TWG Tea Company

Looks like this tea has been sitting untouched in my cupboard for two years now! Unfortunately it hasn’t gotten any more exciting with age. I cold steeped it overnight in the fridge. It tasted of generic fruity green. I added a little sweetener hoping that might better define the fruit, which cut down on the slight green bite, but really didn’t do much to make the flavors transform. I get a light fruity floral flavor, but nothing very exciting.

TWG teas have been so hit or miss for me. There are a few that I really enjoy, but so many of them strike me as unremarkable.

I must have chosen this tea because of the pomegranate blossoms. It’s the first time I have heard of them being used for anything and I have no idea what flavor they are. The tea is nice and well balanced. The green base is even, but hidden behind floral flavors. I can’t pin what type of floral (probably because I have no reference for pom blossoms), but it is pleasant. My mouth feels a little dry after I sip the tea.

It’s nice, but not a rebuy.

Cold steeped this. I’m getting a green bite along with what tastes like rose (also with a bite), but I’m guessing is the cherry blossoms. I think I added too much tea and ended up with a slight concentration which I am cutting with a little cream. The cream mellows out the flavors and makes for an okay cup, but I’m not getting the “addictive” finish mentioned in the tea’s description. It’s a miss.

Light, fruity and floral is about all I’m getting from this cup. A little flatness at the end of the sip as it cools. Eh.

I think I like this a little more than the first time I had it. I’m not getting that cranberry taste I noticed before. I’m having it without any additives. I still get the pom and blossom flavors, which ends up being a fruity mix. It is a little more fruity and light than I had wanted this morning, so it’s on to something heavier for me!
Still need to try this cold brewed!

It seems like a few of the TWG teas I ordered don’t have Steepster profiles which is always surprising!

I bought this one because of the pomegranate. It isn’t a fruit I have come across in tea before so I wanted to try it. It smells like rich tart fruit. I added a little sugar to perk it up. When I taste it I can pick out the cherry blossoms and a little of the pom, but the aftertaste almost has a cranberry like flavor to it. It is interesting, it’s nice, but it isn’t captivating. I could take it or leave it. I added a little cream to the last of my cup and it did nothing for it. I’ll have to try it cold brewed next.

I buy too much tea! LOL! Looks like I have had this in my cupboard for a couple years now, have just finished the bag and liked it much more in the beginning when it was fresh. I had it cold steeped over night in the fridge for these last few cups and it wasn’t very remarkable at all. Hard to say if it was the preparation or the age of the tea, but I’m not feeling like I need to restock this. Ever. At this point in my tea journey I feel like honing in on my favorites instead of trying everything in sight, finding one or two gems per dozen or so that I try. I still have so much tea to go through before I can really get my cupboard dialed in. :/ Rough life, eh?

Having this again today with a little sugar. I can smell the chocolate as I go in for a sip and I can taste it laying low underneath the bergamot flavors. The bergamot is a little sharp and I do wish the chocolate was a little more intense and could match or nearly match the strength of the bergamot, but I still enjoy it anyways. The chocolate has a really natural flavor to it like other TWG teas I have tried, which is nice. At this point I’m thinking this isn’t a keep in stock tea, but that could change by the time I finish the bag.

This has a bergamot kick to it! More than I was expecting. I can pick out a light chocolate taste which rounds out the bergamot nicely. The tea base is plesant and rich. I’m having it with a little sugar and am now adding some cream.
Huh, I’m not sure I like this with cream. It dampers the bergamot and I can ’t really taste the chocolate.

It’s a really nice cup and so far I’m impressed with TWG. Their teas haven’t been mind blowing at this point, but they have been solid, consistent and interesting.

Not sure why I still have this around and how I’ve gone through so much of it without having been left with much of an impression about it. I find myself agreeing with my previous note, puzzled as to why it’s a breakfast tea and barely being able to pick out ginger as the lone flavor.
It’s been a long time since I ordered this tea so I decided to check out what is new on the Urban Tea Merchant site where I bought it from only to find out that UTM has been closed for some time! I didn’t order from them often, but I’m sad to see they are no more.

