Tazo Green Tea Latte

I started drinking Green Tea Lattes when I was trying to cut out the caffeine- I still wanted to treat myself at Starbucks, but I didn't want to buy a coffee drink. My Chinese friend recommended I try the Green Tea Latte, though she said that it was probably not something like Americans would like because it's very strong.

Well, I tried it and I liked it.

But like all things in America, Starbucks kept raising their prices.

My husband and I looked for something similar at the local Asian grocery- United Noodles.  They had something called "Green Milk Tea" and I thought I would try it.

Well, I just (luckily) picked one that tasted JUST LIKE the Green Tea Lattes at Starbucks- a brand called Sweet Garden.  It's not just green tea, but it's got kudzo root in it, which is some sort of herbal "balancer" for your chi (or qi as I've recently learned to write it).

....and then the supply Sweet Garden became scarce.  Don't know why, but we can't find it on the web for sale and the local grocery store only gets so much of it.

sigh

So, we tried the other green milk teas.  The one by GreenMax - a green boba tea powder- tastes like straight matcha, which is the green tea that is used in the Japanese Tea Ceremony. It's INTENSELY green and nearly weedy taste...and doesn't blend well with milk- even 1% milk.  There have been several others that we've tried, but their names are in Chinese, and cursive at that, so neither husband nor I can read them.

In vain, we've been searching for another green milk tea to get us through the dry patches when Sweet Garden is not available.  My husband found one by Tazo.  We were both interested in trying it because we like many of the other Tazo teas...and this one had several claims that is tasted just like Starbucks Green Tea Latte.


Wow, are they COMPLETELY WRONG.

Tazo Green Tea Latte is anything but green tea. It comes in a little cardboard container that you keep in the frig.  I found this.....unexpected.

It's in liquid form.

I was growing skeptical.

I read the ingredients...

...It's made of an "infusion" of green tea,which means that it's green tea that's been brewed, but doesn't have any of the solids.

In other words, no matcha AT ALL.

I read on...the majority of the ingredients are apple and honeydew melon juices.

o_O

So, as I cynically opened the container and took a taste, I was completely unsurprised to find that it tastes like- WAIT- GUESS???  Old honeydew melon juice.  And the appearance?  It looks like putrefied fruit- greenish brown and a little gloppy.

It's absolutely HORRIBLE.  I have to wonder who was writing in about it tasting like green tea- it hardly has any in there AT ALL.  Perhaps they were smokers and have burned off most of their taste buds. I don't know.

I DO know that you shouldn't waste your money on this Tazo product AT ALL.  Absolutely disgusting.