Tazo
Edit CompanyPopular Teas from Tazo
See All 148 TeasRecent Tasting Notes
My second serving of iced Tazo Refresh for 2014 this afternoon. I almost drank it hot because it was raining out, but then, in defiance of the weather gods, I stubbornly stuck to the iced tea plan.
It occurred to me while imbibing this refreshing brew that Starbucks really is achieving its goal of total global beverage hegemony. I began the day with filter dripped Starbucks coffee. Then I drank Teavana (now owned by Starbucks) Jade Dragon Mao Feng. Then I had a tall Americano with long shots at one of the stores. Then I had a refill of Tazo (also now owned by Starbucks) Refresh!
This Starbucks odyssey was in no way intended by me, but it illustrates how I’ve been sucked into the vortex!
Today was my first iced Tazo Refresh for the summer of 2014. I expect that there will be plenty more of these in the sweltering months to come…
It’s too bad that Starbucks does not offer this on their standard iced tea menu. But that’s okay. All it takes is a tall cup of hot Refresh brewed for five minutes or so (with the lid off, so that it cools down a bit), and a venti cup of ice. Tada!
I actually ordered Tazo Green Tips as my refill at Starbucks this afternoon. I was given Refresh instead. Rather than complain (it was free!), I decided to look at the mistake as a dictate of fate. It had been a while, and yes, it was good.
There is a reason why Refresh is my most logged tea! Or I should say “tea”. Simple yet oh-so-satisfying: tarragon and mint. I do feel a bit better now, having imbibed a venti Refresh after a grueling day of moving challenges.
I feel like Sisyphus. Seriously.
Today’s refill chez Starbucks was Tazo Refresh. It’s been a while, as I have been obsessed of late with their Green Tips. But today I needed something minty fresh after my grande dark roast, so Refresh it had to be! Very satisfying and aromatherapeutic, as always.
I was at a different Starbucks today, the one at Central Square, where all sorts of curious people from all walks of life and socioeconomic strata hang around. It really looks like a completely different city from the Harvard Square crowd. I enjoyed people watching while exploring my new neighborhood, which is poised equidistant between Central and Harvard Squares, which means there are about six Starbucks within walking distance from my new place. I see many more cups of Refresh in my future!
I went to Salem today to check out a couple of possible apartments. Naturally, I had to test out the local Starbucks, plus I was starving, so I ordered a “meal replacement” beverage (with soymilk), and then took a large Tazo Refresh away as a refill. I am pretty sure that this is the perfect post-coffee beverage! Plus it was freezing out, so it kept me warm as I walked across the quaint little town where I may be living in the not-too-distant future. On verra…
One of my favorites, ever! :)
Yes, Refresh. My first refill after a bit of a tussle at SBucks this afternoon. I had scoped out a nice table by a window (need light to read), and there were no people sitting there, and there were no books or papers or computers or any other signs of occupancy beyond an apparently abandoned old cup of cold coffee. Keyword: apparently.
Right after I had dropped the cup in the vertical, an eccentric older woman wearing a purple wool scarf and outdoorish looking togs came over and informed me that I was “obnoxious”.
I said, “Oh, I’m sorry, it was cold, so I thought…”
She thundered back, “It was not cold; it was hot!”
Well, it was not, but who was I to argue with a woman who had brought a styrofoam cup into Starbucks from some other vendor, from who knows how long ago? She rushed off in a huffy, perhaps to take a bird bath in the public restroom on the premises.
After several minutes, she re-emerged, glaring again at me (if looks could kill!), so I chimed up, “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”
It turned out that what she really wanted was a cup containing two pumps of chocolate syrup, water, and ice. I went up to a barista and explained what had happened, and she prepared with alacrity the “custom beverage” for our friend the homeless woman, who upon receipt of her coveted drink was suddenly filled with joy and seemingly infinite gratitude.
Jeez.
Today was a big day for me today: I lost my Teavana store virginity. Yes, I was at the mall and so decided to go pick up an ounce of gyokuro as a reward on my Starbucks card. The Teavana atmosphere was bizarre, to put it mildly. For one thing, it’s not even a place where one can sit down for a cup of tea! Very odd. Instead, it’s a bunch of aggressive sales people trying to sell people tetsubins at $180. Seriously, there must have been eight different people working and swirling about maybe three customers. Really very strange. I probably won’t return any time soon. They tried to sell me some of the Christmas discount tins, but I mentioned that I did my holiday shopping online. What is the point of these stores? Why go to a tea emporium where there is nowhere to sit? Can someone help me out here? We can place orders on the internet, so what is the draw of the instore experience supposed to be—aside from aggressive salespersons attempting to sell overpriced tetsubins?
As you can readily see, I found the experience rather stressful and unpleasant, so I returned to Starbucks for a second refill. Relief is always only a grande Refresh away.
Mine is mostly staffed by old Teaopia people, much more laid back. Avoid eye contact and the won’t try to sell you anything. The turn off for me are the samples the first time I tried it I wanted to spit it out. It was so sweet…it made me nauseous.
yyz: you are right that the samples were all sweetened! Not a great way to showcase the quality of a tea!
