Lipton

I’ve been drinking a lot of “berry” teas lately…I think subconsciously I’m getting myself ready for the fruity tastes and smells of late spring and summer. :) Most of the berry teas I’ve ever had have been herbal teas, without an actual “tea” basis, just brewed herbs and leaves with fruit flavoring. However, if you’re more into actual tea leaves, and a stronger taste, I’ve found the right berry tea for you: Lipton’s Bavarian Wild Berry Black Tea.

This is a flavored black tea made with pieces of real berries, packaged nicely in Lipton’s awesome little pyramid bags. (I love the pyramid bags – you can actually see the fruit pieces basically open up after steeping, and the smell and taste are much stronger.) Here’s the tea’s official ingredient list: Black tea, dried apple pieces, rose hip peel, chicory root, cinnamon bark, licorice root, modified corn starch, natural flavor, dried blackberry pieces, dried black currant pieces, ginger root, orange peel, dried blueberry pieces, dried raspberry pieces. That’s a lot of fruit pieces, people. The fruit never overwhelms the black tea though – the strong black tea is just as easy to taste as all of the wonderful fruit.

I haven’t tried the tea iced yet, but I’m guessing that like most teas, it tastes even better hot. I let my bag steep for 3-4 minutes in boiling water. Each bag has 80 mg of Flavonoids per serving (that’s a good thing), and 20 mg of caffeine per serving.

Final say: The tea smells fantastic, and tastes just as good – this one’s a must-try.

I really, really like this tea – perhaps it’s even my favorite tea, which feels a bit stupid. :P You can only get it in office supply stores for some reason.

Good lord this stuff is awful when served hot. Even when it’s only steeped for 2-3 minutes it tends to become unbearably bitter. For years I thought that I hated tea because of this stuff. That said, I always keep a box on hand for when I want to make some sugar-saturated sweet tea since this serves as a nice, low-cost base for all that saccharine goodness.

Don’t judge me, this is another free tea from my school’s health services, and tea help me, I like it. This means that I should probably seek out some peach tea that isn’t just sawdust. Mangosteen and peach are such similar tastes to me that it really doesn’t matter if there’s mangosteen in here. And quite frankly, I’m not kidding myself that I’m gaining any superfruit health benefits from this.

Lipton’s superfruit tea blends actually (almost all) look really tasty though. I can see buying a few of them and hiding them in the back of my cabinet where nobody will ever know. Except, I guess my husband would know. And he’d laugh.
This tastes better than the Republic of Tea bags have lately; those are too weak. Every so often one is super tasty and then they suck me in again… but I have this theory about bagged tea in general- the bag you try somewhere randomly, on a whim is delicious. So you buy a box. And then nothing that comes out of that box is ever as delicious as the teaser-bag you got. Since my Whole Foods often has random free tea bags out by the coffee, this happens to me a lot.
(But the employees like it when you return tea to the store because they get to divide up returned items like that. Or, that’s what a friend who works at WF told me.)

Wonderful.

this shit has mad flavor. really good for after dinner when you want something sweet.

This was the one that started me on my tea journey, never to look back.

This is unfortunately not sold beyond select nations of the European Union (namely France and Poland) but it’s truly amazing, especially given that it’s a commercial blend! Its primary components are papaya and hibiscus, but it also contains orange blossoms, lemon grass, orange rind, licorice and rose petals. What an amazing taste that blend creates.
It even gives a pretty good second steep. Definitely a keeper in my book.

Its unavailability is a great pity. I’d keep this stocked among my favourite loose leafs, given the chance.

I drink a 50/50 mix of this and Bigelow Green chilled and iced. It’s nice and refreshing.

This tea is good, could be better, I think I may have overheated the water or not steeped long enough. It is very good still. Just a bit off. I should try to remember to steep longer, less hot water, boil in a kettle, not microwave.

It is a fruity tea that gives the water a strong purple color. It has a strong taste of berries, blueberries with a sour finish.

I recommend this infusion for the ones that prefer sour, fruity, flavors.

This is one of my favorites tea (from the flower flavor category) that I tried. It’s not to strong and I can enjoy a cup late in the night!

the worst. tastes artificial and burnt.

My husband and I went out to Shari’s for breakfast this morning, and I ordered the Earl Grey. Ugh! Horrible. That was Earl Grey? What a shame that that disgusting tea shares the same name as some of the best teas I’ve ever tasted.

