Tazo Continues Its Losing Streak With Cocoa Mint Mate Tea!

The Good: Caffeinated, Decent aroma, Can be made strong enough to have flavor/mint flavor is good
The Bad: Exceptionally weak flavor, Tea bag garbage
The Basics: Tazo “Cocoa Mint Mate” tea is another underwhelming tea for those who claim to want flavor, but don’t actually want it!


I do not go out of my way to find food and drink products that I do not think that I will enjoy. That said, when I find a Tazo tea flavor that sounds intriguing to me, I have a tendency to pick it up if it is on clearance or a good sale, despite the fact that Tazo has never once impressed me with its products. I feel like I should want to like Tazo, but the truth is that for anyone who wants flavorful teas and has had a wide selection of flavorful teas from Celestial Seasonings, Stash, or just loose leaf, Tazo is consistently underwhelming. Such is how it is with Tazo Cocoa Mint Mate tea.

Tazo is a new age type tea company that is trying to appeal to those who drink tea for health, wellness and balance as opposed to just someone looking for a hot drink. In recent years, they have synergized with Starbucks and created more trendy flavors that might appeal to Starbucks patrons and the results have been unimpressive. Tazo’s Cocoa Mint Mate seems like it might have been designed to appeal to that crowd, but as one who loves flavorful coffee, I can say with some authority that they fell short.

Basics

Tazo Cocoa Mint Mate is a caffeinated yerba mate tea from Tazo, a tea company in Seattle, Washington. The tea comes individually wrapped in the box of sixteen bags, each tea bag with its own string and paper tab, much like the classic Lipton look. For a company selling itself on responsibility to mind and body, one might find this ironic; why they did not mimic Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags in tribute to the environment is disappointing. The sixteen bag box is generally found in the same price range as Celestial Seasonings tea and the stark contrast in boxes makes for an easy visual distinction (Tazo boxes are monolithically white).

Cocoa Mint Mate is a mate tea that is supposed to have flavors of mint and chocolate, but it is so weak, the best it gets is the aftertaste of mint.

Ease Of Preparation

Cocoa Mint Mate is supposed to be easy to prepare, but after five pots, I’ve discovered it took a real learning curve and this was a disproportionately expensive tea to prepare well. No, the basics are as simple as making tea: the Cocoa Mint Mate requires one to open the box, remove the paper-wrapped tea bag, unwrap that, unwind the string from around the tea bag and then set it into the teapot. That part is easy.

The reason making Cocoa Mint Mate tea is more difficult than all that is simple: this is an incredibly weak tea when one follows the directions! I followed the directions and brought my filtered water to a boil, poured 8 oz. of it over my tea bags and let it steep for five minutes (or more!). The result was still a weak pot of tea. For my 24 oz. steeping pot, four bags should have sufficed, but I only managed to get a decent pot when I upped the bags to six. That made for a palatable brew, but it took the number of servings I could get out of a box down from four to two . . . and a lousy pot!

Taste

Cocoa Mint Mate Tea smells good enough. There is a faint mint scent to it, but the dominant aroma is more subtle and tea-like. Much like cocoa blocks at a candy manufacturer’s, Cocoa Mint Mate has the mild scent of cocoa, unsweetened and . . . it would be bold if the tea were more aromatic.

On the taste front, the Cocoa Mint Mate tea is bland. Made at regular strength, this is barely flavored water with an aftertaste of spearmint. Made at full strength, it is a dry beverage with a full spearmint kick. The tea never seems to gain a fully flavorful taste that would embody cocoa, chocolate, or any other more potent beverage.

Adulterated by sugar, Cocoa Mint Mate is sweeter, but not more flavorful in any sort of compelling way.

Nutrition

The ingredients to Cocoa Mint Mate tea are fairly simple. The Cocoa Mint Mate is composed primarily of cocoa peels, yerba mate, and peppermint.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar), no fat, sodium, or protein, but there are between one and fifteen mg of caffeine. Cocoa Mint Mate (tea) will not keep one alive or healthy. Cocoa Mint Mate tea is Kosher for those who keep Kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

Because of the various layers of packaging, Cocoa Mint Mate appears to stay fresh for quite some time. So long as it is kept dry, this tea has a decent shelf life. The box we bought last month had an expiration date of December 4, 2014. As far as cleaning up, one need only rinse out the steeping pot or mug to prevent it from staining. The tea bags may be tossed easily enough. For those - like me - who compost their old tea bags, it is important to remove the staple and string with the little paper tab before composting this. That's an annoying extra step, especially after years of brewing Republic Of Tea and Celestial Seasonings teas!

As for the tea itself, this is a surprisingly dark brown tea and it will stain fabrics, so it is highly recommended if one actually gets this tea on clothing, clean up any spills promptly.

Overall

Tazo Cocoa Mint Mate tea is too weak to be worthwhile and too expensive for what it is when it is brewed to be potent enough.

For other Tazo tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Zen tea
Awake
Earl Grey

3.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Good: Caffeinated, Decent aroma, Can be made strong enough to have flavor/mint flavor is good
The Bad: Exceptionally weak flavor, Tea bag garbage
The Basics: Tazo “Cocoa Mint Mate” tea is another underwhelming tea for those who claim to want flavor, but don’t actually want it!


