Lipton Black Tea

Had this at a hospital tonight- only choice, but glad that I at least had a choice besides coffee. It was a tea bag (not loose like the picture) and not bad considering that it’s cheap and generic. For basic black tea it seems to be fine- I drank if straight and it tasted pretty good! My mom has been drinking Lipton tea for as long as I can remember, so I do have a “warm fuzzy” about this tea. :)

This tea is very neutral. It will satisfy one’s craving for a hot beverage, but it’s got a rather uninteresting flavor. I think it’s not really Lipton’s fault, though; straight “hot tea” seems to me sort of tame and wimpy, the milquetoast of tea, the lowly shepherd-boy of teas, the palette-cleanser that you would sip between sampling multiple varieties of “worthy” teas. It’s probably better sweetened, or as a meal accompaniment, rather than a stand-alone beverage.

…But it’s tea. So I must soften my review and give it some love. <3.

Used mostly for brewing Kombucha. Plain old Lipton black tea, if you like sweetened iced tea, this tea will make you happy.

Worse black tea ever. Full of lead and pesticides. <- facts

So I bought something from Poshmark and the seller included a couple of fragrance samples and a bag of this tea (very sweet of her.)
I had coffee before work this morning and now I’m home from work, sipping this tea. I didn’t have high hopes as I’m not a huge fan of black tea but if you drown anything in enough honey, it’s going to make it nice and sweet and take away that strong bitterness and some of the astringency and that is exactly what I did. LOL
With the honey and some almond milk, it was quite good. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it otherwise. Still has a slightly astringent aftertaste but it’s nothing that I can’t tolerate.

Lipton gets a bad rap. I get it too. It’s light, bland, and shallow.

I over-steeped my tea because I start with water that is less than a rolling boil, but really it was because I needed all that time to bring out any semblance of taste.

Lipton is a tea, but that’s about it.

You don’t even need two sentences to profile the flavor. I do pick up a little bit of toothpick taste on the tongue, which offers the same consolation I would get from compulsively chewing on one after a good meal.

Lets take a look at the descriptors directly from the Lipton site:
“capturing as much natural tea taste as possible. Lipton Black Tea has real tea leaves specially blended to enjoy hot or iced.”

Key phrases such as “natural tea taste,” “real tea leaves,” “specially blended.”
The same false pretext that gets us to try new things every day from retailers that simply want to appeal to the widest audience possible.

Even from a more expensive retailer, this tea still chalks up to less than 1 American cent per bag. And that my friends, is where it shines.
Lipton tea for me is not an experience, but the genius is in the marketing and placement. Budweiser, Folgers, even McDonalds.

We don’t choose these things because they are good. We choose them because they are too big to ignore, because our parents/friends/relatives do and have, for generations.
I got a sleeve of 50 bags from a coworker of mine because goodness forbid it, I ran out of tea… Not a bag in my desk to get by on! He immediately dropped off a sleeve without any reservation. I felt like the prisoner trying to bum a pack of cigarettes off of another inmate.

So Lipton still has its place on the shelf at every department store, gas station, hotel, airport, hostel, grandmother’s house, you name it. That iced tea that has come to the family cookout for years? It may be a doctored brew from the yellow giant itself. And you know what, that’s not a bad thing. It appeals to people, a lot of people. Then they find something with more depth and realize their palates have been muted by a commodity of blandness.

Without the bar standard that is Lipton, we simply would not take all of the other fabulous, enchanting, phantasmagorical options into the same realm outside the norm.

Yes, if anything else is on the shelf, tea cart, or menu I will probably choose it and enjoy the experience more fully. But I rest that feeling of thankfulness for good tea on Lipton. I’m sure it can bear that task.

Plus, I’d actually like to try their extra strength teabags. You know, for science.

It’s a regular tea offered by many establishments and decent Chinese food restaurants. If your not a Tea connoisseur and would want something other then coffee then this is a good way to go.

I like to use these tea bags to deodorize my shoes.

milk tea

After reading the reviews I had braced myself for my tea to finish steeping and what lie ahead.

To my surprise, this was not the worst tea I’ve ever had, but that isn’t giving it much kudos in the other direction, either.

It is a simple black tea but the aftertaste is not pleasant. It’s astringent and reminded me of bitter medicine. Even milk and honey powder couldn’t reel the aftertaste in and I’m pretty sure it gave me heartburn.

If I have any more of this tea on-hand I’ll be throwing it out. I’ve had my share of Lipton teas over the years, but this is version is a definite no even as a base to my cold brews.