I could only swallow two sips, and then had to ask the waitress to take it back and bring me juice instead.

I drink this tea before bedtime when I’m wired. It calms me and helps me to sleep. It’s a soft, relaxing blend of Chamomile. The Spearmint is not overpowering like I had worried it might be.

The ingredients listed are Spearmint Leaves, Chamomile Flowers, Peppermint Leaves, Orange Peel, Lemon Grass, Spice, Chicory Root. I would say that along with the Chamomile and Mint flavors, the Chicory Root, stands out a bit, giving the tea a hint of earthiness.

Backlogging: Been away from most of my other teas last week, resorted to buying some new bagged teas. This one impressed me the least. The black tea seemed to be buried under the flavorings, which while they were ok… I wished I had some Upton Creme Caramel, where the tea is an equal player. Weak overall, not bad…just lacking.

I do not have a good history with Lipton teas. Me and those, we are not destined to be friends. But this “lemon balm” tea is maybe the lowest point in our history just yet.

Some context: cidreira, or lemon balm or melissa officinalis (or something like that, but you know, with spelling) is a plant whose infusions are really popular in Portugal. Like mint, or chamomile, or linden, lemonbalm tea is one of those standard herbal infusions. With good reason, I do not know why this seems unknown worldwide, this is light, delicate, just a very very nice herbal tea.

You can usually buy it pretty cheap from several brands and supermarkets. Lipton is probably the priciest brand, fancy pyramid bags and big stands on supermarkets. Considering my history with Lipton i had never had this infusion yet, but just had it and they managed to spoil it. They added chicory (!) to a light lemony-minty herb. 10% chicory. It tastes muddy. It tastes like chicory overwhelming the poor lemon balm. It´s awful. Chicory and lemon balm, they add nothing to each other. WHY? WHY do this? I truly do not get it.

Resumo em Português:
isto não é chá de cidreira nem deveria poder ser chamado chá de cidreira. É uma mistura de cidreira com chicória. Chicória, que vai muito bem com café mas nada bem com cidreira. Chicória, que adiciona qualidades a certas infusões, mas que na minha opinião, não tem nada de nada a ver com cidreira. Achei esta mistela intragável, especialmente para o preço que cobram. Lipton, porquê esta porcaria?

Oh. My. GOD. This has to be the worst tea I’ve yet had in my (I’m still insisting it’s short) life thus far.

I went to Humpty’s yesterday (oh, Humpty’s, night owls everywhere thank you for your blessed existence…) and had a wonderful breakfast of bennies and perogies, ahh. I also had apple juice, and ordered a tea, but pocketed the Lipton bag the server gave me (thank heavens) on the side and steeped David’s Nepal Black instead. What a lovely meal.

Well, that Lipton’s bag was still in my pocket today, so I scored some hot water with honey off SBUX and steeped this worryingly steamrolled-looking little bag. Good grief, I would have been better off drinking honey water.

The dry smell is nasty. Like tea dipped in some sort of cleaner. The wet smell is actually worse – my notes (yeah, I have a little tea notebook now, what a dork) say, “Cleaner and black pepper! Huh?”

But the taste! Gack! Hurk! It tastes like a cardboard box shoved to the back of the top shelf of the closet in your spare room would taste if it were liquefied – oh, but not before you dunked it in Lemon Pledge furniture cleaner! Oooh, can I insert that little red >_< face from the rating scale?

Ew!

I was given some of this tea from a friend. It is very pleasant in both aroma and taste. Added to my shelf as I adore citrus tastes.

Colour: Dark Honey
Smell: Sharpness of the grapefruit yet also the sourness of the lemon. Light yet very fresh and citrus smelling.

Taste: Again the most domineering flavour is the grapefruit but you can still taste the lemon and lime in the background with a hint of the green tea. I would say this lives up to it’s name and is delightful to drink for a ‘pick me up’ so it would be grand to be used as a morning tea. Warning for those unsure about citrus flavours as this is quite strongly citrus.

I first had this tea in the Baltics in 1991, then again on a train to Murmansk in 2000. It was wonderful. It tasted just like black tea except without the bitterness and with a very slight sweetness. It took years to find a grocery store in the USA that carried the yellow label. Lipton Yellow Label is my favorite tea.

I like this stuff but…I keep tasting cinnamon-y. Or something similar.
Its really, really odd to me.