Tazo

I’ve decided that I like this better than Harney and Son’s Peppermint tea.

This tea isn’t earth-shattering, but it’s a staple in my cabinet and my opinion of it is still good. It’s gotten me through many a headache, and the smell of it is soothing to me because of that. I honestly think it’s a good chamomile blend, because the chamomile mixes with the other flavors rather than covering it like other blends I’ve had. The mint, lemongrass, and rose are present without being overwhelming, and the other ingredients aren’t too obvious to me but they make it a smooth cup. I might rebuy this when it’s gone, which I don’t think I can say with any of the other herbals I started out with.

I had a Tazo Chai at Starbucks today. I brewed it strong—two generously filled sachets in a venti cup—then added four packets of honey and some soymilk.

Based on several experiences with different brews, I think that I don’t really like to use soymilk in place of cream in tea—it’s too watery for me. But the blend of teas and spices in this chai was pretty good. I’ll use half and half next time…

I worked at Starbucks (I mean my work on my computer while sitting in the café) this afternoon, so once again I chose as a refill the sachet form of the Tazo Chai to follow up my Chocolate Chai Tea Latte.

The brewed chai was not quite as good today because I did not request honey and instead decided to try it with the raw turbinado sugar. It was not bad, but it was not as good as my last experience—yesterday! I’ll remember this next time. Honey will be first choice for sweetener in Tazo Chai from now on.

For my refill at Starbucks today, I opted for the full-leaf Tazo chai, because it matched my original beverage (a chocolate chai latte).

This cup of chai was good. I let it steep for several minutes and sweetened it with honey and also added half and half. That’s my preferred way of imbibing chai, the only tea blend which I prefer with both cream and sweetener.

Today’s cup was spicy and sweet and creamy, but also had enough black tea base to taste through the chai spices. I believe that the base is the same tea as is used in Tazo Awake. In some of the earlier iterations of loose-leaf Tazo Chai, the spices overwhelmed the black tea. I used to brew it along with an extra bag of Awake to compensate. Not a problem with this full-leaf version.

A good chai!

Meh. This tea seems very strong for some reason… it almost tastes bitter compared to other earl greys I’ve had. I don’t really drink earl grey to begin with.

Leaves an unpleasant aftertaste as well, I avoid this tea

i think this is an excellent, high quality green tea. definitely vegetal…i mainly get a grass note from this (like a faded, sun-dried grass note, not fresh grass), but if i think about it, i do suppose string beans also come to mind! people are so creative (or highly sensorially gifted) when it comes to descriptions on here, that i’m starting to think a little meditation is in order before one sips a cup, so as to prime their senses properly! as with tea, one must give their brain a good rinse before steeping! ;)

this tea has been a favorite green of mine for many months now, whenever i visit Starbucks. so if i’m not in the mood for my usual black/sweet teas with milk & sugar, i can just as easily savor a cup of this in all its simplicity.

i’m on the fence too, about which green i’m liking most: Tazo’s Lotus Blossom or Stash’s Organic green (with a bag of Pukka’s Detox- read: fennel, rye bread- thrown in for savory delight!) they’re all so different and yet so lovely.

my 3 minute 2 icecube rule worked on this just fine, as it has with all my other green teas…so far. but this tea gets bitter very fast & i have had many burnt cups at Starbucks because they indiscriminately pour scalding hot water over the leaves. then again their specialty is coffee, not tea. if this were Teavana, they’d dump you down the drain (along with your cup) if you steeped Gyokuro Imperial for longer than 45 seconds!

ETA: i’m not happy with the rating i gave this because i think it’s better than a 76 (it’s at least an 80), but face-wise i’m just a little over smiley.

Do I really love Tazo Rest more than Pukka Love? It probably depends on my mood. This blend is much sweeter and exceptionally (for nighttime brews) contains zero chamomile, zero mint, zero rooibos, zero hibiscus, and zero lemon grass!

This is really a very original tisane, and I am sorry to say that this appears to have been my last bag. All the more since the demise of Tazo appears to be imminent. Even if they keep some of the white envelope filter bags in grocery stores, the Tazo Collection of loose leaf teas is no longer available anywhere, and I learned today that even the sachets in Starbucks stores are being taken away! This is a mild cause for mourning. (Il ne faut pas trop exagérer…)

rose petals falling
lavender geranium
calling me to sleep

Flower power continues tonight chez sherapop with Tazo Rest. I’m approaching the depletion of my supply of these filter bags and do not know whether it will be possible to restock, given that the company is apparently awaiting a death knell to be delivered by my favorite global beverage hegemon, but I’d consider replenishing for sure because the blend is truly unique among contending bedtime brews.

