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Rofey drank Earl Grey (loose leaf) by Twinings

14 tasting notes

I’ve been getting a bit down on my favourite morning brew recently, varying the tea-to-water ratio of my morning Early Grey, and finding the Twinings product to taste a little “papery”.

It finally occured to me that using my twenty-year-old Bodum french press (which was given to me by a friend as an eighteenth birthday present, and is still going strong) might be a contributing factor. A closer look at the filter showed some deterioration of the stainless steel mesh, and I wondered whether some fine particles flaking off the mesh might be contributing to the less-than-satisfactory taste.

This morning I ditched the french press, added one-and-a-quarter teaspoons per cup (250ml) straight into a glass teapot (without the infuser, as I decided it looked a bit suspect too) and steeped for three minutes.

Voila! A much more enjoyable Earl Grey, better than others I’ve had this week. So maybe it was the old french press, or mayble I’m just over Twinings teas. I’d be interested in knowing if anyone else finds Twinings to have a bit of a “papery” or “cardboardy” aftertaste.

Preparation

Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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Bio

I inherited the tea-drinking gene from my mother and my grandparents. My sister inherited the coffee-drinking gene from my father – unfortunately I couldn’t save her!

In my teens, I thought that Twinings loose tea was the pinnacle of quality tea. It wasn’t until my wife stumbled across the Lupicia store in Melbourne and brought home some Lapsang Souchong (the Twinings loose tea variety seems hard to come by around here nowadays) that I realised there’s a whole world of quality tea out there.

I drink tea every day, although I’ve been trying to limit my intake of black tea – I recently realised that I was downing eight-to-ten cups of strong black tea a day! I love the rituals in tea-making as much as the tea itself, and I always look forward to sharing new teas with friends over a chat at the dining table.

My father was given a gift of some oolong tea in Hong Kong, which he hands out very sparingly, and I’ve just started to explore oolong teas myself.

Generally, however, my taste in tea leans towards black teas that are big and bold, such as Lapsang Souchong. I do also enjoy green tea, but I fear that Lapsang has ruined my tastebuds forever! Ah, Lapsang, you are a fickle friend…

I live in regional Victoria, Australia, with the missus and three little ‘uns. Coming from an Italian background, my wife prefers coffee to tea, but will occasionally try a new tea with me. My tea rituals seem to have captured the imagination of my two oldest children, and the highlight of 2011 (apart from the birth of our third child) was when my six-year-old was asked what he’d like to drink with his evening meal, and he replied “I’ll have Russian Caravan please!”

Location

Victoria, Australia

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