Awake™ Full Leaf Tea

Had a cuppa before my spa date this morning. Remembering that I disliked the flower like taste here, I experimented and added some cinnamon, along with my usual milk and not quite a pouch full o’sugar. Well, the result was amazing! this is what I’ll do forever more with Starbucks teas. YUMMM!!
Rating: 85

On a side note, I had my first coffee in six months yesterday. Iced with some milk and a touch of sugar. For some reason it made my mouth numb. What?! that makes no sense to me, but there you have it. Has anyone else experienced that before? so confused…

Worst Starbucks experience ever
I’m at the St. Louis airport, & I have a routine when I fly of getting a Starbucks soy chai.
So… They’re out of soy milk…
So…can I have a hot black tea?
As I’m walking away with my cup, I catch a whiff & she gave me earl grey.
So…I return the tea, the girl starts saying, “well, you didn’t specify…blah blah”
Are you kidding me?
Turns out they are out of Awake, except as iced tea.
Then another chick who works there starts bitching at me….
They were all glaring at me, like I was wrong.
I hope she didn’t spit in my tea…

Today was coffee bean buying day, which means that it’s also free tea day! I chose Awake because oh man, do I need to become awake ;) It’s a bit flat, but with the milk and sugar I put in, very comforting and spot-hitting. I dare say today it has a tinge of honeyed goodness! I must have hit the magic steep time (which is sadly a mystery – the time it took me to walk across the street, wait for the elevator, go to the office. Who knows!?!?! Much better than the time it takes to get to my classroom at school – it’s always over brewed then!!) The full leaf is very much an improvement over the former bag.

At Starbucks because I wanted to read a bit and I knew I wouldn’t if I stayed home. The Seahawks vs 49ers game is on and I’m kinda keeping up with it. My team, the Patriots, already lost this afternoon. Oh well. Next year.

This tea, despite 3 packets of sugar, is still somewhat bitter and I don’t know that I want to put any more in it. It also has more than its fair share of half & half because I forgot to tell them to put milk in it. I can’t say I like it much but I don’t feel like getting my whole thing from the car and setting it up. So swill it is. Perhaps the second steep will be better.

I found myself in a Starbucks for the early part of my day, helping my cousin brainstorm some future story ideas. I had a hand in a children’s book/app he’s developing. Also got a sneak peek of it’s near-completion; lookin’ pretty sexy…er…for a children’s book. (You can “like” it on FB, if you so choose: http://www.facebook.com/The.Riverbottom.Tales).

I was running on four hours of sleep and needed a “brewed” awakening of sorts. So, “Awake” it was. Not much special to say here. It’s black, it’s bitter, it’s the tea version of coffee. As far as English Breakfast variants go, it gets the job done. No more, no less.

I’ll be back a wee bit later for something more esoteric.

Had a nice experience with this one at starbucks yesterday. Normally the only way I can drink this tea is iced and sweetened as its just too strong hot. Its pretty good as an iced black tea lemonade as well.
So today I tried something new and ordered it as a latte with soy milk and vanilla syrup. It was actually very pleasant and smooth, while not being too sweet either. I still took the tea bag out pretty quickly to not steep it strong and once I finished the cup, I re-brewed it again with just their hot water, raw sugar, and some cinnamon and it was pretty yummy and light. Best enjoyed in a mug.

I was on the go this morning, so I decided to head into Starbucks to get my daily tea fix. I’ve had this tea many times in the past, but I’ll be reviewing it as though it were my first time.

Leaf Quality:
The leaves were in sachets. I did not get to smell them before brewing, as I was given the cup with it already brewing. However, I did smell them after brewing. They were not complete leaves; they were cut in half. Some were almost whole. Nevertheless, the leaves were loose, and smelled slightly floral and malty.

Brewed Tea:
At my first sip of the tea, I could tell that the base was a Ceylon tea. A slight hint of malt told me there was some Assam, or perhaps Darjeeling as well. The color of the brew was a dark copper-red. It smelled like a version of an English Breakfast tea. It tasted much the same as well. I did not taste any of the floral notes I smelled in the leaves. The malt was as strong as the scent either.

I suppose this would be a good cup to carry me on, but I would prefer some of the other teas I have.

Haven’t had this for a while, nor have I had it served to me by Starbucks in the big sachet. So it’s stiffer and stronger than I recall. That’s not a disadvantage on a very sleepy Monday a.m. That wouldn’t be darjeeling I’m tasting in the background? Nahhhh….

I said I would never try Awake again, but I heard that Starbucks had switched to full-leaf teas and I was in a bind. A tea bind.

I got two bags of this in a Grande cup, and steeped it for about 2:45. Then I added a ton of 2% milk. I was really pleasantly surprised; it was a very robust and flavorful drink. I think I need to try this method with other teas that I know I like – load up on the leaves, keep brewing time super short, and be generous with the milk. I would guess the brewing temperature was a fair bit under boiling because it brewed in a cup, but I don’t know for sure. This is the tea served in large, silky bags in Starbucks; the flat bags are trash, I reviewed them in another note.

The finished tea was thick and bracing, with more raisin than malt. In overall character I would say it was like a slightly more nuanced and less astringent PG Tips. There was some astringency as one would expect with so much leaves, but not excessive like the flat Tazo bags or other poor-quality black teas.

I’m not sure where to put the rating on this, as I may be rating the method more than the tea, but it was good in any case. I’ll come back and modify the score depending on how other teas fare with the same technique.

But damn, I hate Tazo’s overly-cute marketing. This tea making tea shamans remember words? Ugh.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this. It’s good! A nice black tea blend. I only added honey to it, but I could taste notes of cinnamon and an earthy quality which was lovely.

Maybe Tazo has stepped up their game a little.