I do not go out of my way to find food and drink products that I do not think that I will enjoy. That said, when I find a Tazo tea flavor that sounds intriguing to me, I have a tendency to pick it up if it is on clearance or a good sale, despite the fact that Tazo has never once impressed me with its products. I feel like I should want to like Tazo, but the truth is that for anyone who wants flavorful teas and has had a wide selection of flavorful teas from Celestial Seasonings, Stash, or just loose leaf, Tazo is consistently underwhelming. Such is how it is with Tazo Cocoa Mint Mate tea.

Tazo is a new age type tea company that is trying to appeal to those who drink tea for health, wellness and balance as opposed to just someone looking for a hot drink. In recent years, they have synergized with Starbucks and created more trendy flavors that might appeal to Starbucks patrons and the results have been unimpressive. Tazo’s Cocoa Mint Mate seems like it might have been designed to appeal to that crowd, but as one who loves flavorful coffee, I can say with some authority that they fell short.

Basics

Tazo Cocoa Mint Mate is a caffeinated yerba mate tea from Tazo, a tea company in Seattle, Washington. The tea comes individually wrapped in the box of sixteen bags, each tea bag with its own string and paper tab, much like the classic Lipton look. For a company selling itself on responsibility to mind and body, one might find this ironic; why they did not mimic Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags in tribute to the environment is disappointing. The sixteen bag box is generally found in the same price range as Celestial Seasonings tea and the stark contrast in boxes makes for an easy visual distinction (Tazo boxes are monolithically white).

Cocoa Mint Mate is a mate tea that is supposed to have flavors of mint and chocolate, but it is so weak, the best it gets is the aftertaste of mint.

Ease Of Preparation

Cocoa Mint Mate is supposed to be easy to prepare, but after five pots, I’ve discovered it took a real learning curve and this was a disproportionately expensive tea to prepare well. No, the basics are as simple as making tea: the Cocoa Mint Mate requires one to open the box, remove the paper-wrapped tea bag, unwrap that, unwind the string from around the tea bag and then set it into the teapot. That part is easy.

The reason making Cocoa Mint Mate tea is more difficult than all that is simple: this is an incredibly weak tea when one follows the directions! I followed the directions and brought my filtered water to a boil, poured 8 oz. of it over my tea bags and let it steep for five minutes (or more!). The result was still a weak pot of tea. For my 24 oz. steeping pot, four bags should have sufficed, but I only managed to get a decent pot when I upped the bags to six. That made for a palatable brew, but it took the number of servings I could get out of a box down from four to two . . . and a lousy pot!

Taste

Cocoa Mint Mate Tea smells good enough. There is a faint mint scent to it, but the dominant aroma is more subtle and tea-like. Much like cocoa blocks at a candy manufacturer’s, Cocoa Mint Mate has the mild scent of cocoa, unsweetened and . . . it would be bold if the tea were more aromatic.

On the taste front, the Cocoa Mint Mate tea is bland. Made at regular strength, this is barely flavored water with an aftertaste of spearmint. Made at full strength, it is a dry beverage with a full spearmint kick. The tea never seems to gain a fully flavorful taste that would embody cocoa, chocolate, or any other more potent beverage.

Adulterated by sugar, Cocoa Mint Mate is sweeter, but not more flavorful in any sort of compelling way.

Nutrition

The ingredients to Cocoa Mint Mate tea are fairly simple. The Cocoa Mint Mate is composed primarily of cocoa peels, yerba mate, and peppermint.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar), no fat, sodium, or protein, but there are between one and fifteen mg of caffeine. Cocoa Mint Mate (tea) will not keep one alive or healthy. Cocoa Mint Mate tea is Kosher for those who keep Kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

Because of the various layers of packaging, Cocoa Mint Mate appears to stay fresh for quite some time. So long as it is kept dry, this tea has a decent shelf life. The box we bought last month had an expiration date of December 4, 2014. As far as cleaning up, one need only rinse out the steeping pot or mug to prevent it from staining. The tea bags may be tossed easily enough. For those - like me - who compost their old tea bags, it is important to remove the staple and string with the little paper tab before composting this. That's an annoying extra step, especially after years of brewing Republic Of Tea and Celestial Seasonings teas!

As for the tea itself, this is a surprisingly dark brown tea and it will stain fabrics, so it is highly recommended if one actually gets this tea on clothing, clean up any spills promptly.

Overall

Tazo Cocoa Mint Mate tea is too weak to be worthwhile and too expensive for what it is when it is brewed to be potent enough.

For other Tazo tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Zen tea
Awake
Earl Grey

3.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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One Mug Reviews, Volume 3 – Tazo Zen Green Tea Underwhelms.

The Good: Decent aroma, Does not taste bad.
The Bad: Tea bag garbage, Not at all flavorful, No caffeine.
The Basics: Tazo “Zen” tea smells better than it tastes, which makes it another disappointing Tazo tea.


When it comes to teas, Tazo tea seldom impresses me. I keep giving it the chance, but the teas I try from Tazo usually fall short. In the case of Zen tea, I am hugely disappointed in that the scent is so much better and diverse than the tea itself.

