bryghtbeverages

I have refrained and resisted from rating this tea because its underwhelming reputation has done enough damage to the name “Lipton.” Or has it? This poor excuse for tea relates to hip/hop in the way that it’s useless and serves no real purpose but also never seems to go away. How can a product be so terrible and have such a poor reputation but continue to pervade store shelves? Anyway, when I’m out to a meal and I order tea I always let them know that if they only provide Lipton to just bring me water or coffee. I would rather drink Tetley filtered through a dirty gym sock. Lipton should be free and never sold. Calling it “tea dust” is a compliment.

Anyone who knows me would tell you that I’m a Ceylon black tea fanatic. I found a 250g tin of this at a local World market and figured it to be a good $10 sacrifice because it says PURE CEYLON TEA on the front of the damn thing. I got home, popped it open and was instantly disappointed. I have no doubt that it is indeed pure Ceylon, but it’s soaked in bergamot. It doesn’t say that anywhere on the package, but being a Brit, I should have guessed that if the word “royal” is part of the product that it would be doused in bergamot. Anyway, the tea is magnificent as an Earl Grey, but that’s not why I bought it. The rating here is based on the drink itself and NOT my purchasing experience and my overall disapproval of the product description.

**UPDATE: Impra is sending me a fresh tin of Ceylon black tea. What great customer service!

UPDATE: Impra has yet to send the tea as promised. It’s been two months now and I have made up my mind that I will NOT be buying from them again in the future. Ever.

When it comes to bagged Darjeeling, I pick Bigelow everytime. Nevermind that their samples never arrived to me this last Spring. The second flush shipment this year was quite nice. By the way, if you want to make sure to get your selected season of choice, buy directly from Bigelow and avoid second-hand retailers who tend to sit on their inventory. I prefer the maltiness of Ceylon teas most of the time, but an occasional Darjeeling really challenges your preferences.

I’m a Ceylon hound. I sniff it out wherever I go and although I love the dark maltiness of a pure black Ceylon tea, the Twinings blend is definitely that with a modest bolt of citrus. This, to me, is a pleasant evening tea to help settle a full stomach. Don’t bother with milk – just add honey or a light sweetener. My nightly ritual has become more interesting with a bag of Twinings Ceylon Orange an hour before bedtime. When it comes to the caffeine content in this blend, the bark is worse than its bite. I have no problem nodding off to sleep at night.

Since I blend this with Ceylon or Constant Comment, I rarely notice this tea’s shortcomings. I use it as a base only. It does the job pretty well. Alone, it’s only average but still better than Lipton!

Ever since seeing the excellent documentary “All In This Tea,” I’ve wanted to try this one and I finally got the chance when a local Chinese friend of mine brought some in to my shoppe for blending. During the aforementioned documentary film, renown tea master Gaetano Kazuo Maida does a public tasting of this specfic tea and describes the experience as “vegetal without being flowery, earthy, seaweed.” Well, he’s got a much more refined palate than I do but I get what he was saying. It’s definitely very, very vegetal and has a slight, natural sweetness to it that is refreshing. I’ve never tasted a tea so clean before. I got three lovely infusions out of the amount that was given and we’re getting together this weekend for more tastings.

I received a sampler from Silk Road yesterday and let me tell you that this earthy varietal is something special. I did three infusions (gaiwan-style baby!) and the third was still just as lovely as the first. Interestingly, it tasted sweeter after the third infusion. If you fancy yourself to have a sharp tea palate, this one should prove to be quite the challenge as it has several levels of taste experience. I’m going to buy a few pounds of this!

Love this Assam/Ceylon blend. Stash did a good job with this tea. If you’re looking for a wake up call or an early morning kick in the junk, this is the tea which can provide. Very deep and malty. I only steep it for two minutes the first infusion and five minutes on the second. The Ceylon character is deeper in the second infusion. Lovely!

