Tazo

Was out of town this weekend gallivanting around Boston. So, I had this at Starbucks a few times. With a bit of sugar and soymilk, it got the job done of waking me up. Not something I’d buy to have at home, but when Starbucks is your only option, this will do.

I find this tea so relaxing. The chamomile is effective, but the taste isn’t overly present. I know not everyone likes the taste of chamomile. I enjoy the rose flavor that comes out after brewing and thankfully I don’t taste the licorice at all. This is a great tea for bedtime – I love to curl up with a book & a mug. In fact, that sounds really nice…

I like this tea! It really gives me a kickstart. The blend of tea works well and I like drinking it plain or with dairy. If you need some caffeine give it a try. It’s good with coconut milk. Hopefully it gets me going this morning.

This has been my fallback tea for years, but lately it’s been tasting flat to me. I love the lemongrass, though. It’s definitely time to try new things!

I did not love this tea. It was overpowering!

since converting to loose leaf tea it is a rare thing that i drink tea steeped from tea bags anymore, but this tea is the exception. tazo can be a bit hit or miss… their earl grey does not have my loyalty, but this unexpected modern asian fusion is quite brilliant.

this tea has lemon, mint and green tea as the chief tonal contributers, and somehow it all works very well.

i add sugar and nothing else. the bags also make a very nice second and third cup, so it’s money well spent.

This has a pleasantly subdued mint flavor; it’s not a strong mint tea. The flavor notes beyond the mint are what subdued, but they’re not clearly discernible to me. It’s a stretch to find the cocoa peel flavor, though it’s there in the fragrance and in the roundness of the flavor, but this isn’t a tea I’d reach for if I were looking for chocolate/cocoa, itself. The mate, meanwhile, is muted by the mint but it’s there.

Overall it’s a nice smooth tea and it could definitely grow on you if, like me, you’re not big on the brightness of mint tea, or if you enjoy bright mint teas but are looking for a little change-up of more complex, rounded flavor.

Looking forward to trying this iced this summer.

When the word “refreshing” is used, I more often than not consider the lexicon to be misguided. I think of lime, citrus, vibrant and breezy flavors of tropical fruits. There. That sounded refreshing, didn’t it? The reason I bring this up is because I have recently heard others around me describe green teas as refreshing. True, there are particular greens out there that I can see how their vegetal, herbal, grassiness can lead one to consider the word applicable. But green tea, for me, signifies a more relaxed, calm, mellowness rather than what I described above. I don’t think green tea should not be thought of as crisp and clear, airy or fleeting. It should be warm, easy-going, kind of like that moment a certain someone across the room (who you’ve noticed here before) sits and drinks their coffee, writing small notes on pieces of paper next to their laptop, their mouth moving slowly as they silently read to themselves until they notice you back and smile out of the corner of their mouth as they look back to their notes. That’s what a green tea should feel like. A smile from across the room.

This tea has a smooth, “baked” flavor, as said on the side of the box. I don’t know if that’s because of the processing or because its organic but I like it for a bagged tea. A lot. Not creamy but soft, like the aftertaste of a artisan cracker or bread. It tastes like a summer afternoon: I hear birds chirping through the trees, the smells of fresh mulch and thick grass drifting through the air. The sun laying on your skin like a well-loved blanket. Kids laughing and yelling in the distance. All that from the cup. From a bagged tea, no less.

Bravo, Tazo. Peaceful, open, and calm, this tea is. The most mellow green I’ve had in a long time is the perfect way to get prepared for summer or to get someone into tea.

Refreshing, no? ;)

Look at that description. Doesn’t that look inviting? Vanilla, apple, cinnamon: it sure sounds delicious. And clearly, other people think it is. Not me. I used to think I hated Rooibos until I realized that all the Rooibos I’d ever tasted came from Tazo. They add licorice root which gives it this nasty, artificially-sweetened bite which I detest. Are you getting the picture here? This tea made me weep with sorrow. I left it in the breakroom at work and hopefully it is treating its new owner better.

Picked this one up at the Starbucks where I stopped to pick up some lunch. I was already in the area and I didn’t want to have to drive somewhere else so I thought I might as well grab a panini at Starbucks. I couldn’t decide on a drink and I felt like the barista was waiting for my reply so I impulsively grabbed this from the cooler.

