Monday, November 18, 2013

I recommend Tazo Tea

They sell Tazo Tea (pronounced tah-ZOH) in the health food section of my supermarket so I hadn't really bothered with it. But now that I'm watching what I eat more these days I tried it and to my surprise it's really good - better than my former favorite brand the British Twinings.

Actually the only Twinings that is really good is Darjeeling. But the Tazo version is even better and the Tazo English Breakfast is way better than the Twinings version. They don't just call it "English Breakfast" though, they have to be fancy and call it "Awake."

At least they just call Darjeeling, "Darjeeling." Although that might be because Darjeeling is its own brand - it's like Champagne, in that it has to come from a specific place - one of the designated tea estates in the Kalimpong area of Bengal. Darjeeling even has its own logo.

Apparently Tazo has been bought by Starbucks, and I have to hand it to Starbucks, they know quality. And I'm sorry, I like their coffee too. I've been told it's not that great, by people who know coffee but I really don't know coffee. Before I ever tried Starbucks, in the late 1990s, my idea of coffee derived from whatever they made at the office. I prefer tea anyway so never really thought much about coffee.

I have to say, the first time I had a Starbucks latte it blew my mind. I didn't know a coffee drink could taste so good. Now latte has too much milk for my taste, and I switched to cappuccino, and I think it tastes great too.

I still like tea better, but it's harder to get good tea than good coffee - although it seems that Starbucks, which makes Tazo available in its coffee shops, has solved that problem too. Although it is annoying that they call everything from Tazo a "tea" when actually, unless the main ingredient is the leaf of the camellia sinensis it isn't really tea, but rather an infusion, or as Wikipedia would have it, a tisane.

Here's someone else who really likes "Awake."