Argo Tea

Second steeping brings some sweetness and slight fruity flavors, don’t think I could get another steeping out of it though.

A nice creamy oolong with a tangy aftertaste. I really like Argo although sometimes I feel like some of their teas haven’t been bought since 03. When I brought this oolong up to the counter they gave me this look like nobody had ever asked to buy loose tea, especially this one. All in all, a good tea.

This is a review for the bottled iced tea sold at Whole Foods. At $2.49, it’s about double the price of Honest Tea (who has the home advantage in the DC area). What lured me into purchasing this tea was the packaging. The chic glass bottles with plastic screw-on lid are reusable and can easily find its place on the shelf amongst the eco-friendly SIGG bottles. This is the second flavor I’ve tried and I admit, I bought it so I could get another glass bottle (LOL). The color is a murky brown. Upon opening the bottle, a sweet hint of vanilla, mingled with the spicy aroma of ginger is detected. Taste: sweet, very sweet. This sweetened iced tea is on par with the other sweetened iced teas that Honest Tea sells. I am a big fan of ginger and this was not “gingery” enough for me. I look forward to trying other flavors, but will stick to making my own iced ginger green tea at home.

Drinking this is like drinking pure honey. But I’m not talking about that weak, almost watery honey that comes in the bear-shaped bottle. This is that richer, dark-colored honey that you buy at the farmer’s market. Mmmm. Since I’m a honey fiend – the sort that makes Winnie the Pooh look only mildly interested – this is a Very Good Thing.

It is very sweet, though. There’s cane sugar as well as honey in here, so I definitely get a bit of that sticky, unclean mouthfeel after drinking it. Not exactly refreshing, if you know what I mean. And I’m not sure that I can really taste the tea, although the lemons are barely there, keeping the honey from going into overdrive and into cloying mode. But it’s definitely not a balanced flavor.

I saw this at the grocery store and thought I’d give it a shot, since it was $2 and the glass bottle looked like it could be reused for a drinking glass. (Ah, remember when POM teas used to come in glass bottles that could be used for that purpose?)

I love mojitos, but this tea is one of the nastiest things I have ever tasted. It’s not like a mojito at all! When I first opened the bottle, I thought, “This stuff smells like marinara sauce. WTF?” But I still had hope that it would taste OK.

Not at all. The moment I tasted it I wanted to gag. It’s sickeningly sweet, like there’s waaaaay too much cane sugar in it, but also sour. The mint flavor, which I hoped would dominate, is almost missing – the only hint of it comes from the slightly minty aftertaste, but this too is dulled by the sticky-sweetness. It’s gross!

Sniffing it again, I’m wondering if “marinara sauce” isn’t quite right. It reminds me of something thinner…like the sauce in canned Spaghetti-Os. Either way, NOTHING about this drink makes me think of mojitos!!

not bad . . . new to tea(s) so i’m starting with what i know

i enjoyed the taste (no sugar, no milk)

Fruity and flavorful, this tea is bright, lush and juicy.

Best served iced cold and preferably mixed with fresh fruit.

This is one of the perfect summer teas to enjoy.

My husband and I have been drinking this a lot just to finish it up. This wasn’t the best genmaicha I’ve tried. It is average or a little below average. The flavors were weak. With this tea blend in particular, this had a lot of rice and popcorn and very few sencha leaves. Overall, I’m not impressed. I’ve been spoiled by other genmaichas. I must say though that genmaicha has never disappointed me. This one was just meh.

This genmaicha has a lot of rice in it! It is nice and pretty standard for genmaicha. YUM!

Smells good, taste was nice.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea to try! It’s quite nice!

It smells very good – like fresh strawberries (always a welcome aroma!) The notes of vanilla are a little less apparent in the fragrance, but I think that is just because the strawberry scent is so strong.

The flavor is very smooth. Strawberry-licious! The green tea is the strongest flavor in the cup and it has a slight grassy-bitter taste to it, but it isn’t bad at all. The strawberry sweetens it up so nicely that the grassy note gives this cup some interest. The vanilla is not strong here at all, it is a background note, like a hint of cream with the berries. Very nice.

EIther my tastebuds changed, or they tweaked their recipe. I think the latter. I now taste in this order: grated ginger, smooth green tea, fresh lemon, hint of vanilla. Much better!

I am drinking the bottled version of this. I didn’t read the label first and had it with dinner (miso noodle soup) and was shocked by the flavor clash. First off, this tea is sweeter than I’d like it to be, which would probably be ok on it’s own, but the fact that Argo for some reason added NATURAL VANILLA FLAVOR to this blend is just unfathomable. Why?! Between the sweetness and the vanilla, I can barely taste the tea, muchless the ginger. More ginger, less sugar, and NO VANILLA would make this great. As it is, it is almost undrinkable. It certainly doesn’t “go” with dinner, but maybe it will be more palatable on its own as a mid-day pick-me-up. I’m just disappointed because I picked this flavor to go with dinner, never expecting a ginger green tea blend to be so sweet & desserty!

That said, I will probably buy the other two flavors I saw in the store – Carolina Honey and Mojitea.

PS – the very nice thick glass bottle with a heavy plastic cap that screws on firmly is a nice perk. I will definitely be keeping & reusing it.

Great hot or cold drink. Full review here http://exm.nr/igSeZK

I am so freaking tired! I don’t know what came over me this afternoon. I was just chugging along fine, and then out of nowhere, bam!, utter exhaustion. I really want to go climb into bed right now, but that is not really an option. Oolong seems to have done nothing for me, so I thought I would give this roasted maté a go.

Man, I used to really love this. Way back in the day before I was really a tea drinker, I loved drinking this. Now it’s not really my style anymore. It’s kinda sad, actually! Adding to the fact that it’s pretty old and I feel like it’s lost some of the almondy chocolatey flavor I remember and now it kind of tastes like toasted cardboard (with the almondy chocolatey flavors lurking underneath). Man this is totally not working because I am too apathetic to drink this cup. Oh well, hope I’m not getting sick.

This is a toasted maté, which means it has none of the vegetal, bitter tastes of a straight up maté. I first got this tea in an Argo store in Chicago when I used to live there years ago, and I always enjoyed this tea, either unadultered or in their “maté latté”. When I moved away from Chicago I brought a couple of bags with me, and I opened the second one today. The aroma is still powerful and fresh since the bag had been sealed against air for that time.

This toasted maté also has toasted cocoa bits, almond, and cornflowers in the mix, but they’re hard to see amongst the brown chip-like pieces of maté. It has a relatively long brew time, and brews up a dark brown liquor that almost looks like coffee. The major flavor is hard for me to describe: it’s warm, nutty and distinctly roasted. There’s an almondy flavor that comes through, but don’t expect marzipan here, this is a toasted almond that melds well into the maté itself. The toasted cocoa isn’t distinct, and I think it’s providing some background and depth of flavor more than a separate note. I really enjoy this maté; the flavor is complex and you get different hints of each element in each sip. It’s a great winter tea because the roasty aroma and flavor is so comforting and warming.