Last updated on May 12th, 2024
Gone are the days of searching for serenity in faraway lands. Forget the plane tickets and expensive retreats. Close your eyes, inhale deeply, and let your taste buds transport you to a tranquil haven.
That’s what I was hoping for when I opened the packet of the Mint Medley Tea to steep for breakfast but reality kicked in while I was sipping and found me sitting at my desk.
The Mint Medley is a herbal tea produced by the Bigelow Tea Company.
I was doing some light shopping in the supermarket when I saw the tea.
As it states on the packet, this tea is a “blend of cool garden spearmint and peppermint” which offers a light and refreshing taste.
I was expecting the minty aroma to hit my nose once I took it out of the packet but the scent was only present when I placed the teabag close to my nose.
Quick Bits:
Pros:
- Attractive and practical design with consistent branding.
- Individual foil packets preserve freshness and are travel-friendly.
- Plastic lining inside foil packets prevents metallic taste contamination.
- Box, tea bags, strings, and tags are 100% biodegradable.
- Foil packets are recyclable.
- Tea stays fresh thanks to individual foil packets.
- High-quality packaging and attention to detail contribute to a premium experience.
- Light and refreshing minty flavor.
- Earthy minty note develops after several sips.
- Pleasant minty aftertaste that lingers for 15 minutes (when consumed hot).
Cons:
- Minty aroma: Not very strong, only noticeable when sniffing the packet directly.
- Minty flavor doesn’t hit as strong as expected.
- Flavor doesn’t evolve much and fizzles out as the tea cools.
- Becomes bland at room temperature.
- Not suitable for multiple steeps.
- Price: More expensive than some other tea brands.
- Minor Inaccuracies: Tea bag tag color in the box image doesn’t match the actual tag.
- Box lid doesn’t reattach securely, but teabags are kept fresh inside foil packets
The Mint Medley Tea Packaging & Presentation
The color choice for the box that the mint medley arrives in is quite the right selection because the top half is dark green while the bottom half is a lighter green both illustrating the color associated with peppermint and spearmint.
I love how consistent the packaging is because the foil packets that hold the teabag also have the same layout and design as the box.
I’d say that the box is practical and visually appealing because of the tea flavor it holds.
On the aspect of sustainability, placed at the bottom in green writing, the box, tea bags, strings, and tags are 100% biodegradable, so that’s a plus in my books.
Although the tea bag foil packets aren’t biodegradable, they’re recyclable.
Also, the best enjoyed-by date is July 2025, at least that’s the case for the box I bought.
There’s a cool artwork or picture on the front of the box which looks like a mini waterfall with what I guess may be watermint plants near the rocks.
Go figure 🤷♂️¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The Mint Medley text on the front of the box is eye-catching because it’s printed in white with black shadows on the dark green background.
Bigelow does a great job of developing the right materials needed to keep the tea fresh.
The tea bags are placed in individual foil packets which allows the freshness to stay in while keeping the air and moisture out.
In my experience, the individual foil packets make it easy for you to travel with due to how lightweight and compact they are.
As great as having foil packets may be, a huge downside is the potential flavor impact.
The metallic taste of foil, while minimal, could potentially affect the delicate flavors of some teas, which won’t be as crisp as you’d expect it to be.
But Bigelow Tea found a solution to this and they added a thin layer of plastic to the inside of the foil. Though small, it makes a big difference to maintain that freshness.
This type of detail in the design adds to the overall premium feel of the product.
The box doesn’t come with a tight-fitting lid that you can re-attach once you tear it off.
But what you can do is tear the lid to the edge of the box and not the entire way around so that you can pull down the lid to close.
One thing that I’d like to point out as a tad misleading is the back of the box where you have to lift off the lid, it’s showing the tag on the teabag as green with the name “mint medley’ but the actual teabag out of the packet has a brown tag.
A minor printing error perhaps?
Anyhoo …
There’s no need to transfer the teabags to another container because once you tear off the lid from the box, the foil packet does its job of keeping the teabags fresh.
First Impressions of the Mint Medley Tea
Once I opened it, the subtle notes coming from the packet led me to believe it was crafted in a way to present a premium feel.