I’m not sure why this tea is called a breakfast tea. It isn’t malty or hearty or have any of the other traits that one thinks of when they hear breakfast tea. It is a little lighter and I’m picking out ginger. I’m not impressed this time around.

It’s a black…. no, it’s a green… no, it’s a blend! I couldn’t tell what it was when peering into the bag. These blends throw me for a loop with trying to figure out how to steep them. I can smell vanilla and muted spices in my cup. The spices are blended together so well that I can’t pick them out individually. It tastes like spice on top of floral flavors. There is a little bit of a green bite on the sip. It has a hearty depth to it too that I’m attributing to the black tea. Adding cream seems to distract from the flavors of the tea.
I’m not sure about this one.

Oooooh! I like this! I’m getting a heavy base, which I’m guessing is the black tea. I always compare tea to perfume where you have base, mid and high notes which together make for a well rounded scent. There are higher notes, ginger I’m guessing. It reminds me of Mariage Freres’s La Route Du Temps, which I have never been able to get an awesome cup out of. It was always all high notes and kind of sharp. This one is very well rounded. I’m enjoying it with a little bit of sugar.

Deciding how to brew it was a little tricky since it is a green and black blend. In the past I have had success cold brewing blends like this, but this time I decided to go with a lower green temp and it worked out pretty well.

I’ve been doing tasting flights of my TWG teas today to weed out the ones I don’t favor. This is in between supervising a 5 year old cleaning up the marks they drew on the wall (grrrrrrrr) and making Tide jello shots for a party tonight, because at the moment on the internets eating Tide pods is a thing and meme, which makes the shots funny.
This tea is pretty mellow. The flavors are pretty subtle. Very mild sip with the strawberry opening in the aftertaste. The strawberry isn’t bright and fresh, but more rounded which I would take to be the creme brulee part of the tea. It livens up a bit with creamer. The front of the sip is sweeter and more creme brulee like, the strawberry stays about the same. This tea is good, but not quite captivating. Just under captivating. Which doesn’t bode well for remaining in my cupboard.

I ordered ten TWG teas from The Urban Tea Merchant for my birthday and they are here to greet me on my return home from summer travels! Happy birthday me! :)

So far I like this, but I’m not really getting the crème brûlée that the name suggests. To be continued and further explored!

What a perfect little afternoon treat! I could imagine myself drinking this at high tea with scones (the classic British kind) smothered in cream and strawberry jam, cucumber sandwiches and shortbread (ok must now head to World Market to pick up Walkers Shortbread ASAP). Upon opening the cutesy little container you’re met with the prettiest mix of black tea and long golden marigold leaves and a sugary, candied, buttery aroma. Upon brewing it has the perfect little kick of sweetness to it thanks to the inclusion of vanilla. The perfect afternoon pick me up!

The woman working at Dean and Deluca spoiled me with a couple samples of tea! TWG’s Moroccan Mint was one of them! They aren’t kidding when they say the mint is strong, it really is! The sip starts out smooth and mellow, but when you get to the back of it the mint really takes hold and kicks in. I’m guessing this tea would be amazing cold too. Just added a little creamer and it is really quite nice. It mellows out the highest point of the mint kick while still letting the minty flavor be dominant. This is a really nice tea! If the price was right (and this brand tends to be on the pricier side of things) I could see keeping this in stock.

Today was one of those days that I made a cup of tea in a rush and didn’t get the best results. I semi begrudgingly drank this on morning errands today, looking forward to returning home and making a proper cup of tea. Can’t win them all.

