Lipton is black tea, but apparently a blend of many different kinds of black tea. Check this out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lipton tea

I am not a tea expert, but I believe I can safely say that Lipton is indeed black tea. You might like to know that Consumer Reports tea testers determined that the loose leaf tea from Lipton was one of their best rated teas. Lipton's tea in tea bags was inferior. Unfortunately, that report was around ten years ago.

Generally, I believe that most loose leaf teas are better than bagged, as many bagged teas are not leaf at all, but rather the dust left after the leaves are picked up.

Tea is all about the blend, and no two companies will have the same blend for the same kind of tea. Think of wine. You can have the same grape variety, or name of blend, but different winemakers (let alone different wineries and different years) will have different ideas of what to put in your bottle.

When I was young, I drank a lot of iced tea and I never found anything else that tasted "right" other than Lipton's. Iced Darjeeling is quite lovely, but other common tea companies' iced tea blends weren't!

Good luck with your quest, but you might consider doing as Chas implied, and just get the best (and freshest) Lipton's you can find.

Thanks all. I looked at the link and one poster said it's orange pekoe. That sounded very familiar. Maybe from childhood commercials?
I'll probably get Lipton then. I'm not a tea person but there was a post here somewhere describing the way one poster makes iced tea. It sounded so darn good I thought I'd try it. Now to find it ! LOL !

If you can find it, Luzianne has a better tea for ice tea. Tetly is second, Lipton would be third. Actually, Lipton and store brand were pretty close.

Don't try the flavored teas for ice tea. They're just "off" and get cloudy fast.

I have tea every morning after a wake-up strong cup of black coffee.
DH makes it. Two tea bags of organic green and one bag of PG tips. Thermos hot in colder months and now iced. The commuter thermos.
Weekends i'll have a nice loose tea. Always hot no mater the weather.
Lipton, Red Rose, and my preferred PG are all good nice clean teas for a simple iced.
Lady and Earl and others are fine for an afternoon single cup. As mentioned, keep the iced to the familiar brands. They are all very good.

I switched from coffee to tea a few years ago, now I drink Earl Gray, usually Red Rose. I find the stuff called "tea" to be pretty dreadful.

And remember, don't squeeze the tea bag at the end, it gives you all the bitter parts.

I've read the same info, "tea" in tea bags are basically the left-overs and floor sweepings.

Very interesting topic, I'm a long time tea lover and it's interesting hearing OP's comments.
DD gave us a strainer tea pot from Tevana and a couple of loose teas. The dark tea was horridly bitter, but the white tea was drinkable. I also happened to have a bag of Zen Zoo Rose & Vanilla tea here from an another gift. DH favors that after dinner. Unfortunately Zen Zoo is no longer in business. If someone can point me in the direction of another purveyor, I'd buy more.
For bagged black teas- I don't mind Lipton, PG Tips and especially like Numi teas. I'm very fond of Peet's Coffee's EARL Grey tea bags. It's never bitter and has a very nice flavor. Back when I made a pitcher of iced tea, I used to use one large Lipton tea bag and one or two Constant Comment Orange Pekoe tea bags for a hint of citrus. The blend was always nice, but somehow I've lost my taste for iced tea and no longer prepare it.

It's a question of what you like. You need to taste a few to decide.

I love what islay_corbel said, "You need to taste a few to decide." If all I ever drank was black tea, I would have missed the delights of so many others. And not all black teas are the same. If you like black tea, you will probably like orange pekoe just as well, and they are often blended together.

I love oolong and make it my afternoon tea, or an occasional jasmine or Earl Gray (the Queen of England's favorite) - if you don't mind flavored teas. I have white tea (which fights cancer) and Pu-erh (known for it's cholesterol lowering properties), but I have to wait until I visit my daughter to get it, or order it online.

