The Good: Wonderful aroma, Good taste, Nothing bad in it, Easy to prepare, Good layers of taste
The Bad: Caffeine free, Extraneous tea waste/poor bulking
The Basics: Absolutely delicious, Ginger Snappish is one of the few Bigelow teas I am gladly making part of my permanent stock!
When I received a recent tea care package, I broke into the package with enthusiasm and the tea that I was most eager to try had to be the Bigelow Ginger Snappish tea. I had never even heard of it and, truth be told, Bigelow teas like Sweet Dreams and White Chocolate Kisses have not wowed me. Despite that, Ginger Snappish has quickly become a tea that I went out and stocked up on, despite it being caffeine free. The reason for this is quite simple: Ginger Snappish has multiple levels of taste, between hot and warm, first brewing and second, with or without sugar which make it a much more versatile tea than I ever would have guessed.
In fact, my instant desire to try Ginger Snappish was in defiance of reason and experience. The only teas I had had before which were flavored with ginger were Celestial Seasonings Gingerbread Spice and Vanilla Ginger Green Tea Chai and the former was definitely not one of their better outings. But Ginger Snappish is a delicious tea and one well worth stocking up on.
Basics
Ginger Snappish is an herbal tea from Bigelow that is caffeine-free and is all natural. Ginger Snappish comes in Bigelow's standard individually-wrapped tea bags, means that each tea bag has a wax papery envelope it is sealed in for freshness. Each tea bag has a five-inch string with a little paper tab at the end, which is quite a bit more waste than I like from a tea bag. When I make pots of tea, I tend to use two bags and making a steeping pot of Ginger Snappish reminds me of why I like the easy environmentalism of Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags. A box of Ginger Snappish comes with 20 individually-wrapped tea bags.
Ginger Snappish is marketed as a seasonal, ginger-flavored tea and it lives up to that claim well enough. The taste is one that comes from a tea with remarkably little scent, which only makes the potency of its taste more impressive.
Ease Of Preparation
Ginger Snappish is a tea, which means preparation is as easy as boiling a pot of water! A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea, though reusing the tea bags is not ideal with this tea. These tea bags can be reused the result is still a fairly strong pot of tea. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works well, even for a second pot. Indeed, Ginger Snappish makes for a fair tea in the reusing department as the second pot comes out 1/2 to 5/8 (at best) of the original strength. But, the thing is, reusing this particular teabag nets a very different flavor which makes this one of the more diverse teabags one may buy!
To prepare Ginger Snappish, simply boil some water, and pour it over the tea bags in a cup, mug or steeping pot. This tea is recommended to take three to five minutes to steep and after a couple cups and pots, I've found that with truly boiling water, the tea is ready at the four minute mark, but it reaches its full flavor at five minutes. However, letting the tea steep more than six minutes does not net any additional flavor, nor does it denature the flavor of the tea.
Taste
Ginger Snappish smells wonderful, though it had a stronger scent when I smelled the teabags. Alas, the actual tea smelled more faintly of ginger, but it had a stronger, chamomile type scent to it. The fainter ricewater scent gave me pause; I was hoping for a robust ginger-flavored tea.
Fortunately, the flavor of ginger is stronger than the initial aroma insinuates it would be. Not strong enough to actually burn the tongue with ginger sharpness, Ginger Snappish tastes authentically like ginger with a sharp, slightly dry taste. There is no sweetness to this tea, instead, it takes the ginger flavor it promises seriously and presents an authentic, if slightly subdued ginger taste. The subduing of the potency of this tea comes from the fact that tea has a slightly watery aftertaste. This is somewhat surprising as most ginger-flavored beverages (or actual ginger) tend to have a drier aftertaste.
With a teaspoon of sugar, the hint of lemon that was undetectable when hot or without sugar comes to the forefront. Sugar, it seems, cuts the ginger flavor back and allows the slight sour flavor of the lemon to come forth and this was unexpected for me. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the fine print on the front of the package mentions that this is a "Snappy Ginger Herb Tea with Lemon." I had missed that before and it was only with sugar that I discovered this flavor to the tea.
Cold or only warm, the tea takes on a drier aftertaste one might expect from a ginger-flavored tea. As well, the flavor of lemon comes through loud and clear and this changes the entire taste of this tea.
That is ultimately one of the reasons I recommended stocking up on this tea, despite the environmental impact; Ginger Snappish has a whole range of tastes and flavors that make it uncommonly good for any kind of tea!
Nutrition
It is surprising that the dominant flavor of Ginger Snappish is ginger, considering that the primary ingredients are: lemongrass, lemon peel, and cinnamon with ginger taking a seat behind cinnamon on the ingredient list (the tea does not taste like cinnamon at all). There is nothing unpronouncable or even unpleasant in the ingredient list and the fact that it is all natural is definitely a point in its favor.
Outside the sugar I occasionally add to mugs of Ginger Snappish, this tea is devoid of any nutritional value. It contains no calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates, caffeine or protein. For those with special dietary concerns, it ought to be noted that this tea is Gluten Free. This makes it more accessible to a wider drinking audience who has to be attentive to such things.
Storage/Clean-up
Ginger Snappish is easy to clean up after - the tea bags may be disposed in the garbage, or composted if you have a good garden and/or compost pile. If composting, though, one needs to remove the string and staple in order to insure that everything being put in your garden is actually biodegradable. This tea is fairly light, even at full strength and it will stain only light fabrics. However, mugs that hold the tea rinse clean. Spills ought to be cleaned up quickly to prevent this tea from staining fabrics, though that's a pretty good general rule not just limited to the Ginger Snappish tea.
Overall
Ginger Snappish is a tea from Bigelow that lives up to this tea-drinker's hopes and expectation by being a tea that tastes good, but offers multiple taste experiences from the one teabag. Worth trying and worth stocking up on.
For other beverage reviews of mine, please check out:
Celestial Seasonings Zingers To Go Blueberry Splash
Twinings Irish Breakfast
Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate Sensation Hot Cocoa
8/10
For other tea reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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