Tazo

Another satisfying post-coffee Refresh experience for me at Starbucks today. I started with a mocha, and then followed it up with a Refresh as my free refill. I seem to be the only person who takes advantage of the free refill program. It’s really wonderful for writers, since you can spend the whole day there drinking their whole leaf sachet tea!

While walking home with my venti cup steeping two beautiful bags of this fragrant mélange of spearmint and tarragon, I kept sniffing the opening of the lid, and I realized that I find this scent aromatherapeutic. I always feel better after I drink it, but I love smelling it, too.

Since Starbucks expanded their refill policy to allow switching over from coffee to tea, I have been enjoying a nice cup of whole-leaf sachet Refresh nearly every time I go there for long enough to sit down through a coffee or latte or cappuccino. Today I had a venti cappuccino with long shots and whole milk extra hot. (I had not eaten a single bite of anything, so I needed some calories along with my mid-day recaffeination.) Very satisfying. Then I returned to my barista for a “refill” (they give you a new cup) of Refresh to take with me. (I should say that these free refills are available when one pays with a Starbucks card…)

As usual, it was an excellent follow-up to coffee, which as you may know dehydrates the body. The flavor combination of spearmint and tarragon is perfect. That may sound weird, but it works well and has the extra added benefit (beyond rehydration) of eliminating any traces of coffee breath. So a little personal hygiene tip for those who do not tote toothbrushes around with them.

I love this tea, especially in these whole leaf sachets. For what it is (an herbal infusion), it’s great. My rating is compared to all other mint-centric herbal infusions, not to the Platonic Form of Tea, since there is no tea in this blend.

I was going to start a new profile for Tazo Calm in the sachet, since it is so much better than the filter bags, but then I figured: why bother? It’s being discontinued! In fact, it has already disappeared from the Starbucks stores, soon to be replaced by God knows what from Teavana. Do they even have a chamomile blend? Or anything approaching this:

Chamomile flowers, blackberry leaves, lemongrass, rose petals, spearmint leaves, lemon balm leaf, hibiscus flowers, lavender flowers, marigold flowers

Those are the ingredients for the sachet, not the filter bag. Note the absence of chunks o’ food (ubiquitous in the Teavana herbal blends…).

Well, I’ll enjoy my remaining sachets of Calm as I did last night. The array of petals is quite beautiful, and the taste is satisfying and calming. There is just a touch of lavender and more chamomile than lemon grass, so I do like this blend. It’s too bad that the marketing of Tazo teas was handled so egregiously by its new overlord. Mistakes were made—to put it mildly. Another casualty in the the corporate conglomeratization of the world.

My rating for the sachet: 75. My rating for the filter bag in the light envelope: 52.

red silk scarves flutter
muffle yellow microphone
blue sea silent night

I used the sachet version. It’s good. My high rating holds.

Naturally after having convinced myself that Mighty Leaf Chamomile Citrus was very similar to the Tazo Calm sachet, I had to make sure.

To my surprise, I found that the Tazo is much more about chamomile—or at least this sachet was! The liquor was initially the lovely bright yellow characteristic of chamomile. Then it grew darker until the hibiscus had basically covered the color of the chamomile. However, to my pleasant surprise, the overall taste experience was more about chamomile than about either lemongrass or spearmint, both of which sometimes seem too strong in this blend. Nor was the hibiscus overwhelming.

In the end, I concluded that the Tazo Calm sachet is better than the Mighty Leaf. This was not exactly a steep-off, because I did not compare them side-by-side but in succession. Still, I feel that there was a significant enough difference to be able to say that I prefer the Tazo. I hasten to add, however, that I have noticed that the contents of the Tazo Calm sachets seem to vary from batch to batch. Occasionally the lemongrass and hibiscus are too strong.

Perhaps the reason why I preferred this blend over the Mighty Leaf Chamomile Citrus was simply because I had taken a rose and chamomile-scented bath. Roses are a part of the Tazo blend, but not the Mighty Leaf.

I enjoyed a late afternoon venti Tazo Calm prepared with two sachets at Starbucks. I carried it with me as walked home in unseasonably cold weather (what’s new?). I have to say that it did seem to calm my frazzled nerves a bit. I went to the doctor today because I woke up with a killer backache—perhaps I should not be carrying boxes of books down two flights of stairs? Just a hunch. Anyway, I’m now armed with painkillers, in addition to tea…

I forgot to log my two cups of sachet Tazo Calm yesterday. The lemongrass was more marked than usual because I left it to steep while I ran about town. It was still good.

It is rare for me to drink a chamomile blend before noon, but it happened today. I do believe that this brew may have calmed my frazzled nerves to some extent. Well, to a degree. The latest hilarious finding in my seemingly interminable quest for a new apartment featured this amazing phrase:

“A clothing optional atmosphere is hoped for when circumstance and weather permit.”

No, I am not joking.

I have encountered a variety of people who refuse to provide the address to the place which they are ostensibly attempting to rent. I have encountered people who agree to send the keys so that I can see the property—but only after I mail them a check to the U.K. I have been sent pictures of properties which look like images from postcards of historical buildings. I have been asked to meet men with only first names at intersections at 7 pm.

Miranda Barbour & Co., anyone?

Like I was saying: chamomile is de rigueur under the circumstances—which do not, incidentally, permit of a “clothing optional atmosphere”!!!!

Tonight’s MI5 brew was Tazo Calm from the sachets. Season 3, episode 3.
Keep calm; carry on. Drink the sachet version of this blend, if you can, because it’s much, much better than the filter bag.