Lipton Green Tea Review
Lipton offers an Orange, Passionfruit and Jasmine Green Tea that is surprisingly full-flavored and refreshing for a bagged tea.
Usually, the advice for drinkers of green tea is to always, always try to go for a loose leaf variety rather than teabags. Why? Well, the quality generally suffers in teabags, for a start – leaves are sliced, diced and chopped until they become an unappealing heap of mush, or even nothing more than dust. The freshness and therefore taste and health benefits start to deteriorate rapidly from that point, and they generally just can't compare with a brew of green tea made from large, fresh green leaves.
However, this green tea from Lipton is a pleasant surprise. The tea company is proud of the blend, enticing us with an exciting, fresh-sounding description: "Experience the sweetness of orange, tangy passionfruit and fragrant jasmine for a unique, all natural, green tea beverage that makes any occasion special. To entice you even more, green tea contains a healthy dose of protective flavonoid antioxidants."
It doesn't have a particularly strong or at all overpowering aroma. When brewed, however, there is a noticeable – and pleasant – fragrance from the tea. Orange... green tea scents... not too strong, but definitely fresh and enticing, which is always a good start.
The tea contains (aside from natural green tea) orange peel, jasmine, natural orange and passionfruit flavors, and “other natural flavors”. The resulting beverage is light, and refreshing. It's not overly fruity, and the taste of passionfruit is a bit more of a background feature than a main event, but this is not a disappointingly weak tea either, as is the case with many teabag versions. The green tea flavor tastes fresh and familiar, just as a green tea should. And the orange flavor gets the balance just right, perfectly complementing the other tastes without being too strong and overshadowing the rest.
Anyone who enjoys flavored green teas will like this Orange, Passionfruit and Jasmine Green Tea from Lipton. It's not what you'd call a typical Jasmine Tea, in that the floral aspect of the tea is very understated, almost to the point where you wouldn't notice it was there at all if you didn't notice in advance. If you were to try this tea expecting a typical Jasmine Tea, then you'd be disappointed. But if you like the idea of an orange-flavored green tea, then this isn't a bad choice. It will certainly appeal to anyone who finds the leafy, sometimes vegetal taste of green tea too overpowering or spinach-like – there's none of that in this variety. In fact, the orange flavor together with the blend of other flavors balances out the subtle green tea flavors and aromas to make it taste fruity and almost sweet, as opposed to the rather more bitter taste of pure green tea.
As a side note, this also makes up rather well as an iced tea, if you're looking for a light, fruity, refreshing cold tea drink for a hot summer's day. It has the right combination of flavors and the right hint of sweetness to make it work well as a cold drink – but that said, it's pretty satisfying as a hot cup of green tea with a difference, too.
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