TWG Tea Company

I won’t be rating this tea yet…
I’ve been lured by the Gentleman in this tea name. Expecting something slightly refined, I put way too much leaves in my strainer. Second I put less water than usual in my boiler and did not get a full teapot. Third and last, I got busy while brewing and forgot the tea for way too long.
The resulting brew was strong, with a slightly bitter touch, that did not prevent me from drinking it all, though with probably not as much pleasure as could have been. The citrusy flavors seemed well balanced and very pleasant.
I’ll have to prepare it by the book next time to try to see if I get my gentleman and not the ruffian just out of the boxing ring, all sweaty and male I ended up with today…

I’ve sat through two brews of this tea wondering, sip after sip, how exactly I should describe it but have found myself at a loss for words. Well, here goes nothing!

This is a type of Darjeeling, or so the counter staff at TWG told me, and everything about it — from taste to fragrance — is delicately floral. Perhaps it’s just my wonky nose playing tricks on my brain but at times, drinking this tea felt like drinking silken tofu. It had that kind of smell … oh, I don’t know! This is hard. LOL. I haven’t been able to identify anything that would define this tea.

Just tried this with milk and sugar. Hmm, it makes for a very light beverage that nevertheless retains a touch of fragrance, which is fine by me — I’m OK with delicate flavours. Taste-wise, it’s like a mild version of Taiwanese bubble milk tea. Easy on the palate, but I think fans of strong concoctions would find this bland.

By the way, sorry about the bad picture — it was the best I could do in poor lighting, LOL.

TWG’s Imperial (Formosa) Oolong doesn’t taste like Chinese tea at all! More specifically, it doesn’t taste like the Chinese tea I’m used to.

This one has got a woody/musky taste with a hint of lingering sweetness riding above it. It also carries with it the aroma of … well, Lipton/generic “Western” tea, for want of a better word, and it feels like it would go well with milk and sugar. In fact, I shall try it the next time.

It’s not that I didn’t like this tea; it’s just that I’ve got preconceived notions of what oolong should taste like, and it definitely isn’t like this, so I won’t rate it until I’ve gotten over my stereotype upheaval and can approach this tea from a more unbiased POV.

sweet,but spicy taste

Once again I’ve been completely puzzled the first times I drank this, as it did not taste like what I expected. At the same time, TWG description of the blends can only be considered as simplistic or minimalist.
After a few surprising and almost difficult to drink brew, I realized this blend, though different from my usual rooibos, definitely grew on me. After believing I never would be able to drink it all, I changed my mind and realized it might be easier and easier to drink until it’s finished, as I like each new pot better than the previous, for now.
The rooibos in itself seems really nice, brews a very clear and bright color, quite fragrant.
Let me try to describe the fragrance and flavors, quite tough because I haven’t managed yet to really grasp what could be in. There’s nothing flowery, nor fruity or sweet in this blend, which favors much more vegetal and earth tones. Thinking of the Caribbean, those flavors would remind me of a walk through the jungle forest, definitely out of the seaside and out of blooming gardens.
There’s a clear nutty flavor to it, bringing both mellowness and a tinge of bitterness. The cocoa beans cannot be mistaken for chocolate, it’s clearly the unprocessed, unsweetened slightly bitter flavor that comes through. I still have not managed to be certain whether there is some vanilla inside, bringing additional mellowness to the nuts. Nor am I clear whether there is some coconut; in any case, if there is, it would be fresh and raw coconut, most probably just scooped from the nut, taking only the pieces that were closer to the bark and neither the milk, nor the soft flesh at the center of the nut.
I hope this rambling will make sense.
I may some day post another tasting note not too similar on this one, which still puzzles me…

It has become my earl grey of the moment, last time I mentioned it was light I meant colour wise. As for flavour it’s a nice wake up slap, perfect for a morning or pick me up cup. It’s earthy, grassy, a wood aroma with hints of freshly pinched tea leaves. It tastes really fresh like it was recently packed ready to send out from the vendor. The bergamot tastes like it was carefully selected. I wonder if the same care is put to the rest of the TWG Teas. Love the amber liquor. Im not a fan of re steeping but this is the first tea I re steeped & tastes good, a little stronger, but good.

A really nice surprise. I’m used to earls with a bold black tea base, either ceylon or assam do the trick but this darjeeling is really not malty or bold, it’s light with a small hint of floral. It reminded me of the Oolong Earl Grey by Red Leaf Tea. In my humble opinion it shouldn’t be considered a black tea. The liquor is light ambar, the scent is floral & fresh & the bergamot is strong, but not over empowering. After brewing the bergamot looses it’s strong scent but I guess it’s because the flavor blends right in with the darjeeling & lingers beautifully after every sip.

I’ve tried a 2nd infusion & unlike most of the teas I have, this one holds the flavor pretty well. I think I’m in love <3

My first tasting note!

