Yesterday I was driving home from visiting someone in hospital and the traffic was wretched. It was getting dark and the sky was starting to look like snow. I decided I needed a little pick me up for the rest of my trip. I stopped at a Starbucks fully intending to overdose on caffeine in the form of coffee...But then a sign caught my eye.
I had been reading that Starbucks was intending to release a new line of tea drinks using full leaf teas. (You can view the full press release here.) There are now several categories of tea available. In addition to their previously available steeped tea, iced teas, and iced tea/lemonade drinks there are now tea lattes and tea infusions.
You likely remember my very disappointing experience with their green tea latte (with the inexplicable melon syrup). I was hesitant...very hesitant. But, I decided I owed it to my readers to give it a shot.
I couldn't bring myself to try the tea infusions on my first try. The Berry Chai Infusion is a chai tea concentrate steamed with aronia berry and black currant juice. The Apple Chai Infusion is chai concentrate steamed with apple juice. I just couldn't work those flavors out. Actually, the apple chai sounded a lot like an apple cider drink, but I decided to start with something that would use real tea rather than a concentrate.
There are three new tea lattes using full leaf tea. The Black Tea Latte is Indian black tea with "classic syrup" (whatever that is) and steamed milk. The Vanilla Rooibos Latte combines rooibos with Tahitian vanilla and cinnamon, "classic syrup" and steamed milk. The last is a London Fog Tea Latte.
I chose the London Fog which I knew had Earl Grey tea. The Tazo version of Earl Grey adds lavender along with the bergamot to the black tea. I had ordered the largest size but was a bit horrified as I watched the barista put five shots of syrup in the cup first. I was having flashbacks to that frightening, sicky sweet green tea drink. I was wishing I had asked for her to go light on the syrup. She then added the water, the tea bag, and the steamed milk.
I kept the bag in for about 2 minutes, maybe a bit longer. (I was thinking that they should have given some guidance on this point. As my husband mentioned, with coffee they are so concerned about making sure you have the same experience each time and that they craft your experience. With tea, you're really on your own. Brew it yourself and hope it comes out okay.) The leaves were pre-packed into silk pouches with Tazo tags.
My first sip brought a burst of floral notes. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I took a second sip and felt myself smile. By the third sip I was completely in love. Really. It was fantastic. I think the steamed milk had picked up much of the Earl Grey scent, explaining that first burst of floral. As I drank more, that flavor became a bit more subtle. The lavender was very apparent and actually quite wonderful. It was sweet, sweeter than I would make at home, but it wasn't overly sweet. It was very well balanced. I was trying to work out the flavor of the syrup, but I couldn't make it out. I stopped at another Starbucks (since there are 1000 of them within 20 miles of here) and was told that it was vanilla syrup. Ahhhh....yes, it was.
The only other thing I will say is that the scent was very long lasting. It permeated my hair. I kept getting whiffs of lavender for hours after. I'm not complaining, except for the fact that it made me wish I had more.
Taken from http://teapages.blogspot.com/
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