Decaffeinated Black Tea

Still looking for a good stout black decaf tea for those mornings when I don’t need to be revved up like a jet engine. This isn’t it.

Christmas Eve dessert time at my grandmother’s house, and this was the only tea she had in the cupboard. Since everyone else was drinking coffee (and I hate coffee), I steeped this up to join in on the hot beverage fun.

And let me tell you, this really didn’t taste like anything. At all. I kept steeping it and steeping it, worried that it was going to get bitter (as bagged tea really does if you keep it in the water too long), but that NEVER happened. I kept tasting it and tasting it, and the flavor was not there. By the 6 minute mark, I just pulled the bag and drank it. It’s hard to even have an opinion on this, since it’s pretty flavorless and inoffensive. It’s so flavorless and inoffensive that I kind of dislike it, a lot.

But the tea was NOT important at all. Being with my family on Christmas Eve was the important thing. The bad tea was inconsequential!

My Mom’s staple tea for the last few months, but I have no idea why. It’s BEYOND INFURIATING. There’s promise of taste that never delivers. You could put five bags in one mug and still not taste a bloody thing.

The American blend is different from the UK blend. This is because the UK blend is not 100% decaffinated (I think it’s 2%). That does have a taste to it, but the US version is a crime (or should be a crime). Even the cheapest chamomile bagged tea has more taste and better aroma than this.

Since I blend this with Ceylon or Constant Comment, I rarely notice this tea’s shortcomings. I use it as a base only. It does the job pretty well. Alone, it’s only average but still better than Lipton!

It’s hard to find my favorite black decaf, PG Tips, where I live and was excited to see a possible alternative at my local grocery store. Despite reading that the decaf British Blend was better, I decided to give this a try.

Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with this tea. I had to steep a single cup for about 10 minutes just to get some flavor. As per my usual cup, I added a dash of milk and no sugar, but this didn’t help much. Overall, it was just bland, bland, bland.

I may buy this if I’m completely desperate, but I’d much rather wait until my PG Tips Decaf becomes more widely available.

What i have when i want a black tea (which is pretty much all the time!) but don’t want to hype myself up too much. Is ok, doesn’t taste too bad.