Tazo Tea

Had my lavendery Earl at school tonight! I love that lavender (more than!) touch (it’s really quite lavendery!), and my classroom is so chilly – tea helps :) Again – the walk from the Starbucks to my building brews a perfect cup of tea!!!

I was so chilly before class tonight that I ran into the Starbucks on campus to get an Earl Grey tea. I really enjoy this Earl because it’s so lavender-y! It always surprises me that something so unusual can be bought at such an ubiquitous place. I think it’s absolutely delicious – the loose leaf is a great improvement over the former bags – and my best treat at school! I was going to buy a tin, but I said nah – let it be my special thing to get out and about before lecture.

Steep time and water temp unknown, but I will say the walk from the campus center where the Starbucks is to my building for class brews an excellent cup of tea! Throw out the bag before I sit and I’m golden!

This is a serviceable tea. It is good without being great…or even exceptional. I often go to this tea if I don’t have the time to savor something else, or if I feel “guilty” about continuing to consume a more expensive tea on a weekday.

Ok… so I have issues :)

Nice mild flavor for the morning. I don’t add anything to my teas and like to taste the tea without any distractions. I am new to the tea scene and love the flavor of full leaf teas. I love all the new teas I’ve seen @ Steepster. Wheres a good place to order these teas online?

Stopped by Starbucks today after getting groceries for the week. I am a sucker for iced tea lemonade. There is nothing better to me in summer or winter. I often mix my own by using black tea mixed with either lemon tea or sugar lemonade mix. I haven’t found my perfect blend yet but I am enjoying trying.

This one tastes like a mild black tea, with sweet lemonade. It is quite sweet. I wish they didn’t make this one so sweet but they use syrup so it is hard to modify.

I am going to be enjoying this one all summer long. Its always better when someone else makes it for you!

This is a Grab-and-Go tea bag. It will wake you up and keep you there for a while. As much as I like loose leaf teas, sometimes you got-to reach down and get some.

Probably the one bagged tea I’ll keep a mean, firm grip on. For one, so far it’s the only English breakfast tea I’ve tried that has that tangy taste along with the otherwise typical breakfast taste. But the main reason is that, as a Starbucks employee, I get to take a tin of this home with me every week for free. Hard to beat that. It’s also the only Tazo tea I can drink. Every other variety by Tazo? No thanks.

Awake tea is very, very fussy. Oversteep it even just by a marginal amount, and BAM it turns to mud. For me I’ve found the magic time to be three minutes. Two minutes it’s hot water. Four minutes it’s mud.

If you get the magical time, you get the typical taste of a breakfast tea, with a unique tang like finish that sort of buzzes on your tongue. The tang is the best part as it gives it a very nice flavor.

I like it with a little bit of golden sugar and a little bit of milk.

Unfortunately, if you oversteep this, the tang is the first part to disappear into the mud taste. Set the oven timer when preparing! :)

If you would like to order this a latte at your local Starbucks, I recommend ordering a tall size with one pump vanilla, no classic syrup.

I think this tea is okay. I do put it through my Keurig so I am positive that makes a difference (rather than steeping myself). It’s more of a convenience tea when I’m feeling lazy haha. It’s quite strong and bitter, I have to put some agave in it to help balance it out a bit. I don’t mind the taste, I’m sure it would be great as an iced tea. But I do get a pretty astringent-y after taste with this tea. It’s just a little bitter for me! But…it’s still okay. I always get these tea if I go to Starbucks. My friends are Starbucks junkies but I don’t really drink coffee or enjoy anything else besides this or an Earl grey tea latte :)

In a lovely tin, this sachet tea allows the scented tea to breathe. Despite still being a bagged tea, it does have more room, albeit a very limited amount.

The jasmine aroma is quite strong. It actually reminds me of Adagio’s Jasmine Silver Needle oolong tea. Only, this tea is not the beautiful long and slender leaves of the Silver Needle, but rolled into tiny pearls.

The liquor is equally as strong, with a deep copper tone. The leaves in the sachet unfurl and reveal quite small and light leaves.

The first initial sips are a full on jasmine and green tea bliss. The jasmine, despite the overpowering aroma, is not as overpowering in flavor. There is a subtle sweetness, but the jasmine provides a stable body with the green tea.

Color me lavender, as my reaction to this is similar to Adagio’s Jasmine Silver Needle. The jasmine scent can become overwhelming, but can work beautifully with a proper leaf.

So, I had a minor outpatient surgery yesterday to get a cyst removed. So I’m drinking Earl Grey tea and relaxing. I’m listening to Soul Surfer by Bethany Hamilton, on Overdrive. It’s a nice Summer evening. Perfect for drinking tea. I love Earl Grey tea anytime.

This is a perfect Earl Grey tea. Nice on a cold day.

I began drinking this tea in the filter bag version and enjoyed it then. But as I gained more knowledge about tea and subsequently discovered full leaf and loose teas I “upgraded” to this full leaf version of Awake. I enjoy the robust, malty flavor of this tea. After steeping I add a little sugar and a dash of half and half. I’m still working on trying other, better black teas but I still come back to Awake occasionally.

