Lipton Green Tea

[beforewisdom]

I know Lipton tea is a bit of a joke in the U.S..

I read a book on green tea written by a famous restaurant connoisseur who helped make tea more popular in contemporary America. At the end of the book she mentioned she had some Lipton green tea when she was stuck on an airplane and had nothing else. She said it was very strong and recommended that if you have to use it, steep it for only a minute.

I was always curious to see what Lipton green tea was like, but never wanted to spend $5 and get stuck with an entire box of the stuff.

Last week I was at a Buddhist temple and the caretaker invited me to have some tea. The choice was Lipton Green or Bigelow Green. I had tried plenty of the Bigelow at my last job......a huge variety pack came free with the coffee service our company used. So, I tried the Lipton green.

The temple used glass versions of those super large coffee cups the coffee houses use. I used 1 tea bag. The taste was indeed very strong, almost bitter. Probably wouldn't have been bad with a half teaspoon of sugar.

I agree with the advice I read. If you need to use a Lipton green tea bag, take it out after a minute....or even less.

[sencha]

I have a hard time picturing a Buddhist monk drinking Lipton tea...

[Shihali]

I made the mistake of purchasing a tin of Alwazah Ceylon green once. It tasted just like Lipton! I still haven't gotten through the tin, but at least I learned where Lipton gets their tea from. It's distinctive, like Yamamotoyama/Stash Brazilian sencha, but IMO much worse.

Off topic, but Alwazah also has unusual marketing. Their website makes a point of stating that they use low-grown (<600m elevation) Ceylon teas. Is there an Arab preference for low-grown Ceylon I didn't know about?

[sencha]

It's distinctive, like Yamamotoyama/Stash Brazilian sencha, but IMO much worse.

What's wrong with Yamamotoyama sencha? I like it!