Tea India CTC Assam Loose Leaf Black Tea Strong, Full-Bodied Flavorful Blend Of Premium Black Tea Made with Natural Ingredients Traditional Indian Tea Caffeinated Iced Tea Breakfast Tea (32 Ounce)

I'll start by saying that I was specifically looking for a substitute for (or at least a decent approximation to) Lipton Yellow Label loose tea. I love LYL, but it's become very difficult to find in stores near me, and it's gotten insanely expensive online. I have no idea why, but...whatever...I was looking for a substitute.Tea India CTC Assam came highly recommended, so I tried the 1-pound bag. I'm very happy with the product - it's a perfectly drinkable approximation to LYL. For the price they're asking, this is a fantastic deal.Now, this is a CTC Assam tea. CTC stands for "crush tear curl," and that's how the assam tea leaves are processed. What you get are fine grains or pellets of leaf tea (see photo). The grains are less than 1 millimeter across, so it resembles a coarse ground coffee. I used my standard ratios for making hot tea -- 2.3 - 2.5 grams of loose tea to about 8 US ounces (about 240 milliliters) of boiling water, steep for just under 4 minutes. (For what it's worth, the LYL tea is the same basic thing - it's a CTC style tea, but I think the leaves are Ceylon).This is very solid straightforward tea. Massive amounts of body, nice malty flavor, it tastes like tea. It's a little more astringent than LYL, but that's not a bad thing. This is by no means a subtle tea -- there are no subtle floral overtones with hints of stonefruit etc. etc.. If you're expecting that, you will be disappointed. This is solid, unfancy, tea. And it's very very good for exactly that.Other things you can do with this...--- standard Indian masala chai = some CTC + some cinnamon & clove crushed in a mortar & pestle, steep, serve with milk if desired--- mix in a pinch of lapsang souchong (which is a very smoky Chinese tea) to add a nice smokiness to your cup of tea, great for camping or winter mornings

This is a wonderful Assam tea for the price! Makes for a wonderful uplifting morning tea for me!

I'm not a picky or finicky tea drinker. Straight Black Tea is fine with me. But I dislike waste and expense, and decided to try this, with some reusable silicone tea bags, to see how it worked out. Two pounds is a hell of a lot of tea.As it happens, it worked out very nicely. Tea bags are admittedly more convenient, but at the same time, a lot more waste is involved with them between the bags and the packaging. With this tea, you decide how much goes into a bag and go on from there.(Shocker: I use a "teaspoon" per bag, which after weighing what came in a tea bag without the bag and then measuring that amount in this tea came to exactly that amount.)My "cup" is also rather large. It's a 34 oz metal stein. ONE teabag is all it takes with this loose-leaf tea. With pre-made teabags, it usually took two for the same color and flavor.So, it's hugely economical considering it's at least eight times the amount of tea as a box of 100 tea bags, and it will last twice as long. I do not find it to be "better" tasting, but it's not worse. To my palate, it's exactly the same as Black Tea from pre-made tea bags.Since it's Black Tea to begin with, that shouldn't be a surprise.If you want "better" flavor, just think of the savings over the long term.The only down-side is the need to clean and refill the tea bags, but I have a lot of time on my hands and it's not that arduous using a teaspoon to measure the amount. Soak the silicone tea bags in a weak bleach and water solution every few uses and rinse between uses, and they clean right up without affecting the flavor at all.The ONLY thing I might complain about is the lack of a resealable bag it comes in, but I solved that by getting a tea container. Alternatively, a gallon sized re-sealable baggie will work, too. However, the container helps me get level teaspoons in filling, making that a better alternative to the baggie for me.YMMV.Either way, this is the go-to tea on my list to be getting when my tea supply runs out. It's as good as the best tea bags can offer, easy to measure, easy to use, and very economical. If that's your thing, get this and leave the bags behind.