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Recent Tasting Notes
The mint and green tea flavors were present butI was underwhelmed with the initial taste of this tea. It didn’t knock my socks off like other Tazo teas have. There is a slight minty aftertaste, but while drinking it, I don’t get a heavy punch of any flavor. This sample has been in my cupboard for awhile so it may just have been too old.
The purple color has me hooked, however the sweet/tart flavor combo that others have mentioned was a bit too tart for me, especially as the tea cooled. The fragrance of this tea is floral and fruity. I would recommend it only to someone who like fruity, citrusy teas.
I cold brewed a batch of this tea as a part of my concerted effort to remove most filter bags from my house before summer’s end. No surprise that it tastes a lot like an unsweetened iced green chez Starbucks, since this is that blend.
It’s refreshing enough, but I have never found Zen to be especially “Zen”. Wouldn’t that name be more appropriate for a Japanese single-original first-flush sencha.? It could be called Zencha!
Preparation
Wow…the fragarance alone has completely impressed me! The black pepper, cardamom, and clove notes are clearly pronounced and are what I would expect from a higher-quality bagged chai. I added a bit of honey and milk and the spiciness still comes through with gusto! I will definitely be purchasing this again!
Flavors: Black Pepper, Cardamon, Cloves
This has to be one of my favourite teas from TAZO. It has the right amount of fruitiness. You get some teas where its too fruity and you feel like your eating a smoothie. This is amazing. I usually drink it with the tea bag left in, the stronger the better. No milk just straight with one sweetener or honey.
Preparation
I got this tea for very cheap, 2000 (yes, you read that right….two thousand) tea-bags for $120 including shipping. I make most of my teas iced unless it’s cold weather.
I make this tea as an iced tea, using hot water from the spigot. I use a half gallon glass container and 7 tea-bags. 6 was too weak, 8 was a bit strong. 7 seems to be the magical number.
I leave the tea-bags in the jar, in the fridge, until its’ all been consumed.
It does taste a little tart and I can taste the mint, but not too strongly. I smell the mint more than I can taste it.
I fill a quart jar with ice and pour this over and I find it refreshing, light and delicious. Sometimes I mix it with another herbal tea or some black or green tea, just whatever I have in rotation at the time. It can be a bit astringent if you drink too much of it, but it’s pretty light and tasty.
I like it and would recommend it.
Preparation
Ugh, today was one of those days where I got absolutely nothing accomplished. I had a list of things I wanted to do, but I think the utter lack of sleep last night sapped any desire to do anything today. Well, it is a lie, I have successfully mastered the fine art at staring at a website without actually reading it. We all have one of those days sometimes.
Today’s tea is Tazo Teas Rest Herbal Infusion, a blend of roses, valerian root, and citrusy herbs. I will admit, I have no idea how this tea bag got into my stash of tea, but I wanted an herbal tea to sip in the evening, so why not? I am very curious where this tea came from, maybe the tea fairy visited me, you know leave a tea-ball under your pillow and wake up with a soggy mess…and maybe new tea! The aroma is a soothing blend of lemony, herbaceous, a little bit of floral sweetness, and a finish of bitter herb (hello valerian, you still smell kinda awful.) The rose aroma is pretty faint, mostly the dominant notes are herbal and citrus.
Once the teabag has been steeped, however, the rose becomes more dominant. As does a bunch of different herbal notes, some of them not so pleasant and bit astringent smelling. There are also strong notes of citrus, honestly the tea smells like a medicinal cacophony with some rose perfume covering it up, it is not bad, but it does smell like medicine!
The taste of this is not offensive, which is always a good way to start out with a tea that has valerian in it. There is some bitter root taste, but it is pretty faint and only at the end, a bit of honey or sugar takes that bitterness right away. The taste of the tea is mild, with notes of citrus, rose, wildflowers, sage, and a general herb and grass feeling to it. I didn’t hate it, if this tea magically shows up in my stash again I would drink it before sleep, granted there are significantly better night time herbal teas out there, but this one is not bad.
For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/06/tazo-teas-rest-herbal-infusion-tea.html
Because of the cherry/berries, I’ve been wanting to try this chilled. Because of the green tea, I’ve been hesitant to cold steep or prepare this as sun tea. Hit sort of a happy medium; gave it a 20 minute start in the sunshine, then removed the bags and chilled it. Little rock sugar (just a teaspoon to a quart) to chase off the bitterness and it’s mighty nice after a bona fide hot day of mowing and puttering.