Today’s trip to Starbucks began with a tall Americano, long shots, extra hot. Well, that was my intention, anyway. My barista wrote “ristretto” on the cup, because she seemed to think that it means “long”. When I received my order, I discovered that the brew was weak, so I asked the woman who made it what happened and she said that she did what it said: “ristretto”. I said that I had ordered long shots and that in Italian, ristretto means “short”. Eventually I realized that I had to disabuse my original barista of her error, so I confronted her as politely as I could. She was embarrassed, but at least she will never make the same mistake again. Now she knows that long shots in Italian is “lungo” and short shots in is “ristretto”.
In the end, I drank both cups with half and half, but the lungo was about a million times better than the ristretto.
My refill? Refresh, naturally. It was freezing outside, albeit sunny, and there was tons of snow on the ground, so it shone in the sun and lifted my spirits along with the tiny wafts of spearmint and tarragon through the hole in the top of my cup. Refresh remains my number one choice for a refill after a coffee drink at Starbucks. It’s simply good.
Why I went out today is a mystery. The weather was truly antarctic. On the way home I had to grab a hot drink at Starbucks, and I also needed caffeine, so I began with a grande Americano, long shots, extra hot. My refill? Naturally: Tazo Refresh.
Tazo Refresh walked me home, warming my hands, small sips of soothing mint-tarragon trickling down to my tummy, a lovely scent flowing through my nose. By the time I got home, the tea was all gone, and I wasn’t even cold!
My final refill at Starbucks today had to be Tazo Refresh. It’s becoming less and less possible for me to leave the premises of one of these establishments without first imbibing a cup of this tea. Otherwise I somehow don’t feel complete.
No one can accuse me of being dehydrated.
I grabbed a second refill on the way out the door from Starbucks today. So, yes, it was Tazo Refresh. I had actually requested the Vanilla Rooibos, to segue coherently from my afternoon of chai, but somehow the store was out of that blend.
In the end, I think that Refresh was a better choice anyway. The same harmony of spearmint and tarragon as always in the amply filled sachet bag. I’ll probably never tire of this herbal infusion…
My ravings about the wonderful shredded herb-filled Refresh sachets are probably getting old, but I keep going to Starbucks, and I’m trying to keep an accurate tea log of what I consume, so, yes, it happened again: another take-away refill of this yummy infusion.
It’s a pretty consistent experience: very aromatic, very refreshing, very satisyfing. What differs every time is the preceding beverage: what did I buy to be able to walk away with a grande Refresh?
Today it was a grande Americano with long shots and room at the top so that I could slosh in some half-and-half. This was a truly pleasant surprise and a reminder to whom it may concern (read: marketers everywhere!), that labels really do matter.
For years I steered very clear of the Starbucks drink menu item known as “Americano”. What else could it be but some gross sort of Folgers facsimile? I mused to myself. I ask most sincerely: Is not that the sort of coffee for which Americans are notorious? Stale, overcooked on the burner in a Mr. Coffee machine centrally located in the lunch room. Everyone at work drinks it because they are so worn out from the tedium of their job and desperate for caffeine, but the dark syrupy liquid in the bottom of that bulbous carafe equipped with a black plastic L-shaped handle and a silver band around the neck is a veritable crime against coffee—and humanity!
My question: Why in the world did Starbucks decide to call a triple expresso diluted with a bit of hot water an “Americano”? That’s got to be one of their worst calls ever, rivaling even such debacles as withdrawing free soymilk from Rewards card holders—after having conferred it upon them!!!!
I wonder how many other people in the universe have no idea whatsoever that an Americano is actually tastier than the brewed coffee at Starbucks. (Well, usually. On occasion I’ll encounter a near transcendent batch of one of their special or dark roasts, but that’s the exception, not the rule, and I have learned the hard way to ask when the current batch was brewed before ordering a cup. Some stores are much more meticulous about switching out old coffee than others…)
My Americano today was delicious, even as good as a cappuccino. Perhaps even better, except that the foam was missing. But setting aside the texture issue (I love a good foam on top of a hot cappuccino or latte!), the taste was superb. The perfect coffee precedent to a grande cup of Refresh, which I savored throughout the entire duration of my two-mile walk home.
I could be wrong but it got the name Americano from WW2 when the american soldiers would water down their european coffee (espresso) with water to make it more palatable for them and more the strength they were used to.
Thank you for the clarification, Starfevre! I had no idea!
Another trip to Starbucks began with a grande latte—long shots, whole milk, extra foam, extra hot—and predictably culminated in a take-away grande Refresh.
I’ve been reading some complaints about spearmint of late, and I do understand what those reviewers are talking about… However, in this case, tarragon saves the day!
Another trip to Starbucks after the library culminated in a take-away tea refill. I hadn’t eaten anything so first drank a grande latte (whole milk, long shots, extra hot—yeah, I’m one of them…). Then of course my by now predictable refill: full leaf sachet Refresh.
Good as usual—both the scent and the taste. Plus today there was an extra benefit: the hot cup served as a hand warmer while I meandered my way home amidst the sunlit piles of snow.
