Newman’s Own Organic Black Tea, 100 Tea Bags, Pack of 5, USDA Organic

Don't let the price fool you...despite being priced about the same as most economy black teas, Newman's Own Royal Tea is an excellent-quality black tea that can compete with much more expensive teas. In fact, in its price range, it is THE best black tea I have ever had! Most of the products I have purchased from the Newman's Own brand have impressed me with their quality, value, and how they are consistently among the best in their respective classes (not to mention the proceeds go to a great cause.) Their Royal Tea is no exception. --- BLACK TEA: IT'S VERSATILITY & THE DILEMMA OF QUALITY-VS.-AFFORDABILITY --- One cool thing about tea is the versatility of the flavors, and a good-quality black tea is arguably one of the most versatile drinks on the planet. By that I mean you can mix/blend it with an almost infinite amount of additional flavors, and have a new flavor each and every time. I enjoy drinking black tea straight up or mixed, and both hot and cold. My favorite fruits to mix with it are pomegranate, sweet orange, and sour orange (bergamot.) I am a huge fan of many of the specialty tea companies such as Numi, Adagio, Wissotzky, etc., but the problem with these teas is that the cost gets very high if you drink them a lot. Simultaneously, most of the teas in my grocery store that you can purchase in massive bulk for cheap are just kinda blah and I do not enjoy drinking them all that much. So for quite a while I've been looking for that black tea that is of notable quality, but yet can be purchased for a heavily-discounted price. Newman's Own Royal Tea is exactly that tea I have searched for. --- A DESCRIPTION OF ROYAL TEA --- Like many other black teas, Royal Tea is a blend of various different black tea varieties. This is often done because diversifying the [tea] ingredients can help maintain a consistent flavor over the many years of different harvests, and this can keep the quality high even if a harvest from a certain area does not do well for that certain year. Royal Tea is USDA-certified as organic and, while I can't say if organic makes a better tea or not, I can say that most of my favorite teas are organic. As you can see from the uploaded image, the finer-cut black tea has pretty good looks that indicate good-quality, and it is consistent in coloration, free of foreign particles, and free of undesirable pieces of the plant. A generous amount is included in each teabag. The scent it has is the sweet & earthy scent that I look for, and similar to that of many high-quality Assam teas (it may very well have Assam in it.) --- THE BREW --- Once brewed, you are left with a pure, classic, and smooth black tea flavor without the astringent aftertaste that some economy-grade black teas can have. Each bag yields a satisfactory strength brew: you can make a strong cup of tea with only one teabag, even if that is a larger cup, and you can get good potency for drinking iced. While the instructions on the box recommend using boiling water, I strongly recommend using water that is slightly below boiling, as I find that helps to minimize bitterness while still brewing tea of about the same strength. I generally brew around the 200F mark and for about 3-4 minutes for hot tea and 5-10 minutes for iced tea. --- THE PACKAGING, TEABAG, INDIVIDUAL WRAPPERS, & STORAGE --- The packaging used is of acceptable quality, and its economical design surely plays a part in how Newman's Own can offer a tea of such good quality for such a low price. The teabags themselves are reasonably strong and do a pretty good job at resisting tearing. Every 100 teabags come in their own 100ct. box. This box has outer plastic wrapping to preserve freshness. When you cut this wrapping off and open the box, each of the 100 teabags are individually-wrapped in a paper wrapping identical to the style that Lipton and Tetley have used. It does add convenience over unwrapped tea, but this paper wrapping does NOT preserve freshness nearly as well as a foil wrapping, and it does not protect the tea from humidity damage. If you drink the tea super-fast, this isn't much of an issue. However, if one box may last you multiple months or even a couple years+, I recommend keeping these in an air-tight jar once that outer plastic seal is broken (I personally use a Fido canning jar.) --- IN CONCLUSION: I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NEWMAN'S OWN ROYAL TEA --- The bottom line is that Newman's Own Royal Tea is the finest black tea I have had anywhere near its respective price-range. While this tea is priced about the same as a bargain grocery store brand, I would rate its overall quality comparable to the black teas made by companies such as Tazo and Stash. If you run a dining company, this tea will really shine above the generic brands and yet it is priced about the same. Whether you are an occasional or frequent black tea drinker, and whether you prefer black tea hot or cold, straight, mixed or blended, Newman's Own Royal Tea is a fantastic choice and I highly recommend it!

Love this tea… I’ve been drinking it for about 10 years

I love this tea! Sweet iced tea flows in my veins. I really love another tea that comes in small batches and only from a certain state, but this is a great substitute for it! The price isn't horrible for wanting an organic tea and with 4 boxes it lasts me almost a whole year. I think the flavor is nice. It doesn't taste chemically or anything as other name brand teas I grew up on. And it brews quite well.

Most tasty black tea! I gave some to my mother in law who has been drinking another brand for years, and she has switched!

Lovely. bold and well rounded black tea. Not to mention the profits go to charity!

I've been using this tea for years. I like being able to buy it in bulk, saves money and I just store it in my freezer. Delivery was the next day after order.

I love Neuman's Own Oeganic Black Tea. It is deep and never bitter. The color is a burgandy color, always fresh, clear without any debris or loose tea leaves. This is truly a quality tea.

As a dedicated black tea drinker, I find this to be very good tea at excellent value. I prefer stronger brews, so lots of what I find in the store tastes flat or weak to me. This doesn't, not at all. In terms of taste, I'd still have to give the nod to PG Tips, but this is a very close second. On the other hand, Newman's Own is organic and the foundation does lots of great work. I wouldn't buy this if I didn't enjoy the taste, but I like the fact that they use their profits to fund good causes. Plus, it's a pretty darn good price for an organic product. I can't think of any downsides to this product for me, but anyone buying should think about storage. For the 100-count boxes, the tea bags come in paper and the box itself is wrapped in plastic. To maintain freshness, you'll want to transfer the bags to an airtight container. But if you do that, you should have no trouble getting a fresh cup every time, right down to the last bag in the last box.