China Green Tips

First I must say since they switched to the mesh whole leaf bags this tea has improved a lot. I enjoy the vegetal, even a little bit woody taste. I like the slightly bitter after taste. If you are getting this at Starbucks, be mindful of the steep time or this tea can get NASTY. I usually order it in a grande because the size of the teabag in a tall tends to make the tea taste oversteeped.

Tried this tea straight, no honey or anything. The taste was very bitter. Added a bit of honey and it offset the bitterness slightly. Not bad with honey not sure I would drink it straight however. Also, the bags are a tad old, that may have something to do with it.

Tried this in bag form at a Starbucks-supplied bookstore cafe downtown. I was on my way elsewhere, but luckily the campus has lots of structures/seats/trash cans scattered around this particular area, so I was able to stop after two minutes or so of walking and dispose of the tea bag without too much problem. (I didn’t want this to get bitter!) As it turns out, it does have some bitterness on first taste, which I’m attributing to the too-hot water. It was “too hot for your hands even with the java jacket on the cup” hot. The smell as it’s brewing is classic fresh grassy green, with a curious sweet honey-like note. On tasting (once it cooled off sufficiently), no honey is in evidence, but the aforementioned bitterness clears off quickly and the rest is full-bodied and vegetal. Perhaps a little bit of a roasted taste, but not much. Other people have mentioned a spinach flavor; I can totally taste that now that I read it. If this is Chinese green tea, then that’s what I like, not Japanese, though there seem to be many more kinds of Japanese green tea than Chinese, and I’ve only tried a few.

If I were up to having caffeine every day, I might buy a box (or a tin—others seem to prefer it in loose form), but my low caffeine tolerance won’t let me adopt this one for my daily tea ritual. So I’ll save my box-sized purchases for low- or no-caffeine items, and I’ll savor this one occasionally at Starbucks. (Or maybe I’ll just buy a tea bag from them and bring it home so I can control the water temperature!)

Oh China Green Tips, I really want to like you. I take you home for my weekly mark-out hoping that maybe THIS tin will be the tin that does it. I’ve tried you hot, cold, strong, weak, blended with other teas; I’ve cut open your lovely sachet and tried to use you as a seasoning. I’ve even put you in an oil warmer to take some stink out of the air. But you’re just like that one friend that you really want to like because they seem nice at first, but when you get to know them, there’s something kind of ‘off’ about them, yet every time you get together, you hope that somehow they have changed.

As a lover of all things green, I should be delighted that I have a free supply of China Green Tips available to me by virtue of employment at Starbucks, but it just doesn’t do it for me. It smells okay, the leaves look pretty, and it’s supposedly high quality stuff. But I steep it and it just, it just… doesn’t taste that good. It has a metallic bitterness, and I wonder if it comes from the metal tins the tea comes in, or just a feature of the leaves. I’ve tried short steeps and long steeps, and a range of temperatures. Steeped short and hot and then poured over ice until it’s just barely flavored water is the most tolerable way I can drink it. If my stomach is feeling gross, sometimes I will make a hot cup to sip for the astringency. Resteeps? Forget about it… leaves are too deteriorated.

This tea obviously has an accquired taste.
I love bitter tea. No sugar no lemon nothing but the tea
and I love it to steep long making it nice and strong.
Delicious is China Green Tips by Tazo, yum.

I bought this tea for those late nights when I’m reading a good book and I crave a cup of something hot, but I really don’t want a jolt of caffeine. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised at the subtleness of this full-leaf Mao Feng green tea.

The leaves are in great condition: whole, for the most part, and they have a distinct (though soft) smell of freshly cut grass.

After four minutes in 180ºF water, I get a straightforward cup of green tea. Sure, it lacks those sweet, buttery, almond notes that a great green tea should have, but it makes up for it with a subtle, vegetative taste with a gentle sweetness. It’s far from unpleasant, but it does leave me wanting more. It’s still something that I’d buy again, if only for the convenience.

This is a really pleasant surprise in more ways than one. First of all, I didn’t buy it—I’m staying with the same friend that hooked me up with the green tea from Charlotte, and she made me this before bed like a lovely person. Second of all, I have really, really not had pleasant experiences with Tazo lately—I keep having it made for me by people who just don’t know how to make tea and somehow get everything to taste like cardboard, so I was sort of expecting this to be similar. Turns out I just needed to taste it made by someone who actually knows how tea functions.

It has no astringency. It has that same kind of delicacy that stuff like Misty Mountain and Yunnan Emerald Buds had, except there’s no kick to it, it’s just super mellow and smooth and sweet, and I absolutely LOVE it—I know it seems not to be a favorite, from reading the other reviews, so I’ll note that it was made a little strong? Maybe that’s how it was different? I don’t know, but I love it and will probably attempt to get my hands on some in the future, as good bagged tea is a little hard to come by.

Ugh, this was a bad tea experience because I steeped it for waaaaay too long. I was running late at the airport and ended up steeping it all the way from Starbucks to my seat on the plane. Bitter is an understatement. I’d like to try this tea properly in the future!

Dry bag smells like dry grass clippings, a hint of mint; familiar and comforting.

Aroma over cup has a hearty nuttiness with a distinct cut grass smell.

Cup is yellow with some faint green.

