Leaf Type: Black
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Tea Description:
Certain feats, like executing a reverse swan dive into a shimmering pool while wearing a pair of Euro-cut trunks and a captain’s hat, out only be attempted by a select few. This blend of black teas has the kind of cool, smooth sophistication to pull off a move like that, should it choose to do so.
Taster’s Review:
I received a box of this Iced Black Tea from Tazo from a friend, and while I certainly appreciated her generosity and thoughtfulness, I also appreciated that I didn’t actually buy this tea myself. I would have been sorely disappointed had I done so.
That’s because this is one of the most mediocre teas I’ve tasted in a long time. The thing that I appreciated most about this tea is that it helped me realize just how good the other iced teas that I’ve been drinking lately really are.
I tried brewing this many different ways. I first tried cold brewing the tea, and this produced a rather flat and boring tasting tea. Then I tried resteeping those tea bags – hot brewing the tea this time – and the results were much the same: boring tea. Not much flavor to them at all. And I wasn’t even looking for “flavoring” type of flavor, I was just looking for a good, brisk, refreshing black tea flavor. But I didn’t get that.
Then I tried hot brewing new (previously unsteeped) teabags. Again … just sort of lackluster. This is the kind of flavor I’d expect from the tea in the yellow, white and red box, but not from a tea that is supposed to be at least one notch above that brand. But after trying to brew this tea several different ways, there was nothing I could do to make this tea taste good. The problem wasn’t with the brewing method, but the tea itself.
A really sad tea. It’s tea like this that leaves a bad taste in the mouths of those that claim not to like tea. I wouldn’t like tea either if this is all that I had to drink.