Sugary rose petals in a viscous golden liquor. I realize that may sound outlandish (if not repulsive), but I’m not imagining the viscosity, as I espied small particles of what look like very fine gelatin in the bottom of the glass!

I ended up drinking two servings tonight, so hopefully this will put me over the top for a long and deep sleep. I’m aiming for ten hours!!!!!

Make it happen, Tazo Rest!!!!!!!!
[stage instructions: to be articulated in my best Godfather voice]

I decided to close the Starbucks circle tonight by imbibing Tazo Rest as my bedtime brew. I’m still a bit disturbed by the imminent demise of this company (Tazo). I recall how happy I was to discover them some years back, as I recognized that they produced much more vibrant and tasty brews than Stash (which was my go-to company for filter bags for a while) and Celestial Seasonings (which was a standby superseded by my discovery of Stash).

Rest deserves to live on in some incarnation or another, though it will doubtless be renamed and marketed under the Teavana name. Roses and lemon balm in a sweet blend reminiscent of perfume? I say: Yes!

Thank goodness I finally located the bag in which easy-to-prepare nighttime infusions were stowed during my chaotic and stressful move of last month! I’ve been coveting Tazo Rest for a while, so I brewed some up to remind myself why and because I could use another good night’s rest!

It’s funny that one reviewer complains that this tisane tastes like perfume. It does! But that is precisely why I like it! It’s a completely unique sweet rose perfume with a thicker texture—presumably imparted by the licorice root and the lemon balm—but there are so many yummy floral flavors here as well, including both geranium and lavender, along with the major floral note of rose.

This is one of the few Tazo filterbags in the new light envelopes which I am definitely going to miss. I assume that Starbucks is phasing out the whole line because they now call the brewed iced teas in the store Teavana iced teas, even though we all know that they are still Passion, Zen, and Awake. Alas, something went horribly awry with the management, it seems. To be honest, I even suspect a conspiracy.

First the formulas of the filter bags were changed so that everyone who had grown to love the original Tazo became disgruntled. Then they introduced the new sachet format, which was much better but too expensive for most filter bag customers. Now it appears that the surviving Tazo products will be rebranded as Teavana. I checked online, and most of the loose teas are no longer even available at the Starbucks site. (Thank goodness I had the foresight to order two bags of Golden Monkey before it was terminated—with extreme prejudice!)

How in the world could the aggressive, obnoxious Teavana sales team and the artificially flavored, overly sweetened and grossly overpriced blends being pushed by them—in stores where it’s not even possible to sit down!—have prevailed in the Tazo vs. Teavana duel, if not because Tazo was infiltrated by spies from the enemy side? I ask most sincerely.

Hoping to get some quality rest tonight, I decided to imbibe a cup of Tazo Rest before retiring. Sweet rose petals are somehow so soothing…

Tonight’s cup of Tazo Rest seemed sweeter than usual. Perhaps because I drank it right after a straight chamomile soliflore?

I can barely keep my eyes open. I credit this partially to Tazo Rest. Good old-fashioned fatigue probably has something to do with it too…

I really do like this even while agreeing with a naysayer that it does taste like sweet perfume!

Tonight I am wearing Creed Fleurs de Bulgarie, so I figured why not drink some rose petals as well? Plus I desperately need a good night’s REST. Let’s hope that this helps. It certainly tastes good and comforting, in addition to having the aesthetic virtue of matching my perfume.

I’m downing two cups and then hitting the pillow. Bonne nuit!

Roses are red,
Valerian is blue,
I’m drinking perfume,
Wishing sweet dreams to you!

I am chuckling at the wide range of opinions about this Tazo blend. Rest really does taste like very lightly sugar-coated rose petals. A perfume tisane!

Whether that is a good thing or not is obviously open to debate…

I am plowing through my box of Tazo Rest filter bags in record time. It’s the first valerian blend I’ve ever encountered in which the valerian has been effectively camouflaged. The powerful herb is detectable in the dry tea bag, but one must make an effort to find it amidst everything else. The other valerian teas familiar to me required even air-tight, foil-wrapped bags to be stored in quarantine away from the rest of my stash. Rather like asafoetida in its intensity (though it’s a completely different scent).

I believe that this masterful concoction has been helping me to sleep recently as I contend with a variety of plots so surreal that they would probably be rejected by film goers as too implausible. My fascinating life. Thank goodness for tea.

Bonne nuit.

Bonne nuit. Vraiment.

One reviewer complained that Tazo Rest smells like some sort of perfume. I have to say that I agree. But to me that’s a good thing: I’ll take rose petals in my tea any day!