Basics

Tazo Zen is a naturally caffeine-free green tea from Tazo, a tea company in Portland, Oregon. The tea comes individually wrapped in the box of twenty bags, each tea bag with its own string and paper tab, much like the classic Lipton look. For a company selling itself on responsibility to mind and body, one might find this ironic; why they did not mimic Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags in tribute to the environment is something of a mystery. The twenty bag box is generally found in the same price range as Celestial Seasonings tea and the stark contrast in boxes makes for an easy visual distinction.

Zen is a green tea designed to relax the drinker, though it does not have any medicinal properties to do that.

Ease Of Preparation

Zen is a remarkably easy tea to prepare. Well, it's not as easy as a Celestial Seasonings tea; those you open a single wrapper and drop the tea bag into a teapot! Zen requires one to open the box, remove the paper-wrapped tea bag, unwrap that, unwind the string from around the tea bag and then set it into the teapot. Yes, it's still easy, but it's fun to be dramatic about it from time to time.

In all seriousness, Zen tea is very easy to prepare. One need only place the tea bag in a mug or a steeping pot and pour near-boiling water over it. Let steep for three to five minutes and the tea is ready. For my first cup, I let it steep the full five minutes to get the full flavor from it. This still yielded a fairly light cup of tea.

For those who are tea bag misers, a second cup made by reusing the same tea bag resulted in a mug of tea that was only 1/4 strong as the first cup. This is not an ideal tea for reusing the tea bags.

Taste

Zen Tea smells like mint and lemon. The scents are not terribly strong, but they are inviting. The smell does not contain any hint of tea in the bouquet.

On the taste front, the Zen tea is surprisingly generically tea flavored tea. For a tea that smells so good, this is a very light-on-flavor tea. The green tea flavor dominates over any spearmint or lemon flavor that the smell indicates the tea possesses.

Adulterated by sugar, Zen is no sweeter. All sugar seems to do is cut out the hint of anything other than tea. This tea has no aftertaste to it.

Nutrition

The ingredients to Zen green tea are very simple: Green tea, Lemon Verbena, and spearmint leaves are the prime ingredients. There is nothing sinister or unhealthy in this tea.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar), no fat, sodium, caffeine or protein. Zen (tea) will not keep one alive or healthy. Zen green tea is Kosher for those who keep Kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

Because of the various layers of packaging, Zen appears to stay fresh for quite some time. So long as it is kept dry, this tea has a decent shelf life. As far as cleaning up, one need only rinse out the steeping pot or mug to prevent it from staining. The tea bags may be tossed easily enough. For those - like me - who compost their old tea bags, it is important to remove the staple and string with the little paper tab before composting this. That's an annoying extra step, especially after years of Celestial Seasonings teas!

As for the tea itself, this is a very light green-brown tea and it will stain light fabrics, so it is highly recommended if one actually gets this tea that they clean up any spills promptly.

Overall

Tazo Zen tea is a tea that does not liven the consumer up, make them more restful, or taste particularly flavorful.

For other Tazo tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Awake tea
Earl Grey
Wild Sweet Orange
Passion tea
Lotus tea

4/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Tazo Awake May Be One Of The Better Of The Line, But It's Not Remarkable!

The Good: Caffeinated, Decent aroma,
The Bad: Tea bag garbage, Not at all flavorful
The Basics: Tazo “Awake” succeeds, but not in an interesting way.


I have a mixed relationship with Tazo Tea. Tazo has made several teas that have left me unimpressed. That said, my experiences with Awake tea by Tazo is surprisingly good. Awake is good . . . it’s just boring. Tazo Awake is more boring than anything else.

Tazo sells itself as "The Reincarnation Of Tea," a new age type tea company that is trying to appeal to those who drink tea for health, wellness and balance as opposed to just someone looking for a hot drink. Despite anything else that might follow in this review, I find that corporate philosophy to be wonderfully reassuring.

Basics

Tazo Awake is a caffeinated black tea from Tazo, a tea company in Portland, Oregon. The tea comes individually wrapped in the box of twenty bags, each tea bag with its own string and paper tab, much like the classic Lipton look. For a company selling itself on responsibility to mind and body, one might find this ironic; why they did not mimic Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags in tribute to the environment is something of a mystery. The twenty bag box is generally found in the same price range as Celestial Seasonings tea and the stark contrast in boxes makes for an easy visual distinction.

Awake is a black tea designed to give the drinker the sense of getting energized. According to the tea bag, this is supposed to be bold, deep, and invigorating for helping the tea drinker to brighten right up. This is a tea for people who like coffee, but want to drink tea. And it works!

Ease Of Preparation

Awake is a remarkably easy tea to prepare. Well, it's not as easy as a Celestial Seasonings tea; those you open a single wrapper and drop the tea bag into a teapot! Awake requires one to open the box, remove the paper-wrapped tea bag, unwrap that, unwind the string from around the tea bag and then set it into the teapot. Yes, it's still easy, but it's fun to be dramatic about it from time to time.

