Nilgiri FBOP Black Tea

I have been enjoying tea from the Organic Positively Tea Company for probably about two years now. I am sticking with this company for three reasons. First, I find their teas particularly strong and clear - never stale, never dull, never over dried. Second, the delivery has been 100% reliable. Third, the price is competitive: i never feel it’s overpriced or overhyped. In short, Organic Positively Tea Company gives me very good value for my shrinking dollar.

Nilgiri tea is fresh and very good quality. It is bopf, so not whole leaf.Medium astringency, slightly sweet. Good breakfast blend.

2 years ago, I purchased Positively Tea's Assam which is really nice stuff (definitely higher up on the quality compared to others) and at an amazing price. 1 pound of tea goes a long way, so now that I am out of Assam, I was in the market to buy more tea.I really was torn between buying this Nilgiri tea or more Assam. Their Assam is highly rated/popular, and I know I love it. Plus it's cheaper at $17.95 compared to the much less rated Nilgiri which is lower quality FBOP (broken) at $18.95. Nilgiri doesn't have nearly as strong a name as Assam does across all brands and borders. Perhaps it's a supply/demand thing for the price/quality discrepancy. I don't know. In any case, it was a bit of gamble investing into a pound of this Nilgiri.I am really happy I bought this tea. It has a flavor I have never experienced in a tea. It isn't as malty or quite as strong as Assam teas are, but it stands really high. The flavor is still pretty strong, but it has a pleasant spice to it that reminds me of coca cola. I brewed it for 5 minutes at just under boiling, and it had almost no bitterness. The company advertises that it goes perfectly as iced tea and I can already tell that this is the case.Positively tea described this tea exactly as it came to me. I would definitely buy again and think it is for sure worth it to anyone who wants to try a new tea. I think this tea is highly underrated and worth exploring into.Update** Summer 2022 Assam varietyI bought another bag of their Assam which I last purchased in 2018. Back then I loved it, and the new bag in 2022 is the same as far as I remember. Its got the classic strong malty flavor of an Assam tea but also quite bitter with lots of astringency compared to other Assam teas I have had. I enjoy it most served hot with no additions in a tiny cup. Very eligble for milk or sweetening if you're in to that.If you wish to brew this for iced tea, you definitely want to add a small dash of baking soda to it. I posted a picture of what it looks like with baking soda vs not. The baking soda prevents it from getting cloudy when cooled. It also curbs some of the bitterness which helps mellow it out. For me, it's borderline undrinkable on its own without the baking soda (when served cold/over ice). Other tea brands/varieties hold up better when iced. If you're looking at making iced tea, I'd recommend Vahdam English Breakfast loose leaf tea. It's a step higher on quality/price and has a great flavor. The flavor actually improved the longer I had it. Also less bitter than this Assam.

Recently I have been trying out various organic loose-leaf teas, especially ones with tropical flavors. I was kind of excited when I read about the Positively Tea brand because the flavor combinations sounded good and because they didn't list "natural flavors" that I have found tend to be associated with unpleasant chemical-y tastes (even in supposedly organic brands).I decided to try this flavor first, because it had some positive reviews. I figured it would give me a sense of the quality of the tea, so that I could decide if I wanted to try other items.This tea does not have anything objectionable about it. It does not taste like chemicals to me, and the flavor tastes like the passion fruit that it says it's supposed to be, and it does not taste unpleasant. You would think that would be a low bar, especially when buying organic, but there are a lot of bad products out there. Maybe it's because certified organic products can have non-organic ingredients in them, I don't know.What is surprising is that the tea does not taste much like, um, tea. Even when I tried brewing it strong and let it sit for a long time, the black tea flavor is very mild. So much so that I feel like the thing to do is to mix it half and half with some black tea (e.g. from Frontier) to beef it up.Probably organic tea in this price range should not be expected to be particularly good quality. Maybe if this company were to sell higher-quality tea with these kinds of flavors for somewhere under $30 a pound, rather than somewhere under $20 a pound, it would be of the quality that I would hope for. I find it hard to justify $15 for three ounces, but somewhat more money for better quality would be worth paying for.Maybe Positively Tea should consider a premium line??As comparison: Frontier (which I think of as baseline organic tea) makes a few flavored tea that I can get for $30-40 a pound online (though not so much on Amazon), and they are pretty good. But there is not enough flavor variety. I bought a couple of bags of Davidson's and found it undrinkable, so at least Positively Tea seems better than that!This seems to me to be similar to Numi (which admittedly I've only had in tea bags rather than loose leaf). Interesting flavors, but using lesser-quality tea. Not bad tea, just not very good tea. The tea quality of Mighty Leaf organic seems a smidge higher, though admittedly I've only had that in those little pouches and of course most of their interesting flavors are non-organic (with the non-organic being, in my recent experience, undrinkable too).Apparently organic is especially important in tea because the pesticides are sprayed on the leaves and not washed off before the leaves are dried. And the selection of organic flavored loose-leaf teas is sparse enough that I might buy another flavor from this line and see what it's like. i really think there's a niche in the marketplace for a higher-quality tea at a slightly higher price to be considered though.

This tea has become my go-to tea. It’s strong, smooth, and has just the right amount of natural sweetness with no bitterness. The leaves are high quality AND organic, and you can really taste the difference compared to cheaper black teas. I love that it’s organic and comes in a 16-ounce bag, no shrinkflation. If you’re looking for a bold, reliable black tea, this one’s a winner. I drink it all day!

This is a premium tea at a very good price. The flavor is rich and full-bodied. I like a strong, flavorful tea. The tea leaves are more full than usual, without many crumbs or scraps, which often indicates a higher quality. I recommend this one and will buy it again.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Threw up at work after I made some for the first time, but I think it’s because I either over steeped or it was too potent on an empty stomach. Either way great product cus it was my fault lol