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Bigelow Tea

Bigelow Tea is an American family-owned tea company founded in 1945 by Ruth Campbell Bigelow in New York City, built around the flagship blend Constant Comment — a black tea flavoured with orange rind and sweet spice that Ruth developed in her own kitchen. The company, now headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, remains independently owned by the Bigelow family across three generations and is particularly associated with two innovations: the Constant Comment blend itself, and the individually foil-wrapped tea bag that protected tea freshness in a way standard paper overwraps could not.

In-Depth Explanation

Bigelow Tea’s story is distinctive in the American food industry for several reasons: it was built by a woman entrepreneur at a time when that was unusual in consumer goods; it created a new flavour category in the American tea market; and it has remained privately family-owned for three generations while growing into a nationally distributed brand. The Constant Comment blend is not just a product — it is the reason the company exists, and understanding the company means understanding the blend.

Ruth Campbell Bigelow and the Founding Blend

Ruth Campbell Bigelow developed Constant Comment in 1945 in her New York kitchen. The blend combined black tea with orange rind and sweet spice — a flavour profile that was unusual in the American tea market of the mid-1940s, which was dominated by plain, unflavoured black tea bags. Ruth based the blend on her interpretation of a recipe approach she had encountered, adapting it to produce a reliably reproducible and commercially viable product.

The name Constant Comment came directly from the reaction of the guests Ruth served it to: they would not stop commenting on it. The phrase captured both the blend’s novelty and the social function of tea as a conversation starter, and it became one of the most memorable product names in American food history.

Ruth’s initial route to market was personal and direct. She produced the blend in her kitchen, packaged it herself, and sold it door-to-door to specialty food shops in New York — an approach that was standard for food entrepreneurs of the era but which required both the product quality and the personal salesmanship to succeed. Constant Comment found customers, and the business grew from that beginning.

The Foil-Wrapped Tea Bag

One of Bigelow’s most significant contributions to the American tea market was the individually foil-wrapped tea bag. Standard tea bags of the era were packaged in cardboard boxes with paper overwraps that provided limited protection against moisture and air — both of which degrade tea quality, particularly the delicate volatile aromatic compounds that make flavoured teas like Constant Comment appealing.

Bigelow’s foil wrapping encased each individual tea bag in a sealed foil sachet, protecting freshness from the moment of packaging to the moment of opening. This was a genuine quality improvement — particularly relevant for a flavoured tea whose aromatic character was its primary selling point — and it became a brand differentiator that Bigelow maintained and marketed as a quality signal for decades. The distinctive metallic wrappers became part of the brand’s visual identity in retail environments.

Family Ownership Across Three Generations

The continuity of Bigelow Tea as a family business is unusual for an American consumer brand of its scale. Ruth Campbell Bigelow founded the company and ran it through its formative years. Her son David Bigelow took over and expanded the business, broadening the product range beyond Constant Comment and building national distribution. The third generation is represented by Cindi Bigelow, who became CEO and has continued both the operational leadership and the public identity of the brand as a family company.

This multigenerational continuity has given Bigelow Tea a narrative coherence — a founder’s story, a signature product, a family face — that large corporate tea brands cannot easily replicate. The family ownership also gave the company latitude to make decisions based on long-term brand positioning rather than short-term quarterly performance, including investments in environmental commitments and quality standards that might be harder to justify in a publicly traded company.

The Product Range

Beyond Constant Comment, Bigelow Tea’s catalogue covers a broad range of mainstream and specialty tea styles:

  • Black teas: English Teatime, Earl Grey, Constant Comment Decaf, Lemon Lift, Plantation Mint
  • Green teas: Classic Green, Green Tea with Lemon, Mint Medley
  • Herbal tisanes: Chamomile, Peppermint, Sweet Dreams, I Love Lemon, Cozy Chamomile
  • Flavoured and specialty teas: Constant Comment (original), Constant Comment Green Tea, Perfect Peach, Raspberry Royale, Cinnamon Stick
  • Wellness teas: Various lines developed in response to consumer interest in functional herbal blends

The catalogue is broad and commercially oriented — designed for mainstream US retail distribution — and Bigelow teas are found in grocery stores, pharmacies, and mass retailers across the country. This wide distribution distinguishes Bigelow from premium-niche brands like Harney & Sons or Mariage Frères, positioning it at the quality-accessible end of the specialty market rather than the luxury end.

