Lipton's Tea Party

In line with the launch of its Pyramid Teas, it seems that Lipton is trying to upgrade its image a bit.

Let's face it, when you think Lipton, you think (or at least I do) of a box of 100 plain-jane black tea bags that go for a couple bucks - and heavy on the milk and sugar.

If their kickoff party in NYC is any indication, Lipton would like us to adjust our thinking a bit when it comes to the Pyramid line. The Lipton Pyramid Teas Launch Party is being held tomorrow night, at Manhattan's Gen Art and looks as though it will be a not at all stodgy type of affair.

Find out more about it at Lipton's Pyramid site (click Event) or at Gen Art's site.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, pyramid, Lipton

Adagio Teas - Free Teapot Offer

Lipton Pyramid Teas

A few weeks ago I reviewed Black Pearl, one of Lipton's new premium teas. I wasn't overly impressed.

As I look back over the review, I realize that I skimmed over the fact that Black Pearl was only one of six varieties Lipton was introducing. In fact, I didn't mention it at all. So now I am.

Here's what Lipton has to say about their new line:

"Lipton(R) Pyramid Teas are made with innovative, pyramid-shaped, gossamer tea bags that allow the long leaf tea and real pieces of fruit more room to infuse for greater aroma, color and taste. This is the first premium tea of its kind offered in mass-market retail and grocery stores. Similar premium teas can only be found at online shopping sites at ultra premium prices."

Suggested retail price is $3.49 for a 20-count box.

The other five varieties:
White Tea with Island Mango and Peach
Green Tea with Mandarin Orange
Red Tea with Harvest Strawberry and Passionfruit
Bavarian Wild Berry Tea
Vanilla Caramel Truffle Tea

Image: Lipton

Link

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, Lipton, Pyramid

Adagio Teas - Free Teapot Offer

Tea Review 74 - Lipton Black Pearl

Black Pearl Pure Long-Leaf Black Tea
Lipton

I was really wishing that this would be the one. I crossed my fingers and hoped that Lipton's Black Pearl would be that rare tea that you could pick up at your local grocery, at about $3 for a pack of 20 pyramid tea bags ($2.89 in my neck of the woods), a black tea that would taste so good that you wouldn't need to bother with mail order.

But I kind of knew better and, in the end, I was right. Black Pearl is not that tea. But, as $3 20-packs of "big name" tea go, I guess it's not all that bad either. It's just not really what I'm looking for.

We should give Lipton credit for trying to do some things right, starting with the surprisingly attractive packaging. Then there are those pyramid tea bags. For those who haven't encountered these before, they're just that - a pyramid-shaped bag that allows the tea to expand and the water to circulate better among the leaves than with the standard issue bag.

Then there's the matter of tea leaves. Examine your average bag of Lipton black tea and you're not likely to find any actual tea leaves in the mix. This is the kind of tea that typically uses the smaller "fannings" and "dust." So a thumbs-up to Lipton for going with a "long-leaf." Though I have to quibble on this point and say that the leaves are a lot smaller than the name led me to believe.

In the end, it all comes down to taste - or at least it does for me. Black Pearl is a Ceylon tea, the name still given to tea grown on the island of Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon. I don't have a wide range of experience with Ceylons, but I've never been overwhelmed with the ones I've sampled.

Including this one. Lipton recommends a three-minute brew, which sounded much too long to me. The first cup I brewed was for one minute. I admit to having mixed feelings about sampling it so I let it sit until it was almost cold. If the truth be told, the flavor was not all that bad. There was little bitterness, but then again, there wasn't much taste to it either. Kind of flat for my likes.

To be fair, I went ahead and brewed a cup for three minutes. This one I found way too astringent and completely undrinkable. The one I brewed for ninety seconds was in the same ballpark as the first, but by that time I was tired of the whole exercise.

I'm not really a cream, sweetener or lemon kind of guy when it comes to black tea - or any other kind, for that matter. But I suspect that if this is how you like yours you might not find Black Pearl to be all that bad. In fact, you might even find it to be worth the modest additional investment.

As for me, I'm going to move this one into my hand-me-down pile and start putting together another mail order.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, Lipton, Black Pearl

Buy Lipton Black Pearl at Amazon

Tea Review 10 - Lipton Green Tea to Go

Green Tea to Go
Lipton Tea

Some ideas are pretty lousy in theory, but turn out to be okay in practice. Other ideas are just lousy all around.

I've never worked for a giant food conglomerate, so I can't say for sure, but I'd be willing to bet that the new products division is constantly under the gun to come up with nifty new gimmicks that will sell by the boatload. Which may go a long way toward explaining a product like Lipton's Green Tea to Go - or maybe not.

The gimmick here is a single serving foil pack of tea mix that you drop in a 16.9 ounce bottle of water, shake and drink. What could be more convenient? And, of course, it's green tea, so you know it'll make you live to about two hundred years old, cure your leprosy and - for the guys - enlarge your you know what until you have to wheel it around in a cart.

Actually, the primary health claim Lipton makes for the product is that it contains eighty milligrams of "protective flavonoid antioxidants," which help guard your body against free radicals - molecules that can damage your precious little cells. Well, gee whiz, I'd better get me some of them and, by the way, that's more flavonoids than broccoli or cranberry juice and twice as much as orange juice, so flavonoid fans rejoice.

The ingredients are instant green tea, maltodextrin (yum), citric acid, sucralose (double yum), natural flavors and - what tea would be complete without it - silicon dioxide.

To say that I wasn't expecting much from this health-giving elixir, would be putting it mildly, but I grabbed a bottle of water and plunged boldly ahead.

The verdict? Well, my mother always told me that if I couldn't say anything nice, I shouldn't say anything at all. But since I never listened to my mother too well, I'll say that if you're looking for a cough medicine/Kool Aid type flavor that's heavy on the artificial sweeteners, you're gonna flip for this one. As for me? Straight down the drain.

Contents: Ten packets per box.
I paid: NA