I still like this tea, but it’s not hitting the same level of enjoyment for me anymore and that’s a damn shame. I want to enjoy it and I also have one more full tin to go through of it. I did a comparison once with this and other teas that have similar flavor profiles and I can’t recall if I compared it to Cookie from Lupicia. I can’t get the page on Cookie to load either to review how I felt about it and if I should put it on my shopping list when I hit up the Lupicia store in Paris in a few weeks. Tea buying ban hiatus is almost in effect!

Edit: just looked at my past notes on this tea, Cookie was not in the lineup.

I am on my third steeping of this tea and am tasting something I haven’t before: graham crackers! More like golden grahams cereal, but without the cinnamon. It is faint, but I kinda like it.

Sip down! I had to filter out all the dust at the bottom of the tin to get the tea leaves separated. I ended up with a smaller than I’d like amount for a cup and it resulted in the most disappointing cup of the tin. It’s still a really good tea, but this last weak cup doesn’t do it any justice. I would love to buy another tin of this someday, but must wait until I have sipped down some of the other chocolate malty teas I have. This could take a while!

I’m not quite sure what tea I should post this under, or if I should post it in all the contenders profiles, so for now it will go in the winner’s corner!

Malty cocoa toffee tea taste off! I have a few teas in my cupboard that remind me of eachother, so I thought I’d do a taste off and compare them side by side. All teas were steeped at 205 for 3 minutes.

NY Breakfast
First sip, very smooth, lots of cocoa, only the tiniest bit of bitter in the back of the sip.
Adding cream… Oh god! Delicious! The cocoa is rounded out with creaminess and the flavor sits on the breakfast base. No bitterness at all and the flavor is the same throughout the sip. I sink into a cup of this every time! It is so well rounded. Coming back to my cup after 20 minutes I swear I taste a slight coconut creaminess to it.

American Breakfast – Marriage Freres
Very tangy and bright. Almost has a citrusy green feel to it. Not really getting much cocoa, it has a slight breakfasty base in the background. No almond like
Adding cream… Much smoother! The bitterness is gone. It still has that brightness to it that is familiar, but I can’t quite place my finger on. I must have had a tea that has similar qualities to it before.

Wedding Imperial – Marriage Freres
First sip was a little bitter and shocking, but also full of caramel on a deep black base. A few more sips in and the bitter fades letting the caramel shine through a little more.
Adding cream… Smooth. Caramel. Light. The base isn’t heavy on this and I think I would prefer that to carry the caramel better. It seems like a lighter version of NY Breakfast. There is a depth to NYB that WI lacks.

Toffee – Palais De Thes
First sip was smooth! It is light. The scent is sweet and toffee like. I could enjoy this one without additions, even tho it isn’t as deep of a flavor as I would like. There is a slight alkaline tang to it, which could very well be my water source.
Adding cream… Still so smooth! The toffee is still present, but maybe not as prominent as I would like.

Summary
These teas are all so similar, but so different at the same time. They all have that malty/cocoa/toffee way about them and at the same time they have different depths, intensities and nuances. When I drink one I am reminded of the others similarities. I definitely don’t need all four in my cupboard and think I could be happy with just NY Breakfast, although I will be out of NYB way before I finish off the others. If I had to list my preference starting with the favorite, it would be NY Breakfast, Toffee, Wedding Imperial and American Breakfast.

*side note: I keep running into other teas I should have included in this comparison. Lupicia’s Cookies would have been a good one to add.

I am still loving this tea! Today I steeped it concentrated, then poured it over ice with a little sugar and cream. It reminds me a little of several other chocolate malty type teas like MF’s wedding imperial and american breakfast. I feel like I should have a face off with those three tea, choose my favorite and restock the winner when I’m done with the others. I’m trying so hard to narrow down my favorites and get my cupboard in order!

Mmmmmm… I really wanted this tea this morning. The first sip I took was bitter, but I wanted cream and sugar which round out any sharp edges. I’m not sure what I did to make the first sip bitter, but I’m happily sinking into this cup how it is. Earthy malty chocolate creamy goodness to start my day! I’m already through half this tin and am going to miss it dearly when it is gone.