So, when looking at the daunting task of my tea collection and getting things out of it, I decided starting with an “out with the old” approach would be best. I’m glad my spreadsheet is arranged by date, and this tea had an expiration date of November 2018. Uhh… okay. Well, that isn’t too far past, at least not so far long ago I’m not willing to try it. But if I’m not sold, I’m not going to feel guilty about simply tossing the rest of it, either. I think I probably put off this one because every other bagged Bigelow tea I ever tried I didn’t like. Yes, including Constant Comment. (And that may have entirely been up to the age of the sampler packets I received too, but I wasn’t about to spend my own money on a brand of tea I historically don’t like on a full box of it to test that theory…)
I used three teabags for 400ml of water in my travel mug, and did a brief 2 minute steep since CTC. And while this is probably the best results I’ve had with Bigelow yet… I’m still not really feeling this. The vanilla aspect actually isn’t so bad. It actually tastes a bit cookie-like… it’s reminding me of the flavoring from that Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride by Celestial Seasonings I finally got to try last month. But even with the brief steep, the black tea is slightly bitter, and my main issue is the chai element… the spices are so artificial they are distracting and off-putting to me. I feel like I’m tasting that same weird artificial clove taste that I tasted in the Stash bagged Chai, and it leaves this really unpleasant taste on my tongue. The ginger flavor, too, feels overly pungent and artificial, how it is in too many bagged lemon ginger teas.
So, I realize it’s a bit of an oxymoron that I like the artificial sweet cookie-like vanilla flavoring, but can’t stand the artificial spice flavors. And the vanilla comes in first and is quite nice, but then the spice hits toward the end of the sip and lingers and sort of ruins it for me.
This isn’t so bad that I can’t finish this, and in the grand scheme of things, if I was at a restaurant and all they had was Bigelow tea, considering I’ve never liked anything by Bigelow before, if they had this one, I’d probably pick this one. If, you know, I didn’t just order Dr. Pepper instead.
Flavors: Artificial, Bitter, Cinnamon, Clove, Cookie, Ginger, Spices, Spicy, Sweet, Vanilla
I was super disappointed with this one, too. So weak.
It’s probably a good thing I’m using so many teabags at once, then!