Environmental and Corporate Identity

Bigelow Tea has been publicly committed to environmental sustainability as part of its brand identity, including investments in energy-efficient manufacturing, reduced packaging waste, and sourcing transparency. The company received B Corporation certification — a third-party assessment of social and environmental performance — reflecting a stated commitment to values beyond profit maximisation that aligns with the family’s long-term stewardship approach to the business.

History

  • 1945: Ruth Campbell Bigelow develops Constant Comment in her New York City kitchen — black tea with orange rind and sweet spice — and begins selling it to specialty food shops; Bigelow Tea is founded.
  • Late 1940s–1950s: The company grows through direct sales and word of mouth; the individually foil-wrapped tea bag format is developed and becomes a Bigelow brand differentiator.
  • 1960s–1970s: David Bigelow (second generation) takes over and expands the product range and national distribution; Bigelow teas appear in grocery retail across the United States.
  • 1970s–1980s: Product range expands to include green teas, herbal tisanes, and a broader selection of flavoured black teas; Bigelow establishes itself as one of the leading specialty tea brands in the US market.
  • 1990s–2000s: Cindi Bigelow (third generation) joins the company and eventually becomes CEO; environmental commitments and sustainability investments accelerate.
  • 2000s–present: Bigelow Tea achieves B Corporation certification; the company continues as one of the largest family-owned specialty tea businesses in the United States; Constant Comment remains the flagship blend and one of the most recognised flavoured teas in the American market.

Social Media Sentiment

  • r/tea: Bigelow Tea occupies an interesting position in subreddit discussions — it is widely available and many US members grew up with it, so it appears frequently in nostalgic contexts (“the first tea I ever had”) and in discussions about accessible starter brands. Constant Comment is regarded affectionately, particularly among members who return to it periodically despite exploring more specialist teas. The brand is occasionally criticised for relying heavily on flavoured blends rather than high-quality single-origin teas, but this is understood as a deliberate market positioning rather than a failure of ambition.
  • r/loose_leaf_tea: Bigelow features less prominently here than in r/tea, reflecting the subreddit’s stronger orientation toward loose-leaf formats; tea bag discussions occasionally bring it up in the context of convenience options.
  • Steepster: Constant Comment is one of the most reviewed teas on the platform, reflecting its long-term presence in the American market and the nostalgia it generates. Reviews tend to be warm; the orange-spice character is consistently described as comforting and distinctive.
  • Consumer review platforms: Bigelow Tea has strong average ratings across mainstream retail platforms (Amazon, grocery store review sections), where Constant Comment in particular accumulates large volumes of positive reviews from non-specialist tea drinkers who find it a reliable, pleasant daily cup.
  • Gifting communities: Bigelow variety packs and Constant Comment sampler sets appear regularly in gift recommendation threads, particularly in the context of accessible gifts for people who drink tea but are not deeply knowledgeable about it.

Last updated: 2026-06

Related Terms

See Also

Research

  • Bigelow, Cindi. Various interviews, keynote addresses, and public statements on company history and family ownership (2000s–present).
    Summary: Primary source for Ruth Campbell Bigelow’s founding story, the development of Constant Comment, the foil-wrapped tea bag innovation, and the family’s three-generation stewardship of the company as told by the current CEO.
  • Pettigrew, Jane. The Tea Companion: A Connoisseur’s Guide. Quintet Publishing, 1997.
    Summary: Context for Bigelow Tea’s position in the American specialty tea market and the role of Constant Comment in introducing flavoured tea to mainstream US consumers.
  • B Lab. Bigelow Tea B Corporation profile (various assessment years).
    Summary: Third-party documentation of Bigelow Tea’s environmental and social performance assessments; confirms the company’s B Corp certification status and the areas of performance measured.