Tazo Rest

An Herbal Infusion: A lulling blend of rose petals, valerian root, & citrusy herbs.

The complete list of ingredients listed on the envelope is a long read – lemon balm, rose petals, honeybush, orange peel, lemon myrtle, lemon verbena, licorice root, lavender, valerian root, natural flavors, ginger, orange essence oil, and Chinese geranium oil.

Today I thought I would try this herbal bagged stuff. How bad can it be? I open the envelope and the scent is bad. It smells kind of gross – at least for drinking. It makes me think ladies bathroom. All powdery and rosy. I let it air out while I am boiling the water and some citrus notes begin to rise out of the bag of impending doom.

I steeped for about 5 minutes. That is just a guess as there are no instructions printed on the envelope. I added sweetener because I am not brave enough to go this alone. The first sip begins as gross as the initial smell – rose, lavender, powdery, gag me with a tea spoon. Later in the sip the citrus picks up and it is kind of nice. On the second sip, it is just a pleasant citrusy lemon, orange, licorice taste. But when sitting the cup down, I am again smelling perfumed powder.

My wife said this one has been discontinued. My own thoughts are I can clearly see why. This is just too weird. I did find it strangely calming and restful but that smell is just too much to overcome. Once again Tazo, you have over engineered.

Tazo Wild Sweet Orange

This has been in my drawer forever. I have been afraid to try it. It is a bagged herbal infusion and not a real tea. I will give it my best try… Ok, Starbucks what were you thinking when you bought Tazo? Hibiscus, blackberry, orange, and spearmint. How could this be anyone’s idea of good? I at least waited until the cup cooled before dumping it out. Gross. I could write a longer review but you get the point.

Tazo Berryblossom White

A filterbag tea. Smells wonderfully fruity and candylike in the envelope. The brew is a light golden color. The aroma of the cup is much more subdued than the bag suggests. Tazo says this is a delicate tea with hints of blueberry and white cranberry. My initial reaction is it reminds me of Hawaiian shaved ice only hot. You can taste the white tea and it is ok, nothing special. I think all the flavors improve as the cup cools. It will get bitter if you steep too long and it does leave a bit of an aftertaste. I usually don’t care for Tazo teas, except Lotus which I drink often. Most seem to be way overdone. This tea I kind of like simply because it is light and understated.

Tazo Joy

Got this from my son. Not as tasty as Stash Christmas Morning but I found it entertaining. My son warned me not to brew too long so I steeped about 4 minutes. The water temp was just under boiling. The Darjeeling is the predominate taste here with the green kind of hiding in the background. At first I couldn’t detect the oolong but as the cup cooled I began to catch it in the aftertaste then in the sip itself. I definitely would drink this again if it occurred to me but in reality it probably won’t very often.

Tazo Green Ginger

I want to like Tazo. I really do. I want Starbuck’s to do for tea what it did for coffee but I think Tazo is more concerned with appearing all hip and mystically rather than concentrating on the important stuff, the tea. My opinion – your image isn’t whimsical its just dumb.

As for this tea, it smells like medicine. Reading other reviews, I was unaware the natural flavors listed on the label meant pear. That probably explains my dislike of the smell. The taste reminds me of incense. Now in my incense burning days I might have liked that image. Today, not so much. The lemongrass, ginger, and ‘natural flavors’ blend together well enough but overwhelm the green tea base. It isn’t totally disgusting. It’s just not interesting enough for me to want again.

When I think of ginger I think of Vernors Ginger Ale. One of the oldest American soft drinks still in production. Barrel aged for three years. It used to be aged for longer but the company has traded hands a few times and changed some to remain competitive. It still is highly carbonated but nothing like it used to be when it came in glass bottles. I believe it was impossible to drink without the bubbles making you cough – in a glorious good way. Even in its present shadow of its former self it still stands miles above Canada Dry and Seven Up. Love it or hate it, this is a classic.

That’s what I want Starbuck’s to do for tea. Make it a fine vintage drink to be proud of and not some quirky unsatisfying half hearted attempt at tea. Make it worth my nearly $2/cup. Make the tea great and you won’t have to hide it in a gimmicky box.

Tazo Zen

Ingredients: green tea, lemon verbena, spearmint leaves, lemongrass and natural flavors. I tend to avoid teas with cute names. I also tend to avoid teas with spearmint. Since I have come to respect and appreciate a couple Tazo blends recently, I thought I would violate both of my rules and try this blend. Hoping their idea of spearmint was like the invisible untasteable bergamot in their Earl Grey, I tore open the envelope. The smell is heavily spearmint. Brewed for 3 minutes. The aroma is spearmint. On the first sip, I tasted the spearmint followed by a hint of the lemon and then the green tea. The spearmint is much more subdued than it smells and is supported yet tempered by the other ingredients. I have to admit this is the first cup of spearmint tea I have ever finished, and more important, I actually enjoyed it.

