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I drank some more Tazo Rest tonight. I think that it is one of the better tasting “functional” teas around. All of the ingredients meld together seamlessly, and it smells and tastes more pleasing than other herbal infusions of this type. In fact, I like it more than either rooibos or honey bush-based nonfunctional blends.

I brewed up a cup of this Tazo Wild Sweet Orange tonight and attempted yet again to understand why it gets no love—and indeed a lot of hate!

Okay, so it’s not orange juice, and it’s not tea. Okay, so it’s a tart hot liquid perhaps comparable in some ways to Theraflu—except that it is orange, not lemon or cherry.

Truth be told: I actually like Theraflu!

I have an older supply of Upton Tea Imports Makaibari Darjeeling, but it still tastes fresh and good, so I’ll just pretend that I acquired this lot more recently than I did.

The liquor is peachy brown, and the flavor has the characteristic complexity of a fine darjeeling. I have not been drinking darjeelings lately because I had a carton of light cream in my refrigerator which took forever to empty. To my amazement, a quart lasted something like a month, and it did not spoil. My impression is that light cream holds up better than half-and-half, and I also discovered that it does not dilute the tea in which it is added, so that’s another plus. With the end of that carton, I’m putting my Earl Grey binge on pause for while…

Well, all of that was only barely relevant to this tasting note, but for the next few weeks, I’ll be focusing on no-cream-added black teas, with the darjeelings at the top of the list!

This Makaibari Estate brew has the dried grassy smell and taste which I have come to associate with darjeeling, and the flavor and scent are also very slightly smoky. Neither bitter nor scratchy, this is a very good black tea for drinking au naturel! No adulterants, please!

In today’s Harney & Sons Paris tasting note, let us pause for a moment to sing the praises of the precious peridot packaging of the filter bags and box:

Simply beautiful!

I made a large pot of this delicious Long Jing (= two cups followed by two cups, followed by two cups…). It’s still my favorite of the Long Jings I’ve tried so far. Also my inspiration to try more!

second infusion: same beautiful pale yellow color, same refreshing taste, same lilypad-like leaves floating at the surface, like a placid pond in springtime. (meanwhile, it’s subarctic freezing outside!)

Valerian appears to be the stinkiest herb in existence. My sister finds it so unpleasant that the process of preparing a cup of valerian tea doubles her anxiety level, thereby undermining the purpose of imbibing the stuff. She cannot get past the “dirty underwear” scent of the valerian in any valerian-based blend.

I’m going to have to tell her about Tazo Rest, because this valerian blend does not scream out “dirty underwear” at all. Probably because valerian is pretty far down the ingredients list, and there are many strong competing flavors, including not only citrus oils, ginger, and licorice root, but even geranium oil and rose petals!

Rest is a nice herbal blend. Tonight I’ll be testing its true efficacy, as I was unable to sleep last night until 4:30 am as a result of the bomb dropped on me by my landlord (that I must vacate my apartment by February 28, 2014, after having lived here for ten years!). I got only four hours of sleep and I continue to suffer from an awful tension headache.

I’m counting on Rest to offer some much needed reprieve (rest!) and to usher in, if not sweet dreams, at least dreamless sleep. The last thing I need are nightmares, which are a possibility when I consume so many wild and crazy essences right before bed. We shall see.

The flavor is complex and very well blended and smooth. I taste smatterings of citrus and ginger and licorice and honeybush, but nothing stands out as dominant. Do I taste the geranium and rose? Not sure…

The Libra entry in the Adagio Zodiac series smells incredibly delicious dry. The flavor of the brewed golden brown liquid is pretty good, but I’m not that enamored of the black tea base, which seems fairly scratchy in the back of my throat.

Still, this is a nice change of pace: a chocolate-strawberry flavor-tinged creation embellished with delicate rose petals. I drink mine with cream. A good Valentine’s Day tea!

Lovely, light, and limpid lunch drink reminiscent of sencha. I made it a bit stronger this time and steeped at low temperature for only a couple of minutes.

second infusion: Same light barely greenish-yellow color. Same clean taste.

third infusion: I oversteeped this round, so the color was more golden than green. It tasted okay, but like a different tea—more like a “nameless” green…

I’m never really sure that I believe all of the hype swirling around echinacea, but then again I rarely choose to use it unless I’m already sick—when it’s too late.

Tonight I decided to imbibe a couple of cups of Yogi Echinacea Immune Support because I had a horribly stressful day thanks to my insane new landlord who told me that I must vacate the apartment where I’ve lived for ten (count ‘em 10) years in one (count it 1) month. Oh, or else I can pay triple my current rent, that’s right: $3K. But I’ll still have to leave after another month anyway, even if I pay $3K, because they are planning to renovate the whole space. So as you can see my charge of insanity is not hyperbolic in the least. My only consolation is that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has tenant-friendly laws.

I am drinking this infusion to stave off whatever stress-induced illness may descend upon me, and all the more because the temperature seems to be hovering around single digits again, with another snowstorm on the way. That’s right: I’m supposed to sort through, pack, and move ten years of accumulated “stuff”, in addition to finding a new place to live, all in one month. The guy is nuts, and I see a court appearance in my not-too-distant future. With this kind of scandalous behavior (the nasty threats have already begun!) he’ll probably go all out and unambiguously violate the criminal law code by changing the locks on me or turning off the utilities (in winter!) or some other typical maneuver by this type of extreme loser. Yes, those are crimes in the state of Massachusetts, so all I can say is: bring it on!

So the tea. It’s slightly sweet because of the licorice root (and stevia?), but honestly it’s a tough call trying to even guess what else is in here. The ingredients list boasts an amazing array of herbs and spices:

peppermint, lemongrass, three (count ’em 3) kinds of echinacea root, cinnamon, licorice root, spearmint leaf, fennel seed, lemon flavor, cardamom seed, echinacea extract, rose hip, ginger root, burdock root, clove, mullein leaf (what is that????), stevia leaf, black pepper (a Yogi favorite…), astragalus root extract, elderberry extract, cinnamon oil, cardamom oil, ginger oil.

It’s a mostly organic blend, and with all of that stuff in it, no wonder I cannot describe the flavor. It’s fine for a functional herbal tisane. Let’s hope it works!

I believe that this was a sip down. One less thing to pack.

Can’t really get enough of this luscious tea. I love it so much. Creamy and smooth, it contains the perfect amount of vanilla, a fine black tea base with no scratchiness whatsoever, and a mild but tasty dose of bergamot. Yum!