Awake- Filterbag

Thank you Sare for this sample.

The bag itself is filled with finely, somewhat powdered black tea that smells a little dusky and rich.

Once steeped and a drop of milk is added a strong and sweet yet malty tea is created. It’s better than what I was expecting in honesty, it’s natural sweetness is enough to cover the dusty somewhat musky taste that bagged tea has. The malt is also of good strength which is great for those of us that prefer a stronger brew. I can also taste a dark fruitiness amongst the malty rich black tea and there has been no bitterness so far.

This is one of the only Tazo Teas that I would not mind having more of on my shelf. It says what it does on the bag, it’s strong with a good caffeine kick…what more could I ask for? :)

I like this tea because when I forget about it, it doesn’t go bitter. The flavors are pretty decent for a bagged tea. Malty, dark chocolatey, sweet, rich. This is a tea I will ALWAYS have in my cupboard. It’s great when I don’t have much time or I’m feeling lazy and want something tasty.

First sip- YUM! I added a tiny bit of sugar and a dab of milk, as I do with all my bold breakfast teas. I’m getting a nice malty, smooth, and full mouthfeel. lots of body, and a bright note. This is instantly one of my favorites for a breakfast tea. There’s no bitterness, and no real astringency, so it’s an all around good cuppa.

Rich, bold, and robust. It hit the spot and it may have put that extra spring in my step that I so desperately needed. I feel this one would do in a pinch.

This tea (from my local Starbucks) is somehow over brewed yet tasteless! I am experiencing strong notes of cardboard cup and a distinct aroma of wooden stirring stick. Ugh. My New Year’s Resolution is to go out and buy an electric tea kettle for work (if I don’t get one as my pollyanna gift – I put it on my list!) so I don’t have to put up with this sort of thing!!!!!!!

After that Harney and Sons tea this morning, this Tazo tea just does not compete. Sans additions, it is really bitter. With additions, it’s just a weak, noncomplex drink posing as tea. It would do in a pinch, but it’s not something I’ll stock.

Backlog from Friday morning. Yes, I have a lot of backlogging to do!

This tea is alright. I love Tazo, however, this tea is very, very, very bold. And I don’t like too many bold teas. Also, since this is my most recent cup, the bags are older now and kind of beat up. So they aren’t the best quality anymore.

Smell: Black tea, bold

Taste: A very rich, bold tea with a small hint of cinnamon. Not bad, but not great. I put some sweet coffee creamer in, and it made it taste like vanilla soymilk, and it was actually really yummy. So this is one of those iffy teas that can sometimes be brilliant and other times be not so great.

Vacation Day today from work but not really much of a vacation. A day of house work and crappy weather. Blah. This was my first cup today. I remember this being bold but don’t remember it being bitter.

This really isn’t tea, as far as I’m concerned. It’s bitter, astringent water, and really doesn’t hold flavor at all. Had I known that black tea could taste so much of nothing, I never would’ve steeped this. Unfortunately, my taste buds have become a little to discerning for their own good, and now I desperately await my mum’s package of tea. (Does that make me a bad person? Derp.)

A review of Awake (Black Tea) by Tazo Tea

Company: Tazo
Tea Name: Awake
Tea Type/Varietal: Black
Region:
Steeping Vessel/Amt. Leaf: cup/ teabag
Plucking Season:
Liquor Color: bright orange red
Leaf Characteristics:

1. Steepings

1st Steeping:
Water temperature: 200 Fahrenheit
Time: 5 minutes

I have been enjoying this one Tazo tea bag for most of the day. I took the tea bag and put it in my cup and pour the boiling water into my cup and left it to steep for a good five minutes. I than took my cup to view the tea’s color which is a lovely reddish orange cup of tea. At first there does not seem to be an aroma; nothing prevalent to permeate the air or my nostrils. Upon sipping the tea, however, I am met with a full bodied cup of tea which is smooth and creamy with a slight malt taste.

Overall, this tea has no after taste and is not bitter at all. It stands on its own with no sugar or cream added and as one drinks the tea it taste as good as first to the last drop. Tea is just as described on package “A lovely tea of boldness, depth and character, invigorating any time of day.

This another one of the tea bags obtained while volunteering at The Massachusetts Conference for Women.

