95
drank I Love Lemon by Bigelow
2036 tasting notes

A rating of 95 you say? I can explain.

When I first started my tea journey, I started with some bags of this and I really loved it. Today I had to take my car into the shop and on the way in I was thinking-should I buy another box and see whether I really like it as much as I did then? Then, as fate would have it, at the dealership I had to sit in the lobby waiting to talk to the service guy and guess what they had among the refreshments? So of course, I made a cup.

And yes, I still really love this.

I know. It’s something you get in the grocery store. It comes in bags. It’s cheap. And I still love it, in the way I love In-N-Out burger for being the best fast food burger in my area. It’s really good at what it does.

First, it’s VERY lemony. Moreso than probably any other tisane I’ve tasted while trying to find something that was a bit more sophisticated. To me, anyway, there is nothing I can find wrong with this lemon. It’s not soapy, it’s not chemical-y. It reminds me of the lemon in the lemonade at Orange Julius (which I happen to like), that very lemony lemon flavor.

Second, it’s the right mix of tart and sweet, and needs no sweetener to my tongue. So many more expensive tisanes have needed a lot of sweetener or have even been bitter. Not here. If it’s coming out too tart, my guess is it’s too dilute. With the right amount of water, it isn’t.

Third, the hibiscus is not scary. It makes the drink a nice, red color but I can’t taste it. If I could, I would not like this.

Fourth, yes, there’s mint, but I’m not really sure what it does other than to add a sort of heightening of the other flavors. A freshness, if you will.

I still heart I Love Lemon. :-)

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Fjellrev

There’s nothing wrong with liking a bagged tea that you can find at the grocery store! That just means you’re being real about tea, and not snooty. :)

SimplyJenW

I love this one, too! It is my go to for when I am not feeling so well.

carol who

Sounds good. I haven’t used much in the way of grocery store/bagged teas lately but this might be the one I carry with me in my purse to use when I go to a restaurant and they give me the crummy tea. Gee, that wasn’t too much of a run on sentence!

__Morgana__

Thank you Fjellrev, I needed that. ;-)

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Comments

Fjellrev

There’s nothing wrong with liking a bagged tea that you can find at the grocery store! That just means you’re being real about tea, and not snooty. :)

SimplyJenW

I love this one, too! It is my go to for when I am not feeling so well.

carol who

Sounds good. I haven’t used much in the way of grocery store/bagged teas lately but this might be the one I carry with me in my purse to use when I go to a restaurant and they give me the crummy tea. Gee, that wasn’t too much of a run on sentence!

__Morgana__

Thank you Fjellrev, I needed that. ;-)

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Profile

Bio

I got obsessed with tea in 2010 for a while, then other things intruded, then I cycled back to it. I seem to be continuing that in for a while, out for a while cycle. I have a short attention span, but no shortage of tea.

I’m a mom, writer, gamer, lawyer, reader, runner, traveler, and enjoyer of life, literature, art, music, thought and kindness, in no particular order. I write fantasy and science fiction under the name J. J. Roth.

Personal biases: I drink tea without additives. If a tea needs milk or sugar to improve its flavor, its unlikely I’ll rate it high. The exception is chai, which I drink with milk/sugar or substitute. Rooibos and honeybush were my gateway drugs, but as my tastes developed they became less appealing — I still enjoy nicely done blends. I do not mix well with tulsi or yerba mate, and savory teas are more often a miss than a hit with me. I used to hate hibiscus, but I’ve turned that corner. Licorice, not so much.

Since I find others’ rating legends helpful, I added my own. But I don’t really find myself hating most things I try.

I try to rate teas in relation to others of the same type, for example, Earl Greys against other Earl Greys. But if a tea rates very high with me, it’s a stand out against all other teas I’ve tried.

95-100 A once in a lifetime experience; the best there is

90-94 Excellent; first rate; top notch; really terrific; will definitely buy more

80-89 Very good; will likely buy more

70-79 Good; would enjoy again, might buy again

60-69 Okay; wouldn’t pass up if offered, but likely won’t buy again

Below 60 Meh, so-so, iffy, or ick. The lower the number, the closer to ick.

I don’t swap. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that I have way more tea than any one person needs and am not lacking for new things to try. Also, I have way too much going on already in daily life and the additional commitment to get packages to people adds to my already high stress level. (Maybe it shouldn’t, but it does.)

That said, I enjoy reading folks’ notes, talking about what I drink, and getting to “know” people virtually here on Steepster so I can get ideas of other things I might want to try if I can ever again justify buying more tea. I also like keeping track of what I drink and what I thought about it.

My current process for tea note generation is described in my note on this tea: https://steepster.com/teas/mariage-freres/6990-the-des-impressionnistes

Location

Bay Area, California

Website

http://www.jjroth.net

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