Saturday, February 03, 2007
Review: Revolution Tea
Although primarily a latte and hot chocolate drinker, I do like a good cup of tea. Revolution Tea sent samples for me to test, and I am favorably impressed. Let's start with the Scottish Breakfast. It's a good-tasting blend of three black organic teas. The single servings come in plastic mesh quasi-pyramid-shaped bags. The bag material is a biodegradable plastic typically made of corn starch or sugar cane, so, hey, it's even sort of natural even if it doesn't look or feel it. The advantage is that instead of the powder you get in most tea bags, these hold whole leaf tea. Couple that with the lack of papery taste and you have a good way of brewing a single cup if you don't want to wash a pot and strainer. But you pay for the convenience: 15 bags to a single tin that lists for $7.99, meaning that one bag is about 53 cents. Spending an equivalent amount on loose tea could keep you in cups for at considerably longer than a couple of weeks of single daily indulgence. But, hey, having a tea pot isn't always convenient, and in those cases, this is a good option. Another is the company's T-Mini bags. You get half a dozen flat bags packed to a $4.99 tin, making the cost about 83 cents a serving. However, one of these tins will slip into a pocket or purse. The bag misses the pyramid shape, which I think allows the water to circulate better among the leaves, but they seem to be have more tea and still give a good flavor. I tried the Tropical Green, a blend of Dragonwell green and citrus peels and flavors. I like fruity teas, though if you prefer the astringency of unsweetened green, this may not be for you.
The company also has boxes of 16 of these flat bags for $4.99, or about 31 cents a pop. So if you do go for one of the T-Minis, get the bigger boxes and refill the tins when you run out. There are also T-Pots: bags for infusing a 23 to 26 ounce pot of tea. I have a couple here but my tea pots are closer to 2 cup size, so a bit small to try. In this case, a 15-bag box is $11.99, or about 80 cents a pot. At 24 ounces, that's 3 cups, or about 27 cents a cup. But even if you knock back a couple of cups at a sitting, this is really for sharing, as by the time you finish the first cup or two, the remaining is going to start getting cold. And if you're going to the trouble of brewing a pot, might as well use loose tea to save even more. Something I didn't like about the packaging was that these tins are really tall and didn't fit easily onto a shelf with the others, or with my loose tea.
Another complaint: don't trust the brewing instructions. From the samples I had, it looks as though they have a standard 3 to 5 minutes steeping time on all their packaging. Unfortunately, 3 minutes is going to be too long for most green teas, where you're probably looking at 30 seconds to two minutes to get the flavor without the bitterness. And 3 minutes is going to be too short for a good black tea. I'd recommend that they do as I've seen Peets do with their teas: have brewing instructions appropriate for the specific tea you have. If people know tea and like it weaker, they'll steep it for less time, but if you need, say, 4 to 5 minutes to really develop the flavor, why waffle?
The company also has boxes of 16 of these flat bags for $4.99, or about 31 cents a pop. So if you do go for one of the T-Minis, get the bigger boxes and refill the tins when you run out. There are also T-Pots: bags for infusing a 23 to 26 ounce pot of tea. I have a couple here but my tea pots are closer to 2 cup size, so a bit small to try. In this case, a 15-bag box is $11.99, or about 80 cents a pot. At 24 ounces, that's 3 cups, or about 27 cents a cup. But even if you knock back a couple of cups at a sitting, this is really for sharing, as by the time you finish the first cup or two, the remaining is going to start getting cold. And if you're going to the trouble of brewing a pot, might as well use loose tea to save even more. Something I didn't like about the packaging was that these tins are really tall and didn't fit easily onto a shelf with the others, or with my loose tea.
Another complaint: don't trust the brewing instructions. From the samples I had, it looks as though they have a standard 3 to 5 minutes steeping time on all their packaging. Unfortunately, 3 minutes is going to be too long for most green teas, where you're probably looking at 30 seconds to two minutes to get the flavor without the bitterness. And 3 minutes is going to be too short for a good black tea. I'd recommend that they do as I've seen Peets do with their teas: have brewing instructions appropriate for the specific tea you have. If people know tea and like it weaker, they'll steep it for less time, but if you need, say, 4 to 5 minutes to really develop the flavor, why waffle?