In all seriousness, Awake tea is very easy to prepare. One need only place the tea bag in a mug or a steeping pot and pour near-boiling water over it. Let steep for three to five minutes and the tea is ready. For my first cup, I let it steep the full five minutes to get the full flavor from it. This yielded a fairly dark cup of tea and a swirl of my mug revealed that this is actually a very deep brown color.

For those who are tea bag misers, a second cup made by reusing the same tea bag resulted in a mug of tea that was 1/2 strong as the first cup. The tea was as brown as it would get after five minutes of steeping, but more than five minutes did not reconstitute it more. In other words, this is not an ideal tea to try to reuse the tea bags for.

Taste

Awake Tea smells just like what it is. This is a very black tea and it smells like a concentrated black tea that reminds me very much of a Chinese restaurant’s tea. That’s ironic, because most Chinese restaurants I know have green tea.

On the taste front, the Awake tea is exactly how it smells. This is a super-concentrated black tea. This is pretty much flavorless. It’s just tea flavored and it’s a strong black tea flavor. This tea has a very dry aftertaste.

Adulterated by sugar, Awake is no sweeter. All sugar seems to do is cut the dry aftertaste of the tea.

Nutrition

The ingredients to Awake black tea is really simple: A Blend Of Black Tea. There is nothing sinister . . . or flavorful . . . hiding in this tea.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar), no fat, sodium, or protein, but there is no caffeine. Awake (tea) will not keep one alive or healthy. Awake black tea is Kosher for those who keep Kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

Because of the various layers of packaging, Awake appears to stay fresh for quite some time. So long as it is kept dry, this tea has a decent shelf life. As far as cleaning up, one need only rinse out the steeping pot or mug to prevent it from staining. The tea bags may be tossed easily enough. For those - like me - who compost their old tea bags, it is important to remove the staple and string with the little paper tab before composting this. That's an annoying extra step, especially after a year of Celestial Seasonings teas!

As for the tea itself, this is a surprisingly dark brown tea and it will stain fabrics, so it is highly recommended if one actually gets this tea that they clean up any spills promptly.

Overall

Tazo Awake tea does what it promises, but it does not start the day off in an interesting or compelling way. Instead, Awake is strongly tea-flavored without any flair, save that the caffeine in it truly works.

For other Tazo tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Earl Grey
Wild Sweet Orange
Passion tea
Lotus tea

5.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Best Tazo Tea I’ve Had Yet, Tazo Earl Grey Still Underwhelms!

The Good: Nothing bad in it, Does not taste bad
The Bad: Not at all an extraordinary representation of Bergamot flavor, Extraneous tea garbage.
The Basics: Tazo Earl Grey tea leaves me unimpressed as it is a more tea-flavored tea than a Bergamot-flavored Earl Grey.


Once upon a time, I dated a young woman who believed that Tazo teas were the absolute best teas in the world. Having had no contact with her in years, I can only hope that her palate has improved since then. She provided me with my first Tazo teas and they were reason enough for me to give the brand a pretty wide berth. But, for the holidays, my in-laws came to visit and when they took us out for a fancy breakfast, I could not resist the reviewing potential of all of the teabags that were laying about. So, I helped myself to some Tazo teabags and the first flavor I decided to brew up was the Tazo Earl Grey tea. This makes a lot of sense for me as Earl Grey is my favorite tea, though so far no one has truly topped Celestial Seasonings’ Victorian Earl Grey (reviewed here!) in my book!

Tazo does not even come close, though this is, by far, the most palatable Tazo tea I have yet tried!

Tazo sells itself as "The Reincarnation Of Tea," a new age type tea company that is trying to appeal to those who drink tea for health, wellness and balance as opposed to just someone looking for a hot drink. While I might argue how successful they aren't with the way their products taste, I still find that corporate philosophy to be wonderfully reassuring.

Basics

Tazo Earl Grey is a caffeinated tea from Tazo, a tea company in Portland, Oregon. The tea comes individually wrapped in the box of twenty bags, each tea bag with its own string and paper tab, much like the classic Lipton look. For a company selling itself on responsibility to mind and body, one might find this ironic; why they did not mimic Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags in tribute to the environment is something of a mystery. The twenty bag box is generally found in the same price range as Celestial Seasonings tea and the stark contrast in boxes makes for an easy visual distinction.

Earl Grey is a black tea designed to give the consumer the flavor of a bold, distinctive Earl Grey tea. Unfortunately, while this tastes like tea and is not bad, the Bergamot flavor is hardly rich enough to call this an Earl Grey.

Ease Of Preparation

Earl Grey is a remarkably easy tea to prepare. Earl Grey requires one to open the box, remove the paper-wrapped tea bag, unwrap that, unwind the string from around the tea bag and then set it into the teapot. One need only place the tea bag in a mug or a steeping pot and pour near-boiling water over it. Let steep for three to five minutes and the tea is ready. For my first cup, I let it steep the full five minutes to get the full flavor from it. This produced a fairly dark cup of tea, which set it apart from other Tazo teas I have tried.

For those who are tea bag misers, a second cup made by reusing the same tea bag resulted in a mug of tea that was less than half as strong as the first cup. The second steeping also resulted in a tea which was much drier in flavor than the original brewing and that made it impossible to effectively reuse.

