Raspberry Royale

I got this in a fantastic care package from a friend of mine today. I was feeling especially lazy when I got home from work – short-staffed tonight, and lots of work to do. (Although I did really well today – picked up others’ work and sold more than the storewide quota for passes just on my shift alone! Not bad, with reviews coming up…) And then I came home and found a huge box for me on the table!

As much as I wanted to like this tea, I really didn’t. The directions on the packed said steep 1-2 minutes, so I followed those directions for the first cup I had. I could hardly taste it. The second cup, I added a bit of sugar and left the teabag in as I drank, and it still basically tasted like hot water with sugar. The smell is vaguely raspberry and I taste a very light black flavor, but it’s hardly there. Sad, because the dry bag smells great!

This used to be one of my favorite bagged varieties. I guess it still is… I like that lack of tart, that HIBISCUS that many fruity teas tend to have. This is bold and hearty, with a twinge of raspberry. I added some sweetener, to enhance the flavor.

…

OK, OK. I added it because I have a sweet tooth. You caught me!

-Standard teabag.
-Teabag smells strongly of very sweet raspberries. Tea liquor aroma is almost earthy with a small scent of raspberry.
-Tea liquor is a medium clear brown.
-Slight raspberry flavor with a bitter finish.
-Best with sweetener.
-Fair tea. Very bitter and little raspberry flavor. Sweetener takes away most of the bitterness.

This is a backlog from yesterday’s lunch at the conference. I’d been asking for a carafe at hot water for each of the meals the hotel’s catering staff has served us. At dinner on Wednesday, I drank Raspberry & Vanilla tea that I had brought, and had left the wrappers/bags on the table.

When I started to ask for hot water for lunch yesterday, the server (turns out the same one from the night before) said that she’d be right out with a pot and some tea bags before I could even get the question out. She brought me hot water in a real teapot, not just a coffee carafe, some bags of the hotel’s generic black and decaf teas, and one bag of this. “I saw you had some raspberry tea yesterday. This one’s not decaf, but I thought you might like it.”

Well, even if I hadn’t liked it, this tea will now always have a special meaning to me. Turns out that I did quite enjoy it, and will definitely be investing in some so I can brew it under better conditions (I know it brewed for over 3 minutes, but how much longer than that I’m not sure). Loved the taste of the black tea, and it was just lightly raspberry. Add to that the fact that she went out of her way to take care of the oddball in the room (out of 100+ people, I was the only hot tea drinker), and it was one of the best cups/experiences I’ve had in a while.

hotel tea. serviceable.

Wednesday Dec. 29, 2010
2nd Steep of the Day.
Bigelow’s Raspberry Royale.
This Is a Super rich profound raspberry Flavor.
Just the Right Black Tea presence, not to overshadow the Berry.
Bigelow got this one right ALSO. (is there a Bad Bigelow).
Keep on Steepin

I don’t like fruit teas that are tart. This one isn’t, so props for that particular aspect. I do like teas that live up to their aroma. This one doesn’t, so phooey for that particular aspect. It’s warm and I’m cold, so it’ll do.

I like this, any berry seems to go well with tea, this is no exception. The raspberry is centerstage but not overpowering. Like peanut butter and chocolate, the flavors of the tea and berry compliment and create something new. It will be good to compare this to other raspberry flavored teas in the future as a baseline.

Ok, the raspberry flavor in this is great. Not quite as strong as I’d like, but I went with the packet’s instruction of 1-2 minutes. I think this would have done better with a longer steep time. The black tea’s taste is there, but it’s faint, more in the aftertaste once the raspberry fades. Anyway, l like this and would definitely drink it again if I had more. It also makes me curious about raspberry tea in general.

Sweet and pleasant, not something I enjoy often but it’s a good, inexpensive raspberry tea. Good hot or iced, I usually sweeten mine up a little and don’t usually add milk but sometimes I do add milk. It’s sweet without any sweetener and brews to a red/pink color.

Plucked this out of our suicide jar (a jar full of all of our leftover bagged teas, some good, some terrible. Whatever you snag, you have to brew and you have to drink). I didn’t have high hopes for this one, but it wasn’t terrible! I don’t know if I’d search it out, but it was very nice for a bagged tea! I might restock this one when the suicide jar runs out, and I look forward to making sun tea with this!

Thank you, brandy3392 for bringing this to my attention!

I’d been wanting to taste this one for a while now, but have been to lazy to go pick it up. Recently I moved from Kansas to Florida, and it’s been hectic. All my good teas are in the mail, I’m still waiting for them to arrive. I took the Amtrak from Kansas to here, a three day journey. I really expected my package to beat me here, all I’ve had to drink is what I packed in my case, good ol’ Irish breakfast and some dubious looking bagged oolong that my dad bought for me that I’ve been putting off trying for a long time.

I’m sitting in a hotel in Tamarac today and decided to try this tea, which was complimentary. I definitely oversteeped this, it’s getting me at the back of my tongue with this weird tannin thing. other than that it seems nice, the raspberry is prominent but I can still taste the black tea.

I seem to like most Bigelow teas, and this is no exception. I swiped a couple more bags to take home with me. I’ve been dying for a unique cup of tea for a long while.

I steeped this tea for a minute longer than the directions, and added sugar to enhance the flavor and overcome the bitterness. Sweetener does the job, but I found myself wishing it hadn’t. The raspberry flavor is very artificial tasting and tastes like one of those raspberry jelly filled chocolates. Yuck! Ahmad’s fruit teas are vastly better, not so much because of the quality of the tea but because the fruit flavors taste genuine.

This one is not one I will say that is my favorite. I am not a real fan of black tea either, but all tea is equal and deserve to be drank. So here I go in my cup of description. Bigelow tea is what is in break rooms at, but yet we do not have a lot of verity either. I decided to try this one instead of drinking my green tea. Hmmm . . . raspberry it should taste good!

The black tea leaves came through strong of the stale taste of raspberry. Yes, the raspberry flavor was we week. I had to dress the cup with sugar to make bearable for me sip (not drink).

I was out of good tea and milk at work – this was the least revolting available at the ‘coffee break’ area.
Vile. No flavor. Even the ultimate sin of flavoured coffee creamer could not make this drinkable.

Not really big on black teas with fruit, so I didn’t really care for this tea. Also, I found it too artificial tasting.

Despite my distaste for artificial flavors in teas nowadays, I have to give credit where it’s due, because this was a childhood favorite. Something about raspberry with black tea always strikes me the right way!

Simple with an almost haunting taste of raspberry. What I mean by that is you almost forget that it is raspberry flavored until it creeps its way into your senses subtly. I enjoy it when I am looking for a quick tea to make in the office or just am too lazy for loose leaf. It really is elegant and simple, yet not too sweet and still strong.

Not bad for an “emergency” cup of tea, courtesy of the nice lady at the hotel front desk. I forgot to put any tea in my purse before we left the house, and the desk lady came to the rescue, handing me an assortment of tea bags. I decided to make a cup of this, thinking it might be a nice change from just a plain black tea (and a good way to relax and hopefully rid myself of this travel-stress-related headache), and it’s quite pleasant – the raspberry flavor isn’t as strong as the scent of the tea bag would suggest, but it’s rather nice.

There wasn’t anything special here. Are there any good raspberry teas? Raspberries are my favorite. I couldn’t really taste the base either. Didn’t taste like a black tea to me. Maybe this was an older teabag.