I don’t drink coffee (a childhood mishap with a General Mills Vanilla Instant Coffee mix and overcrowded porta-potties at a New Year’s Day parade took care of that option a long time ago), but often will find myself in a Starbucks with a friend. This is really the only tea I will drink here, and to be honest, it is more like paying rent for the seats than it is paying for a drink.

I find that this tea has almost no flavor whatsoever. I tend to like smooth, but strong black teas, and I often add sweetener and milk. If I drink this straight, it really doesn’t taste like much beyond “HOT,” and if I add milk and sugar, that is all that I can taste.

After reading the other tasting notes, I think I should make an effort to steep this tea a bit longer from now on. However, I tend to avoid steeping my teas for very long because I don’t like the bitterness/astringency that comes out of them over a long steep. And this tea is simply not strong enough to leave me with any flavor in the amount of time I spend to steep it.

A review of Herbal Infusion with peppermint and Spearmint by Tazo

Company: Tazo Tea
Tea Name: Herbal Infusion with Peppermint and Spearmint
Tea Type/Varietal: Herbal
Region:
Steeping Vessel/Amt. Leaf: bottled tea
Plucking Season:
Liquor Color: brownish herbal mixture
I had purchased this tea during a visit at Living Earth market and put it in the refrigerator saving it for a day when in need of something sweet and soda like, I mean something other than tea.

I was having some noodles and decided to fix myself a glass of the Tazo tea. I put some ice in a tea cup and poured the juice like tea in the cup; after having shaken the tea. I ate most of the noodles and then took sip of the tea and pew; it was really heady herbal tea. As said on bottle…herbal infusion which, now has come to mean strong and potent. And I am reminded of the mixture in peppermint and spearmint another mixture that I don’t care for.

Please note once again, I was not paying attention when I grab this tea from store shelving. I read that it was Tazo Teas and an Herbal Infusion and since I have had Tazo Teas before and they were most enjoying, I did not feel the need to read further. Had I seen the part about peppermint and spearmint, I would have selected the Açai Berry Tea in a bottle instead.

Bagged
Aroma when Dry: floral, jasmine, grassy honey notes
After water is first poured: floral, honeysuckle, honey and jasmine
At end of steep: sweet, floral honey notes
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: grassy, clear
Staple? Type yes, looking for a good loose “leaf” brand for restock
Preferred time of day: Any
Taste:
At first:bitter, buttery, jasmine notes close
As it cools ? gets grassy and harsh
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? yes, with gritty grassy notes, closing with a floral finish

Eh. The first few tazo bags in the sampler I liked, but this and the chair bored me to tears. Granted I’ve never had an Earl Grey before, but this tasted like I stole perfume and guzzled it. It was not enjoyable in the least…I actually threw most of the cup away, which I never do. I will try again maybe when I am less tired and cranky.

I found myself in a Starbucks for the early part of my day, helping my cousin brainstorm some future story ideas. I had a hand in a children’s book/app he’s developing. Also got a sneak peek of it’s near-completion; lookin’ pretty sexy…er…for a children’s book. (You can “like” it on FB, if you so choose: http://www.facebook.com/The.Riverbottom.Tales).

I was running on four hours of sleep and needed a “brewed” awakening of sorts. So, “Awake” it was. Not much special to say here. It’s black, it’s bitter, it’s the tea version of coffee. As far as English Breakfast variants go, it gets the job done. No more, no less.

I’ll be back a wee bit later for something more esoteric.

Had this served from Starbucks. Smelled pretty good, but the taste just wasn’t my thing. Didn’t care for the bold bitterness. I don’t drink tea for bitterness, I drink coffee for that.

I was on the go this morning, so I decided to head into Starbucks to get my daily tea fix. I’ve had this tea many times in the past, but I’ll be reviewing it as though it were my first time.

Leaf Quality:
The leaves were in sachets. I did not get to smell them before brewing, as I was given the cup with it already brewing. However, I did smell them after brewing. They were not complete leaves; they were cut in half. Some were almost whole. Nevertheless, the leaves were loose, and smelled slightly floral and malty.

Brewed Tea:
At my first sip of the tea, I could tell that the base was a Ceylon tea. A slight hint of malt told me there was some Assam, or perhaps Darjeeling as well. The color of the brew was a dark copper-red. It smelled like a version of an English Breakfast tea. It tasted much the same as well. I did not taste any of the floral notes I smelled in the leaves. The malt was as strong as the scent either.

I suppose this would be a good cup to carry me on, but I would prefer some of the other teas I have.

It’s a decent one to have on hand for running out the door. I’ve had these bags a while; it’s probably a bit stale. It is better than their other bagged variety, more depth in flavor. I’d be interested to try a ‘fresh’ bag but not interested enough to go buy some of this. :P

Pretty good for a teabag. This earl grey has a nice balance of citrus from the bergamot and spice from the lavender. It feels very chai like and I swear I can taste some clove in there too. This tea also has the big plushy pillow size teabag which definitely kicks it up a step from other teabags. Very relaxing.