Lipton

It’s very unlike me to actually turn to a green tea as my first choice, especially my first choice of the morning. Maybe it’s the mint that’s calling to me or maybe it’s the matcha. Or both perhaps.

The flavor isn’t anything too special, not even really very minty. I have another bag of this but I’m not really in a hurry to have it again soon.

Cold Brew sip down.

This is a delicious tea cold brewed. It is slightly bitter but leaves a peachy aftertaste like those peachy rings from the old days.

This box of tea was forgotten for almost 5 years until the day I discovered it hiding at the back of the cupboard and decided to try it again. It was still bitter even though I made it with the correct temperature and steep time. I ended up playing a little with steep time to no avail. I gave up for a few months but once again it found its way out while I was searching for something else. This time, I decided to cold steep it and it still came out better yet still bitter. It turns out that it is just mediocre tea. I could not bring myself to get rid of it after I decided to lug it around on all my moves, so I decided to embrace the bitterness and finish off the 18 sachet box 7 years later. Although its bitter, it is very flavorful.

It brought back so many memories :)

This review is going to be right on suit with my Lipton black tea review; while that one goes more into semantics of Lipton as a staple I will keep this more brief.

This is a one-dimensional green tea, it gets a little bitter as some reviewers point out, but really there’s only one thing that brings it down.
A tangy aftertaste that has a sense of tannin coating the tongue which is tough to shake. Ironically I still feel as if they would equate this to all the supposed health benefits of drinking Lipton Green Tea, but more likely it’s just the product of a mass-produced offering that does not have the same penchant for small-batch perfection that many others do.

You know that mystery tea that the Japanese or Chinese restaurants somewhere in town serve? It’s probably better, or at least putting up a fight when it comes to flavor.

It’s a plain green tea, and there are many other options that would be superior in flavor and experience.

I would not buy it personally, but I got a box for free and I’ll likely still drink it.
If this was the only option on a tea cart on a train, I would still sip, enjoy, and stare out the window at anything to add to the experience of this tea.

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.

I know this tea have lots of disrespect here. I completely understand it, because it’s so common – it can’t be good. Anyway, I will try to be unbiased.

I rather did supershort steep and it looks like I let it brew for 10 minutes at least.
I can finish it. That’s the positive. But tea itself? It’s even tea? Tannic, “tea”, dirty.

“Black Tea with 5% pressed leaves to release their essence” – that’s something I really dislike. I think it is that tannic + dirty taste.
I have one more bag from postcrossing (this one is from as well). I know why I don’t enjoy this one / with lemon it is bit better one.

Tried this tea at a motel. It was really tasty! The flavor is a light, deliciously spiced orange. A bit of sweetener really made it taste nice. No sourness, just sweet orange. A totally satisfying bagged choice.