Royal Cup

It’s been a while since I’ve last posted. I don’t want anyone to think I’ve stopped drinking tea. If anything, I’m drinking more than ever. So…here I am…with proof!

At lunch a few hours ago, I was privileged to be served some exceptional iced tea in a local restaurant. Living in South Carolina, we were spoiled in that good iced tea (simply referred to as “tea” in these here parts) was quite common in most of our restaurants. Also, we are known to drink it all year round. However, like a lot of things in this day and age, the tea quality in some places has gone downhill while the prices have skyrocketed.

Although I drink my hot tea “straight up,” I usually enhance my unsweet iced tea with a packet of Sweet ’N Low and a lemon slice. (As an aside, I much prefer sweet iced tea but my doctor exiled it to my forbidden list.)

The tea I had this afternoon was terrific. It was just sweet enough, which isn’t always accomplished with just one packet of the artificial sweetener. The color was a dark amber (assisted by my always ordering the tea in a separate glass with no ice, and another glass on the side with ice). In my opinion, there are few drinking experiences more distasteful than watered down tea.

The taste was bold and brisk. There were no flavor notes missing from the astringency-free liquid. I will probably return to the restaurant soon just to get more of their iced tea. Of course, I might also get one of their great sandwiches to wash down the tea.

If you drink iced tea all year like we do here, or you’re a Summer-only iced tea drinker like you’ll find in a lot of towns up north, you can’t go wrong with this one!

This is pretty low quality and light on flavor plain. With milk and sugar, I actually did end up enjoying it. It was light and sort of tasted like graham crackers, but it was good. Although I usually prefer malty black teas, this one was a fun change. It gets really bad reviews on here, so I wasn’t expecting a lot, but it was fine!

Not aweful, but not really very good either. Pretty bland and tasteless, but the subtle flavor that does come through I did not find all that pleasant.

Love this tea! It’s mild and sweet. Not bitter. I put lemon in it and ordered 200 bags! Love it

Swiped a handful of these from Hometown buffet on our most recent outing. met my needs at the time, but like buffet food, its dry, and unappealing. Great during my meal, but now I’m left with a handful of guilt to remind me of my greed.

Loved it. Absolutely loved it, i had gotten a cup of tea from an ihop where i live and this is what i got, the tea was strong, yet not overbearing, and the taste ooooooooh it was like sliding down a rainbow on the back of a unicorn and into a pool of money, this is by far the best tea i have ever tasted

What is there to say about this tea? My goodness, this is bland. This is the only tea available at the hotel in Denver I am at.

My vacation (Starting Thursday of last week) has taken me many places. I was asked by family and friends if I wanted to go to Colorado. I said yes. The next day, we were at the Grand Canyon. I had lots of fun there. Then, we went to Four Corners (four states meet at once), and crossed into Colorado. This was followed by Durango, Silverton, and Ouray. We landed in Colorado Springs, where I visited the US Olympic Training Center, and saw Olympians training before they left for London.

Lastly, I went exploring at Cave of the Winds with some Mennonites I met just before. It was great! Now I’m in Denver! I also paid a visit to the Century 16 Theater where the massacre happened. It was very sad and eerie.

Besides my vacation thus far (which still is not over), I should continue to review this tea. I looked at the tea bag, and tried to pick up a scent of tea. It smelled like nothing. So I brewed it, and smelled a bland, faint scent of cheap tea.

I could not finish my cup! I do not want to sound snobby, but this is one of the worst teas I’ve tried! At least I picked up some really great teas on my trip to Durango, and got a fresh shipment in back home. I cannot wait to review those!

Anyway, the taste of this tea was the same: bland. It tasted like I was drinking hot water with the light flavor of nothingness. Why don’t the hotels have good teas!?

This was one of the worst teas I have ever had! There was a slightly fishy aftertaste. Yuk, yuk, yuk.

Excellent tea I just love the flavor Where can Ibuy it on line?

bland and tasteless.. I can see why its a house tea at Hotels and such.

Waffle Hooooouse. It’s always freezing in there, so I got a cuppa tea with my delicious, greasy food. It wasn’t horrible, just your standard bagged orange pekoe. Definitely hit the spot last night, even if I did have to use twice the amount of sugar. I will be reaching for my DavidsTea Orange Pekoe this morning, though.

Now I miss my kitty. (A ginger named Pekoe .)

Had a single bag lying around and was in the mood for black tea.

Ugh. No. This is terrible. This makes Tazo’s Awake seem amazing. I can’t put my finger on what it is, but it’s flavorless and sawdusty. Reminds me of bitter cardboard. I dunno if I can finish this stuff. Lowering my rating.

I got a big bag of this from my mom. Royal Cup is a food-service brand, common in local restaurants around here. The bag she gave me was meant for one of the huge canisters that hold gallons of sweet tea at a time. Anyway, I decided it might be cool to make a pitcher’s worth in my triniTea. I was wrong.

It’s so finely cut/smashed that it made an enormous mess in the machine. The infuser cup was mostly clogged by the particles. And the resulting tea? Not really good. I used 8 teaspoons to make a 2-quart pitcher. The tea tastes a bit like Thai tea before the condensed milk… that sort of bittery vanilla-esque black tea flavor. I didn’t really care for it, though I can’t really describe why. My brother said it was “bomb-ass” and drank all of it, however, so it didn’t go to waste.

Switching it up today…alternating caf/decaf since I’m feeling a bit twitchy/hyped up. I picked this up at my conference back in October; this brand is apparently their “house tea”. I was given quite a few bags of it (some decaf, some not) by various attendees who know I drink tea. I’ve been a bit wary of it, because sometimes these things turn out not-so-well…

It’s certainly not horrendous, especially for being decaf. It is, however, completely unremarkable save for the fact that it’s decaf and is 100% drinkable. No chemical taste, no bitterness, no astringency, nada. And it does, in fact, taste like tea.

I don’t know if I’d actively seek this out for purchase…I do like having decaf teas on hand, but am just as satisfied drinking herbals/rooibos. I definitely would partake if it’s the tea available at the hotel I’m at. I’m certainly satisfied by this cup, and the other bags of decaf I have won’t linger for too long.

This was a travel-bag tuck-in from a recent Tennessee hotel stay. Comfort Suites, to be exact. So we know it’s a food-service grade continental breakfast tea … therefore, I was not expecting much but some warm liquid for my sore throat and cold office. So why am I pleasantly surprised and why am I getting a nice, sweet almond aftertaste?

Then again, it could be dish soap. I actually scrubbed the mug for a change :)