Tazo

Due to some recent financial issues, I’ve decided to drink my way through my current tea stash before buying any more. Today for my before-work tea, I found two lonely Zen tea bags at the bottom of my tea drawer. It had been awhile since I’d drank it. Zen has never been a favourite, but I didn’t remember disliking it either. I decided to do it latte style. I carefully steeped two bags according to my tea steeping app in roughly 3/4th cup of water, and warmed a bit of soy milk on the stove. I then threw the soymilk in my Vitamix for about a minute on high, producing a lovely foam.
I then mixed and sweetened with agave. (I’ve been doing this all week with various types of tea with great success)

Maybe my tastes have changed. Maybe my frequent trips to DavidsTea has put me into a new tea bracket. Or maybe when I wasn’t looking lemony cleaner fell into my mug.

I drank it, it wasn’t horrible. But, I’m definitely glad those were my last two bags.
(Though its quite likely I’ll find more because my one year old recently went through a phase of opening the tea draw and carrying off tea bags)

I find it odd that this does not taste at all of green tea.

Sooo I must just not like apricots that much because I was thinking I’d like this one more for the vanilla factor but it really mainly just tasted like apricots with a creamy flavor. Not a bad tea, but not my favorite. D:
Thanks for the sample though, The Cookie Lady!

I completely stayed away from chai teas when I first started drinking tea regularly, and incorrectly assumed that I would never like them. I’m visiting family, and they offered this tea to me. It’s pretty good for a bagged tea…decent black tea strength, with nice chai spices. It doesn’t overwhelm you with either…or maybe I’ve just become accustomed to strong Assam teas, haha. I had been thinking about giving chai another shot, and this made me want to look for some good ones. I’ll try some Masala chais, some green chais and maybe a rooibos chai next. I’ve finally realized never to say I don’t like a whole huge group of teas, because I’ll most likely change my mind and love them later. :P

Love it! By far my favourite tea with a mint taste!

Quite a spicy one!
When I brewed it for the first time, it tickled my nose.

To be honest, the best thing you can do with this is add a bit of sugar, pop it in some popsicle makers, let it freeze and you got a good, cold summer snack!

When brewed, though, it was a bit too spicy for my tastes. I could barely taste the green tea.

A bit expensive for a tea to make popsicles with, but you could try to replicate the mixture and make a large batch. (luckily, I got it as a gift.)

I am sometimes a mystery to myself? Why, with the tease of spring just around the corner, am I drinking lots of autumnal teas? No idea.
Carry on.

You know, I was skeptical, but I like this. I wondered if I hadn’t built it up in annoyance, but I think its very nice. The squash and the spices blend together very creamily, and its warming without making my tastebuds uncomfortable. Yes, a goodly tea.

At the boyfriends today, trying to play Don’t Starve Together, which is proving a challenge. But I have tea from his well stocked tea bar!
This is actually really good. Creamy, lush feeling. I’m liking it. When I’m allowed to buy teas again, then I might get some of this.
As it stands, though, I need to be on a buying hiatus for a while, in any case.

Extreme black pepper flavor. It’s unpleasant at first but I grew to enjoy it. Certainly not my favorite, but a bright, peppery cuppa has its place.

Enjoying my last bag of this. I need the extra caffeine today, but it’s also got me feeling a bit jittery. I won’t be adding this to my wishlist, but I enjoyed what I had.

I’m so behind with my tea notes lately. I’m still drinking my daily tea, but I haven’t had a chance to add them here. I’ve been preoccupied, mostly with work. I do have a few notes written down so that should help later.

I’m guessing the only reason I have a couple bags of this is because I swiped them from a hotel room at some point. I don’t think I’ve ever actually bought a box of this tea. It’s good though. Not amazing, but I enjoyed it. I think I have one bag left.

This smells simply like strong, black tea. From what I can tell, the tea leaves are small and broken in the bag, but now powdery. It reminds me of the Lipton I normally use to make sweet iced tea.

I got distracted (again!) and let the tea steep too long but it’s still good. It has a slight artificial taste after adding honey and cream, but I think it may be due to over-steeping. It’s even good after cooling off.

This tea is amazing plain, with sugar, or sugar and milk. I love to make a 16 oz cup using two tea bags. Followed by two tablespoons of pure sugar and then filling the rest of the cup with Vitamin D milk and stirring till all sugar is dissolved. So amazing to drink in the morning and such a better alternative to coffee. Chi tea really is a calming yet awakening experience.

So sad this is no longer available at Starbucks. This has been my go to tea latte for years!! And of course being a tea newb back then it never occurred to me that instead of paying $4+ per drink, to just buy the tin and make them myself. The fact that Teavana took over Starbucks recently and swapped out the Tazo tea was the ‘kick in the butt’ I needed to purchase the tin. To be honest I have 3 tins of this at home… Whoops. It was hard to come by so I wanted to stock up!

I’m happy I stocked up as I love this tea! I tried it as just a straight plain tea tonight and it was still delicious (even though I’m used to the latte version). Its got sort of an apple=y taste. Not just straight vanilla but delicious none the less and will always be a favourite. Going to try it as a home made latte next time :)

Another sipdown! This and Calm are the only Tazo teas I’ve found that I would buy again, and because Calm is so close to some versions of CS’ Sleepytime, I generally just buy that one. This, however, I haven’t found a dupe for. The vanilla is surprisingly rich in this, like syrup, and the fruit is subtle but definitely present. The base isn’t overpowering like in some Tazo teas, and while it’s not the best white tea I’ve ever had it’s much better than I would expect for bagged. There’s definitely some hay and honey flavors going on in the background. I would consider buying this again, at least as a tea to travel with—I’m always on the hunt for above-average bagged tea to throw in my travel bag, and this qualifies!

Another surprise! It seems my grocery store has some good options (including some I’d never seen before yesterday, like this one). The white tea in this is actually the strongest flavor, with the sweet hay notes blending into the apricot seamlessly. The fruit is subtle but it enhances the base tea in a great way. The vanilla is more like an aftertaste, and it reminds me of whipped cream on a fruit dessert. Really good, especially for a brand I’d nearly given up on.

This one sounded so good! Something refreshing to drink in the late afternoon or evening. However, I found it very sour. And there was a strange, metallic taste in my mouth after I finished. I didn’t care for it. Even if a friend served this I’d decline. :( Just not my cuppa.

Yay, thanks for including a Tazo in the box, Lala! I seemed to have enjoyed this more than most others, and it was better than I expected. The dry bag smelled like SweeTarts, and the scent of the steeped tea was tart and fruity, with citrus and a touch of mango coming through. As it cooled, the hibiscus intensified and covered up the other flavours, unfortunately. It took me hours to sip on my gigantic cup so it was interesting to see how the flavour profile changed throughout the temperature changes. Would I buy any? No, but it was a fun round.