Bigelow

Sipdown September is off to a strong (albeit easy) start with a sipdown of this tea. We had to get this when we both had a bad case of covid, were too weak to make anything else, but really needed tea to help with the coughing and sore throat. We plowed through whatever bagged ginger tea we had on hand very quickly, so we added this to a grocery order to replenish. I held on to a handful of bags after we got better because it’s convenient for sick days, but at this point there’s only one left and I’m trying to make a dent in my stash so it was time to say goodbye.
I actually chose this tonight because a) I was craving something lemony and b) I’ve got a migraine, which the ginger helps with. So this was a perfect send-off for this tea, whose purpose in this household has largely been dedicated to health and recovery. That said, I really like the flavor too! It’s very heavy on the lemon, a bit sweet, and not especially tart. At first I thought the sweetness came from hibiscus, but there isn’t any in this blend – I’m probably tasting the licorice root. The ginger is gentle, mostly at the end of the sip, and lingers long after. I would enjoy this as a refreshing blend even if I didn’t need a get-well boost.

Peachy but not offensively sweet or one note.

By the end of the conference, it was this and a sleepytime Bigelow blend as the remaining options. I figured a sleep blend wouldn’t be great as I was trying to make it through a full day of lectures. So, ended up with this.

This is not good. This is abysmal. I cringed everyt ime I took a sip. I’m not really sure what I was tasting, but I know it wasn’t good.

I’ve been in New Orleans over the last few days for an “immersion weekend” for the law school I’m attending. The tea situation was dreadful. No coffee pot or kettle in the room, and the only source of hot water available was in the overpriced restaurant in the lobby of the hotel (which was only open from 7am-11am)…which I had to pay $4 for. So, for the most part, I ended up just drinking whatever was available at the event itself, which was exclusively a range of Bigelow blends.

This was…fine. It was orange, it was spice. It was pretty unremarkable, but it was tea.

The spices are mild, and there’s something fruity/vegetable-y in there that could be the pumpkin. It all combines pretty cohesively. I don’t like it quite as much as the Republic of Tea one, but it’s pretty solid. Thanks tea-and-cats!

DECAF! This is a mild tea, which like any, gets stronger the more it is steeped. Bigelow’s package describes it as “A gentle blend with a lovely lemon finish”. That’s accurate enough. It’s not particularly distinguished as a flavored tea. The lemon predominates. It does blend well with other teas, which is how I primarily use it. I’m only sampling it individually now, so I have a record of it here at Steepster.
As it cools, I can see it would be a good tea to chill for a hot day. Do I like it? Yes. But I will still use it to blend with other, stronger teas, to make a milder pot. I like lemon, so this works for me—especially if I happen to be out of lemons, this will work to fill out that flavor.
I neither recommend ‘yea’ or ‘nay’. It’s decent; one can enjoy it.

I taste the apple and some caramel, though it’s not too sweet. It’s mostly apple and doesn’t need milk, but is better with sweetener. I wouldn’t really choose this again, but the apple is quite authentic and clear. I would have enjoyed a stronger caramel though. Thanks tea-and-cats!

The coconut here is super strong. I don’t taste that much beneath it, but maybe a little black tea. The coconut has a toasted quality, which I’m enjoying. It’s good warm or cold with milk. It’s surprisingly decent, though maybe a little one-note. I do think it’s one of the better coconut teas I’ve had in a long time. Thanks tea-and-cats!

I can definitely taste the caramel here, but the black base isn’t very good. Once it cools, the caramel flavor becomes quite strong and tasty at first, but then it settles into a sort of weird fake tang. It’s still decent with milk, and it genuinely tastes like salted caramel. Thanks tea-and-cats!

Spring break and a quieter pace at work made it possible for me to do some much-needed office cleaning, especially the tea bin, which had turned into “the dump for stuff I didn’t think was that great at home.” I did a little shameless thinning and pitching, and I may need to do more, as evidenced by this musty bag of Bigelow.

Had it been fresh and steeped with a little more care, I could’ve liked it. Bigelow is pretty good about not overdoing things—both berry flavors were primarily “just berry,” even though hibiscus was a primary ingredient. (Why, people, why?) Oh, well…another one bit the dust!

As I have droned on for the past several reviews, the novelties of winter have long lost their twinkle and we’re cold and tired, and for another day or so, more or less iced in. Even the cats have claws-trophobia. (You knew that was coming, didn’t you?)

This is just the season for comfort tea. Constant Comment takes me back to the farm kitchen—back in the days when it didn’t seem so small—drinking a cup out of Mom’s Corelle coffee cups and then curling up under two or three quilts to watch whatever February miniseries was hot that season (Shogun!)

