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Let’s be honest, you probably know what Earl Grey tastes like.
How does this iteration stack up? Splendidly.

Bagged, 10oz, 5:30 steep time. This particular steep was perfect, with distinct black tea through the sip and a bergamot rushing in to match it.

I used to drink Twining’s Earl Grey by the box. It got me through college when I just didn’t want coffee. So this was my base for all other Earl Greys.
If I’m being honest, my palate is slightly numb. With a poor sense of smell I am used to overpowering my senses with strong cigar smoke, deep black coffee, and dominating cologne.

Earl Grey is not about that, this is a light and refined blend with balance and a little bite on the finish. I learned from good tea to treat it with tact and it will reward with more nuance and enjoyment.

This is a solid cuppa, and I can’t help but heel happy to serve guests a pot when they ask for this timeless classic. At the end of the day when the curtains draw and it is just family/friends/company around, that is what Earl Grey is to me.
Well done Taylor’s, you’ve stood up to the expectations of memory with a great blending of a classic taste.

Steeped for a little over 5 minutes, with near boiling water, in a 10oz tea for one pot yielding two cups.

I personally liked this. Compared with something like Bigelow Pomegranate Green Tea it’s apparent that the flavor is not true pomegranate but more like a fruit tea that happens to be geared towards the tart fruit side of the spectrum.

The smell offers a bright bouquet of fresh berries, taste is delightful and rich with no bitterness even with the use of hibiscus for balance. The tea itself is a deep red, and the overall feel really struck a chord with me.
For someone who really enjoys dark, malty, or strong black teas I surprised myself with this one.

It hearkened back to a simpler time where my mom would offer tea with fresh fruit, or homemade cookies after dinner. Being a young male I would always associate this tea time with a doll house tea party, beneath the vigor of chaos that boys cloak themselves in at a young and exploratory age.
Now I realize, however, that the reprieve after a long day is embodied in a tea like this. Non-caffeinated so you can still rest easy, as my mother originally intended.

Yes, the first ingredient listed is apple which is apparent on the nose. In my opinion though this allows for a base for all the fruit/flower tastes to merge within, exciting the palate to a familiar taste instead of leaving things lacking with only one note to diffuse through.
This is a well-rounded tea, even if it misses the product mark a little bit.

Pomegranate? Only some. Pizzazz? Certainly.

I would keep this stocked for a nighttime treat, it’s just that good.

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.

Steeped for 6 minutes, in 10oz of purified water, at a temperature just less than boiling (office hot water dispenser.)

Dry smell is sweet, citrusy, and pleasant. Exactly what you might expect by the description.

Bright, lovely-light, offering a bold but delicate feeling on the palate. A great deal of citrus fruit mixes with syrupy sweetness on the finish to bring the tangerine front and center.

Looking at the blend on the box, I feel this tea offers a great melding of Assam with herbaceous flavors while offering a great pick me up especially when compared to a weaker drip brew coffee or K-cup level of caffeine. That green tea extract packs a punch without negatively affecting the flavor whatsoever.
Since I used a tea for one set for this infusion, I will be experimenting with double infusion when two bags are used at a lower steep time.
I am also limited by the fact that my water source is just less than boiling.

Overall, I feel that this tea offers a tremendous value when it comes to a coffee replacement. It is a run of the mill mass-produced tea but with that comes the convenience of availability and low price. Would keep in my rotation to buy again! Especially compared to some other Yogi teas.