Zen Tea Juicy Blueberry Herbal Tea

As you may know, I love blueberry herbal teas.  I love that combination of sweet, sour and floral that make it like a juice but lighter.  I also haven't reviewed a Zen Tea thing in a while, and still have quite a bit to review from them.

Outsides:  This tea has a wide variety of indredients including apple, hibiscus, currants, raisins, blueberry, lemongrass, more blueberries (?), cornflower, sunflower, marigold, rose, citric acid and vitamin C, so a really unique blend of ingredients.  The dried tea smells like blueberry jam though, so I'm excited.  I brewed about 2 teaspoons of this in 8 oz of boiling water for 5 or so minutes.  The tea is a nice berry red and smells sweet and juicy like a blueberry.

Insides:  This is definitely different than the other blueberry herbal teas I've tried thanks to the citrus flavor.  You get a strong, sweet berry flavor with a lot of fullness and depth but it's lightened up with the lemongrass favor and contrasted with the citric acid.  The fruity flavors really pop with a bit of added sugar.  This tea would be awesome for kids since it's basically a healthy Kool-aid with added vitamin C to it or iced and possibly used in a punch or sangria.

Overall:  I like it.  It's not as cheap as the other blueberry herbal teas, but it probably would be a better alternative for the summer.

I think I'm going to try to implement a bit of a different rating system.

Taste:  A strong fruity herbal
Price:  9 dollars for about 4 oz.
Uniqueness:  The general idea isn't that unique but the flavor is.
Uses:  Great for late-night and children.  Can be iced and tastes great with or without sugar.
My Rating:  Try it.  

Zen Tea is a Canadian Tea retailer that specializes n mid to high quality tea from all around the world.

Tazo Wild Sweet Orange (Herbal Tea with lemongrass, orange and a lot of other stuff)

You know, maybe I was wrong about Tazo.  Maybe they aren't so bad after all.  I mean, I now like 2 teas of theirs, although I still think that they are overpriced as all hell.  And now I'm going to try Wild Sweet Orange, which sounds fruity but pleasant.

Outsides:  This tea has a laundry list of ingredients; lemongrass, blackberry leaves, citric acid (first thing that should be noted), rose hips, spearmint leaves, color (tumeric, riboflavin), orange peel, hibiscus flowers, natural flavors, rose petals, orange essence, ginger root, licorice root and licorice extract.  It's in a nice foil wrapped packet and is your standard tea bag.  I brewed this at boiling for three minutes before i tasted it (the second thing you should take note of since herbals should steep for 5 minutes).  The tea is a brighter orange and smells like oranges.

Insides:  I don't know if I can properly put my feelings on this tea into words, but I'll try.  OHMYGOD THIS IS F***ING TERRIBLE!  It's sour, and I like sour but this is undrinkable sour.  The licorice makes the texture of this drink seem very thick so it's pretty much a thick, sour mess.  It's just terrible and I don't understand how Tazo can call this SWEET wild orange.  Maybe the licorice is supposed to act as the sweetener but then it should be the third ingredient instead of friggin' CITRIC ACID!  Also, why do we have all these ingredients if you're going to bombard your drink with sour and licorice.  This is bad and I honestly can't imagine someone liking it without copious amounts of sugar and bad taste.

Overall:  No, just no.  Tazo, my lack of faith in you is restored.

My Rating:  Stay AWAY!  It's not even worth stealing.

Tazo is everywhere.  I often get my Tazo teas from the hospital cafeteria because it's "free" there.  

Zen Tea Bamboo Integrety

Outsides:  This herbal tea containes apple bits, carrot bits, bamboo, lemongrass, verbena, ginger, sunflower petals and natural flavor.  I'm not gonna lie, the carrot sounds really interesting to me.  I've had carrot in drinks before but never in tea.  Anyway, I put 2 teaspoons of this in my mug and steeped it in 8 oz of boiling water for 5 minutes.  The color is a light green and it smells citrusy.  This also is a beautiful tea to watch steep because the liquid is almost clear and the herbal portion has so many colors in it.

Insides:  The box suggested that this would taste tropical but it's really very citrusy and fresh tasting.  The apple and carrot add sweetness to balance out the rest of the flavors such as lemongrass and verbena so although it's citrusy, it's not very sour.  This really tastes like fresh squeezed lime with herbs in it as well.  Although I wouldn't advise adding too much sugar, this seems like it would be a good alternative to lemonade.

Overall:  It's interesting.  Not amazing, but if you're into herbal teas then it's worth a try.

My Rating:  Try it!