Made my first visit to the lovely Urban Tea Merchant shop in downtown Vancouver yesterday. What a lovely shop! (Did not realize it was right beside my dentist – will have to pay a visit now each time I go for a check up!)

Was thinking I wanted their caramel black tea, but the staff guy suggested this one – Napoleon smelled a bit sweeter, so i chose it instead, and I love it! Very smooth black base, can taste the creamy caramel and mocha. Having it with cream and a couple of swirls of the rock sugar wands they also sell….it’s very good! So good, I am drinking it at 930 at night….lets hope I sleep! A wonderful tea, highly recommend.

Avoid this tea at all costs! When I opened the tin, I was greeted with an overpowering smell of rose. Sure enough, the ingredients on the bottom list tea and rose, even though the tea is described as containing “a scattering of cherry blossoms.” All cheap “cherry” teas contain rose, but I was expecting more for this price. Also, the green tea in the blend is a mediocre tea sourced from Singapore, not Japanese sencha. Shame on TWG for marketing this tea as a gourmet Japanese cherry tea.

Finishing this off. I really enjoyed having it on-hand. Sometimes it ended up coming out bitter, but that was mostly me not paying attention to the temperature. Especially near the end, when there was a lot of tea dust in the scoop.

Still enjoyed it though. Buttery green went well with the caramel. Might buy some more…

Last cup of this for now, though.

On my second steep of this, actually. I made the first last night.

Mmm second steep is still strong. Faintly buttery green tea—with sweet caramel.

This was another tea I received as a gift for my birthday. I wasn’t really excited about it because green teas aren’t my favorite, and I usually don’t like flavored teas…

When I smelled this tea, I was even less enthusiastic. It smelled strongly of artificial peach. In tasting the tea, however, I was surprised at the nuanced flavor. This tea appears to be much more heavily scented than it is flavored. I was pleased that I could still taste the green tea, and to balance out the sweet fruit, it had a savory finish. The aftertaste was not cloying (as I usually find flavored teas to be). Overall, for a flavored tea, this one was very good.

I had to restrain myself form eating the big chunks of caramel that were scattered throughout the dry tea. It was worth it though, as the liquor had a yummy, rich, caramel flavour augmented by creamy notes of vanilla.

I got this tea from the Urban Tea Merchant in downtown Vancouver. I was disappointed that they stopped stocking THÉ Ô DOR, but TWG seems to be a pretty decent replacement line.

I’m never quite sure how to steep black tea/green tea blends so in this case I temporized by doing a slightly lower temperature and less time than I would for a straight black tea. I love the Bourbon vanilla scent of this blend – it’s sweet and rich and makes me think of baking sugar cookies. Unfortunately the flavour is more vegetal and less vanilla-y than I would like, although the vanilla is still certainly there. There’s also hints of something else under the vanilla – maybe something citrusy and traces of some sort of spices.

Having another test of this. I am now expecting the hibiscus on it, but even so, it still overpowers me. There is the tartness, the acidity, and it seems to spread all over other flavours without being balanced by anything else. Maybe there is a peach and berry underneath it all, maybe there is rooibos (rhetorical, there is rooibos evidently on the mix) but the hibiscus just takes over.I am not a good person to rate this, hibiscus really is not my thing.

If this does not have hibiscus hidden somewhere on it, I will eat my hat. My non-existant hat, but there you have it. A tiny tiny little itty amount of hibiscus but that it does have it, oh I strongly suspect so.

Dry leaf or while steeping this smells divine. Peaches with berries on a rooibos base. LaFleurBleue who sent me this sample would know what I mean when I say this is a fruity rooibos like Berry Berry Nice instead of a blend fruit rooibos like Carpe Diem or Marco Polo Rouge.

But then you taste it and instead of mellow rooibos, the underlying taste is a sharp sour acid hibiscus like tang.I can not get either the peach or berries promised in the scent or the mellowness of the rooibos which should be underneath. Nope, there is something hibiscus and just does not work with my expectations. I will keep trying though.

I got this massive urge to go and separate the rest of the sample and just barely refraining from doing DNA analysis on anything which might be hibiscus to see if it really is. But really, I would swear I can taste the hibiscus right on the middle of my tongue. I have a test where I leave a little bit in a cup overnight and then seeing the color and shape of the residue, will check.

Thank you very much for the sample, LeFleurBleue, this smelled heavenly indeed and I think I am learning somethings about TWG blends!

PS – the overnight cup test hints strongly of hibiscus as well, the residue is blue-ish pink rather than orange-brown as it with most rooibos. Examining the dry leaf, there seems to be rooibos, little tiny pink berries (a filler? they look somewhat like pink peppers used in spice teas and which taste like nothing), rose petals and tiny little pink bits of petals which could be hibiscus. Hmm, enough evidence?