Dragging my feet this morning from a late night at work. Thought I’d try to see if it woke me up.
Tea is pretty bitter, although this is my first black tea. Added a little honey to be able to drink it. Not really feeling anymore awake.

This scenario has played out more times than I’d like to admit:

“Oh, a Starbucks! I love coffee, but I could really go for a tea right now. Since I love black tea, I think I’ll get a cup of this Awake thing. What could go wrong?”

There has never been a time when I have not regretted this decision.

Unlike their coffee, which is decent, Starbucks [by way of Tazo] rarely fails to disappoint with their tea. Awake is way too harsh, without even bringing much real flavor. I’ll never get this one again. However, I have once found a way for it to be drinkable: get one bag of this, and one bag of whatever blend they have of unflavored black and oolong teas [the name escapes me and it’s not on Steepster]. Steep it extra-short, under 3 min, and add milk. You may wind up with one of the only black(ish) teas at Starbucks that does not immediately cause remorse.

Was out of town this weekend gallivanting around Boston. So, I had this at Starbucks a few times. With a bit of sugar and soymilk, it got the job done of waking me up. Not something I’d buy to have at home, but when Starbucks is your only option, this will do.

I always thought that I only really liked flavored teas, but I think I might be a black tea fan. I thought this was absolutely delicious and had a nice kick to it, keeping me from falling asleep at the nurse’s station last night. Definitely had a bold, robust taste. Maybe I will have to start sampling black teas, which I thought I would hate. I was definitely pleasantly suprised.

I thought I’d give Tazo another tasting but this will probably be the last time I do so. Definitely not my cup of tea. The theme for all of their teas seems to be tartness or bitterness in this case with beautiful coloring and not much else. This morning blend has bold flavor, a bit too bold for me and the addition of milk, honey or sugar does help but I don’t want to drown out my tea flavor with such additions. I wouldn’t recommend this tea to anyone with similar taste as me. For everyone else, check more reviews and be cautious.

I reach for this whenever I feel like a little extra kick in the morning but this time I needed the kick just to keep going. With the temps starting to creep toward 100, I’m beginning to drag. It seemed to help but I think that I needed to double brew.

Funny story! I was cleaning my room quite thoroughly, and came across a box under my bed containing one half Christmas decorations, and one half Tazo’s Awake and Chai (and a small amount of sweet orange). So yeah, I’ve got a lot. I remember my neighbour giving it to me (along with the Christmas decorations).

We’ve always had Tazo in the house, but the few times I tried Awake it was very bitter and gross right through the milk and sugar. And now I’m going to try it with nothing!

Not as bad as I remember. No bitterness at five minutes steeping. Then again, when I drank it in the past, I just left the teabag in.

It’s not remarkable. I’m getting a dryer taste at the back of my throat, but it’s nothing like I remember. It’s probably been in that box for quite a while though, and my neighbour’s probably had it even longer.

Edit: As it cooled it got more astringent, but then I noticed something else. There’s a very faint hint of cherry.

Since my husband had claims to the final steep of the English Breakfast we had been working on this morning, I decided to give this a try. I was pleasantly surprised, after reading some of the other reviews I was afraid that I would have a bitter, tasteless cup. I steeped this for a low time at a medium temp and found it very good. I definately pick up a malty quality that sort of reminds me of coffee, however, the claims of caramel and dark cherry are crazy…did not get either one of those. Overall, this is decent for a tea bag, in fact my favorite tea bag so far. When I run out of my loose leaf English Breakfast I may have to pick up a box of this until I can get an online order.

was despite for tea yesterday while i was out so got this at Starbucks and the lady told me that they r trying to revamp tazo and have it so the teas are all whole leaf. so i had whole leaf :) it wasn’t bad but the little tag didnt give steeping time and the cashier didnt tell me how long either so i oversteeped this and it was bitter. i also spilled alot of it on my leg in the car trying to take the oversteeped tea bag out of it :( i was in rare form yesterday! (only slept a total of an hour that night) ugh anyway lol it was good i just couldnt pick out any of the flavors they describe on the description thing it was just bitter plain black tea to me. because of that i will give it another chance and i will not be giving it a number rating

Woke up to this today. Single serving bag was provided at the Bed & Breakfast we stayed at. Don’t normally drink this much caffeine, but it was what was available. Pretty standard black tea. Gave me some ZING and then I had my standard crash 3 hours later.