I bring news! Whether it's good news or not is up to the reader. This tea, as a brand with the same name, is not retired after all, as of Feb. 2020. Instead, it has found its way to the food-service division of Unilever, Lipton's corporate overlord. I'll upload a photo of its newest packaging separately. I was able to procure a couple bags at a cafeteria a few days ago: one to chug there, one to take home for review here. Listed as the ingredients: orange pekoe and pekoe-cut black, which don't seem different than their flagship tea. Higher grade, perhaps?

Lipton English Breakfast now is decidedly not "large leaf" as the original photo indicates; its leaves are very finely ground in a two-sided, bleached-paper tea bag. This helps the liquid to grow fairly dark, quickly. The dry-bag aroma isn't bad, but isn't very strong, and reminded me a great deal of the basic Lipton Black Tea. The flavor was a slight upgrade over their basic black tea, but not by a lot. I struggled to associate this taste-wise with other English Breakfast teas I've had. It was a little fuller and richer than Lipton Black Tea, with somewhat fruity background when sweetened, but still rather bland and flat, for the most part...and also, a bit too bitter. All in all, it's a better option than straight Lipton, if you have a choice, but still well below some other common hotel/restaurant black teas that are major brands here, such as Bigelow, Farmer Brothers and Tazo.

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