Bigelow - 7 Reviews

I don't think there is a Southerner out there who could make a complaint about this tea. I understand sweet tea is a huge part of the culture down there and it ranks right up there with any sort of religious artifact. This is simple and pure, the way sweet tea is supposed to be. It's just black tea (that was grown in South Carolina), cane sugar, and phosphoric acid (to help fight mold and bacteria).
There is actually less sugar in here than I would have expected from the taste. It only has 28g in the whole bottle. I still think it's pretty sweet and you can tell that they used cane sugar from the taste. Maybe I was wrong before. Maybe Southerners will be all up in arms because it's not sweet enough. It will be like someone desecrated their most holy artifact and that will be out for blood, sugary sweet blood. I don't understand how people below the Mason Dixon have teeth at all with the amount of sugar I am led to believe they consume.

Getting older is a strange thing. Your priorities change, well sometimes, and even your tastes evolve. Less than 10 years ago I was an adult by any cultures standards. I was 26, I lived in an apartment, I supported myself and I did what I wanted. It just happens that what I apparently wanted to do was drink obscene amounts of iced tea. The thing is that what I was drinking was more sugar water than tea, and the fact that I am not obese with some disease and shocking. On an average day I would say I drank more Arizona tall boys than I am comfortable admitting. Those days are long gone though. I would have to struggle to get through one full can of Arizona at this point, and my drink of choice is unsweetened iced tea that I brew at home.

Bigelow understands this and believes that it's ”about time tea drinkers had that home brewed tea experience in a bottle.” Now I always assumed that Arizona and Bigelow were connected in some way because of their similar bottles, but the 5 seconds of research I just did provided me with no info to back that up. Whether they are or not, doesn't matter, but this bottle of tea is definitely far closer to what I brew at home than a tallboy of Arizona. This actually tastes like tea and not the sugary goodness that youth craves. There is about half the amount of sugar in this that what I used to drink. It kind of tastes like what sweet tea would be if you made it with green tea (and a little less sugar). It's nice to still have a touch of the bitterness from the tea. The mango and lychee flavors are both there and identifiable, with the lychee being the stronger of the two, but neither of them take away from the green tea taste and pair nicely with it.

I wish I would have jut accepted beverages like this as superior when I was younger. It would have saved me from a lot of dumb calorie consumption.

False advertising. I call shenanigans on this bag of tea. I might go as far as say that this tea is a liar and I don't use that phrase lightly. This smells like it would make a good tea but don't be fooled. This tea is the push-up bra of tea. You go in for a sip and it's almost bitter. I've had Bigelow stuff before and it's not bad. It's not high quality tea but I don't care. It's fine. I actually have an Earl Gray at home that I really like. This is just lipstick on a pig. It doesn't really taste anything like cinnamon and if I had to stretch it, which I will, it's as if you had a cup of black tea and put a cinnamon stick in it for a couple seconds. I'm sure that's where they get the name "cinnamon stick" from but they should have let that little buddy marinate for a little bit longer because if it did anything, it ruined everything.

Bigelow is basically Arizona's wiser, older brother. Actually Bigelow started in the late 40's and Arizona first burst onto the beverage scene in 1992, so does that make Bigelow the distinguished grandfather in this game? Whatever the genealogy is they decided to have a family outing in 2008, and it's still going to this day.

Bigelow is older, thus they are wiser and always use cane sugar in their ready to drink teas. It's a little thing that I love and respect them for. They also like to take chances with weird flavors, like this mango lychee. I guess Bigelow does come out as the grandfather in this little family tree, as we all know lychee tastes like old lady perfume smells, so perhaps he used it in homage to his late wife. Now let's take a moment of silence for the dearly departed.

This plays out like an Arizona green tea, with cane sugar instead of HFCS. It's uncanny how similar it tastes. You even get the same taste when you inhale after swallowing. I really with Arizona had a green tea tall boy with real sugar. The world would be a better place if that existed. It doesn't so I'll just default to grandpa B.

The mango and lychee flavors aren't overpowering at all. This is firstly a green tea, and secondly a fruit tea. I love it and wish it were more readily available, but you know those darn kids today.

I don't really do chai. I don't do coffee. This should not have been something that I bought. That's what I thought before I tried it. Hey, sometimes when you see things that look interesting, you have to just suck it up and try something new.

Since I don't drink chai, I'm not too familiar with how it is supposed to taste or smell. I can tell you that because of this, I think that it smells a bit like bubble gum. Strange? I know. It's not a turn off. It's just not what one would think when reading the flavors. It might be mocha and light, light coffee together with the milk. Whatever. To me, if there were such thing as mocha bubble gum, this would be the smell.

Now on to the taste portion of this competition. It tastes good. It's creamy and doesn't have too much coffee. It's more of an undertone than a prominent flavor. The mocha covers that up nicely. I don't get a lot of tea, if I get any at all.

This company also makes the same drink in a vanilla, as opposed to the mocha that I'm doing now. I bet it's nice, but for my money if I have to get a spiced tea, I'd stick with Thai tea.

Once again, Biglow knows tea. This tea is just wonderful. It's so simple. It's sweetened green tea, but not uber-sweet. Sorry, I don't know how to make an umlaut, but I am aware that one belongs there. This tea leaves everything where it belongs. The green tea still has bitterness and it's sweet, but not overpowering. It's weak, but in a good way. If they would have put more green tea, it would have bitten too hard, but if they put more sugar in it, you wouldn't be able to drink too much in fear of your teeth getting holes in it like that vision your mom gives you when she tells you that drinking Gatorade puts holes in your teeth. This is a large bottle. 2.5 servings according to whatever person is in charge of making serving sizes, but you know what? Take your time. You've got time. Get a bottle and just drink it. Sip here. Sip there. It doesn't get old. It's great. Nothing funny. No funny business, just great tea.

Bigelow, the company that has been making tea in bags is now making iced tea and it's good. Very true to it's flavor. I will admit that I do not like ginger too much. I think that it tastes like an old woman. Remember violet candy and gum? I might sound like a hypocrite, but I liked the gum a lot, but that reminded me of chewing on an old woman. Come on...someone agree with me here. Violet gum tastes like chewing on an old woman. Man...alright...

So this tea is lemon and ginger. Both flavors are very apparent and they make a wonderful match. It's great. You initially get the ginger and then it's followed up by lemon-town USA.

Something I didn't know is that this tea, as is their other one that I will review shortly, is (at least) bottled by Arizona. I don't know if Arizona bought Bigelow or Bigelow is just renting their space temporarily when they need to bottle iced tea but who cares. They're doing good things in that plant. Keep up the good work Arizona/Bigelow team.