Berryblossom White

Though we’ve managed a sipdown of this at home between me, my BF, and the kids, I still have about 16 bags of this in my work stash.

That’s okay, though, because this has really grown on me.

During my recent tour of Adagio white teas, I kept wondering in the back of my mind why this tasted so different from those. Why it had what seemed like a richer flavor. It wasn’t just the berry aspect, there was something else going on. Then I looked at the ingredients again.

Darjeeling! That explains a lot.

I have a feeling I’ll be nostalgic about this one at sipdown time. It may even be one of the few Tazos I feel the need to keep on hand. At the moment I’m not prepared to say that because the other two, Refresh and Decaf Lotus Blossom Green, are really special in my view. But it’ll be close in any case.

My one and only bag of this and I have no idea where it came from. I’m not expecting much since it’s a Tazo tea but it could be surprisingly tasty. I imagine this is mostly for iced tea but with it being so cold here in England there is no point in me drinking it iced.

The bag looked like your standard dusty teabag with little to no fragrance. Once brewed the tea is a honey colour with with a slight berry aroma, almost like a mist.

Well it tastes better than I thought but not by much. Berry wise it tastes a little like cranberry with some vegetal floral after taste. It would be the sort of generic tea you would expect from a large chain that is served in their stores. I’m not meaning to sound stuck up or too good for bagged tea but in most cases I find they contain cheap ingredients and are often the same price as fresher loose tea.

Am I happy I only had one bag? Yes
Would I buy this? No
If this was on the menu in a restaurant would I order it? Yes if the other tea’s did not take my fancy

I got a box of this for work, since I managed to unearth the kettle and clean our food storage area out.

It’s not too bad. White tea, some berry flavour, doesn’t need anything added as I find it fairly sweet, at least until it cools significantly. Once cold it’s a bit astringent, but again, it doesn’t really bother me.

Bagged teas are so much easier for work, as we don’t have a kitchen area… rather, we have a table, then down the hall is the fridge and a cupboard for dishes, then further down the hall is a sink and microwave that’s shared with the department. I’ll probably bring some home-bagged teas to work at some point, but I’ll limit it to stuff I’ll use up within a couple days.

I’m sitting at the local Borders, enjoying their air conditioning and working on a paper. I’m not sure what the temperature was for this, since I didn’t make it, so I hope the kind lady that made this knew not to make it too hot.

This tastes pretty artificial. It’s pretty tart but not necessarily sweet. I’d get this again next time I come here (which might be pretty soon as it’s really starting to get hot outside), but I wouldn’t buy it to make at home.

i am not a fan of tazo at all. when it first came out i was impressed with its packaging and interesting flavors (particularly passion tea), but later as starbucks continued to push the line… my enjoyment of the tea declined. more importantly the quality of the leaf is lacking….

regardless, i did enjoy this tea’s ability to conjure up a strong blueberry flavor that reminded me of blueberry muffins! i couldn’t taste the cranberries so much, but i do think that it did its job as a fruity white tea… and pretty good for tazo

I found the teas in the local caffeteria!

Today has been a tough day. Last night I went to World Cup of Tea and met the fabulous Lena in person – we had a tea swap and drank some yummy teas at the store. After a great time, I went back to my hotel (I’m traveling for some business training) with all these amazing smelling teas.

And I won’t let myself try them, because I don’t have any spoons, a decent mug, or a way to get hot water where I have a clue about the temperature. (The stuff the little coffee maker spits out is kinda scary looking). It’s been acceptable for the orange Tazo, but I don’t want to waste all this nice tea!

So close, and yet so very, very far!!!

On lunch break today however, I noticed that they had tea at the on-site caffeteria! Tazo teas. How could I have not seen this before??? I decided to try one, and went with Berryblossom White. It’s not bad. Nothing to write home about, but not bad. I think I oversteeped a little, because it was a little bitter. Got two steeps out of it though. Can’t taste the individual fruits, but I get a sense of fruit, and tea. It’s pretty much right in the middle of the meh scale.

But I can’t say enough how happy I am that there’s some better tea around!

I feel like maybe I judged this tea too quickly. Let my expectations of what it would taste like influence my opinion. I made some this morning and it tasted… well it tasted good! Just an extra minute and a dash of sugar and this tea is pretty much unrecognizable from the yuck it was when I first made it. Its not a replacement for White Peach, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t giving its best.

My afternoon was taken up with a very important meeting with my CEO. In which most of the development department played a card game. LOL! So this was a pretty good choice for a light afternoon iced drink.

Backlogging! Just wanted to note that I’ve now determined that it’s possible to get three steeps from these bags, not just two. I’ve been using the following times and temps:

-1st steep @ 75 degrees and no more than 2 minutes
-2nd steep @ 80 degrees and 3-4 minutes
-3rd steep @ 85/boiling and 5 minutes

Yep, you can pour boiling water on this white tea…

Although I have to note that I’ve been slightly unfair to Tazo. I recently got into an argument with someone who insisted to me that Tazo puts whole, unbroken leaves in their filterbags(!). I told them there was nothing but dust and fannings in Tazo. I was partially wrong! After the THIRD steep, when I held up the bag, I spotted something like 6-10 little broken leaves inside! How ’bout that.

Turns out that pretty much no stores near me sell boxes of Tazo tea, though. That’s probably a good thing, so that I don’t waste my money on this.

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.