Tazo

This tea is amazing plain, with sugar, or sugar and milk. I love to make a 16 oz cup using two tea bags. Followed by two tablespoons of pure sugar and then filling the rest of the cup with Vitamin D milk and stirring till all sugar is dissolved. So amazing to drink in the morning and such a better alternative to coffee. Chi tea really is a calming yet awakening experience.

So sad this is no longer available at Starbucks. This has been my go to tea latte for years!! And of course being a tea newb back then it never occurred to me that instead of paying $4+ per drink, to just buy the tin and make them myself. The fact that Teavana took over Starbucks recently and swapped out the Tazo tea was the ‘kick in the butt’ I needed to purchase the tin. To be honest I have 3 tins of this at home… Whoops. It was hard to come by so I wanted to stock up!

I’m happy I stocked up as I love this tea! I tried it as just a straight plain tea tonight and it was still delicious (even though I’m used to the latte version). Its got sort of an apple=y taste. Not just straight vanilla but delicious none the less and will always be a favourite. Going to try it as a home made latte next time :)

Another surprise! It seems my grocery store has some good options (including some I’d never seen before yesterday, like this one). The white tea in this is actually the strongest flavor, with the sweet hay notes blending into the apricot seamlessly. The fruit is subtle but it enhances the base tea in a great way. The vanilla is more like an aftertaste, and it reminds me of whipped cream on a fruit dessert. Really good, especially for a brand I’d nearly given up on.

This one sounded so good! Something refreshing to drink in the late afternoon or evening. However, I found it very sour. And there was a strange, metallic taste in my mouth after I finished. I didn’t care for it. Even if a friend served this I’d decline. :( Just not my cuppa.

Yay, thanks for including a Tazo in the box, Lala! I seemed to have enjoyed this more than most others, and it was better than I expected. The dry bag smelled like SweeTarts, and the scent of the steeped tea was tart and fruity, with citrus and a touch of mango coming through. As it cooled, the hibiscus intensified and covered up the other flavours, unfortunately. It took me hours to sip on my gigantic cup so it was interesting to see how the flavour profile changed throughout the temperature changes. Would I buy any? No, but it was a fun round.

Well, on the bright side, it had noticeable flavor. :P

Seriously, I hate teas that are too weak. Therefore, I must give this tea some points. It really does just pretty much taste sour. I can taste the licorice, but I am pretty sensitive to that flavor. I added a ton of sweetener, and it really didn’t help. I am going to save it for trying with a couple of bags of Luzianne in the summer – there’s a chance that diluting it with some ol’ Southern sweet tea will make it palatable. Then again, I could just rip up all the bags and dump the contents into the garden for compost…

This is a staple in my tea cupboard. It isn’t anything that’s going to set the world on fire, but it’s consistent and inexpensive. I like it hot or cold, but definitely with sweetener either way. Mild green tea, spearmint, and light citrus – it’s refreshing at any temperature. I can drink a ton of iced tea, so this is a good one for me to have in quantity – I hate using my “good” tea by the pitcherful, even though I probably should, just to use some of it up! This is a nice standby and one I’ve gone to for several years.

This is one of those infamous ones where the existing reviews already say it all! In the spirit of scientific inquiry, or “could it really be that bad”, I finally tried it today. Verdict: yes, it really can.

The smell is nice. It could probably be kept around the house as potpourri, which is the only use I recommend it for. The taste…others have put it more creatively already. It’s more tart than anything I would want to voluntarily imbibe. The only saving grace is that there is a detectable touch of lemongrass in it, to assure me that it isn’t pure acid. Never again, Wild Sweet Orange!

Pretty good Chai for simple, bagged stock that you can get at Wal-Mart for goodness sakes! Having said that, it’s nothing compared to my favorite loose leaf Masala Chai or even World Market’s Masala Chai in terms of sheer strength of spices. And after all, in my opinion, that’s one of the main things I’m coming to a Chai tea to taste. Still, I keep it “in stock” at my house for travel or if I’m visiting company that won’t have any tea equipment etc.

This tea smells so perfect, like honeysuckle. I can’t wait to drink it. I received this sample from Flyawaybirdie – thanks so much :)- but I haven’t drunk any jasmine teas in a while. I thought I wanted black tea, but now that I’ve brewed this green tea, I don’t know why I actually waited so long to drink it. Jasmine green tea is one of my favorites.

I might have brewed this a bit too much. It seems to get bitter easier than dragon pearls. I don’t make the tea often, but I do know that adding a bit of brown sugar and milk makes it taste amazing. A tea shop would use it for their bubble tea, and you could also get it iced.

I put some milk in it… nope, bad idea. I guess I’ll still drink it. It’s a pretty good tea. I haven’t bought any jasmine green teas yet, simply because I feel like jasmine pearls accomplish the same thing. I like this enough, though. I don’t know if I would buy it, but if I did have it, then I would definitely share it with friends. I think it’s a much more palatable tea for those just trying tea for the first time, especially green tea.

I think I’ll make some more.

One of my favorite mint teas. Although it is hard time find where I live.

Fairly bland, though not bad per se. Not in my top selections even for cheap bagged tea.

Backlog. This was such a surprise! Up there with the Trescerro as one of the best teas of the trip. It’s vegetal, almost like a steamed green, and there’s a slight sweetness to the aftertaste. If I hadn’t read the name I would have guessed this was a sencha or a relative. This was not quite buttery, but it does have a fresh quality with no bitterness, rare for bagged unflavored greens. I must have had at least five cups of it over two days!

Backlog. Had this and my longtime favorite Calm with a big lunch after walking around all morning. Unfortunately the peppermint in this is overwhelming, and peppermint is not really my favorite. There’s a touch of spearmint but I’d prefer more, and the tarragon is just not there. The description is better than the brew, but it was still nice enough.

Backlog. On this trip I discovered that I like Tazo’s herbal and green blends a lot more than their blacks. I don’t know what the deal is with their base black teas but they’re just not for me. This one was much better than I was expecting, although I was still not blown away. It’s more fruity-tasting than floral, and the green base is sort of there but mostly hidden by the flavoring. It’s better as it cools.