me to predominate in Awake. I do taste the caramel, and like the Twinings, the finish is tasty — malty and sweet.

Made a pitcher of this iced using my electric iced tea maker. Used six bags and got some rather potent green tea. I need to add more ice or less tea next time as it is quite strong, but I love the lemongrass taste with a hint of mint. Very refreshing.

Pretty darn good for a bagged tea. As soon as you take it out of its paper pillow the lemongrass/spearmint hits your nose. Luckily it tastes as good as it smells. One of the better bagged greens.

Not too sweet, which is a nice change from the other bagged chai I’ve been drinking lately.

Had Starbucks’ shaken variety today with 2 pumps of sweetener (when the barista asked me if I’d like any sweetener, I replied “Just a little, please,” in which she responded “Normally we put 4 pumps.” I figured “just a little” should translate into half that)… It was pleasant; not too sweet nor fruity, with a slightly tangy aftertaste.

I’m not too big on the tartness of this one, but maybe I should PUMP IT UP four times over with sweetener like the barista recommended next time to adjust it more to my liking. I’ve had several friends order it mixed with lemonade, so that’s yet another version I’ll have to try. Expect more tasting notes from me on Tazo’s Passion [Shaken] Iced Tea in the future!

Seems a bit blah today, but it’s nice and warm drink for a rainy day.

I found this tea really pleasing. It was exactly like apple cider, but with less sweetness. The tea itself isn’t tart, but it isn’t too sweet either. I found it to be exactly as described apple-cinnamon, with notes of caramel. I really enjoyed it, but I think it would be perfect for a fall evening.

Pretty good iced tea. The quality is really dependent on how much sweetener the barista adds.

It is a nice change of flavour to consider if the iced green tea is to tart for you.