Not great, but decent and tolerable: that's how I'll characterize this blend. In my relatively limited experience, many food-service black teas (including English Breakfasts) taste rather flat, hollow, sometimes excessively bitter, or often weak, as if they've either been allowed to sit out in the open for 20 years, or dug out of the dregs of some automated processing machine and sold to the lowest bidder. Almost all have feeble dry-bag aroma. So does this one, but that's where the "Here we go again!" sentiment got cut short.

While not the richest or most robust food-service all-black tea (Farmer Brothers still takes that crown for me), Rituals darkened up quickly and presented a pleasant drinking experience with the added identity of a smooth finish and clean aftertaste. It's a basic tea without much in the way of side flavors or undertones I could detect, but still nice to drink on two cool mornings: once at the vacation home in New Hampshire where it was provided, and once after returning home to my well water.

Quantity wasn't sacrificed either, with the wet bag being duly swollen, and mildly aromatic of a somewhat above-average bagged black tea, especially for a food-service product. Odds are you'll do worse with most such teas, so when you find this one, you've got a true fighting chance to enjoy it instead of just get some caffeine poured down your gullet.

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