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“Okay, take two before I throw this tea bag out. This time I used “green tea” temperature water and steeped it for about 2 minutes or so. I’m hoping to bring these green tea notes out that I...” Read full tasting note
“1 big bag for 500mL water (medium take-out cup from Starbucks), no milk or sweetener. Ai yi yi. Be careful if you get Joy to go. Traffic and other delays meant mine steeped wayyyy too long. The...” Read full tasting note
“BACKLOG! I quite enjoy this one, for a bagged tea. It has some nice oomph. yum! Now, I was at a friends place so didn’t have time to focus on the flavours etc… but I would certainly never turn a...” Read full tasting note
“I received this sample teabag from a co-worker. Don’t you love when people give you free tea just because they know you like it? Big thanks to my awesome co-worker! The dry leaf aroma is floral...” Read full tasting note
A limited-release holiday blend of rare delicate teas. An ode to TAZO® JOY™: this full-bodied, festive cup of rare Darjeelings and Oolongs is a special tea to share with family and friends. (They will understand completely, however, if you decide to be a Scrooge about this instead.)
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Okay, take two before I throw this tea bag out. This time I used “green tea” temperature water and steeped it for about 2 minutes or so. I’m hoping to bring these green tea notes out that I supposedly missed the first time around.
And…. no. It still tastes like black tea to me. And it’s still too astrigent for me to enjoy. Maybe even more so the second time. Not enjoyable at all.
Good try, Starbucks, but this random blend brings me no joy. I gave it a shot.
1 big bag for 500mL water (medium take-out cup from Starbucks), no milk or sweetener.
Ai yi yi. Be careful if you get Joy to go. Traffic and other delays meant mine steeped wayyyy too long. The oolong is lost. Astringent and spicy Darjeelings, intoxicated with new power, have bullied this cup. Some stronger black tea is grunting in the background. Something else— oolong?— tastes scalded. I love a good strong tea, but Tazo’s Joy is delicate and complex. Steep carefully!
Last few sips remind me of, um, rocks. Clean rocks. Iron ore, maybe. I don’t go around licking rocks, so I really don’t know why I’m thinking this … hard to explain. Is there an official term for this taste?
Mineral taste is a valid description!
‘Mineral.’ Okay, I can go with that. Once again, Steepster proves I am not crazy. ;)
But I really like “licking a rock” better. Much more vivid.
Meh — it’s a hobby. :)
BACKLOG!
I quite enjoy this one, for a bagged tea. It has some nice oomph. yum!
Now, I was at a friends place so didn’t have time to focus on the flavours etc… but I would certainly never turn a cuppa this beaute down :)
I received this sample teabag from a co-worker. Don’t you love when people give you free tea just because they know you like it? Big thanks to my awesome co-worker!
The dry leaf aroma is floral but not recognizably jasmine. The taste? Hmm, it kind of just tastes like a generic black bagged tea. Weird. Isn’t this a green/black/oolong/jasmine blend? Why doesn’t it taste like any of those things? Well, besides black tea that is. Anything blended with black tea always seems to end up tasting like black tea. Why do people bother blending it with greens and oolongs?
Oh, this has Darjeeling in it. I can definitely taste that. It’s smooth and has a nice muscatel. It’s not bitter or astringent. Mmm, yum! For a bagged Darjeeling tea, this is pretty tasty! But I can’t say that it tastes like anything else. Overall, I like it! I definitely wouldn’t turn it down in the future.
Sipdown!!
Thanks to threewhales, who I actually haven’t seen on here for awhile. This was part of our trade awhile back with the steepster book club. It’s an interesting blend of bold, tart, & a little floral in the there too. Not something I’ll buy, but not bad for a change of pace.
My only questions (not to anybody in particular) is why is this considered a seasonal blend, other than the name? I usually think of seasonal blends as having holiday-like spice flavorings, but this is just a straight mix of black, green & oolong.
Stash has a similar tea called Christmas Morning. No idea why. I kind of liked them both two years ago but nearly so much a year later. Fortunately, not all my cheaper teas have lost their appeal.
I loved Joy at first, but my more recent box wasn’t as user-friendly and was a little bitter, no matter what steep time/temp I attempted.
