Black Tea
This page is for the caffeinated version. See also Decaf Black Tea.
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31 ratings |
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Commercial Description
Savor the original, delicious taste enjoyed by discriminating tea connoisseurs for more than a century. Lipton® Orange Pekoe and Pekoe cut black tea is the ideal blend for the perfect cup of tea.
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Ratings & Reviews
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43 Aroma: 3/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 4/5Mariko (58 reviews) on Oct. 17th, 2014
Ah, Lipton: the tea ubiquitous within the fine dining institutions of my college campus. I tend to drink this when I'm in need of something strongly caffeinated but I just can't tolerate the thought of choking down more instant coffee crystals dissolved in lukewarm tap water from the bathroom down the hall from my lab.
What can I say? Even overworked lab rats need to have standards sometimes.
That said, I tend to make fun of Lipton a lot, but I really don't find their tea unpleasant. It's just that I don't find it to be a pleasant experience, either. I usually let this tea steep for no longer than a minute in boiling water, lest it take on an unpleasantly bitter taste, or else I prepare it as a cold-brew. Unfortunately, at its best it's still below average--though still a better experience than similarly low-grade coffee.
47 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 2/5 Value: 3/5Brytta Sóþword (333 reviews) on Mar. 21st, 2014
I'm turning out not to be a black tea person, and this is no exception. The flavor is bland with a bitter aftertaste. I think I need to stick to high quality, flavored black teas in the future.
67 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5Tea4me (2 reviews) on Jan. 5th, 2014
The taste is a little different from what it used to be.
50 Aroma: 4/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5Kelci (19 reviews) on Nov. 21st, 2013
I wouldn't be drinking tea today if it wasn't for Lipton, so I feel it is only fair that I pay homage to them. I will make this short and sweet. It isn't the best (they know that) and it isn't the worst (they know that as well). For the value and their longevity, you have to tip your hat. They are doing something right or they wouldn't still be around. Last note, my Grandmother, who introduced me to tea, has recently switched to Tetly. I detest Tetly so I am glad she introduced me to Lipton!
35 Aroma: 4/10 Flavor: 1/5 Value: 1/5Alex Zorach (1448 reviews) on Aug. 9th, 2013
It's been a really long time, and I haven't rated this tea yet, so I decided to finally do it.
I think Lipton gets a bad rap...it's the brunt of all the tea enthusiasts jokes, which makes sense because it's the #1 brand in the US (and some other parts of the world as well) by sales volume and presence. And I really do not believe that it's the worst tea out there. It's not even close! That said, I'd never choose to buy or drink it if given other options. I might even choose to drink (gasp!) coffee over this tea! And among teas, there are a lot of brands that are better AND cheaper, even in the low-end tea bag market. Foojoy is about the same price range and they even have a good black tea, and I think they BLAZE Lipton.
I think this tea tastes best when brewed with boiling water and steeped for exactly 1 minute. 3 minutes is too long, and leads to an unpleasant, harsh-tasting cup with too much bitterness and astringency...bleh. Perhaps palatable if I added milk but I prefer not to do that. I think this tea is actually very picky about brewing though. If the water temperature is too low, it's almost flavorless, and if you steep too long, it's a disaster. So the difficulty of satisfactory brewing bothers me somewhat...I'd expect a widespread, mainstream brand like this to be easy to brew to my liking, but this one is not.
The aroma is, interestingly, not what I expect for a typical breakfast tea. There's not much maltiness, and the flavor is more savory than bitter...it almost tastes salty to me. The aroma is also a bit dusty and flat, almost cardboard-y like I'm tasting the tea bag or packaging. There is a little of the dusty, "damp basement" smell that I get from some low-quality shou Pu-erh...not a fan of that either.
I much prefer the character of other brands of breakfast tea, from Yorkshire tea or even Red Rose, which have more maltiness in the aroma and less of the savory flavor.