This was pretty good. At first I had assumed I was drinking a very sweet black tea until I read the label. Its green tea with apple and peach juice. I could definitely taste the apples and peaches. I could taste the green tea underneath the apple and peach flavour, but only after I read the label. So it may have just been the power of suggestion! Overall it was good, but a little too sweet. I felt a bit cheated after I found out there was juice in it, but I guess that is better than a load of artificial flavour and sugar. Although, I am sure that is all the juice is made of anyway.

I wish I really would have asked them to make me a fresh iced tea instead. Not sure why I choked when she asked me what I wanted. There’s always next time.

This is one of my go-to teas. My husband works for Starbucks, so we almost always have it in the house. I drink my tea English-style, milk and sugar, and that works very well in this tea. And it does wake you up, as the name implies. It’s pretty much an English Breakfast blend (which they’re subtitling it now).

So I went laser tagging with my work friends last night, the first time I played since those elementary school birthday parties from a million years ago. :) I had tons of fun, but now my throat hurts from screaming too much. DX; So I thought I’d give this tea a go on my break.

I didn’t realize this had hibiscus so I oversteeped it. It’s a really dark color now and I can’t really taste the chamomile anymore. It’s still fairly sweet though naturally, the cool mint feels good on my throat. I agree with others who said this was a bit on the busy side. I kinda just wanted the chamomile. Overall it’s okay, but I couldn’t be bothered to bring a tin home even though it’d be free.

It’s SO good. It tastes like really good, flavorful fruit juice pretty much. You’d think there would be sugars or artificial sweeteners, but nope. It’s pure herbs and dried fruits. I just ordered another 4oz of this in loose leaf form.

I am ordinarily a black tea with cream and sugar drinker. I will occasionally drink green tea with honey but I’m not in love with it. When I tried this, I thought I would only drink it occasionally. I am obsessed. It is very clean and refreshing tasting. I leave the tea bag in and drink it plain (sometimes a half a scoop of sugar). It has a very subtle flavor and would be phenomonal on a warm summer night.

This smells horrible, BUT it tastes okay and knocked me out last night so it did it’s job. Definitely wouldn’t drink this just to enjoy it. I’ll finish up the box but then I’m off to find a more tasty tea with valerian.

Kaliskaa and I found this with the coffee in our hotel room a couple weeks ago, and I decided I should finally give this a try. After all, Tazo’s Earl Grey, Zen, and Organic Apple Red are pretty good, in my opinion. I had been sort of avoiding this one for the past, oh, ten years or so.

But anyway, there sure is a lot going on in this herbal blend. It smells like straight up Robitussin. I’m assuming that’s from the sarsaparilla and licorice root. Also, what exactly are the “natural flavors” it lists? Not impressed. I was really hoping this was just going to be something light and chamomiley.

When steeped, the chamomile flavor does actually come out both in the scent and taste. Oddly, it goes really well with the sarsaparilla. Despite the cacophony of herbal ingredients, it comes out smoother than I expected. The licorice root and mint are most noticeable at the end, leaving a sort of cooling sensation in my mouth. The licorice isn’t overwhelming like I’ve had in a lot of herbal blends. (I’m looking at you, Yogi Teas!) It makes a strange, vanilla-like taste that I’m actually liking. I thought this tea was going to be a medicinal punishment, but it’s actually pretty pleasant.

(There are two versions of this tea: bagged and loose. This is for the bagged)

I don’t get all the hate for this tea.

I find all the characteristics of a green that I want out of it, even though its not as remarkable as some of the others I have in my cupboard. There’s a calm and dark yellow, slightly muddled green color to the brew that isn’t gross-looking or questionable. It looks mediocre and I’m okay with that. I get that slight “tint”, or “spark” that I get with really good green teas but not as powerful. You know that thing I’m talking about, its almost like you touched your tongue to a battery but not as intense. Its not grassy but theres something vegetal and calm about it. Its nice. Its out of a bag. So what.

I think this is a pretty good tea for what it is, which apparently, based on other reviews and opinions, isn’t much. Oh well.

very bitter taste.. didn’t even steep long and was very strong

Being on the run constantly this week, I naturally forgot my tea mug at home this morning, so to Starbucks I went.

Honestly I picked Zen out today just because I definitely needed that word in my life right now. I’ve had it before and think it’s decent.

It’s not a very strong green tea taste. Without looking at the ingredients I could tell that there was spearmint and lemon verbena in this. The actual tea is very background, so it’s more of a lemony mint taste on a light green taste. A good cup if you want something refreshing and calm.