Taste

The scent of Tazo Earl Grey is, appropriately, that of Bergamot. Bergamot has a strong scent with a very subtle underscent that is just a little sweeter, almost like an insinuation of orange blossom. Tazo’s Earl Grey smells faintly of Bergamot, but it was enough for me to get my hopes up.

And then they were dashed. The Tazo Earl Grey tastes very dry and strong initially and I could not put my finger on why I wasn’t loving the tea for a few sips. Then it came to me; unlike most Earl Grey teas, Tazo’s tastes dark more than Bergamot. The tea flavor of the black tea overwhelms the Bergamot flavoring. And while this beverage has the trademarked Earl Grey dry aftertaste, it is not as bold as others and it is not as dry. In other words, Tazo Earl Grey hints at all of the elements of an effective and delicious Earl Grey tea, but then delivers a tea that tastes more like a standard black tea than an Earl Grey!

Nutrition

The ingredients to Earl Grey tea are rather simple, as this is just black teas blended with the essence of Bergamot. There appears to be nothing sinister hiding in this tea and that is refreshing for tea drinkers like me.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar), no fat, sodium, or protein. There is caffeine, but how much is not published. One should not attempt to live on Tazo Earl Grey alone! Earl Grey is Kosher for those who keep Kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

Because of the various layers of packaging, Earl Grey appears to stay fresh for quite some time. So long as it is kept dry, this tea has a decent shelf life. As far as cleaning up, one need only rinse out the steeping pot or mug to prevent it from staining. The tea bags may be tossed easily enough. For those - like me - who compost their old tea bags, it is important to remove the staple and string with the little paper tab before composting this. That's an annoying extra step, especially after a year of Celestial Seasonings teas!

As for the tea itself, this is a dark tea and I would recommend cleaning up any spills on lighter fabrics as soon after they happen as possible. This will stain dark and medium fabrics, so consult your fabric guide for how to treat stains.

Overall

Tazo Earl Grey is not a bad tea, but it is an underwhelming Earl Grey tea, making it yet another from Tazo that may safely be passed by.

For other Tazo tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Wild Sweet Orange
Passion tea
Lotus tea

4.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Sweet My *Grr!*, Tazo Wild Sweet Orange Tea Is A Third Strike From That Brand.

The Good: Nothing bad in it.
The Bad: SOUR, Caffeine free, Extraneous tea garbage.
The Basics: A rather vile sour tea, Tazo Wild Sweet Orange tea is easy to pass by, despite having good ingredients.


I have not, traditionally, enjoyed Tazo teas. To date, I have tried three and none wowed me (though I did not have enough of their Earl Grey to review), so I have not gone back for more. But I recall actually being disappointed by the Tazo Lotus (reviewed here!) and Tazo Passion (reviewed here!) such that I have not actively sought out more. So, when the Wild Sweet Orange tea from Tazo arrived on my doorstep, I was not as thrilled as I was to discover some other flavors. Still, I'm not one to look the gift tea fairy in the mouth! So, I brewed up some Wild Sweet Orange as a morning drink . . . and I felt I had been had yet again by this sour beverage!

Tazo sells itself as "The Reincarnation Of Tea," a new age type tea company that is trying to appeal to those who drink tea for health, wellness and balance as opposed to just someone looking for a hot drink. While I might argue how successful they aren't with the way their products taste, I still find that corporate philosophy to be wonderfully reassuring.

Basics

Tazo Wild Sweet Orange is a decaffeinated tea from Tazo, a tea company in Portland, Oregon. The tea comes individually wrapped in the box of twenty bags, each tea bag with its own string and paper tab, much like the classic Lipton look. For a company selling itself on responsibility to mind and body, one might find this ironic; why they did not mimic Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags in tribute to the environment is something of a mystery. The twenty bag box is generally found in the same price range as Celestial Seasonings tea and the stark contrast in boxes makes for an easy visual distinction.

Wild Sweet Orange is an herbal infusion tea designed to give the drinker the flavor of orange in a tea drink. And it does have a pretty authentic fruit tea taste, but, unfortunately, it is just not that good.

Ease Of Preparation

Wild Sweet Orange is a remarkably easy tea to prepare. Wild Sweet Orange requires one to open the box, remove the paper-wrapped tea bag, unwrap that, unwind the string from around the tea bag and then set it into the teapot. Wild Sweet Orange tea is very easy to prepare. One need only place the tea bag in a mug or a steeping pot and pour near-boiling water over it. Let steep for three to five minutes and the tea is ready. For my first cup, I let it steep the full five minutes to get the full flavor from it. This still yielded a fairly light cup of tea, especially for an herbal tea.

For those who are tea bag misers, a second cup made by reusing the same tea bag resulted in a mug of tea that was less than half as strong as the first cup. The second steeping also resulted in a tea which was much drier in flavor than the original brewing and that made it impossible to effectively reuse.

Taste

The aroma of Wild Sweet Orange is stunning, the embodiment of fresh oranges warmed by the sun. The scent is delicious and invites the consumer to try a hot sip of sun-ripened oranges.