The mowing, inadvertently and unfortunately, displaced a couple of adorable baby bunnies the size of Twinkies who have spent a good bit of the day quivering in the flower bed. Can’t seem to convince them that the abode of El Puma, the serial rodent killer, is not a prudent place for them to take shelter. Anybody want to volunteer for the Rabbit Relocation and Protection Program? I could ship them to you in a shoebox…
Going into my second day of training at Disney today! Totally forgot that there’s no traffic on a Saturday morning so I arrived i Anaheim like an hour and a half early… But it’s okay! I decided to pass by Starbucks so I can get energy today :)
This guy made it *okay. It did get a bit bitter so it’s just an okay cuppa
Yay for Disney training! That sounds so exciting :)
It was a 7 hour day and 4 hours of it was spent at the park. We walked through all the different lands that made up California Adventure, and spent half an hour in each land talking about its history and how it linked to Walt’s life.
It was pretty much an 8 hour history lesson on Disney! It was great, but oh my gosh walking around the park in full business clothing in the 85 degree heat. I’m exhausted!
Do I like this tea? No, not really. I think maybe I did at one time, but now it just tastes medicinal to me. I’m only drinking it because I just got home from playing a kickass gig, & I’m wired, naturally high as a kite on music, good vibes, adrenaline, etc. So I’m drinking 2 bags of this in my usual cup, with a double dose of Valerian tincture added, in hopes that I will come back down to the planet’s surface & be able to sleep soon.
Tomorrow will be known as ‘The Day She Planted Sweet Potatoes’.
Silly me, I ordered 24 sweet potato plants, 4 each of 6 different varieties from http://www.tatorman.com/
Vardeman, Red Japanese, Nancy Hall, Beauregard, Carolina Ruby, & Bunch Porto Ricans.
I always grow alot of sweet potatoes, & we eat them all fall, winter, & spring, but the local stores still don’t have plants, & they only ever have one variety anyway.
Of course, it’s insane that I bought so many, LOL, but they arrived today, & they are adorable, & I’m very excited! Tomorrow the entire day will be dedicated to getting them in the ground!! I wanted to get some of the purple japanese ones, but you have to buy 12 plants, & that would be 36 plants total! Maybe next year…
Hopefully this year I’ll remember to save one of each kind for starting next year’s crop.
I also almost ordered more garlic for the fall from another company. I currently have 5 varieties, but you can never have too much garlic, & there are some really interesting heirlooms, including a few amazing sounding Italian ones, & I also want a few shallots to add to my shallot collection. The company I order those from doesn’t take paypal though, so that order will have to wait until I actually have some money in my bank account.
That & my Laoshan Black order (not like I need any, I just want a bag of the new crop for comparison sake).
Sipdown…I have no idea what my total is though…
Wish me luck falling asleep…
Just checked my sipdown total. I’m at 373!
(Not counting any new teas that have arrived since June 1st…I’ll add them on July 1st)
Sounds like a fantastic garden! I’ve never eaten any different varieties of sweet potatoes, as far as I know. I’ll have to see if I can find some at the farmer’s market.
Maybe I should have realized, but I didn’t know there were other types of sweet taters than what we grow. Garlic – We have tried multiple times to grow garlic, never with success. The Amish fellow I last got them from assured me it was simple. Maybe for you and him. Hat’s off to you and your green thumb.
For years I just ate ‘the’ sweet potatoes from the store. Then one year I noticed there were too kinds: Garnet & whatever the other one was. They were both great. Whole foods carries Garnet, the other one (whose name I can’t recall right now, it’s too early), & japanese. So hopefully 3 months from now I’ll be in sweet potato heaven!! KS, some years are better than others. Last year wasn’t as great as the previous 2 years.
Regarding garlic, this will be my first successful year growing, LOL. I think I finally know what I’m doing :)
Anyway, I consider the whole thing a grand experiment, a mix of permaculture (“are you gonna pull those weeds?”), raised beds, companion planting, containers, strange trellising formations, etc. Most people who take a walk with me in my garden view it with either wonder, amusement, disbelief or possibly they are appalled, or maybe a mix of all of the above. I just view it as heaven :)
I haven’t stepped foot in your garden and I am impressed, and amused. :) Last year we had a good crop of red, white, and sweet potatoes. Pretty much nothing else did good.
