Tazo

Tea from postcrossing THANK YOU envelope 4/6.

This tea sojunds amazing while you read
An exuberant herbal infusion of hibiscus, orange peel rose hips and passion fruit flavors

But I noticed that herbal part and not fruit one. Rose hips and hibiscus, combined with raspberry, blueberry and blackberry flavours? That’s this tea I think. Even when I knew it should have passion fruit flavour, I wasn’t feeling it at all!

Blah.

Postcrossing THANK YOU envelope 2/6

Well, this tea I drank today morning and wasn’t much impressed as well. It’s not terrible, but somehow it reminds me Lipton Yellow Label. Tannic juice of tea, without any off notes but as well without any notes on point. It was just tannic black tea, maybe hints of malt — but I am missing malt, raisins, earthy flavour profile.

Shortened steeping time to half (2.5 minute).

Not impressed.

Cold brew.

Light peach flavor, but the green tea is surprisingly good. Vegetal with a bit of a sweet pea note. The peach flavor might be stronger is sweetener is added, but I like it sans additions. I’ll keep cold brewing this, but I’m curious to see how it performs hot, too.

Work tea #2.

When I know we’re going to have an influx of patients I’ll often throw an herbal tea bag into my cup. I don’t have to worry about overstepping, and I’ll still have something warm to sip once things calm down (my office is freezing!). Today it was this, and I liked it.

The apple flavor is mild. In fact, it taste a bit like slightly watered down apple juice. The sarsaparilla flavor came across more like caramel. So the end result was caramel apple tea, heavy on the caramel. I’m not sad about it, and I’m sure I’ll drink it again in the near future.

My iced chai of last resort, usually out of laziness to brew something and wait for it to cool. I find myself adding more of the concentrate than the box recommends, otherwise the milk overpowers the tea. The spice is mild.

This tea is extremely strong, in terms of the citrus flavor. The name is accurate— the orange in this is pretty wild! The tea is fairly sweet, rather than tart. I am not a fan of this as a hot tea, but it is ok when cold-brewed and sipped cold on a warm day. It does have almost a cleaner-like taste to it, probably because the citrus is so overpowering. There is also a somewhat bitter aftertaste, almost like what you would get if you bit into an orange peel.

An Ode to Tea challenge #2– B

additional notes:  Time to sip this one down!  Haven’t tried many Tazo because I expect them to be bad, but this one was quite good.  The flavor on the second teabag seemed a bit less spectacular, so not sure if this tea ages well.  But the first teabag was much better.
2021 sipdowns:  91

Thanks again for the swap, AJRimmer!  This was intriguing despite being from Tazo… but it’s less disappointing than I expected it would be.  I’ve never had what you might call a butterscotch blondie but this is certainly a sweet tea and tastes something like butterscotch or brown sugar with a different layer of flavor from the seemingly misplaced chicory root.  Why might that be in a dessert?  The other flavors fit though.  It’s sweet, it’s black tea.  The second steep was weaker in the tea itself but still some sweetness.   I also drank some of derk’s What-Cha Four Seasons oolong but I have no idea what is going on with me and oolongs lately… they just taste like OOLONG to me and I’m tasting no specifics… so I don’t want to write a note for that one yet…
Steep #1  // 1 teabag for full mug // 18 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // 4 minutes after boiling //  3 minute steep

Even though their tea bags look just like everyone else’s (meaning Bigelow, Twinings, etc.) I find that Tazo seems to have the best flavor! When I’m on the road and don’t want to fuss with loose-leaf tea, this is one of my go-tos…a well-balanced, smooth Earl Grey that takes milk well and isn’t fussy if the water temperature isn’t quite right.

Adequate – it was robust enough and flavorful, but not special or outstanding.

For the record, I do enjoy hibiscus though not often. It has a good body for a tisane and is full-flavored but something about the flavor seems unnatural to me… like Hawaiian Punch. My tongue didn’t even register the licorice besides appearing in the mouthfeel.

First cup of tea this morning, enjoyed on my way to work out of a classic red white and blue enamel mug.

This a medium-bodied, straightforward tea. It’s rare that I would add sweetener to a tea but this one begs for it, being named after a baked dessert treat. Looking forward to trying it with a kiss of sugar as I work my way through the box.

Notes are light fruit on the nose, a pleasant sweetness, and if you think hard about it a little bit of shortening which seems like pie crust. The body is pure black tea, as expected. There is some tannin on the finish which lingers, alongside the persistent fruit. I actually don’t get a lot of cinnamon, as some other reviewers did. Which is good, nothing to take away from the mild fruity notes.

It’s a pleasant tea, not overdone. I would drink it again (and will since I got a box for free!)
The Caffeine is present, making this a great morning or afternoon pick me up that takes well to milk or sugar.

March 25 2020 Just tried a box of OLD Stock, Produced 4/11/2028 expires 4/2020
Good Cup warm and Sweet a Tazo Original

Tazo! What the devil! If they ever reformulate this to omit or substantially reduce the citric acid, we’ll talk again, but for now I’ve got to condemn this. What a baffling choice to include that stuff. There’s hints of genuine sweet and bitter citrus notes, and this smells like orange zest, but it tastes like someone found a way to re-purpose the sour ‘sand’ that inevitably falls off of sour fruit gummies and collects in the corners of the bags.