Unfortunately, the taste is anything but sweet. Wild comes through just fine as this sour beverage pierces the tongue with a powerful sour taste that loses even the flavor of oranges as it passes over the tongue. Instead, this is hot, sour and so unpleasant, it caused my face to pucker up something fierce. As I took my first sips of the generically citrus tea, I passed the mug to my partner who pushed it back saying, "If it's making you do that, there's no way I'm trying it!"

With a teaspoon of sugar, the drink does actually begin to taste like the oranges it smells like. But, unfortunately, even a discrete amount of sugar cannot save the consumer from the intense sour taste that follows. This tea is homogeneously sour, even with sugar and while sugar initially cuts that sour taste, the resurgence of it as it passes over the tongue makes it all the more cruel.

As the tea cools, the sourness turns bitter and the tea becomes undrinkable.

Nutrition

The ingredients to Wild Sweet Orange tea are rather simple, starting with lemongrass, blackberry leaves and citric acid. The orange flavor is surprisingly strong for a tea where orange peel is so far down on the ingredient list, but at least it is there! Despite the vague "natural flavours," there appears to be nothing sinister hiding in this tea and that is refreshing for tea drinkers like me.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar, which I recommend), no fat, sodium, or protein and no caffeine. One should not attempt to live on Tazo Wild Sweet Orange alone! Wild Sweet Orange is Kosher for those who keep Kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

Because of the various layers of packaging, Wild Sweet Orange appears to stay fresh for quite some time. So long as it is kept dry, this tea has a decent shelf life. As far as cleaning up, one need only rinse out the steeping pot or mug to prevent it from staining. The tea bags may be tossed easily enough. For those - like me - who compost their old tea bags, it is important to remove the staple and string with the little paper tab before composting this. That's an annoying extra step, especially after a year of Celestial Seasonings teas!

As for the tea itself, this is a surprisingly light tea for an herbal tea and I would recommend cleaning up any spills on lighter fabrics as soon after they happen as possible. This does look like it might stain doilies!

Overall

But overall, this is an unpleasantly sour tea and even sugar does not save it, making it quite easy to recommend consumers pass it by.

For other tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer
Good Earth Organic Sweet & Spicy tea
Lipton tea

2.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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One Mug Tea Review, Vol. 2 - Tazo Passion Herbal Infusion Is Just Foul!

The Good: Nothing bad in it
The Bad: Decaffeinated, Taste is absolutely foul, Tea bag garbage, Sour and unpleasant
The Basics: Wow! "Passion" is anything but; this fruit-flavored tea is sour and repugnant and impossible to recommend and leaves me in dread of the rest of the box!


As many people who read my reviews regularly might know, I am a big fan of Celestial Seasonings teas. However, whenever I have been given a gift of tea, no matter what the brand, I have not refused it. The gift of a few boxes of Tazo tea recently prompted me to try something different, a one-cup review, which I did with the Lotus tea (reviewed here!). Given that I have a box of twenty teabags of Passion kicking around, I decided to try that experiment again! So, my first impression of my first cup of Passion Herbal Infusion tea is . . .

YUCK! Oh my! "Passion" might not have been the right name for this tea. "Murderous Rage" could be a better title . . . I assumed when I was given this tea that it either bore a resemblance in flavor to passionfruit or it might inspire passion. Wow, did Tazo get it wrong with this one! Passion is never going to happen so long as my face is puckered up from this foul beverage! Oh, dear!

In the interest of honesty, this review will be based on the first two cups because I am doing my usual trying to brew a second cup from the single bag and we'll see how that goes.

Tazo sells itself as "The Reincarnation Of Tea," a new age type tea company that is trying to appeal to those who drink tea for health, wellness and balance as opposed to just someone looking for a hot drink. Despite anything else that might follow in this review, I find that corporate philosophy to be wonderfully reassuring.

Basics

Tazo Passion is a caffeine free red tea from Tazo, a tea company in Portland, Oregon. The tea comes individually wrapped in the box of twenty bags, each tea bag with its own string and paper tab, much like the classic Lipton look. For a company selling itself on responsibility to mind and body, one might find this ironic; why they did not mimic Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags in tribute to the environment is something of a mystery. The twenty bag box is generally found in the same price range as Celestial Seasonings tea and the stark contrast in boxes makes for an easy visual distinction.

Passion is a red tea designed to give the drinker the sense of passion or being in the tropics or drinking hot fruit juice, I suppose. According to the tea bag, this is supposed to be invigorating and soothing. As my stomach tightens with each sip, I am going to have to disagree with the effect of this tea. There might be magic in this tea, but it's black magic and I don't like suffering the results!

Ease Of Preparation

Passion is a remarkably easy tea to prepare. Well, it's not as easy as a Celestial Seasonings tea; those you open a single wrapper and drop the tea bag into a teapot! Lotus requires one to open the box, remove the paper-wrapped tea bag, unwrap that, unwind the string from around the tea bag and then set it into the teapot. Yes, it's still easy, but it's fun to be dramatic about it from time to time.

In all seriousness, Passion tea is very easy to prepare. One need only place the tea bag in a mug or a steeping pot and pour near-boiling water over it. Let steep for three to five minutes and the tea is ready. For my first cup, I let it steep the full five minutes to get the full flavor from it. This yielded a fairly dark cup of tea and a swirl of my mug revealed that this is actually a very deep red color.