Granted I had to lift the opened packet to my nose to truly grasp the light minty aroma.
Brewing the Mint Medley Tea
I’m more accustomed to using the microwave to heat the water I use for tea but what I’ve come to realize is that the flavor of the mint medley wasn’t properly extracted.
While using the microwave to heat water for tea might seem convenient, it surely impacts or somewhat alters the taste compared to using a stovetop.
I have to admit I under-brewed the tea which resulted in it tasting a bit weak.
I heated up the water in a 1 liter plastic bowl and the temperature before I poured it out was 160.3° Fahrenheit.
So in my second go with a fresh teabag, I dampened the teabag with room temperature water in my teacup and just let it sit for 5 minutes while the water was on the stove heating up.
No special teaware was used here, it’s just a regular steel pot that you can use for heating up water, boiling an egg, or making stew along with a porcelain teacup.
I noticed that the tea extract settled at the bottom of the cup, this was before I poured out the hot water.
I heated the water up to 199° Fahrenheit then poured it out into the teacup and let it sit for about another 2 minutes.
As it was steeping, I noticed that it gave off a light golden hue.
When I sweetened the tea to drink, the temperature was now 157.6° Fahrenheit.
While it didn’t fill up the entire kitchen with a minty aroma, the scent was present in the steam as it came out of the cup.
By the way, I used Demerara Sugar to sweeten my tea. Just one spoon I took out.
When choosing your tea strength
Add more water for a lighter tea or add less for a strong brew.
Taste & Aroma Analysis
First things first, this is best used hot, when the tea starts getting at room temperature, it becomes very bland.
The dominant flavor is minty but I wouldn’t say that the taste of the tea evolves, it’s kind of a minty hit at first and sort of fizzles out as the tea cools.
After taking my thirteenth sip, it started giving off an earthy minty note.
The way your mouth feels after drinking it hot is like when you’re using minty toothpaste.
But this kind of aftertaste only comes about when the tea you drink is hot. When the tea cools, it’s more of a lighter version of the minty aftertaste.
The aftertaste only lingers for a 15 minutes.
This is only meant to be steeped one time, it is very very faint of a taste if you try to use the same teabag in another brewing session.
For flavored teas, I steep until the steam brings up the scent to my nose and this is usually anywhere 3-5 minutes.
Value & Pricing
When I bought a box of the mint medley at the supermarket, I paid about $4.32 (converted to USD) so it’s on the pricier end given that it’s 20 teabag packets.
I say that when compared to “America’s Best” teabag (America’s Best is the name of the brand) it comes with 100 black teabags in a box.
This sells anywhere from $2 to $2.50 depending on the local supermarket you’re in.
On the flipside, of course when the mint medley is compared to the price on Amazon it’s higher in the local supermarket but you’d also have the factor in the additional cost for the suppliers to ship from the USA to the Caribbean so that’s one of the reasons for the little price bump.
But I wouldn’t say that it’s overpriced because the freshness aspect of the packaging is what I’d use to justify the cost.
It’s not just the tea bag in the box when you open it, but it’s inside of an individual foil packet.
Also, Bigelow Tea goes the extra mile to ensure that the inside of every foil packet is lined with plastic to prevent the tea flavor from being somewhat altered by the metallic foil packet.
Did it meet my expectations?
No, the mint medley tea didn’t meet my expectations because the minty flavor didn’t hit as strong as I expected.
Who else might enjoy this tea?
Fans of herbal teas and minty chocolates would enjoy the Bigelow Mint Medley.
Have you ever tried this flavor? What was your experience with the Bigelow Mint Medley Tea? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Is there any other Bigelow Tea Flavor that you’ve tried and want to know my thoughts on it?
Let me know in the comments below or sign up for my email newsletter to know when it’s released.
I’m working towards going through the entire Bigelow Tea catalog so I’ll get to yours eventually.
That’s all for today.
Ta ta
Thanks for reading.
Peter is the founder of Beverage Quarters. As a tea enthusiast, he has enjoyed tea for breakfast for well over the past decade. He enjoys playing table tennis (when he gets the chance) and patiently awaits the 20th of every month to read the latest Boruto manga chapter.