Tetley, English Blend Decaffeinated

I recently decided I needed to go caffeine free in the evenings after more than a few nights of staring at the ceiling. I love my caffeine but I love sleeping maybe a little more. I wanted a cold beverage but not soda and not a herbal or tisane drink. I wanted straight unflavored black tea. I started with Lipton Decaf. My family always drank Lipton. People who consider themselves to be serious tea drinkers largely claim to detest Lipton tea. Personally, I generally enjoy it, but drinking it every evening I was soon craving something different. So I grabbed this one. It is still a readily available and inexpensive grocery store brand.

Following the secret family instructions for preparing ice tea, we boil about 16 oz of water on the stove in a sauce pan. 8 tea bags are added to the pan which is removed from the heat and left to age until the pan begins to walk on its own. The tea is then poured into the pitcher and fresh cool water is added.

When I first started doing this, the tea would go stale before I drank it, because grabbing a can of pop was far easier than getting a glass of tea. I solved this by emptying the pitcher into glass drinking jars with tight fitting lids. Now it is just as easy to grab tea as it is pop.

So how is it? Well it is a basic grocery store black tea without the buzz. It has intentionally been blended to be middle of the road nondescript bland to appeal to the widest array of consumers. In other words it won’t wow your taste buds especially if you are a premium tea drinker. It is not blended to be a wow tea, it is blended to be an everyday drinking tea. In that regard it does a good job. I find it to be very similar to Lipton but is has a much fresher smell to it while drinking.