Tazo

It’s 3 in the morning and I am mildly lactose intolerant, so I have no clue why I am drinking something with both milk and caffeine. Well, I do know—I saw it in the fridge, realized I hadn’t opened it yet, and some part of my brain though “oh awesome, let’s have this instead of water!” Thanks, brain.

This is one of my guilty pleasures. Yes, it’s not “real” chai by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s so delicious! You can taste the spices for sure, though the tea taste is a little lost under all that sugar. But hey, who cares! It’s tasty, and I really consider this more of a “specialty drink” than actual tea.

really love this iced

It’s pretty nice with a hint of mint.

Last year, I never went into the cafeteria… It was too loud and too noisy, and I never really liked the people I’d end up sitting with. Instead, I went to my locker in the back hallway of the English department with a friend or two or by myself, and I had a tea stash in my locker. This is one of the ones I drank a lot, and I had a cup of it today… flashback!

It’s a a light green, with little grassy notes. It’s not remarkable. It’s not anything that I haven’t tried before. It’s not as good as the China Green that I’ve been getting lately. All in all, meh. It’s one of the better teas offered at Starbucks, but I won’t buy it for home.

My Starbucks was all out of the China Green I usually get when I’m there, so I decided to try something new. I was under the impression that this was a mint green; but I found out when I tasted it that it definitely was not. First whiff: the sharp, cold smell of peppermint. My Starbucks has the full-leaf satchets, and the leaf pieces were small but uniformly cut, bright green and very fragrant.

Brew: mid-range, green/brown, very warm.

Taste: the peppermint hits first, and then there’s the licorice flavor from the tarragon, and then its followed by the coolness of the mint.

I really don’t like licorice – it just upsets m stomach. It was palatable when hot, but as it cooled, the licorice flavor became much stronger and I couldn’t finish the cup. I won’t be trying it again, I don’t think, but at least I tried it.

Tastes like chamomile. I like the almost-fruity note that I assume is the rose and hibiscus, but it’s barely there.

This is probably better if you like chamomile.

It does taste kinda like cucumber and a hint of lime. It’s not bad but I prefer cucumber water instead.

This is quite a bitter (but also weak) tea. I love Tazo normally, but this isn’t one of my favorites. It needs a lot of sugar to taste good, and milk doesn’t cut down the bitterness like it usually does for me. Cucumber White isn’t the worst tea in the world, but it’s not the best either.

This is quite a bitter (but also weak) tea. I love Tazo normally, but this isn’t one of my favorites. It needs a lot of sugar to taste good, and milk doesn’t cut down the bitterness like it usually does for me. Cucumber White isn’t the worst tea in the world, but it’s not the best either.

I liked this tea so much that it kicked me off into trying loose leaf. Now I have a large stash of loose leaf teas, yet I still like the flavor blend in Zen tea so much that I decided to make my own blend at Adagio to see if I could make it better. I ended up with what I call Meditation Bliss. It isn’t exactly the same, but I think it’s what this tea would be if it were fresher and higher quality. I love lemon grass and find Zen’s combination of lemongrass and spearmint definitely refreshing. Even their bottled version is good, although it is sweeeet.

I still like Zen well enough and am currently making iced tea out of it with their supersized teabags. It’s really the only bagged tea I buy, and it’s a rare purchase.

Backlog from earlier today/yesterday – I’ve drank it a lot lately. I spent this afternoon driving around the countryside, around Concord and Lexington – they’re full of old fields and historical markers blocking off stone-walked pastures. I haven’t beet here in so long – used to go walk around the Old North Bridge all the time as a kid, but I never cared about the history then. (The first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired across the bridge.) I’m not huge on history, but it’s beautiful country – all green and clean-scented, narrow roads and old wooden fences and weathered houses sitting on hills overlooking rolling fields bounded by stone walls.

Sorry.

Why do you read these? I just ramble. On to the tea.

I’ve had this a few time sover the past few days. The first time I tried it, last year or something, I didn’t understand about green teas and oversleeping and all. So obviously I didn’t like it much, but I do now. Not sure exactly on the temp/time details – just steeped the cup at Starbucks until it tasted good, and then pulled out the pyramid bag. Maybe 2 minutes or so?

It’s light and clean and grassy. I think I definitely have a preference floor Chinese greens, because even when they’re vegetal like this, they don’t seem to venture into spinich/seaweed territory, like some of the Japanese ones do. Also, it’s a lot cheaper ($2.30) for a grande versus $4something for a latte… Although I do like lattes, and followed this with a caramel macchiato… It was a marathon writing session.

So now that I’ve talked for about a sentence about the tea, and six paragraphs about other stuff, feel free to unfollow me :)

Another sample from friend/coworker.

I didn’t think I liked spearmint. I have now sampled 2 different teas on 2 different days with significant spearmint flavor, and found them both quite pleasant. Maybe what I don’t like is Wrigley’s Spearmint gum?