This tea was one of three being sold BY THE BAG at a small “Euro” grocer in Sacramento. I paid €0.50 for a cup which the clerk brewed for me. I found it nice that they accept Euro coin as well as US currency. The tea was a little stale and served in a styro cup (ewww) but the flavour was definitely Ceylon. I didn’t buy a box. Evidently, this brand is Finnish. I didn’t ask for details.

There’s such a large tea community in California! Only here can you go to a small, out-of-the-way grocer and find a half-dozen or so teas that you’ve never heard of. If you’ve read some of my other posts, you’d know by now that I’m a big Ceylon fan. If I see a box or tin of tea with the word CEYLON on it, I buy it. No questions asked. I’ve never heard of DMM Brothers tea before but I am indescriminate in such cases. This tea is pretty good. It tastes like a blend of Assam and Ceylon and brews darker than pure Ceylon would but there’s no mention of blending on the box. I added a splash of milk on the second cup and it was very pleasant. In my opinion, this is NOT pure Ceylon.

Wifey brought this home from the supermarket and happily extended it into the reading path of my Nook. I’m reading Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice (where vampires don’t sparkle like drag queens) and didn’t even notice her entering the room.

Constantus interruptus.

Of course, she made me taste it and of course I hate it. She loves all things caramel but even she was disappointed by this herbal monstrosity. Tastes like Willy Wonka threw up in it, to use her phrase. Adoreable, isn’t she? My opinion is this: the chocolate is there but tastes stale. The caramel is apparent only on the nose since the pseudo-chocolate dominates the infusion. It’s like a bad bowl of warm Coco Puffs. It’s pretty awful.

I don’t get it. We bought this tea at a place called The Dollar Tree where everything is one US dollar (plus tax of course). This tea was supposed to suck. It doesn’t suck at all. In fact, this bagged tea is comparable with the Bigelow Premium Ceylon I got last week. Beautiful amber colour, lovely Ceylon aroma…I’m very impressed by this tea. I wrote to the company (www.globalbrandsllc.com) and told them so!

By “Great Value” they mean CHEAP. It’s tea dust mostly. Stems included. If you steep it long enough, you can actually taste the Assam character but you also run the risk of enhancing the bitterness of the stem fannings. Still, this tea is better than Lipton. I picked it up at Wal-Mart. 100 bags for $3.26 US.

My wife bought a box of this nonsense at Wal-Mart last night. She absolutely loves it, so she ran back and bought six more boxes. I tried it the way she likes it (no milk, one Splenda packet) and it was so terrible that my face screwed up into a black hole of disgust and I wanted to kick a kitten. Being stupid, I brewed another bag and tried it with milk and sugar and was so angry at myself that I drove to the SPCA to purchase a kitten but they were all out. The feeling passed. Never again will I drink this.

First of all, Rooibos is NOT tea. Anyway, this looks like sweepings from the floor of a flower shoppe or maybe a painter spilled some lovely colours into a bag of tobacco. In any case, this loose leaf infusion seems like it would be a clown’s favourite drink. I’ve never tried it and I never will but the colours really got my attention. :)

Received this tea yesterday from Bigelow. This is MUCH better than the Classic. Brews fast so give it a two-minute steep with near-boiled water or even three minutes if you like your tea with a more bold flavour. I still prefer the Ceylon blends, but this tea is definitely something with which I’ll experiment. I ripped a bag open and the leaf is a nice size which explains why it infuses so well. A very pleasant brew. It’s nice to know that they are paying attention to tea in the Lower 48!

*Addendum: I just blended it with a bag of Bigelow Premium Ceylon in a ten-ounce mug for three minutes and it was excellent!

I received my box from Bigelow yesterday! I ordered this tea, the Premium Ceylon and Classic Charleson Breakfast Tea. Firstly, this tea is bagged. There is also a pyramid version as well as loose tea. As with every first-time tea, I varied the steeping time for four bags (one minute intervals on a rising scale). The aroma is pleasant but gets notably deeper and even a little harsh the longer it steeps. Three minutes seems to be the most effective steeping time (for me) as the tannin is more evident and the bitterness tolerable without being overwhelming. A pleasant tea perhaps more suited for Southern-style iced tea. Evidently, American Classic Tea has been the official White House tea since 1987 and is officially designated as the Hospitality Beverage of South Carolina.

