Tea Diary: Boxes 3 and 4

I figure since there are so many similarities between these two boxes I would lump boxes 3 and 4 together, and thus we begin another adventure into my simple tea buying experience.

First was the Lipton green tea with acai dragon fruit and melon.  Doesn’t that sound absolutely delicious?  I mean it really sounds like it’s going to zip with a certain kind of sweet ness and finish with a bite of green tea.  As you can tell, it really got my hopes up.  Unfortunately that’s all it was, a cup of hopes that fell flat.  The biggest problem with using a melon flavor is that it usually comes out really sweet or it’s like a practically nonexistent hint of chewed bubble gum.  This tea was definitely the latter.  The biggest flaw is that the flavors never really developed, no matter how I tried to steep it, the tea came out like gum water.  As far as the zip of green tea?  Perhaps Lipton just takes the fizzle out of their teas because I was falling asleep by midafternoon.  The package may say superfruit but it’s not quite as super as you would think.

Next was a complete mistake on my part, it was a fruity green tea and grabbed it quickly but then noticed it was decaffeinated.  I don’t tend to enjoy decaffeinated teas so that was definitely strike one but, I decided to try it anyway.  This box promised blackberry pomegranate which seemed like it was good for an afternoon sweet treat.  In truth it came out like green tea mixed with fruit punch.  The face I made was priceless.  I have since pushed it to the side as an emergency stash for when I don’t feel like going to the store.

You let me down Lipton!   

The Tea Diary: Box 1

In an effort to reduce soda and sugary drinks I’ve taken to trying to drink tea at the office.  So, in my efforts I tripped down the tea isle of my local target and realized, there are just way too many options.  I figured let’s just start with Green Tea, that’s supposed to help you lose weight right?

The first box down was Celestial Seasonings Green Tea with honey and ginseng.  One of the great things about this selection is that they mix in white tea so that the pungent bite of green tea.  It tends to relax you into this warm cup until you hit the lemony citrus that jolts you just a smidge.  Between the ginseng and the honey there is a smooth sweetness that seems to skip hand in and with the brightness of the lemon and strength of the green tea.

The thing that made this box a little different was that the bags have no strings.  Now that carries some real pros and cons.  With no string, tag, staple or wrapper, the natural fiber tea bag keeps 3-5 million pounds of waste out of landfills, this is according to the box.  While I am all for protecting the environment, everyone has to pitch in right?  The stingless design threw me.  I can’t help it, it’s the way I was trained I suppose.  At first I thought it was a little gross as I picked the bag out of my cup, but after a while I actually got to a system of prep that made everything pretty effortless.  Do I miss the string… kind of but the flavor of this box made up for it.