Lipton Black Tea

Well I’m traveling again and stuck in an airport all night with delays. Last night nothing was open but one small shop and the only thing they had was Lipton! I was so desperate I went for it. I noticed it was the new blend that they’ve been advertising on tv, so I was kind of curious as well.

I steeped the bag for 3 minutes at whatever temp the shop water was. The first thing I was greeted with was quite the aroma! It had a nice malty smell with some honeyed notes and a light roastiness. There was also a brightness that was pretty uplifting.

From the very first sip, I really enjoyed this tea. It must be the fresh-pressed tea leaves that they’re now adding to the bags. It really makes a difference! The tea was full bodied but still light and not astringent. It was smooth with a silky texture, with notes of molasses, fresh bread and a hint of chocolate. I really felt great drinking this tea.

I feel like I have to spread the news! This amazing tea can be had at your grocery store! I even found a special coupon code for ordering online today for 50% off, what a steal! The code is: APRILFOOLS

This is a delightful tea best served dumped in the Atlantic and forgotten about.

I drank nearly a whole bottle of wine myself last night, if not more. Waking up the following morning, I just wanted a plain black tea brewed strong. Not coffee. My parents have a decent collection of mostly bagged teas, most of which are black and flavored. So this was my pick for a standard black tea. Maybe because my stomach wasn’t feeling well and I just needed tea now but this tasted just fine to me and did the trick.

I’m rating it a 50 (drinkable/decent). It’s your basic bagged plain black tea.

(backlogging)

Choked down half a cup, hot at a conference as there were no other options and I needed liquid/caffeine. Blegh! Not so much bad tasting, as flavorless and sad. Note to self – put teabags in new purse so that nextime I can BYOT!

Well my husband and I got all dolled up last night and headed out to my new dental office’s Christmas party (I just took a business manager position with this office and am transitioning into the position while finishing up some things at the dental office I had been working… January I will be completely transitioned into the new office. It was very nice to be invited to this Christmas party and it gave me an opportunity to meet all the staff That being said we were at a very upscale restaurant that makes wonderful food and brings it to you with artistic designs on your plate. After cocktails, dinner and dessert I decided to have a cup of tea expecting a decent cup of fine tea…. NOPE I was brought a tea pot with a bag of Lipton in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn’t believe such an upscale restaurant served LIPTON!!!! My husband jokingly said to me that I have much finer teas at home :) All in all it was a great time but I had to come home to have a decent cup of tea!

I think my palate is receding, because I brewed up a cup of this today (iced) and it didn’t taste that bad. It almost tasted….good?

There needs to be a smiley face rating that goes :O

I went to Ikea today with my parents. We stopped for a quick 99 cent breakfast and I ordered a 75 cent tea. Their only option was this and it tasted good. Not sure why Lipton gets such a bad rating. It’s everything I expected. Simply bagged black tea. Should we expect more? 75 cent unlimited refill tea should taste this way :)

Seeing that Della Terra has their Eight Candles tea 40% off today has me ordering more. That tea rocks my socks.

Time to kick back and watch It’s a Wonderful Life.

Blech! You call this tea?! This is a sad impression of what could be. (The rhyme was unintentional, sorry).

Forget Lipton and go with Twinings. How could a British tea company get this so wrong? Lipton’s weak, bland flavor just can’t compete with high quality teas. But if you’re in a bind and it’s the only choice so you can get your tea fix, it’ll do.

I mean, come on! It doesn’t even have a name! Hot tea?! That’s not a name! That could be anything!

This is all the student center had this morning – where is my darjeeling??? I really needed the caffeine so this wasn’t bad. I must mention I steeped this for oh maybe 45 minutes an hour and it still wasn’t very strong – lol.

This is the first hotel I’ve ever been to that serves Numi with its catering but gives you Lipton when you eat in their restaraunt. Makes no sense to me.

Yup, Numi tea notes to come.

I decided to try this tea at work (because I won’t pay for it) after seeing the “Modern Marvels” episode about tea. Surely if they think highly enough of lipton to dedicate 75% of an episode to it, it must be good right? Wrong! This tea has a decidedly old taste. In fact if you really think about it, it tastes dusty. It is quite obviously over oxidized, which makes sense. Lipton produces millions of pounds of tea a year. Which means they have to get their tea from about as many places. Goodbye terroir, hello heavy oxidation. If you have a load of tea from several different sources, the only way to make it all taste the same and maintain product continuity is to oxidize the hell out of it. It’s like what would happen if you took an apple, a pear, and a carrot and put them in the oven for the clean cycle. At the end of the cycle, they’d all taste the same. Drinking lipton is so unnecessary. Even in places where it’s the only thing available. With the expansion of tea sales on the internet, (case in point: steepster) no one of discerning taste need resort to this unholy liquor. Of course Lipton does do us a big favor. They keep our favorite teas cogent by keeping their market share down, and their batches small.

Hot water plus “tea”.

Euch, this is nothing more that hot leaf juice!

This is what I drank for several years before being exposed to looseleaf tea.

Prepared without milk, it is harsh to the point of being almost undrinkable. If I let it get into the side of my mouth under my tongue, it makes me have a horrible puckering feeling there. Like… sour dirt. If it’s steeped for more than 3 minutes or so, I feel like it’s damaging my esophagus as it’s going down.

Prepared with milk, it’s drinkable but still harsh and not particularly flavorful. But, if it were the only black tea in the world, I’d drink it often (with milk). Still beats out a lot of non-tea drinks.

It hurts, kill it before it reproduces and hurts your friends and family. Only good for those emergencies where you can’t find anything else, but even then it’s better not drink it.
Steaming pile of tea-like pee.

Meh, it’s tea. Does a 1/2lb box @ $5.00 compare to David’s Tea for $6.00/50g? Hell no. Is Lipton prepared wrong by 98% of the pseudo tea-drinking population? Yes. Everyone can point out goods and bads about most teas, but on thing is for sure… this tea is a generic taste that cost very little and can be bought at 24/7 stores and gas stations. I think that in the tea world where everyone has become used to cornflowers, oranges, berries, and blooms within their pots… this minimal tea is left out in the cold. It gets a bad wrap, but I’m sure it was a “gateway tea” for many people here.

I owe Lipton a huge debt. It got me drinking tea at the age of three when my mom would make it for me in my carebear or beauty and the beast mugs. It’s all my parents drink to this day, and there is always a huge quantity at hand. It’s the reason we have an insta-hot faucet installed in my kitchen, and as much as my tastes have matured, I still enjoy it with milk and sugar. So I salute you, Lipton Black Tea, my gateway drug of teas. Thank you for the world you opened up to me so many years ago.

I had a sweet tea urge at work, and I forgot to bring my own from work. I know I have had Lipton’s aat numerous restaurants. Well I am done with my relationship with Lipton’s.

For my sweet tea needs, I always prefer Luzianne, or a nice brisk black tea. Lipton’s bagged tea made into iced tea is so medicore, dull, and no layers to flavor. My mom always hated Lipton’s. Now I see why! It isn’t take one sip and spit out kind of tea. But I would prefer iced water to it.

You know what? I’ve figured out what makes Lipton so popular. It’s user-friendly and “drinkable” under most circumstances. Is it my favorite? No. But when you just want a warm mug of tea with a little lemon and honey, this is a pretty good backdrop.

I made this tea yesterday, and after a couple of sips, I dumped it down the drain. Bland and tasteless. My parents always drank Lipton, so I thought I should try this again. I wonder if they went to an even lower grade of tea dust, if that is possible.