Finishing this one off. I’ll be sad to see it go, but chances are I will buy it again next year (either that, or pick up Stash’s Christmas Morning—it’s always a contest).
I’m also finishing off an oolong on the side, but it’s not in my cupboards as it’s of unknown origin/company. It was a gift from a friend.
As always, there’s black tea in the smell. Same with the taste, a bright (and astringent) black, though it’s quickly followed by the oolong, I think. And then there’s a faint peach, though that’s more in the scent.
On a side-note: My stack of empty teatins is now larger in number than my currently-in-use teatins. It’s a shame most of them have company logos and teanames on them. I’ll have to sticker over them or something, so I can get more use out of ’em.
Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Water: boiling 16oz water
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes (http://steep.it)
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: vegetal and black and sweet
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet black and a little vegetal
Flavor: black tea with a hint of vegetal
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: vegetal
Liquor: translucent dark orange-brown
This is a seasonal tea which is no longer available online at the Starbucks Store, you may still find a tin in your local Starbucks or online retailer.
This year the tea is full leaf and in a sachet as opposed to CTC in a paper filterbag.
Starbucks Tazo Tea – ‘Tis the season of Joy – Guest Post at StarbucksMelody.com http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2011/01/03/starbucks-tazo-tea-tis-the-season-of-joy/
Pictures: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/01/tazo-teabag-black-tea-joy.html
Was tickled to find a bag that survived the tornado tin from my office … doesn’t look like it’s available any more.
Since my supply is dwindling, I didn’t want to ruin it, so was v-e-r-y cautious with time and temp (low on on both, so the green half didn’t go bitter) and it turned out just perfectly. A little sweet, a little fruity, a little vegetal—a nice little tripod of flavors.
This tea is actually pretty good if you do not abuse it too much.
The bag contains black, green and oolong tea, which makes for a strange brew time. The bag (I do not have a box) does not give any indication of how long it should be infused, so I played around with the few bags.
First, infusing hot, no additives, three minutes. Pretty good, light on all three flavors, but mostly a sweet clean green with a base note of black tea with the final mouthfeel-taste of oolong.
Second, infused hot, no additives, five minutes. Starting to get a little bitter, not really the best, can still pick up the green and oolong while the black plays a background note.
Third, infused hot, no additives, seven minutes (strictly because I forgot about it). Really super bitter, overpowered all flavors except the black tea.
The final verdict: this tea is decent if infused 3-5 minutes. It does not need anything added to make it taste good and be able to pick up on all three flavor teas. The brew is very good, especially for my morning cuppa on my way to work.
I was worried about this blend from the start since it is a combination of black, oolong, and green teas. Still I had to try it and so I did. It was very fruity. I have never been a huge fan of teas where the the strongest flavor is fruit. I don’t mind it being a part of a more complicated flavor profile but not so much the primary flavor. With that said it isn’t for me but I can see someone else liking it if they were a fan of fruity flavored teas. Oh and surprisingly this tea doesn’t actually have fruit in it, it’s the tea itself that has that characteristic.
Is this what happens when Starbucks buys a tea company? And to think…Teavana already couldn’t make a good tea blend!
LOL. Well to be fair, I don’t know how good Tazo was before this.
To Starbucks credit, they did used to use typical tea bags and switched to full-leaf pyramid bags, so.. it’s a start. But they’re still a coffee company first and foremost (and from what I understand from my coffee snob friends, they’re not even a GOOD coffee company).
Yes, their coffee is mediocre from what I’ve heard. I personally used to enjoy tazo teas – but that might have been before I discovered “real” tea. Maybe. :P
Aww, no judgement here. We all have to start somewhere. I started on Tazo too, since they had a bunch of it in the office breakroom.
They’ve had this for a couple years. I can’t remember if I had it last year or two years ago but it was pretty meh.
Steven Smith started Tazo which was acquired by starbucks in 1999, so, I’m going to state emphatically that Tazo WAS a good tea company at one time. But in the 13 years since Steven Smith was at the helm it has managed to lose its way.
Why do large corporations always throw acquired companies to the dumpster? Large corporations seem to have no care in the world for quality :/
Because it’s all about the money, money, money.
One thing I’ve learned as I get older – especially regarding politics – when I ask, “Why does this happen? It makes no sense” it’s usually because of money.
Bleh. haha