Yawn.

Typhoo wasn’t allowed in our home when I was growing up. My father wouldn’t allow it. Not because he thought it was a bad tea (although it is), it was due to the fact that he hated the tele ads. He used to say that he’d lose an IQ point for every Typhoo advertisement he heard or saw. I have to agree with him. Since it was banned at home, I considered it forbidden fruit so I drank it at friends’ homes and any other such times that it was available to me. I never liked it, but it was forbidden to me and therefore was to be imbibed as often as possible. Call it rebellous youth. :)

When I first arrived in the Great White North from England in 1993, this was the tea that was sold and served everywhere. If I didn’t bring a bag or two of Tetley with me to a meal, this is what I drank. It’s an above-average black tea blend with a standout Assam character. It’s produced cheaply and sold similarly so don’t expect the Queen to accept a cuppa generica, but it’s a solid backup tea.

Believe it or not, I got it at Ross! I’m in Northern California for the holiday season and my wife wanted to do a little shopping. Ross is a very interesting place. Mostly clothing, but some furniture, household decor products and kitchen items. I was surprised to find some off-branded tea there. I bought this tin of 50 bags for @2.69US (I took the photo because I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE online). Since I’m a Ceylon freak, I was excited to try it.

Let’s just say I’ve added it to my “don’t-ever-buy-this-again” list and tossed the brittle leaves into my mother’s garden. I tried three different steeping times, but all were equally horrendous. Overly bitter and lacking any Ceylon character whatever. Neither milk nor sugar added any solace to this disappointing brew. Thank goodness that my mother knows I’m a Bigelow and Tetley fan. She has plenty of both!

Addendum: I discovered that Nottingham is actually a pseudo-brand by Amazon called “Tea for Life.” I find that description to be accurate since this tea is now helping my mother’s garden grow. :)

I just bought three boxes of this tea from Bigelowtea.com – should get it in a few days. Review coming soon…

Finally got my order from Bigelow. It only took a week this time! This is one of the better bagged Ceylon teas that I’ve experienced. Normally, I buy Green Island Ceylon but that is expensive and takes weeks to arrive. This is equal to that brand and immeasurably less expensive due to quantity. Thank you, Bigelow Teas! The flavour is lovely and slightly bitter. A classic Ceylon taste in a beautiful amber brew. This is one of the only black teas which I will drink without milk (the other is Constant Comment). I’ve only had this tea for 24 hours and I can’t stop drinking it!

Back home in Liverpool, a box of PG or Tetley (or both!) are in nearly every household. In a pinch, I’ll take it if Tetley isn’t available. I love my tea strong, dark and bitter so the milk and sugar blend well without overwhelming the brew. In my house, PG Tips can’t do that with only one bag. Tetley, with their ingenious pouches, do just fine. The PG Tips taste is famous across the pond, but I haven’t purchased it in years because there is so much more tasty tea available in the Great White North.

My wife’s penchant for herbal experimentation keeps me in constant surprise with items such as this. “A truly authentic Canadian experience?” I beg to differ. I’ve been in Canada for 18 years and the only thing Canadian about this is the thought and effort. Oh, and the cute little maple leafs. Adoreable. I have an idea: instead of adding water to this herbal error, pour an ounce or two of milk into a small bowl and add some of this stuff, grab your spoon and take a big bite. I’m assuming that eating it would be better than drinking it. Great idea, poor execution.

This is my evening tea. I drink it every night without fail. If I’m going out of town or commuting, I bring both the leaded and unleaded versions in a tin. I take my tea strong and with milk, so I’m often using multiple pouches and I go through a box rather quickly. I buy in bulk so a case of six boxes of 40 pouches per box cost me $22.00. Pretty good price!