Zen

Thanks to Kristaleyn for this sample!!
I’m not a huge fan of green teas in general, but this one wasn’t so bad. I guess cuz my standards are generally low, the mix of flavours kinda brought up my level of appreciation.
I couldn’t really taste much of the “green” tea, which in my case… is good! Still, I’d have liked a bit more of a “tea” aspect.
It reminds me of Teavana’s Lemon lime kampai actually, only with a bit more depth.
and I did get three infusions out of it. Aided mightily by some agave of course (rather flat without it, sadly)
Anyhow, would I buy this to replace my stash? perhaps.
Odd, I seem to like this more than most people here :)

Friend gave my teenager a bag of this and he asked me to steep it for him; since I’m still trying to win him over to the tea side, I did so with great care to time, temp, and taste. Zen is consistently light and nice, but I wondered if it would be a good first experience with green tea for a newbie.

He drank it all to humor me and the tea-giver, but commented, “It pretty much just tastes like water with an asterisk.”

Oh, well, I’ll keep trying.

Green tea and Super Mario Bros, that’s what I say! Went over to a friend’s house after class and ended up playing the new multiplayer Super Mario Brothers game for the Nintendo Wii. Before we sat down to conquer Bowser and save the princess, I stole a couple of his Zen tea bags and made us each a cup.

For a bagged tea, Zen makes a decent cup… enough for me to keep coming back to it if I want a quick brew. I adore spearmint. I believe this flavor, along with a touch of lemon, save the mediocre green tea that is in this blend. I guess I really like this one because it is a flavored tea that is not all about the flavorings. The green tea is most definitely the base in which the spearmint and lemon complement it – I taste the slightly grassy green tea first, the lemon provides a bit of acidity, and the spearmint is left in the end.

This morning my stomach was feeling kind of ucky, but of course I didn’t have access to the lemon ginger teas I would usually drink in such a situation. The selection of Tazo bags in my hotel also didn’t include any with ginger, but I grabbed this one for the soothing spearmint in it.

Overall, not horrible. Not especially flavorful, but lightly minty and at least it soothed my discomfort. I’m out of that hotel now, so probably no more Tazo for a while, but it will still be a while before I’m back home. On it goes…

I was in Starbucks today, and decided to pick up a tin of their bagged whole leaf tea to try. Zen is one of the Tazo teas I like fairly well, , so I took home a tin.

The tins are absolutely huge, and about half empty – not a feature I appreciate when I have limited tea storage space. I used one bag for a one pint pot, and that seemed sufficient. I think using a second bag would probably make the tea a little overwhelming. I like lemongrass, but I don’t want to swim in it.

This is also giving me a chance to play with my new toy, an Apple Iphone. My husband claims I have been obsessively, obnoxiously geeky about it since it arrived. I found a neat little tea timer app for free, with an amusing little graphic of a glass tea cup that gradually turns darker as the timer counts down. I set it for the recommended time, and was thrilled when it went off. So cool!

The bags are huge, and the leaf inside smells and tastes very attractive – large chunks of lemongrass, with a very minty aroma. (Have I mentioned that I love mint?).

In taste, this could just as well be an herbal infusion – I get spearmint and lemon grass, and just a hint of lemon zest, but no real tea flavor. Looking again at the bag, it appears that it is almost all mint, lemongrass, and lemon balm – there’s not a whole lot of tea present. Still, it’s a pleasant flavor and aroma. The mint is dominant in the first steep. The lemon flavor and scent are more pronounced in the second steep.

I would really prefer to buy this as a loose tea – it is way overpackaged. But good. I enjoy this cup.

hey y’all! I’m in Boston! (Know if any good tea places around here?) I spent the last few days running around trying to get ready, so I didn’t have much tea. However, yesterday I did manage to find this in a pyramid bag at my Starbucks. It actually looked like real tea!! & it was a bit better than average, too. So that’s good news.

I picked up 5 new teas at Tealuxe today… so many new tasting notes to come once I’m back home with my tea supplies!

Venti, clean, iced @ Starbucks Sunday nite to try to cool down. It was nice and refreshing, but I really wish they’d specify if it’s flavored tea. “Iced Green Tea” to me implies unflavored… but then again it also implies a default of unsweetened for me.

Little by little, my original stash of what seems like thousands o’ tea bags that I bought to try to turn myself into a tea drinker (before I started reading up and realized that was not the best way to go), is diminishing if not yet dwindling. This is among that group, and one of the first I bought. I think it was part of the second wave of splurge, after the original Bigelow/Twinings purchases. It’s in one of those spacious rectangular tins that the full leaf “sachets” come in.

The sachets, by the way, are pretty nice. I feel confident I’m not going to taste paper, I can see the leaves, and there’s lots of room for them to swim in once they hit the water without being too compressed. They do expand to fill the bag and bump up against the sides a bit once they’ve steeped fully.

