Bigelow Tea

So I went to the Bigelow website, and it seems that they grow their tea in South Carolina. Nice! They also sell loose teas...so maybe I'll buy from them, but their tea is even more expensive than either Adagio or Mighty Leaf. I don't know why tea has to be such a major investment. I'm thinking it took me about two months or so to go through 4 ounces of tea...this is the tea from Adagio in the their little sampler packs. And that was $20 worth of tea, plus that IngenuniTea thing. Now I've invested something closer to $50 for not quite 20 ounces of tea, in 4 or 5 varieties. How long will that take me to go through, I wonder. Hmmm. I'll need some tea for home and for work, as I drink the majority of my tea at work, rather than at home. It's hard to be a loyal customer when there's so much tea out there to be had. I might just order some from Adagio anyway. I still like their "non-tea" things the best. The website, their promotion of tea culture...all good stuff. Maybe because they were the first that I found. I don't know what it is.

Boxed Tea

Bigelow tea. Tea in a bag. "English Tea Time" It's not too bad. It tastes like Ceylon tea, but I don't really know, since they don't say on the box anywhere! It surprises me that the directions call for the tea to be steeped for 1 - 2 minutes. I steeped it for 4 minutes, and it makes a BLACK cup of tea. I wish I knew what it was/is...It just says that it was blended and packaged in the US, but again, no indication of what blends...And while were at it, Wikipedia says that tea is grown in the US, but doesn't say where. I think I've mentioned this before...worth mentioning again, I suppose.

Email from Mighty Leaf

So I get an email from Mighty Leaf to tell me that their teas have shipped. Yay. I called earlier today to ask where it was, and the lady on the other end said that it was going to ship today. Nice. But the website didn't show that yet. I would have like it if the site would show what she sees. Another thing that would have been nice is that their toll free number go directly to customer service, either to buy or verify an order. Instead, we're presented with a menu for things like Accounting, or wholesalers. Also not very encouraging. I work in customer service myself, so I know the phone tree drill: BUY should be the #1 item, then the number #2 item should be customer service. And accounting, and "choose an extension of your party" should be a completely different phone number. Not something for customers to be exposed to. Just my opinion. So I should receive my tea in about 7 days, on Dec 8. A Monday.

Mighty Leaf Tea

I ordered a gift set of tea Mighty Leaf for my ex-wife for a Christmas gift...On Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, about 3 or 4 days ago, and have not received confirmation that it has shipped. I understand about Thanksgiving being in the way, but I still thought I would have heard something by now. Not a good sign, especially when I paid more for this tea that I would have from Adagio. I hope she likes it.

For myself, I ordered some black teas from Mighty Leaf, to try it out. I'm not feeling the love at this point.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a surprise stash of Yunnan Jig, and I was so happy! I made some for my mother and myself on a cold, rainy, overcast day. It hit the spot, and my mom said that it was "really smooth." I get why hot tea is such a revelation, and why the English in particular valued it so highly. They have many overcast, rainy, cold, wet days, and hot tea just does something for you that coffee doesn't. It may be the clarity of the liquid, in terms of its taste. Just something special. And then the different flavors...good stuff.

Lapsang Souchong

Wow. I bought a box of Twinings Lapsang Souchong, just to try it out. Nothing fancy. Off the grocery store shelf. I was lamenting the fact that the box of tea comes wrapped in celophane...thinking about writing to Twinings to see if they can't just not celophane wrap it. But then I open it, and WOW. Smokey. They say smokey, but boy do they ever mean it! I have it on my desk at work, and I feel like I just got done camping, like when I was in the boy scouts, and you smell like campfire, and it's in your clothes, and everything, and you just want to take a shower!

So I make a cup, and the tea in the cup smells like smoke. Which means, I can't taste the tea. In fact, I'm thinking that this tea would be great for camping, since you couldn't tell the difference anyway! It's such a powerful odor, too. I just can't believe that the box smells so strong! As if the box itself was in the drying process -- on a bamboo stick, over a fire. I may have one or two more cups just to try it out, and then if I still am not impressed, I'll throw it away. Maybe I should try a premium brand, but I don't want to spend $8 on a tea I probably won't like. But then, maybe I'm paying for the cannister to keep this stuff in, so my desk doesn't smell like a fire.
Wow.