Bigelow Premium Tea 100% Ceylon

Ceylon, for those of you who weren't around in the 70s, is tea from Sri Lanka, which used to be called that (until 1972). I am not enough of a tea drinker to have location-based tea preference, so this is your run of the mill black tea to me. It's fine. Actually, you'd think drinking a hot drink on the first 90+ degree day in my house would be horrible, but it distracts me a little from the heat, which is a pro. Just a little. This was another hotel freebie, so it's got that to recommend it also. 

Overall
Cost: 10/10
Taste: 5/10 

Bigelow Premium Tea - Decaffeinated

Thanks to the Ohio Holiday Inn for providing this nice allergy-free tea. The trouble with a travel tea is that I didn't pack a travel mug, so the water can only get so hot given my limited resources. But, if it's perfect hot or iced!, it's probably perfect tepid too. (Maybe perfect is a bit strong). Anyway, this is black tea, my preferred tea color, so it tastes just like all the uninspiring yet comforting teas I've had this past year. Away from home I have plenty of inspiration and not that much comfort, so I appreciate it! Hilton (my usual hotel chain of choice) should take note.

Overall
Cost: 10/10 (free)
Taste: 5/10 (tea) 

Bigelow Perfectly Mint Black Tea

Continuing to play whack-a-mole with health problems... supposedly spearmint tea helps with insulin resistance. But this is the only spearmint tea I'm not allergic to, and it also has black tea, which is caffeine (?bad for brain?). Also, spearmint tea tastes a little like an old lifesaver I left in my glove compartment for 10 years. Mixing it with black tea helps, I guess. It's not the worst tasting tea, but I don't know if it's a great evening beverage, and it's certainly not a morning beverage. It also used to be called "Plantation Blend", which, yikes. Perhaps I'm just in a mood. The tea is fine.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Bigelow Peppermint Tea

I feel like someone who's hooking up with a bunch of different people with different qualities of an ex they never got over. This one has blonde hair. This one is a poet. This one speaks Spanish. This one is left-handed. But none of them are really what you wanted, are they?! My ex is coffee and this hot little number is not coffee. But it is 1) hot 2) a drink and 3) allergy-free. As well as, of course, being caffeine-free (unlike decaf, apparently (and I guess that's why they don't call it nocaf)). The only ingredient here is peppermint. That's nice and clean. Unfortunately it tastes like peppermint and didn't magically transform into something else via the process of hot water steepage. In terms of taste, I'd put it on a par with green tea. Not good, not exciting, but fine. It has a certain comfort just in being hot tea. And the mintiness is pretty subtle, not gross like a toothpaste or a breathmint or something non-ingesty. In that sense it serves its purpose. But does it bring me joy? Wakefulness? Satiation? Hope? A reason to live? It does not. I guess that's a lot of pressure to put on a drink. I would crumble under that kind of pressure. For now I will endeavor to accept the comfort this peppermint tea brings. Namaste.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Bigelow Green Tea (Classic)

What is there to say that hasn't already been said about Green Tea (Classic)? This was fine. It was a hot drink and it had a marginal (30mg?) amount of caffeine. It is only one ingredient: green tea. I drank it because there were no cofes available. So it goes.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

Bigelow Vanilla Chai Black Tea

I'm more of a coffee drinker than a tea-toter, but when I'm sick I prefer tea, so it's good to try some every now and again. Plus, I need the sweet caffeine any way I can get it! This stuff was fine; not super flavorful even though I steeped it forever, just vaguely spicy and warm. That's pleasant enough though, and I like that they actually list the ingredients, so I know there's no allergy issue.



Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 5/10