First sips have a powdery green tea flavor with some very faint bitterness and some seaweed flavor, with some faint mint notes coming in the aftertaste after the dried grass clippings. There is a nuttiness that is less prominent that I expected from the smell of the dry tea. Soft and smooth. Astringency is nearly non-existent.

Sips midway through the cup have some bright flavor along the sides of my tongue that I can’t quite place, bittersweet? This dominates the bitter and other notes, which are still quite subdued. Astringency is starting to tap lightly in the back of my mouth at the end of a sip. Green tea flavor and nuttiness are still quite faint.

I will finish the box, but I’m sure I can find another bagged chinese green that has more pizazz. If you like a smooth, smooth, smooth green tea in a bag, try this.

Smelling the bags, I’m getting a noticeable spinach odor. The liquor seemed a little weak, but could just be me. Tasting, however, I get this strange sensation of flavor around the edges of my tongue. It has a great vegetal freshness and seems to rejuvenate my mouth and ease me awake with my bien of Quaker oat maple squares… Yum.

I haven’t really been into green teas, but I could see myself drinking this one. Unfortunately it was the last bag, and I can’t exactly bring myself to go out and buy more

A little better than the loose leaf format I tried years ago. This was my very first foray into loose leaf teas years ago and I must admit, I did not like it, but thought I would revisit it since Tazo revamped their line and now offers full-leaf teas in sachets for convenience.

Aroma: Very grassy, herbaceous and vegetal (the aroma is a precursor of what’s to come).

Taste: Same as aroma…grassy, herbaceous, vegetal. If you like Chinese green teas, you should like this one…it is very much the Chinese green tea. The grassy, herbaceous, vegetal characteristics are more prominent than Japanese green teas which are sweeter and milder than their Chinese counterparts. There does exist a slight mouth feel.

Aftertaste: The mouth feel lingers as does all of the characteristics of this tea.

Personally, I prefer Japanese green teas over Chinese green teas. This is a nice tea, it’s just that, “nice”. Not sure if I would buy it again, again, I prefer Japanese green teas.

I’m still new to teas but I picked this up at lunch in Starbucks to give it a try. Has a veggie taste to it , but very smooth flavor. The bag after steeping has a great smell to it, but I don’t get that same smell from the tea itself. Not a bad tea, I’ll try resteeping since it’s whole leaf bags that came in the tin.

Now I’m new to this tea reviewing business, and according to tazo, this tea ‘s aroma is popcorn.
To be honest, when I first had a whiff of this tea, I was a bit worried.

The smell kind of assaults your nose a bit, but then your taste buds are shown compassion.
I am always one to drink my tea straight, like my vodka.
So if you want sweetening advice, I’m not the one to follow.
My sweet tooth is rather insatiable, but I just can’t seem to revert back to my overdosing of sugar cubes and milk in my tea anymore. Liquid diabetes is no longer my preference, it’s either sickly sweet, or not at all.
Probably why I like dry reds and sweet white.
Now that my slight alcoholic tendencies have shown their true colors, Backkkkkkkk to tea.
I tend to tank cups of tea, mindlessly gulping it down, while listening to dead man’s bones and writing papers. This tea is perfect for a non earth shattering taste explosion, it’s more of a steady tasty experience. (Like a silent ninja that sets up camp on the back of your tongue, and keeps dropping popcorn and plants on the ground.) Anyway. Very smooth, and the flavor is pretty consistent. The aftertaste is what predominantly the proof that you drank the tea in the first place. Not bitter, not sweet, just kind of there, existing, with a lingering plant taste, (but not like you just licked a tree plant taste). A pleasant I just ate dandelion salad in the sun on a picnic blanket taste.
Tazo might have the tea description down better than I do, but that’s my interpretation of it anyway. Enjoy
=)

I’m essentially tasting each flavor Starbucks offers, so I tried this one yesterday. I really enjoyed it. It’s a very simple, clean flavor. This is one I’ll have to order again.

Tazo’s description is actually pretty accurate! The tea is sharp and light-bodied, perched just on the edge of bitter and sweet. It’s refreshing, and comfortingly “unsurprising”—perfect for your daily mug of green tea.

My sister swears by this tried and true tea. I liked the taste but I prefer my Sencha Tea over this one. The taste was alright, I prefer loose leaf over bagged tea so maybe that’s why it did not blow my hair back. Not a bad tea at all just not one of my favorites.

So after my caffeine and sugar wake up this morning (courtesy of PG Special Blend and Domino Sugar), I pulled this out of my bag at work and made a cup. It’s green, it’s kinda toasty flavored, and grassy flavored at the same time. Nothing special, but not bad still. Kept me going at work through two steepings.
Can you tell I’m working through the Tazo Sampler pack that I’ve had forever? I really only bought it because I couldn’t find the Lotus flavor and the Sampler has two Lotus bags, but about two months later, I found it at Whole Foods.

The flavor profile is GRASSY and that’s the key word to latch onto. Kinda dull and tastes like sipping down a brewed cup of grass.

Bitter, not particularly flavorful. Standard green tea taste, couldn’t really taste any other notes.

From what I have read it seems that this is not a favorite. I like this tea when I go to starbucks. I have it with steamed soy and sweetened. It’s a morning tea to me, I prefer not to have it in the evenings, so if I get a chance to stop at a starbucks in the am or early afternoon I choose the china green tips misto (misto=starbucks for using bagged tea to make a tea-latte).