Lipton is not the Lipton of old. I think that is why I keep trying a lot of different tea blends and brands, I'm trying to duplicate the clean bright flavor it had years ago when it had the brown tag, not the yellow tag. Black teas come in many different varieties, such as English Breakfast Tea, which is a medium flavor strength. Or Scottish Breakfast, a Ceylon Tea. Right now I'm enjoying Irish Breakfast, blended in Belfast called Punjana, and it is fairly strong like PG, the British favorite.

Heck, I even like National Brand (now called Pampa Black Tea) -- 100 bags for $1 from Wal-Mart, which is more or less tea "dust", rather than tea leaves. I have black tea with rose buds in it that is so lovely to drink and take time to savor each drop.

Matcha green tea which contains 10-15 times the overall nutrients and 100 times more antioxidants compared to traditional green, white, black, rooibos, and yerba mata teas. Not a fan of rooibos, but I do have a cup of yerba mata occasionally, which is grown in the rainforest and also high in nutrients. Skip the smoked teas like lapsang souchong, it's like drinking a liquid camp fire.

Friends/relatives have sent or brought me tea from Germany, England, Ireland, China and Turkey, which were usually black or orange pekoe.

-Grainlady

And remember, orange pekoe does not indicate that orange flavor is present......it is the size and quality grading of the tea leaf itself, not the processing or blending of teas of different origins. Lipton's is a black tea as is Tetley, Luzianne, Red Rose, and PG Tips. These are all blended teas that give each their trademark taste and body. Try to find your favorite Lipton's packaged as loose tea, it will be better quality than tea bags, but should still taste like Lipton's, only better.

Teresa

I use mostly loose teas from a tea shop. Right now I have oolong, green. I also have some bagged teas as my family finds them more convenient. Black and green. Lipton makes more than black tea. If I am buying bagged tea I usually buy Stash brand. It is great tea at a reasonable cost. Personally I do not like Lipton and some other brands. When non-tea drinkers tell me they don't like the taste of tea, I tell them its because they are drinking bad tea. Great tea does not have to be expensive! I just remembered about white tea. Haven't had it in a while and need to get some.

Herbal "tea" which I do drink are not really teas as they don't have actual tea leaves in them. They are just herbal hot drinks. I like to blend some tea with herbs. That is why loose tea is great as you can mix up your own blend.

Deeby, Orange Pekoe is a black tea. Tea leaves are graded and I believe that orange Pekoe is a grade of Black Tea

~Ann

I've never been a big tea drinker, although I do enjoy a cup of Twining's English Breakfast tea once in a while. I also prefer herbal tea after a big meal rather than coffee. I few weeks ago I had lunch with friends and afterwards ordered a pot of mint tea. It was just so heavenly. I have been experimenting more with tea since then. I have to go out of my way to buy loose tea and it is more expensive. The frustration with that is buying a box you think you will like and then finding out that you don't, although that can be said of many purchases.

I saw tea brewed in a french press and tried that. It worked very well. Just remember to not actually press the tea leaves, just use the press as a strainer. A few leaves leak through, but maybe I can learn to read them!

This is all sounding so good ! Thanks to all of you I know I'll never buy dust bags, just loose teas. I'll look for a tea ball thing and then maybe the health store will have some nice teas. I'll use bottled water too. I don't like mugs and I have ONE pretty tea cup to use.
I really need to take better care of myself and put away the Cokes !

I have been a tea aficionado for most of my life and it's no exaggeration to say that I have tried hundreds of different tea varities, both loose and in bags/sachets.

My advice would be the same as others have said: if you like the flavor of Lipton, then stick with it and try their loose tea as your initial upgrade. Most blended teas have a consistent flavor from the same company but the same flavor profile (ex.: Irish breakfast tea) can vary greatly from one company to another.

So the best way to find a tea you'll like is to start trying different ones. Twining's English breakfast tea, which is another blended black tea with no flavoring added like Earl Grey might be a good starting point for experimenting.

Have fun on you tea journeys, Deeby.

