I don’t drink coffee (a childhood mishap with a General Mills Vanilla Instant Coffee mix and overcrowded porta-potties at a New Year’s Day parade took care of that option a long time ago), but often will find myself in a Starbucks with a friend. This is really the only tea I will drink here, and to be honest, it is more like paying rent for the seats than it is paying for a drink.
I find that this tea has almost no flavor whatsoever. I tend to like smooth, but strong black teas, and I often add sweetener and milk. If I drink this straight, it really doesn’t taste like much beyond “HOT,” and if I add milk and sugar, that is all that I can taste.
After reading the other tasting notes, I think I should make an effort to steep this tea a bit longer from now on. However, I tend to avoid steeping my teas for very long because I don’t like the bitterness/astringency that comes out of them over a long steep. And this tea is simply not strong enough to leave me with any flavor in the amount of time I spend to steep it.
Preparation
Comments
Hi, magerber. Did you try Awake or Awake English breakfast? Judging only from the bagged tea (hides head in shame), they are not at all the same. So if you didn’t find the nuances others have written about, maybe you had the new English Breakfast version? Awake English Breakfast has no flavor or nuances, IMO.
You know, I didn’t know there was an Awake English Breakfast. As far as I know, this tea is only available in tea bags at Starbucks (does anyone else remember when they used to have loose leaf teas there…alas, no more!), and I have always been told that the Awake tea that they sell in the stores is the “closest” thing to English Breakfast that they have. I will say that if the English Breakfast version is new then I am sure I am referring to the unencumbered Awake…and if you think the new EB version has no flavor or nuances in comparison with the original, then I shudder to think what the EB version must taste like. :-)
Allow me to clarify, Awake Tea and Awake Tea English Breakfast are actually the same. It’s simply re-packaging so it’s easier for newer customer to understand that Awake tea is a type of English Breakfast.
There’s the old Awake tea in the flat bag sachets, and those are definitely less flavorful than the Full-leaf versions, the latter being the type served in store.
One thing though, is there’s a difference between the version we serve in store, and the in the tins for customers to purchase. Although I’m unaware of the difference, I know there is some sort because one day at work when we ran out of China Green Tips tea to serve to customers, I asked the manager if we could just rip open one of the tins and serve from there, and she told me we couldn’t because they were different.
And here I thought it was just my imagination that Awake tea tastes different (much much better) at home than it did in store…
Hi, magerber. Did you try Awake or Awake English breakfast? Judging only from the bagged tea (hides head in shame), they are not at all the same. So if you didn’t find the nuances others have written about, maybe you had the new English Breakfast version? Awake English Breakfast has no flavor or nuances, IMO.
You know, I didn’t know there was an Awake English Breakfast. As far as I know, this tea is only available in tea bags at Starbucks (does anyone else remember when they used to have loose leaf teas there…alas, no more!), and I have always been told that the Awake tea that they sell in the stores is the “closest” thing to English Breakfast that they have. I will say that if the English Breakfast version is new then I am sure I am referring to the unencumbered Awake…and if you think the new EB version has no flavor or nuances in comparison with the original, then I shudder to think what the EB version must taste like. :-)
Allow me to clarify, Awake Tea and Awake Tea English Breakfast are actually the same. It’s simply re-packaging so it’s easier for newer customer to understand that Awake tea is a type of English Breakfast.
There’s the old Awake tea in the flat bag sachets, and those are definitely less flavorful than the Full-leaf versions, the latter being the type served in store.
One thing though, is there’s a difference between the version we serve in store, and the in the tins for customers to purchase. Although I’m unaware of the difference, I know there is some sort because one day at work when we ran out of China Green Tips tea to serve to customers, I asked the manager if we could just rip open one of the tins and serve from there, and she told me we couldn’t because they were different.
And here I thought it was just my imagination that Awake tea tastes different (much much better) at home than it did in store…