Argo Tea

I had this iced at Argo while meeting a friend. I’ve tried a lot of things from Argo, and while I don’t usually love them, I still feel a fondness toward Argo, possibly due to the lack of other tea places to visit. Anyway, the flavor here is entirely just an average rooibos. No hint of berry. I’m a big rooibos fan, so I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t what it advertised itself to be.

Backlog

The wife was kind enough to pick some tea out for me at the store the other day. I’ve been wanting to drink tea at work, but with the setup that I have, I can only afford to drink tea, within the space given, either grandpa style or bagged teas. Now, I like drinking grandpa style, but there are few teas that I own that I truly enjoy doing that with; therefore, my other option is to have bagged tea that’s not Lipton.
I am grateful to have a wife who will cautiously purchase something that I may like without sugar. She knows the profile of [bagged] tea that I prefer, but also knows that anything is better than Lipton. ;)
I gave this a try first since I was in the mood for something sweet, but didn’t want to get a candy bar from the vending machine—all on the account that I need to cut out the sweets at work.
Notes: Sweet & consistent strawberry. Slightly astringent and a little sour.

Overall, it was a good tea for what it was.

I’m still working through the remainder of a two ounce pouch of Steven Smith Teamaker’s No. 17 Darjeeling, Steinthal FTGOP1, 2nd Flush and a one ounce pouch of Floating Leaves’ Nantou Four Seasons-Spring 2016 (both are very good, by the way), so I have not had time to start work on any new teas. I should have a new review or two up by the weekend. En lieu of a new black tea or oolong, I picked up a bottle of this fruit and flower blend at a local gas station after lunch today. I had tried this stuff before, but it had been a couple of years.

On the nose, I did not pick up much. It just smelled like hibiscus, lemon, and cane sugar. In the mouth, this blend struck an awkward balance between sweet and tart. The expected cranberry-like floral tartness of the hibiscus blossoms was presented clearly, but the lemon and cane sugar notes muddled them toward the finish.

This is not the sort of thing I would go out of my way to pick up regularly, but I suppose it could have been worse. I’m not huge on hibiscus, but I think this would have been better without the lemonade. Ultimately, this was not horrible for a commercial bottled hibiscus blend, but it was also far from satisfying for me. I doubt I’ll purchase this again if I have any other options.

P.S. I found out a former college classmate of mine worked for Argo Tea for some time. Maybe the dude still works there. We were not exactly close and lost touch years ago, so I’m not exactly certain about his current status with the company. Oh well.

Didn’t really enjoy this much. It could have been the scent which reminded me of some sort of strawberry nutrigrain. The taste did too. Just something about it was way off. I tried it cold too thinking it would be better that way, and it is better cold but still not that good.

I really liked this ones, especially in the morning with a little sweetener and milk. Perfect amount of spice without being just cinnamon like many chais. Also great for helping to wake me up.

The first 2 times I had this it was amazing and you could taste the honey… But the last 3 times (2 from a Pilot and 1 from a Shell) the tea was cloudy rather than clear, smelled of mildew and tasted very old despite not being expired. This has gone from my new favorite to something cringe worthy.

Had with 2 cubes of sugar and a bit of creamer, really good!

This was the best cup of tea I have ever had. I consider it less of a beverage and more of a spiritual encounter.

Thank you, Argo Tea on Michigan Ave in Chicago for blessing me with this drink.

This wedding stuff is for the birds! Between wedding planning, being a mom, and work, I’m missing out on drinking some fantastic tea and checking out whats up on Steepster. I think I’m seeing the end of the tunnel. After having my diamond cracked by the jeweler this month, the venue for the reception trying to tell me delicately that they overbooked, and my photographer almost being a no show, I was about ready to call off the wedding completely. All is fine now, but geez, that was all in a week where work was non stopped and things were nutty. Sorry, enough of my whining!

So this tea is like drinking candy and giving me and my sweet tooth something to cheer about. My stresses are still there but it isn’t so bad. I’m surprised at how good this tea is. Argo Tea has always been hit or miss but this one is spot on. My sister-in-law picked this up for me for my tea themed bridal shower, from Target in a bagged form. I think I need to head down there to see what else they have from Argo Tea!

http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/10/12/a-perfect-blend-my-tea-themed-bridal-shower/

As soon as we got home from our trip this past weekend I made myself a huge mug of this tea and took a moment to enjoy the aroma wafting from my cup— this blend smells nearly as heavenly as it tastes. The bergamot comes through the strongest, with a good dose of vanilla to temper the flavor and prevent any of the harsher notes that are sometimes found in an Earl Grey. This is one of the smoothest tasting Earl Grey teas I’ve had the pleasure to drink (and I’ve sampled a lot of Earl Grey over the years, it is my favorite after all.) I did taste more flavoring than tea, but that might be a plus if you aren’t normally a fan of black tea.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/9/29/tuesday-tea-earl-grey-crme-argo-tea

Although I love this tea, I don’t really taste the bergamot in it and therefore don’t really consider it an Earl Grey. Only the vanilla comes through for me. I just bought a box of sachets and will happily drink my way through it.

Ouch – this is a bit TOO tart! I put in a good squirt of agave nectar and it’s still…just sour. I also can’t really taste the vanilla. Sour cherry dominates. I mean, it’s not a bad drink, but it’s not something I can imagine wanting to drink frequently. Will experiment with amount of tea and steeping time, and maybe try it iced – maybe that’ll do the trick.

This is a great Rooibos red with nice pomegrante flavour notes. Another one to add to the cupboard permanently stocked.

I love ginger and I love green tea, but this tea is so LOADED with sugar that I couldn’t drink it. I looked up the nutritional info and there are 50 mg of carbs in a medium cup (73 mg in large.) Yikes! I will try the sachets and report back.