I expected to like this one quite a bit as it has a reputation for being one of the tastier Tazo blends. But I think I may have to come to terms with the fact that I am not generally liking flavored green teas. Green teas on their own, yes. But I haven’t yet found a flavored green tea that really sends me. This one smells quite nice, a little minty, a little green, and a tiny bit of citrus if I really try hard.

While this is a significant improvement over the Orange Blossom by Tazo, I like their China Green Tips better as a green tea. I can taste a grassiness in the Zen, but it doesn’t have the sweetness and succulence of the Green Tips. And I like Refresh quite a bit as a mint tisane. The combination of peppermint, spearmint and tarragon really works well, and is much more interesting to me than the spearmint present here. In fact, Refresh is still the frontrunner in my Tazo experience and I plan to buy more of it (loose this time) when I run out of the bags as I’ve not been able to duplicate the blend using my own peppermint, spearmint and tarragon.

This isn’t bad, it just isn’t as great as I’d expected, and it’s not something I’ll feel compelled to replace when I finish. I could see having it every once in a while when something I like better isn’t available.

Also, I should say that it steeps well at a longer time without bitterness, but there’s not a noticeable change in flavor between 1.5 min and 3 min.

This may not be a fancy, super high quality tea – but it is nice enough as a soothing cup with a bit of honey. I don’t think I would purchase this, however, I wouldn’t turn it down if offered.

Sitting in Starbucks on the New Jersey coast. The only tea I have with me is some Ito En teabags and I wanted something different so I came here. I ordered a small China green tips tea and they gave me this instead, which is saddening but I’ll deal. This stuff is enjoyable, my problem with it is that I really can’t see or taste the green tea in it, it’s all lemongrass and mint. But for now, it’s soothing as I watch the waves crash on to the shoreline. I just wish the staff of Starbucks knew that just because this says green tea, doesn’t mean it’s the same thing. Haha

Starting off my Saturday morning with a cup of this before I head off to a much needed massage. At first sniff (pre and post) steeping all I can smell is the lemongrass. This isn’t a bad thing, just my first impressions of a tea I don’t think I’ve had, but then again maybe I have. The taste is pretty amazing with a perfect mix of minty and well something else. But it’s a great kick off to my day of relaxation.

Every time I have this tea, I enjoy the flavor. For some reason, this morning is especially good. Maybe I squeezed the optimal amount of amber agave nectar, or possible the longer steep time helped as well.

I have been meaning to try this iced for months and have finally gotten around to it.

It’s great. I love spearmint in green tea. This reminds me a lot of Sobe’s bottled green tea, but with a stronger, more authentic sencha taste. Sweet, minty, and a little lemony. A perfect spring evening tea.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Water: boiling, let sit 1 minute, 12 oz
Steep Time: a little over 1 minute (http://steep.it/)
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: mint
Steeped Tea Smell: vegetal
Flavor: lemongrass, mint, vegetal
Body: Full
Aftertaste: mint
Liquor: translucent brown-green

not really exciting or delicious, a lemon-grassy green tea.

Rating: 2/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/11/tazo-teabag-green-tea-zen.html

Got two steepings from the mesh bags I put in my tumbler this morning for work. This is definitely a smooth spearmint flavor, with just enough lemon secondary notes to remind you that you’re not drinking liquid Wrigley’s gum. That’s not to say that the mint flavor is overwhelming, but I have a hard time distinguishing the green tea. Between Zen and Refresh, another of Tazo’s mint offerings, I believe Refresh is my preference.

But Zen would make an aMAZing iced tea for a warm weather treat. Make a strong infusion, squeeze a tad bit more lemon for balance, and you’re ready for ice!

I feel confident in suggesting that Zen is really trying to be more of a tisane than a tea.

You know, I think I am beginning to enjoy mint. In tea, at least—I don’t seem to like it anywhere else.

This brewed oddly dark, I think, but it’s nice and refreshing—I’ll admit, I compromised my taste buds a bit by having a saltastic bowl of instant noodle soup right before this, so this probably won’t be the most in-depth tasting note, but this tea is light and refreshing. I taste the mint (or rather, feel it, I think—that sort of coolness that is more of a sensation than a taste), with green tea, and a sharp secondary taste of something else. The lemongrass, maybe, since I haven’t much experience with how it should taste (…like lemons?).

So. I have a little beef with Tazo. They have their new “whole leaf” thing, this bag of tea is gigantic, its enough for a whole pot of tea. Why waste soo much tea. plus it messes with how long i used to steep a single bag. The cup I’m drinking now is pretty bitter and I was looking forward to a good cuppa for my poor sore throat :(

I went through a big green tea phase a while ago and went through several boxes of this blend. I don’t generally enjoy drinking green tea these days, but this is still one of my favourites when I do drink it. Nice mellow blend without the overwhelming rice taste that many green teas have.