The University of Massachusetts Boston has not been quiet about the dorms and what they offer their students. They have also made sure to focus on the dorms’ dining hall and the food they are serving. The one thing they did not really focus on though was their tea. UMass Boston not only caters to their coffee drinkers with pumpkin spice and French vanilla coffees, which I must say are quite good, but they also focus on their tea drinkers with hot water and teas bags available. The brand they use is called Steep by Bigelow, except for their Vanilla Chai tea which is not part of the Steep line. They offer five different flavors of tea for students: Vanilla Chai, English Breakfast, Lemon Ginger, Earl Grey, and Rooibos Hibiscus. I had never heard of the brand Bigelow, so I decided to take a look at their website, www.bigelowtea.com, and I was pleasantly surprised. The website not only had an assortment or prepackaged tea for sale, but also had cute novelty items that ranged from a ‘TEA’ shirt to a mug that said #TeaProudly. I also took a look at their prices and for a case of six boxes of tea, or 120 tea bags, and it was only about $22 before shipping.
Now, I am going to get to business and talk about the tea that UMass Boston has brought into my world. When I went to lunch the other day, a few tea bags happened to fall into my pocket, the Vanilla Chai, an English Breakfast, and a Rooibos Hibiscus. The first one I tried was the Rooibos Hibiscus and it was very good. The color was a bright pink. The flavor was not that rich, but it was a good after-dinner tea. I had it with some sugar because the flavor was so delicate that any kind of cream would have killed it, and personally I do not enjoy hot, watered-down cream. The second tea I tried was the English Breakfast, and it was like a punch in the face. If you have ever had a cup of English Breakfast tea, you know that it is supposed to wake you up a little bit and make you say, “Wow!” The tea was a strong black, and I tried to drink it plain but soon I gave in and I used a little bit of cream. The last tea I tried, and by far the best, was the Vanilla Chai tea. This tea was AMAZING! Chai is a black tea with spices mixed into which give it a unique flavor. I was sitting at work working away and honestly it made me sad that I had not grabbed a second tea bag to bring with me. I had it plain the first time and then the second time with cream and sugar. I would suggest drinking it however you would like because it was such good tea that the only wrong way to drink it would be by dumping it down the drain.