Black Pearl Tea

I had this tea with breakfast this morning. I wanted to have something more interesting, but I apparently forgot to wash out my tea strainer last night. Oh well. This was a good substitute. It is a pretty solid black tea.

Ok, this was a rushed decision at 3 AM in the grocery store with the boys. I needed a plain black tea for making pitchers, and this was under $3. And somehow, when I read the words “black” and “pearl”, I thought this was going to be actual black pearls. Like tea rolled into little balls, like decent tea companies do. I didn’t read the package, okay?

But no, this is black tea that’s crushed but with little dust. Even after almost five minutes, it… kinda tastes like nothing. It’s, as one of my brothers called it, just brown water. It’s also kinda faintly bitter and astringent. It kinda smells like black tea?

Also, “long-leaf”? Is that something Lipton made up?

Goodness I haven’t been on here in awhile. I still have some swaps to mail out from months ago (I promise I haven’t forgotten about you!). I actually haven’t been home in several weeks and have been extremely busy with work and school which takes me to this rating.

I’ve been staying with my Mom (long story and it’s related to school not marital issues), and consequently I do not have my tea with me. I went to the grocery store in desperate need of tea and was surprised to discover that Lipton made pyramid sachets. It could be because I microwaved my water but I thought this tea was rather tasteless. I can’t say much more than that because I really couldn’t detect any distinct flavor, it essentially tasted like hot water.

This is what I have when I go visit my family and forget to bring my own tea. It’s probably the best unflavored black tea available in their Kroger, but not so great compared to the excellent looseleafs out there. It’s not quite strong enough, and too tannic and astringent; for this reason, I recommend using an extra bag but a short (3 min max) steep time.

When I was a kid, the Boy-Scout-styled church group I was in used some little leather straps to hang award beads on, and at some point I wound up chewing on one. That’s sort of what’s going on with Black Pearl.

It’s real black tea and not leaf dust, so that’s good. However, where its flavor deviates from the norm it’s not really for the better, and it doesn’t have the robustness to cover it up. Black Pearl is not proper bad, just mediocre.

Started off the day with this combined with stash mint…very nice!

Story Time: Ugh, why can’t formatting a computer be like how it was in the old days, simple and easy. Now it is more touchy and complicated. Back-story: I have had my Dell XPS for about 2 years and love it. I had to save up for two years to get it, but it was worth it. Lately it has been kinda acting up and would randomly go to black screen; which is bad when you are doing graphic design work. First I tried to just re-load the system, since that always fixes most Microsoft problems. However, I stupidly let it try to download and install ALL the updates… I should have known better. It was really derpy and could not get it to behave no matter the trouble shooting. So seeing how that wasn’t going to work and I really needed to back up my files, I decided a full format was in-order. After about 6 DVD disks later my files are backed up. Now I just got to go back and reload the OS FROM THE DISK. Tried to do it just from the desktop, but it didn’t want to cooperate. Hopefully I can at least be back online by tomorrow.

Tea Time: Going back through my Lipton tea pyramids to use up I decided to give Black Pearl a try. I was a little hesitant do to the reviews, but I decided to give it a shot. When it was finally done and pour it over ice i was surprised. Obviously it is not the best tea, but it tasted pretty good. It made a really dark red liquor and smelled like most bagged Lipton tea. The taste was your classic single note Lipton taste, but slightly… very slightly more complex. It was malty with a slightly sweet and bitter aftertaste, but not unpleasant. Of course that could be the light agave I use to sweeten it. I might try a darker agave next. I only wished I had some lemons to squeeze into it.

Overall I was please with it, and so was my mom. I will make a separate taste note for a regular hot water brew. I do though want to do a taste test comparison with regular Lipton bags and Luzianne tea to find out which one makes the best black sun tea.

Specifics
Temp: Hot summer day
Water: about 64 ounces
Bags: 6
Time: 2 1/2 hours
Liquor color: http://s1152.photobucket.com/albums/p499/Ze_Teamaker409/?action=view&current=2012-07-09144950.jpg

When you want a Pepsi, you get a Pepsi. There is no difference between one bottle and the next, no nuance between bottlers and distributors. A Pepsi ISN’T a fine champagne. But sometimes you want a Pepsi.
That’s how I feel about this tea. It isn’t bitter, it isn’t too strong, it isn’t expensive. It is a decent cup of tea when you want some tea and every batch will be the same. Don’t steep it too long! These sachets are sized for a 6 to 8 oz cuppa, not for 12 oz like Harney sachets.

Friday May 20, 2011
2nd Steep of the Day
Wanted a Deep Rich Black Tea.
What a Choice with Lipton’s Black Pearl.
Bold, Deep, Lasting, Rich, Smooth,
Great Afternoon Cup for Tea Logging Time.
Keep On Steepin

Lipton Black Pearl is a very pleasant surprise in good quality, especially since it is coming from the tea company whose name is often used as an adjective to describe poor quality tea. Black Pearl is a surprisingly smooth black tea that does not have any traces of bitterness and one that I would view as being worth buying again. Sure it would be easy to find a better quality black tea but the fact remains for its price range and being a grocery store black tea I think it would be hard to beat.

I was quite surprised with this one. I received this tea as a gift (not for a birthday, or other special occasion, but because my family knows my deep appreciation for tea). I usually do not like Lipton, and try to stay away from it. As for this tea, I had to try it, and was astonished by its malty flavor. However, this tea contained MANY stems on a stem-to-leaf ratio. This is not close to the best tea I have had, but if I am offered Lipton again, this is the tea I will choose (as it is better than their other teas).