My little piece of earth is basically 99.9% clay, & after years of double digging in my previous garden (different house, different lifetime), I’m basically too old for that crap. So I layer in soil, newspaper, compost, cardboard, manure, and anything else I think will decompose. I just keep piling stuff on each year, & the worms & moles take care of the rest. Most of my beds are edged with the trimming of my various trees & straw, which initially help hold things in place, but eventually help hold water, etc. There are deep layers of straw everywhere! And piles of dead weeds.
Hey if it weren’t for weeds we would have no lawn at all. And can definitely identify with the clay. That’s why the grass won’t grow. The potatoes were grown in raised beds with bagged dirt and compost. With what we have had to do it is cheaper just to go buy them but that isn’t the point.
I dream of you your garden at night…
K: I know what you mean! We made several runs to get bagged soil today, & then I started realizing how much soil I was gonna need…yikes! I had to alter my planting plan somewhat…
TeaFairy: me too! :)
I’m a huge lover of Tazo teas, But i wouldn’t drink this one if i had another opiotion. I dunno who, its something with the rose petals in it. To me it makes it taste a little soapy,
Flavors: Rose
Preparation
I have been through a real roller coaster ride with Tazo Thrive. I loved my first pot prepared with the loose leaf blend. Then I bought a bunch of filter bags, which were a huge disappointment.
Today, I am happy to report on my first cold-brewed pitcher of iced Tazo Thrive, prepared using 8 filter bags in 1 quart of water and steeped overnight in the refrigerator.
It tastes very good! What a pleasant surprise. I’ll definitely be using the remaining filter bags for iced tea this summer. The flavors mingle together perfectly. Especially prominent are mint, pepper, and green tea. Cold is the way to go for this blend, it seems! I brewed my pitcher on the strong side so that I could fill a glass with ice and it would melt without over-diluting the tea. The final iced tea is very refreshing.
One concern may be that I’m going to be consuming a large amount of caffeine if I finish this pitcher this afternoon. On the other hand, a single large iced coffee would likely have more! Oh well, I suppose that it does not matter very much since I appear to have adopted a nocturnal schedule anyway—up until 3am last night…
I count this as a new tea experience: first cold-brewed Tazo Thrive. I am increasing my overall rating for this tea, but it’s important to note that I approve of the filter bag only for iced tea.
(Blazing New Rating #78)
Flavors: Mint, Pepper
Preparation
Somehow I went two days without drinking either green tea or jasmine! I decided that I needed to rectify the deficiency on both counts and so brewed up a pot of Tazo Jasmine Yin-Hao right after lunch. I don’t usually drink jasmine with a meal, but since I ate only a bagel it seemed compatible.
The liquor of this good-quality jasmine green tea is light gold veering green. I brewed this floral-scented tea a bit stronger than usual, with 5.2 grams for a two-glass tetsubin. The pot is said to hold 20 ounces, but in my experience, it really produces about 17 ounces of tea.
The flavor is smooth and rather floral—naturally! I think that I may prefer jasmine dragon pearls to Yin Hao, but I’ll have to try out some other versions before I can know for sure. I also may have slightly overleafed this pot.
I always look forward to the second infusion of jasmine teas, since they tend to offer a completely different—far more green—experience…
(Blazing New Rating #72)
Flavors: Jasmine
Preparation
I cold-steeped one of the large pitcher-sized filterbags to prepare half a gallon of Tazo Citrus Bliss. The dried tea in the bag smelled soooooo delicious when I put the pitcher in the refrigerator last night before retiring that I was totally looking forward to the result in the morning.
The color of the liquor is cloudy orange—a little darker than Tang, in case anyone out there knows any astronauts—and the flavor is basically citrus-tinged rooibos. A lot of rooibos going on here. It’s possible that I am sensitive to rooibos, or perhaps rooibos is just plain strong.
Either way, I’ll drink the remaining five filterbags in the box—the summer months ahead promise to be hot!—but will not purchase again. Nothing wrong with it, really, I’m just not that fond of rooibos.
(Blazing New Rating #71)
Flavors: Citrusy, Rooibos