Zen Tea is a Canadian Tea Retailer (happy Boxing Day!) that specializes in mid to high quality tea.  

Yogi Ginger Tea

So, I've had this tea since....a long time.  Probably not as long as I've had the other Yogi tea at my house, but still a fairly substantial amount of time.  Since this is Ginger tea, it is supposed to aid with digestion and I've just never needed help with that in the last few months so it's been laying in my cupboard for a few weeks now.  I also enjoy ginger and have to try this sometime :/

Outside:  The tea is in an individually foil wrapped envelope with your average tea sachet with string inside.  Ingredients are all organic and include ginger, lemongrass, licorice, peppermint (which you can smell very strongly) and black pepper, so expect spicy and sweet.  I boiled about 8 oz of water and am letting the bag sit in it for 5+ minutes since this is an herbal and I just don't care.  The color is not a typical ginger tea color in that it's an opaque medium yellow as opposed to the light color that comes from ginger.  It smells like peppermint tea.

Insides:  Why did I have apprehension about trying this tea?  Because this is clearly supposed to be medicine as opposed to a fully enjoyable beverage.  It comes in and tastes a bit like peppermint but then burns as it goes down your esophagus and leaves an aftertaste of licorice.  I feel as though I'm in the wrong state of mind while reviewing this and would be much more helpful if I was hung over.  But, I feel as though I am not giving as accurate of a description of the flavor as I should so here it is.  Each herb has a component to the flavor.  The peppermint gives a nice head to what would be a flavorless beginning, the licorice adds a nice sweetness, the lemongrass gives a nice citrus hint, and the ginger and pepper burn when they go down.  There!

Overall:  This is not a tea for enjoying but possibly a good cure for a hangover.

My Rating:  Pass on flavor, try while hungover.

Yogi Tea is a nice organic tea company that specializes in holistic medicine.

TasTEA Time! Adagio Thai Chai

It's that time of the year!  No, I don't mean the mega-holiday season, but FALL!  Trees changing color, warm jackets and delicious fall drinks like cider and pumpkin everything (there will be more on pumpkins later).  But one of my favorite fall-time drinks (or anytime drinks for that matter) is the chai latte.  It's sweet, spicy and if you have a coffee shop that can actually make them, light and fluffy.  However, it's pretty hard to get that "perfect" chai:  one that is strong enough in flavor to be able to take some milk.  Twinnings makes a decent one, but they are hard to come by unless you make them yourself.  But now we have this lovely from Adagio.

This marks the first time I have ordered from Adagio and I will gladly review my overall experience when I have time.  I'd also like to review the local tea shop I go to (I have so many blends from there) so look forward to that.

Outsides:  Adagio Teas come in little bags unless you order specific tins which are impervious to light.  I got a sample of this, which says it's enough for 10 cups and I'd say about 8.  I brewed about 2 teaspoons at slightly below boiling for about 4 minutes.  The tea is a lighter color than I expected but smells very gingery and with a heavy scent of coconut.  I added some cream and sugar.

Insides:  I am really impressed b this.  It's a nice strong chai with a nice, spicy kick but the sweet coconut and citrus flavors really make this unique.  The spice blend is fantastic with a focus on the ginger and cardamon but a whole variety of mid-flavors.  .It's very reminiscent of islands and I'd even say that it tastes "lighter" than most chai, making it a nice for both warm and cold days.  It also took milk and sugar well and kept a lot of it's flavor.

Overall:  This one was a good start for Adagio and if your local tea shop doesn't have a blend like this then check it out.

My Rating:  Try/Buy it!  

Adagio is an online tea shop  that sells a variety of teas in sample sets, 3 oz, a pound or teabags.  I actually got a twitter just for the discounts and will try to post $5 coupons as much as I can on it so if you don't mind a bit of tea-spam, my twitter is @teaandpolish and you can get $5 off if you use those coupons.  Apparently, I can't do this via blogger so...yeah, but if you don't want to follow twitter then I can email you a certificate as well.  Adagio is also sold at Whole Foods.

TasTEA Time! Tazo Organic Green Tea

 

There's a lot of things to like and dislike about this tea at first glance.  The good things include how it's organic, is sweetened with cane sugar and has a few herbs to jazz up the normal green tea flavor.  The bad things are that it's still full of sugar and calories, is about as expensive as Lipton Pure Leaf if not more and is Tazo, the purveyors of bland tea that always has a hint of mint somewhere.  But I'm at work with tea and love telling the world every detail about my beverage, so here we go.

Outsides:  Much like Lipton Pure Leaf, this comes in a glass bottle which to me, results in a better flavor than plastic (although plastic is more recyclable (?)).  It looks like slightly cloudy gold green tea and smells very much like the Lipton green tea in a bottle.

