NEWMANS OWN ORGANICS Organic Royal Black Tea, 100 CT

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!

It's organic, great taste! Will definitely buy again

Good tea. As you probably know he donates his profits, in this case partly to FoodCorps (which brings locally sourced food to school lunches) or other programs you may find out about at NewmansOwn.org

I've been buying this same tea for 8 years. Newman's Own makes such great products and their company values are 100%.As a discerning black tea drinker who also drinks some of the finest black teas on the market and at specialty tea shops, I'm constantly amazed by the quality of this completely affordable daily drinker.

This is a delicious tea with a flavorful fruitiness that is really pleasant; not harsh or astringent.However, the bags are atrocious. Two staples per bag with a bleached, plastic-y filter paper. To remedy, I've gone as far as to cut open the bags, dump the tea leaves in boiling water, and then strain through an unbleached coffee filter. It's a lot of fuss, but that's how much I hate the bags. I would pay more if Newman's would modernize their tea bags.

This is very good black tea. I have 3 cups a day

Love this tea! The Paul Newman products everything from salad dressing, lemonade, tea are quality food & worth the money. Proceeds from the sales of this brand go towards charitable causes

This tea is so delicious but a couple of things the price is ridiculous and I am wondering if the teabags are bleached I’m trying to stay away from toxins so I have to cut them open and pour the ground into the filter of my tea maker. I didn’t have the heart to give it a four star because the tea is really delicious.

Great tasting tea and good value for the price! I would purchase this again!

Taste great & works well for the kombucha tea