For those who are tea bag misers, a second cup made by reusing the same tea bag resulted in a mug of tea that was 1/2 strong as the first cup. The tea was as red as it would get after five minutes of steeping, but more than five minutes did not reconstitute it more. In other words, this is not an ideal tea to try to reuse the tea bags for.

Taste

I like adjective teas because they do not require me to hold them to a standard by which I compare them to the thing that they claim to taste like. I like unconformity and adjective teas - teas where the name does not tell one anything about the flavor - are the culinary embodiment of that. Unfortunately, it also leaves one without a strong, universal basis for comparison when it comes to reviewing the item. What does Passion herbal infusion tea taste like?

Well, it tastes horrible straight. Steaming hot and fully brewed, this tea is overwhelmingly sour. This is sour with an undertone of fruity. "Fruity," of course, is a bit vague. The undertaste - trapped below an anvil of sour flavor - is of cherry, passionfruit, strawberries and raspberries . . . if each of those fruits had been laying in the sun and gone rancid. Oh, this tea is just plain disgusting and for those who might not have read any of my other tea reviews, it is worth noting that I'm fairly sure I've never used that word to describe a tea before tonight! The fruit flavor is sublimated so deeply to the nasty sour taste that any sense of passion that might come from drinking this tea is just buried with the fruit flavor.

Adulterated by sugar, Passion is no sweeter. This is a fascinating thing; I added two, then three teaspoons of sugar and this tea managed to effectively resist it! Yes, the tea stood up to sugar and knocked it out! Instead of sweetening this foul brew, it merely cut the sour and dry aftertaste the tea possessed. I'm officially afraid now; tea this sour that gets no sweeter with sugar might well be evil. I did not have any milk on hand to test that.

As for the second cup experiment, without sugar in it, the tea tasted dour and dry. The aftertaste was more pronounced, though and that left me wanting something to drink that would moisten my mouth. When sugar was added to it, the sugar managed to knock the aftertaste out, but still did little for the principle sour taste this tea was saturated with.

Nutrition

The ingredients to Passion herbal infusion tea are as mysterious as the taste: Hibiscus flowers, natural tropical flavors and citric acid are the primary ingredients. Interestingly, there is no fruit in the ingredients list, making it somewhat terrifying that it mimics a fruit flavor. I want to believe, despite the taste, that there is nothing sinister hiding in this tea.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar), no fat, sodium, or protein and no caffeine. Passion (tea) will not keep one alive or healthy. Passion herbal infusion is Kosher for those who keep Kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

Because of the various layers of packaging, Passion appears to stay fresh for quite some time. So long as it is kept dry, this tea has a decent shelf life. As far as cleaning up, one need only rinse out the steeping pot or mug to prevent it from staining. The tea bags may be tossed easily enough. For those - like me - who compost their old tea bags, it is important to remove the staple and string with the little paper tab before composting this. That's an annoying extra step, especially after a year of Celestial Seasonings teas!

As for the tea itself, this is a surprisingly dark red tea and I suspect that it will stain fabrics, so it is highly recommended if one actually gets this tea that they clean up any spills promptly.


Overall

This tea is just plain bad. It is so bad that I am dreading the other nineteen tea bags in the box in my cupboard. I need to go brew up a pot of something delicious just to get this loathsome taste out of my mouth. I cannot imagine who this sour, tasteless tea might appeal to, but I know for sure that it is not me! Anyone who likes tea or their taste buds will do well to avoid this utterly undrinkable tea.

For other tea reviews, please be sure to check out my takes on:
Yogi Ginger Organic tea
Twinings Earl Grey
Stash Peach Black

0/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Subtle Green: Tazo Lotus Gives Me A "One Mug Tea Review!" (Vol. 1)

The Good: Tastes fine, Nothing bad in it
The Bad: Decaffeinated, Too subtle to actually recommend, Tea bag garbage
The Basics: A cointoss led me to rate this "meh" tea as below average and I stand by that coin! A dull, tea-flavored tea that didn't light my fire.


Every now and then, I try to shake up my reviews by trying something new. Perhaps the pride and joy of those attempts would be my tongue-in-cheek, "Pitch Review" that formed my review of the forthcoming Star Trek film (that's here!). As those who follow my reviews know, I am a pretty loyal customer to Celestial Seasonings. I love their teas and it takes a lot to pry me away from them. So, when a friend who knew how much I love tea picked me up a few boxes of Tazo tea, I put off sampling them for as long as possible. But to shake things up a bit, I'm doing first cup reviews of the Tazo teas! While usually I have several pots of a tea before I write about it, for my review of Tazo Lotus Decaffeinated Green Tea, I have decided to review based on the first cup.

Actually, in the interest of honesty, this will actually be based on the first two cups because I am doing my usual trying to brew a second cup from the single bag and we'll see how that goes.

Tazo sells itself as "The Reincarnation Of Tea," a new age type tea company that is trying to appeal to those who drink tea for health, wellness and balance as opposed to just someone looking for a hot drink. Despite anything else that might follow in this review, I find that corporate philosophy to be wonderfully reassuring.