You don’t see the decaf version on store shelves around here very often, so I was glad to grab a box. It mirrors the warming orange rind and cloves of the original very nicely, and unlike the fully leaded version, doesn’t have a tendency to get pithy and bitter. (Unlike the writer of this review ;)

This is lovely, simple sweet smell that is relaxing. A wonderful cup for an afternoon in the garden

Thanks to tea-and-cats for this bag! It’s a nice warming, perfectly tart cranberry/hibiscus flavor. It’s pleasantly spiced and tasty. It’s better than most bagged teas with this flavor profile.

I’m not gonna lie, this tea lowkey slaps. Especially if you’re feeling under the weather (and nauseous).

Easy to drink while hot and leans into that chicory taste pretty hard. It reminds me of artificially flavored brownies with artificially flavored caramel, also toffee-ish? Pretty mineral, too. Once it starts to cool, the mineral turns metallic and what might be perceived as a grain of salt turns into rosehip tang. The black tea doesn’t have much life.

Serviceable, barely

But If I want salted caramel, I will eat salted caramel

Because no flavored tea will ever taste like salted caramel.

1/24/22
sipdown of my last two teabags! This is a good teabag version of this type of blend. Not as strong as a builders brew, but not as light as an afternoon tea. Somewhere in between. I prefer this one to the Twinings, which is my mom’s favorite.

1/20/22
Another sipdown! I bought this in that holiday set with the cranberry herbal tea from yesterday. I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin spice, btw, so this is not something I would buy individually for myself! This tea is just ok. It’s slightly pumpkin and slightly spiced, but mostly some sort of ambiguous artificial flavoring. That being said, I gave this to a lot of friends for Christmas and they pretty much all loved it. I think if you like pumpkin spice things, you’ll like it.

1/19/22
Delicious cranberry herbal tea with the right hint of spice. Perfect hot in the winter time and fabulous cold in the warmer months (which it is right now in Louisiana lol). I’m drinking this iced, and it is another sipdown!!!
I bought a holiday sampler so I could give holiday tea to some of my friends for Christmas. This was one of my favorites from the entire sampler.

Drank 1/15/22
This is not a tea I would have picked up for myself, but it came as a freebie with a candle order I made in October, so I thought I would try it.
Strangely smoky undertones, heavy on the caramel and vanilla in a “dollar store knockoff candle scent” sort of way. Somehow both strong and watery? I can’t tell if it is a problem of not liking the base tea or the combination of flavors, but it wasn’t for me. Not terrible, but not good.

Skysamurai’s TTB Thank you!

Tea #3

I won’t lie, I picked this up mostly because the outer tea bag wrapper; which is new for my collection.

And it is plain tea, which is very welcomed in the afternoon, when I am all tired and I don’t want to discover depths of the teas.

This one is exactly that. Plain, Ceylon tea, not much to write home about. Two minutes steep are sufficient, even for larger cup than usual.

As I wrote, not much to write about. Basic, and luckily not bitter nor too astringent, so, in the end… pretty much decent plain black tea in tea bag.

A tea bag I believe from derk. Stupid me I tried to save space in my cupboard and mixed up tea bags from derk and Michelle. Thank you!

Hm, Truly basic, light and refreshing jasmine green. Do not expect much and it is fine. Expect more and you will be disappointed. Luckily it isn’t harsh, jasmine is not overpowering green tea base; but overall rather average.

I don’t know why this tea is in the stash; I have no memories of ever acquiring Bigelow; is it one of those items that every household secretly has if you look hard enough? A mystery, but a good one, as it turns out this is the tea bag that goes well with lemon and honey (and dark, caramel-like Kraken Rum). I liked the result so much I made two cups (one without rum and one with). The final result admittedly may taste a little like flat vanilla coke (so strange, not questioning it).

The tea itself smells pleasantly of broken black tea (from what I can tell) and tastes like one would expect – straightforward, astringent, and malty-sweet. This is the perfect base to add the lemon slice (which bubbles as it steeps), honey, and (optional) a little rum (but not too much because the cough meds don’t play well). I may revisit this even when I’m not sick (the hot toddy-like drink finally won me over).

I found a holiday tea! :O

I had given up after never finding any near me, and not seeing any when I went to visit my mom either. But yesterday we were walking in the store randomly, not even near the tea section, and bam! Bigelow holiday teas on the side of an endcap! Not even the brand I was looking for, but I was just excited to see any. They had several flavors, but this is the one that sounded yummiest to me, and I certainly wasn’t going to buy multiple boxes considering the state of my cupboard…

Anyway! This is tasty. It doesn’t really say eggnog to me though, because there’s no nutmeg, which is kind of the main flavor in eggnog… Mostly it tastes like some sort of creamy egg custard with a dash of cinnamon. It’s actually reminding me of something specific, but I can’t quite put my finger on it… It’s slightly artificial tasting, but nothing extreme. There’s something almost Biscoff-like about the spicing, which is pleasant.

I’m not in love with it, but I’m just happy to have finally found some form of holiday tea at the grocery store. I guess next year I might as well just order some online, ha ha… :P