Bigelow

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

Etsy Tea Ad=vent Calendar Day 21

This was a pleasant evening tea. Not outstanding, but pleasant. The ginger flavor was a bit muddled, but I expect that is me, not the tea. I enjoyed it more as it cooled. I won’t rush out to buy a box of this but if it was one of a selection of bagged teas at a hotel or restaurant I would drink it again.

I put this in the fridge to drink later, and it’s pretty tasty. The berry flavor is gentle, but nice. I don’t taste a lot of citrus, but whatever is in there combines pleasantly. There’s no sourness, just gentle fruitiness. Thanks for the lovely package tea-and-cats!

I don’t know that I’ve ever had a citrus/oolong blend, but the fruitiness of the oolong in this bagged Bigelow version is a really nice frame for the citrus. Grapefruit and lemon are both in the ingredient list, but it skews grapefruit to me. Even with inattentive office steeping, there’s no bitterness in the oolong.

This afternoon pick-me-up was sponsored by Michelle, with my thanks! (And on the look-for-it-locally list it goes!)

Drinking this one hot. Have been working through a harder-hitting bout of seasonal affect disorder than usual this month, and so low-maintenance bagged hot herbal teas are the order of the day.
Unsurprisingly, this tastes mostly of peach and ginger, with a warming, brothlike mouthfeel. Perfect for cold & flu season, as it’s slightly medicinal, loaded with all kinds of healthy herbs and spices.

This is the tea I grew up on in the 70’s!

When I ordered this along with my groceries I was under the impression that it was an herbal spearmint tea. So I was surprised when it arrived and was labeled as a black tea.
I made a cup of this today with a bit of non-dairy milk added. I over-steeped it so I figured the milk would fix it. I actually quite like it this way. It’s nice and minty and the milk helps smooth the base tea/ hide it. I bet this one would be good iced during the summer.

This doesn’t get much love from other reviewers and I feel sorry for it. This was in my “random scavenged bags” caddy that I generally save for my Sunday kids on Tea and Cocoa Day, but I was craving lemon last night.

It’s bagged and its decaf, so you can’t expect much from the tea base, but I do like Bigelow’s dainty hand with the lemon—gentle; not so tart it stings your tongue and makes your eyebrows sweat.

Of course, a few minutes of peace after a crazy adrenaline day made it taste that much better.

Very nice, calming tea for the nighttime. I typically don’t like teas that are overpowered with mint, and this one fortunately has just enough to be pleasant. Definitely puts me in a sleepy mood :)