Insides:  I think the best way to describe this is a jazzed up Lipton Pure Leaf Green Tea.  There's a hint of lemongrass and mint which gives it a more refreshing taste even when warm.  I personally find it a bit too sugared-up, but it's not nearly as offensive as the Giant Peach (spoiler alert:  if you're not a sugar maniac, it's barely drinkable unless it's chilled).  Other than that, the green tea flavor is nice, there but not too bitter although the sugar overwhelms it a little.  I also like the citrus touch it has.

Overall:  If you find yourself buying Lipton Pure Leaf Green tea and want an alternative, this is pretty much a jazzed-up version of that.  I wish they'd cut back on the sugar, but ultimately, it's not a bad drink.

My Rating:  Try it!  I'm not giving a website because Tazo is literally everywhere.

 

TasTEA Time! Lipton's Green Tea with Lemon and Ginseng

The Saga continues!  I'm not particularly excited about this one since our family always used to add lemon to our tea (I don't anymore, but it was a thing).  Lemon just seems so common, so mundane, and yet I see it everywhere.

Outsides:  Paper outside, plastic inside, individually-packaged sachets.  The tea itself is your standard green tea color, maybe slightly more yellow and smells lemon-y fresh!

Insides:  Well, if you like lemon then you should love this!  Ok, here's the problem I have with this.  There's so much of the lemon flavoring in here that you can't taste anything else.  Tea has its own distinct flavor and this blend also has some lemongrass in it.  But drinking this is like drinking lemonade.  Now, the lemon flavor is good and at the very least, tastes natural.  But subtlety!

Overall:   Despite my complaining, I don't actually think it's that bad.  I guess if you like lemon, give this a shot.

My rating:  Try it!  Here's the site:  Lipton Tea Home.

TasTEA Time! Dilmah Green Tea with Lemongrass Leaves

Outsides:  A typical individually wrapped foil sachet.  The tea itself is that gold color that ceylon tends to be and it smells like green tea without much of a distinctive lemongrass scent.

Insides:  This really doesn't taste much different than typical green tea except it has a citrus undertone.  I mean, there isn't much to say.  It's ceylon green tea so it has more of a warmth in terms of flavor as opposed to your cheap green tea.  Actually, this is probably what you're drinking when you get the Pure Leaf Iced Green teas.  The base is good, but there really isn't much different than the regular green tea.

Overall:  I got all of the green teas with their flavorings in a sample pack, and I suggest that as the ideal way to get this tea.  It's not bad, just nothing special.

My Rating:  Pass.  Here's the site.

TasTEA Time! Tazo Zen

First off, all 10 of you may be wondering why I'm writing so many posts today.  Don't you have a life, Domino?  The answer to that last question is no, but there are a couple of reasons why I'm writing so much.  The first one is purely because I am bored.  The second one is because I'm going to be very busy in the next few weeks and this'll give you all (including new people) more posts to indulge yourselves in before the possible drought begins.  The last reason is because the Hot Coco and this tea were both drunk on impulse.  I only have one sachet of this tea and I honestly want to get it over with (which sounds like I'm biased against Tazo but i'm not.  If it's awesome, I'll tell you how awesome it is).  Now where were we?

Tommy was not feeling in a mood of Zen for this.  

What:  Green tea with lemongrass and...you guessed it, spearmint!

Where:  USA

Why Should I Care:  Seriously Tazo, I know you love mint and all but does it need to be in everything?  I mean, it makes more sense for a tea called Zen to have Lotus, Jasmine or even Ginger.  My rant aside, I do have a weakness for lemongrass and green tea.  Maybe this'll be awesome!

Packaging:  So, when I said before that Tazo had a paper/foil combination, I was wrong.  It actually has a paper/wax paper combination.  I don't know if that's supposed to be better or worse but legit tea companies use foil and that's what I want to see!

Non-Taste Senses:  It's a lot yellower than normal green tea and it smells like lemongrass.

Taste:  You know what, this green tea is awful.  It's just like the kind you get from Biglow (the worst tea company ever) where there really isn't a taste past some bitterness.  I brewed it right, the water temperature was at about 70 degrees but man, I don't taste the green tea at all.  Honestly, the only thing I taste is the mint (I'm not even being a jerk, that's just all I taste).  Sugar just doesn't do anything and I doubt it'll taste better cold.

Overall:  Look, just don't buy it.  It's bland, boring and overpriced no matter how you get it.  There are better brands of green tea out there.

My Rating:  Pass.