Tazo Chai

Ingredients: black teas, ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, cloves, and star anise. Like other Tazo teas I have tried there is a generous portion of tea in each bag. The aroma of the brew is quite nice. The liquor is dark brown. At first the taste is not at all what I expected. It is far more tea like than the aroma suggests. After a few more sips the cinnamon and black pepper slowly begin to dominate. At this point I added some creamer. Big mistake. The tea taste completely disappeared and the pepper jumped out as the predominate flavor which is typical of the chai teas I have tried. While this seems to be a good quality tea, I am just not a big fan.

Tazo Orange Blossom

My wife wanted Starbuck’s. I thought sure I can have a nice cup of tea. Wrong. Wish I had read the reviews first. As a general rule I avoid tea with more than say 3 ingredients. This rule has served me well. Too bad I violated it. Another rule is tea shouldn’t be served in paper cups. The leaf looks interesting in the sachet. It smells interesting – kind of orangey. The taste at first was too bland. I can’t taste any tea. Put the bag in to steep longer. Now the fennel and licorice overwhelmed the brew causing my mouth to pucker and I still couldn’t taste tea.

Tazo Lotus

A blend of naturally decaffeinated green tea and natural lotus flower flavor. This is my second Lotus tea. The first was Ethnic Gourmet’s “Honey Lotus Oolong”. That tea was sheer heaven in a cup. This tea I like but, in my opinion, it is not a great tea when comparing the two. On my first attempt at brewing, I thought there was not enough tea in the bag to make a flavorful cup but at 2+ grams that should not be the case. I understand they were going for a light flavor but I thought this was simply too light. On the second attempt I heated the water as for black tea – boiling. This made a world of difference and released a lot more flavor. The green tea is a typical grassy blend. The redeeming factor of this blend is the lotus. It adds a wonderful delicate aroma and taste without overpowering. Adding honey to the cup really brings it to life. Other reviews say do not over brew or it will become bitter. That was not my experience. It required hotter water than other greens I have tried and close to 5 minutes steeping time. I will buy this again, at least until I find a lotus blend I like better.

Tazo Earl Grey

You should be able to tell by now that if I am out where tea is on the menu, I am going to go for the Earl Grey before anything else. So when my son forced me into going into a Starbucks against my will, I ordered my favorite blend. I was underwhelmed. If it said English Breakfast on the label I might consider it a passable cup of tea, but it doesn't. I detected no bergamot flavoring or oil at all. If it is in there it is in such small quantities as to be of no value. My first thought was the tea had been on the coffee shop shelf too long and lost its flavor but my son brought a box, he had bought elsewhere, home to try and the flavor was the same. It is strong black tea that leaves the standard black tea aftertaste but there is no citrus flavor to this blend. It might have made a pleasant iced tea but it is a not worthy of the name Earl Grey.

May 2012 update -
I just read on Tea for Today a similar experience with this tea. The author claims it is the result of stale tea. I am open to entertaining the idea that our Starbucks sells so little tea that it is stale. I wish you a better cup of tea than I have experienced.

September 2012 update -
A coworker went to a fancy smancy dinner party held by the company his wife works for, and Tazo is the tea they served. He grabbed some for me – I have a bit of a tea reputation at work :) I have tried this Earl Grey a half dozen times in the past, always to poor results. Apparently, our local Starbucks and Wal-Mart stores don’t sell enough for it to be fresh, as I have never, ever, and I mean never, smelled or tasted bergamot in this stuff. So, I open the envelope. It smells a bit peppery and of lavenderish bergamot. Hey, so far so good. I steep three minutes and added my sweetener (why put it off, I know I am going to do it eventually). Wait for it to cool. Waiting, Waiting. Take a sip and… flowery, lavender tasting bergamot! Hallelujah! Except, wait a minute… have I just crossed the line into tea snobbery? This tastes kind of like the paper bag. I mean it isn’t horrible, and its Earl Grey – with freakin’ bergamot flavor, but the tea base is paper flavored. It’s muffled like someone talking with their hand over their mouth. As the cup cools the bergamot pops even more but the base just never develops. This is the best cup of Tazo I have ever had, but sadly (or happily), I know this is just ok tea. I did like the bergamot. Glad I could finally taste it.

Tazo China Green Tips

A generous size bag of spring harvested green teas. This tea makes me wonder if I shouldn’t retry some of the greens I disliked in days past. I don’t know if my tastes are changing, possibly maturing (not likely), or if this is just an extra pleasant cup of green tea. It reminded me of Golden Moon Sencha which I thought was extremely good. This is a green tea, so yes there is a grassiness to the aroma and a bit of a grassy aftertaste. Somehow I found myself enjoying it anyway.