There. I just rated Lipton, after 800-some-odd other teas.
60 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 4/5Kelsey (142 reviews) on May. 20th, 2013
Honestly, I don't think this tea is all that bad. It's the first type I've ever had, and while it isn't a fancy and rare loose-leaf brand it's not terrible. It actually tastes similar to a lot of fancier and pricier teas that I've had -- why pay more if you're looking for a basic black?
The tea itself is average, a basic black, nothing crazy to write home about. It has the taste of cooked greens and is quite smooth, without a bitter aftertaste.
I'm personally a bigger fan of generic black bagged tea from Bigelow, Celestial Seasonings, or even Red Rose, but I won't condemn Lipton for trying and providing a reasonably priced basic tea. While I wouldn't go out of my way to buy this tea, I'll continue to welcome getting it for free on train rides.
30 Aroma: 4/10 Flavor: 2/5 Value: 1/5spaflam (179 reviews) on May. 4th, 2013
Swill! Brews up black and bitter. Not good by any means - but it is cheap and easy to come by and provided free by my company. Blech!
27 Aroma: 2/10 Flavor: 1/5 Value: 4/5Smithy (14 reviews) on Mar. 9th, 2013
This is an absolute shocker and I'm quite sure one of the reasons tea has never taken off in the States and on the continent. Probably the most widdly tasting tea widely available. You could get exactly the same effect by throwing the grass clippings from your lawnmower into a bucket of water.
If anyone offers you this, they either don't know the first thing about tea and have never actually tried it, or they hate your guts and are aiming to offend. Bloody awful and don't even bother touching with a ten foot barge pole.
37 Aroma: 1/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 2/5FloatingNumbAroma (8 reviews) on Jun. 8th, 2012
Lipton Black Tea is kind of bad. I prefer PG Tips but I have to say this: I love their Ice Tea, Their Ice tea is full of flavour and the Aroma is not really like Tea but it's sweet and sticky. Their Black Tea is disappointing but their Ice Tea is one of the best Ice teas. I have seen on Yahoo! Answers that Lipton is one of the best teas but I'm not really sure. To be honest I'd rather drink PG Tips Flavour is pretty strong though. The Aroma is possibly the worst Aroma that a tea's ever invented. It's just like cardboard. The Flavour is strong because for 2 Bags you can make it bitter as hell, Still their Ice Tea is stunning. (When It's cold) When I get their Ice Tea the Temperature is probably 4/10 because the Temperature stinks but the taste overwhelms me. I've seen people say that the even their Black Tea is a artificial. I know that their Ice tea is 99% artificial because It's all sugar and color and preservatives and saturates. The Ice Tea flavour is good but the chemicals that they put in it is not really good for your body. And also The Ice Tea tastes nice, Don't get me wrong but the chemicals in it are artificial. So Taste good but Chemicals are not really good. So dump the Black Lipton tea and get either the Ice Tea or another Black Tea which is actually good.
53 Aroma: 4/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 4/5Kuppa (15 reviews) on Feb. 28th, 2012
Aroma is simultaneously bold and vague, with faint assam-like notes; flattish with a little cardboard.
Flavor is strong (two bags for 12 oz.) and familiar; this was probably the first tea of any type I ever had, and it is my construct for what black tea should taste like. For me, this is the standard against which all other black teas are judged (not sure whether that's a good or bad thing). Weighty palate, with significant bitterness. This tea is unforgiving if oversteeped (which happens often).
Value: This is both cheap at retail and free at my office. The major downside here is that because it is widely available and is wrapped in paper, most who encounter it are likely to find it stale. Fortunately for me there are iced tea addicts in my office that keep us blowing through boxes of this stuff, so my supply (hot) is always relatively fresh.
Overall: This is a consistent, convenient and satisfactory bagged tea. Not something to seek out, but it is perfectly adequate when all you need is a simple cup of black tea. Watch out if it's stale and be careful not to oversteep.