I can also taste something lemony but I can’t tell whether it’s the verbena or the “natural flavors.” It doesn’t seem like lemongrass to me.

I deliberately gave it a very brief steep and did not let the water boil. There’s only the barest hint of tea in the background.

I like this hot. Iced, I think it would need something else – maybe a little honey. I can see how it might grow bitter if it were steeped long enough to stand up to ice.

Had a bag of this lying around since March and finally got around to brewing it. It reminded me that even though this is a mainstream, grocery store bagged brand, it’s still a solid Earl Grey. Especially sweetened.

Thanks to Kristaleyn for this sample!!
I’m not a huge fan of green teas in general, but this one wasn’t so bad. I guess cuz my standards are generally low, the mix of flavours kinda brought up my level of appreciation.
I couldn’t really taste much of the “green” tea, which in my case… is good! Still, I’d have liked a bit more of a “tea” aspect.
It reminds me of Teavana’s Lemon lime kampai actually, only with a bit more depth.
and I did get three infusions out of it. Aided mightily by some agave of course (rather flat without it, sadly)
Anyhow, would I buy this to replace my stash? perhaps.
Odd, I seem to like this more than most people here :)

After reading some of the reviews, I decided to try cold-steeping this one. It was a sample provided by a co-worker/friend.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Sweet? Not. I’m getting SOUR, seriously sour, sour-pickle sour without the garlic, not merely tart. Also orange and spearmint, after about 3 minutes of steeping. The tea is a not-unattractive pale clear orange. Oddly, I don’t hate it. I’m not a big fan of spearmint.

After waiting a bit I’ll add more. I only have the one bag and I don’t think I am likely to buy this.

OK, waited a bit and tasted again. The sourness is becoming less extreme after another 3-4 minutes with the bag in, and now I can just barely taste the licorice.

I don’t think I’d care for this hot at all, but it’s pretty interesting with a cold steep if you’re patient with it. Maybe the “sweet” refers to the variety of orange that contributed the peel (sweet orange rather than bitter orange) so that’s a bit misleading, but wild certainly applies!

I’ve raised my rating twice. And I might try to cadge another sample after all.

The trick with this tea, in order to make it taste good you have t steep it in less than boiling water, otherwise you’ll get that raw sewage taste from the Vlerian I’m guessing. It makes me sleepy.

I really like the hint of mint in this tea. I find it great for a morning pick me up that leaves me feel focused.

My afternoon was taken up with a very important meeting with my CEO. In which most of the development department played a card game. LOL! So this was a pretty good choice for a light afternoon iced drink.

In another review, someone said that on opening the wrapping, it smelled like blueberry muffins. I would definitely agree! It is a very strong scent on opening.

I used the hot water machine at work, so my control over water temperature is non-existant. The water from the machine is on the really hot side, probably just a bit below boiling. I tried to compensate by letting it steep in my travel mug with the sipping top on but the outer cap off.

On brewing, it’s a light golden color. The scent of blueberries is no longer overwhelming, but it’s still there. There’s no taste of them though, except as sight scent on breathing out.

No bitterness, light, not unenjoyable. Good without sweetening. I definitely want to try this iced. Not my favorite, but defnitely worth keeping the box at work for a lazy tea fix.

The steep time is more or less correct. I didn’t actually time it as I was at work, but I think 5 minutes is a safe bet. Also, this is the bagged version.

I thought I had tried this before, but I can’t seem to locate a tasting note on it. The dry leaf aroma was very strong and heavily laced with bergamot. It definitley conjured up an image of Paris, which I always reminisce about when drinking Earl Greys.

The taste is okay. As others have mentioned, it’s definitely not the best Earl Grey I’ve ever had. But it’s probably not the worst either. Or come to think of it, maybe it is the worst simply because I haven’t had much to complain about in prior Earl Grey experiences. (EDIT: I take that back. Samovar’s Earl Grey was disgusting and definitely the worst by far!)

Nonetheless, this is still very drinkable. I added a little bit of sweetener to try and cut the bitterness. It helped a bit, but the bitterness is still there. It’s an interesting bitterness because it’s clearly not coming from the tea, but from the bergamot itself. How strange.

Anyway, I probably wouldn’t be inclined to stock up on this stuff. The bergamot flavoring is a little flaky and bitter, but overall it’s not a bad tea. I’d rather have this than no tea at all. :)

I re-visited this one yesterday, and liked it, though I overdid the sugar/honey factor.

With about one spoonful of sugar, a drop of honey, and 2 minutes steep time, this gives a nice, gingery taste with a pear kick, mainly in the aftertaste. It’s very good, kind of light, definitely a tea best for a refresh. Milk actually goes well with it, and may help lessen the pear for those who think it is a bit too much. Just don’t over do the sugar! :-)