Re using loose tea, if you're just making a mug for yourself, rather than a whole teapot full, it's a lot easier if you use an open infuser with no interior rim than any kind of teaball. They can be hard to find, whereas there are all kinds of cute teaballs, but the balls, and even the mesh ones that work like escargot tongs (press handle together to open), are a lot harder to clean. With a good, rimless, open infuser that rests on the sides of your mug, you can see the tea unfurl, and you just dump it out and give a quick wash. There are no little leaves stuck in corners or under the rim to be picking at.

Also, some people think ceramic infusers are best because they don't transmit taste, but in my opinion stainless steel is fine. It's aluminum, like the old time, big acorn tea balls that makes the tea taste funny. There's also silicone nowadays, which would be fine, but it's hard to get all vestige of dish soap off of silicone and that residue could foul your tea.

This is the infuser I have from teavana. Just add hot water and let it steep. Then set it on top of your cup and it fills the cup. I love it.

Debra, how beautiful ! My real name is Deborah. Well, I bought Constant Comment because it smells heavenly when others have it, and because the grocery store didn't have any loose teas.

Debra--YES! That's the same diffuser pot that DD bought us at Tevana. It's very simple to clean!

I use an infuser that fits into a mug, I love it. I think Lipton's loose leaf tea is pretty good. Not the bags, ugh, but the loose leaf. I can get another brand of loose leaf tea in the local grocery store called "Swee touch nee" which I also think is pretty good. A far better cuppa than bagged tea, but not as good as you might get from a high end specialty store. "Orange pekoe" is the standard black tea but I think even that comes in grades. A high quality orange pekoe makes a great cup of tea.

I'm not a fan of iced tea, so I can't help much. I like a malty tea hot, so I drink loose leaf assam, but I don't think it would make good iced tea. Not sure though, different tastes. Tea offers a lot of taste options other than the ones I've mentioned. Sadly, I can no longer drink my favorite beverage due to my bladder going to pot!

Here is a link that might be useful: Mug tea infuser on Amazon

deeby, My parents gave me the short version of Debra as my maiden name was very long : )

DD bought me the infuser. The infuser is not be bad to clean once you realize you can pull out the inner part with the mesh. I through out the instructions and had to call the store. I use denture cleaner to clean it. I will admit mine has permanent stains inside on the bottom because I make tea constantly and often leave wet tea leaves in it for long periods of time. I don't really care about the stains!

Numi chocolate puerh tea bags. Very earthy tasting but can be satisfying if craving chocolate.

Ditto on the Numi Chocolate (puerh) Tea as a well as their honeysuckle, decaf black vanilla and their Earl Grey!

Which loose leaf spearmint and Earl Grey brands do you recommend? These are my favorite hot drinks, but the bag versions seem weak, even when leaves are inside.

Debra, my maiden name was long too. Thirteen letters. My married name is LONG. What a crack up !

Eleven letters, Polish, with only 2 vowels. My married name is eight letters and German. A little easier to spell.

There are very few people with my maiden name. I actually think it may completely die out in a few years. I felt back when I got married go give up the name so I hyphenated. I had a job where I had to sign my name all the time, LOL!

I moved to our current town and registered to vote. I got a call from the voters office and this is what the guy said...."Listen lady, there is no way that name is going to fit on your registration card." The way he said it, made me burst out laughing. I said OK, change it. I now use my first name, (middle name is now just an initial) and then my married name.

LOL. I can relate to that. Here's a funny thing that happened once: At a doctor's office or something, I truly can't remember, the lady at the front desk asked me questions as she filled out a form. She asked my last name. I said it's Long. She said, "Would you spell it, please". I said, "It's Long". She said, "I know it's long, and that's why I need you to spell it". I was getting frustrated and said, "Ma'am, it's REALLY Long !" Her: Just please spell it. Me: L-O-N-G. Well I thought she was going to smack me one. She thought I was being sarcastic. In desperation I took out my driver's license. When light dawned she cracked up and so did I. True story !