39 Tasting Notes
I buy this in 16 count boxes of well sealed individual pouches from my (more or less) local Asian supermarket. It’s amazingly inexpensive, dependable, and it reminds me of Honey Smacks. I get that smacks are puffed wheat instead of rice but tell that to my brain.
When I’m not looking for an adventure of some kind and just want to idle on tasty, I pick this green tea and enjoy the toasty goodness. The tea itself is rather mild and vegetable, perfect for when you’re looking to simply hydrate and stay tea-headed all day while doing something else but you also have a sweet-toothed craving for all-day carbs.
Among the Tazo varieties this one is just a mystery to me. So much as touch this to your water and you have a bitter steep. Maybe it’s the fannings in there. I don’t know, but this is a pretty astringent Earl Gray without a lot of complexity (dull and muted, in terms of flavor).
The best thing about this is the strong floral bergamot scent after brewing, but by the time I finish the tea I always regret those first few sips—it gets increasingly bitter, not more flavorful, as you drink.
Sometimes I lead with the negatives. Maybe that’s a fault, but instead I’d like to think it prepares the taster for the experience, letting them look past the bad to the delightful. In that spirit, the bags smell like stale herbs and there’s no individual wrapping. As someone that likes to sniff teabags as well as someone who appreciates freshness in something portable like an individual tea bag, it’s hard for me to look past those petty things.
The brewed mate itself is tasty, especially with a little sweetener. The carob is subtle and the yerba mate provides littles more than body, so one is left mostly with peppermint, but if you enjoy peppermint tea, I could easily see this becoming a daily staple. If you’re more interested in the mocha, I’d look elsewhere.
Don’t be fooled by the cheap-looking teabag or reasonable price tag, this is an absolutely delicious on-the-go mate. I have to ration myself, otherwise I’d probably drink three or four bags a day, which wouldn’t be so bad as the caffeine has a very gentle curve. Wait, why exactly do I ration this?
In any case, expect a lot of rich and spicy notes along with a satisfying, though somewhat tame, yerba mate taste. This has an extremely full-bodied flavor, especially with a touch of cream—if I’m skipping breakfast, this is my go-to meal replacement tea.
A few years back my wife was in the hospital for a 12 days stretch, and I was there with her to watch and wait. I didn’t have a lot of creature comforts at that time, but I did have some matches of Green Tea Tropical. Without a way to get hot water (I wasn’t one to ask for things or venture far from the room at the time), I brewed this in a water bottle over and over throughout the day with cold tap, one bag per day until it ran out. It probably sounds awful, but it wasn’t. The tea held up to all those cold-water brewings and still had enough flavor to overpower the tap. I’ll never be able to separate this tea from that experience, so I thought I’d share.
For me there’s more floral than fruit to this tea, and the underlying green is good, if a bit weak. I can see how some might get sick of the strong’ish fruity flavor, but it’s better iced and weak. If you have a few bags left and you weren’t so sure about this tea after trying it hot, iced is also nice.
I like this tea, at least when I give it a good week or so between tastings. I’m not sure why I get sick of it, but I do. I think it’s the leaf-pile scent that remains after my nose gets used to the sweet and fruity aromas.
With that confession off my chest, let me stress that this is a quality tea with a lots of complex flavor that somehow doesn’t get lost even though there’s this up-front sort of astringency. Instead of a dry-mouthed tannin taste, what lingers is very pleasant. If it reads like I can’t write about this tea without mixing up the pleasant and unpleasant, that’s about right. What matters is that the tea never fails to engage, and I keep coming back to relive the experience.
Oh, I also tend to start out drinking this without any sweetener. By the time I finish the cup I usually add a bit. It’s more enjoyable with it, but it’s so interesting without.
For some this tea is probably perfect. They can likely enjoy the muted spectrum of flavor and scent that is mostly lost on me. As much as I’d like to be in their camp, I need the volume on my white tea to by dialed just a bit higher. That said, what I do taste and smell is not bad. This is an enjoyable, if muted, tea with a slight floral scent (and like another reviewer explained it, some bread dough) and little to no bitterness (no matter how long I let this sit).
I’ve also noticed that the leaves have this marathon quality, so I can get the same weaker cup of tea out of this for several long steeps.
Preparation
Very pleased with this tea. It comes with an oversized wrapper that makes for a good place to set the bag between steeps. Within you’ll find a reasonable roomy satchet full of choppy bits of flavorful sencha along with a modest sprinkling of matcha.
I like it. It’s not the most complex sencha I’ve had, but it has a pleasant vegetable taste that responds very well to a little bit of sweetener, making this an extremely comfortable tea for me. On the first steep you may find this getting a bit bitter and astringent towards the bottom at the matcha sits there doing its thing long after the bag is removed, and while I’d rather say the flavor got deeper, bitter and astringent is a bit more on target.
All in all, this is an excellent bagged tea that isn’t at all overpriced. Oh, and regarding the super green, it is pretty darn attractive.
I’m a big fan of Kirkland products, and I enjoy other ito en tea, so you can imagine I was pretty excited when I say this huge box just waiting for me to throw it in the cart.
It’s not bad, but it’s far too weak. It’s odd too, because I can see the tea in there. It’s getting wet and it’s in my cup, but at 30 seconds (as they recommend for the first steep) I can barely taste it. They also recommend dumping in the remaining matcha from the outside wrapper—there really isn’t any.
I feel like the packaging was designed for some long lost age when this tea was flavorful and complex. It’s not. It’s a cheap and weak green tea that I don’t regret buying per se (cheap and not necessarily offensive), but I don’t particularly look forward to drinking.