Basics

Tazo Lotus is a decaffeinated green tea from Tazo, a tea company in Portland, Oregon. The tea comes individually wrapped in the box of twenty bags, each tea bag with its own string and paper tab, much like the classic Lipton look. For a company selling itself on responsibility to mind and body, one might find this ironic; why they did not mimic Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags in tribute to the environment is something of a mystery. The twenty bag box is generally found in the same price range as Celestial Seasonings tea and the stark contrast in boxes makes for an easy visual distinction.

Lotus is a green tea designed to give the drinker the sense of a Chinese green tea with a sense of subtlety and flavor. The press on this product is confusing as it tries to sell itself on the idea that it is both subtle and full of power. Perhaps I'm missing something as those are usually mutually exclusive. Actually, when it comes to the taste, perhaps they have found a way to overcome those two contradictory elements.

Ease Of Preparation

Lotus is a remarkably easy tea to prepare. Well, it's not as easy as a Celestial Seasonings tea; those you open a single wrapper and drop the tea bag into a teapot! Lotus requires one to open the box, remove the paper-wrapped tea bag, unwrap that, unwind the string from around the tea bag and then set it into the teapot. Yes, it's still easy, but it's fun to be dramatic about it from time to time.

In all seriousness, Lotus is very easy to prepare. One need only place the tea bag in a mug or a steeping pot and pour near-boiling water over it. Let steep for three to five minutes and the tea is ready. For my first cup, I let it steep the full five minutes to get the full flavor from it. This yielded a fairly dark cup of tea, especially for a green tea.

For those who are tea bag misers, a second cup made by reusing the same tea bag resulted in a mug of tea that was 3/4 strong as the first cup. The tea was about the right coloring for a green tea after five minutes of steeping, but more than five minutes did not reconstitute it more. Actually, this makes for an increased value to the tea bags as it seems like the second steeping still yields a fair beverage!

Taste

I like adjective teas because they do not require me to hold them to a standard by which I compare them to the thing that they claim to taste like. I like unconformity and adjective teas - teas where the name does not tell one anything about the flavor - are the culinary embodiment of that. Unfortunately, it also leaves one without a strong, universal basis for comparison when it comes to reviewing the item. What does "Lotus" green tea taste like?

Here's the problem: Lotus tastes like tea. As someone who has reviewed a lot of teas - many from Celestial Seasonings which are hot fruit drinks more than tea - the best way one might describe Lotus truthfully is that hot and straight, it tastes like tea. To be clear, the mystery here is this: Lotus tastes like a straightforward black tea, like three times as strong as Lipton's standard, with the aftertaste of a green tea. Tea connoisseurs will note there is a slightly sour, dry aftertaste that comes with green teas more often than not. When one tries a green tea, they tend to expect that. I was surprised on my first mug that the tea looked darker than a usual green tea, did not have much of an aroma (a surprise for a tea as dark and steaming as mine was) and it tasted more like a black tea.

Adulterated by sugar, Lotus tastes a little sweeter and the sour aftertaste is cut in half. I did not have any milk on hand to test that.

As for the second cup experiment, without sugar it, the tea tasted bland and like about two Lipton bags, still very much a tea flavor. There was no aftertaste, though. Any hint of the green tea elements is eliminated from the second steeping. When sugar was added to it, the sugar overwhelmed the tea flavor.

There is nothing wrong with the taste of this tea, but there is also nothing to recommend it. It's bland, ultimately best described as "tea" and offers nothing exciting as far as taste or refreshment for the drinker.

Nutrition

The ingredients to Lotus tea are rather simple: Naturally decaffeinated green tea, natural lotus flower flavor and other natural flavors. I wonder if the secret natural flavors are what make this tea taste like tea! One assumes, though, there is nothing sinister hiding in this tea and that is refreshing for tea drinkers like me.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar, which I recommend), no fat, sodium, or protein and no caffeine. One should not attempt to live on Tazo Lotus alone! Lotus is Kosher for those who keep Kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

Because of the various layers of packaging, Lotus appears to stay fresh for quite some time. So long as it is kept dry, this tea has a decent shelf life. As far as cleaning up, one need only rinse out the steeping pot or mug to prevent it from staining. The tea bags may be tossed easily enough. For those - like me - who compost their old tea bags, it is important to remove the staple and string with the little paper tab before composting this. That's an annoying extra step, especially after a year of Celestial Seasonings teas!

As for the tea itself, this is a surprisingly dark tea for a green tea and I would recommend cleaning up any spills on lighter fabrics as soon after they happen as possible. This does look like it might stain doilies!

Overall

"Meh." I went into this with no expectations and all I found was a tea flavored tea that did nothing to perk me up or relax me, either on the first cup or the fairly-strong second cup. I don't know who would like this, people who like strong, but indistinct tea? The black tea flavor is strong, but this lacks the subtlety most people like from a green tea; that flavor is sublimated in the first cup. Those going in looking for a green tea experience are likely to find this too bold, those looking for flavor are likely to be disappointed by the generic quality of this tea.

There are better teas out there; believe me, I've tried a slew!

For other tea reviews, please check out:
Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer
Twinings Earl Grey
Bigelow Vanilla Chai

4/10

For other food or drink reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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