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.