Twinings

This tea sample came from Derk and thanks again for the lovely teas! I can’t wait to try the loose leaf ones as well.

This is a lovely fall herbal bagged tea. The sweet apple flavor is spot on and the chamomile with the gentle spices feels very fall-like. It’s light in flavor but I’m really enjoying it. Fall herbal bagged teas often don’t work for me as they usually are either hibiscus heavy or have the overpoweringly sweet cinnamon flavor. I will definitely buy a box of this if I can find it!

Considering :

1) This was a depths-of-the-breakroom-cabinet score,
2) The tea has been there since I began working with the company over 2 years ago,
3) The last review for this tea was 6 years ago,

This must be pretty old. I decided to try it anyway.

It’s pretty good. It smells like a fall candle subtly spiced. Sweet chamomile-apple, papery from the teabag, a little cinnamon and very mild clove and cardamom. The sweetness transitions to a perfumey taste mid-mouth followed by a light tang in the back. I’m going to abscond with the rest of the box and put it in the tea drawer in my work corner where it will not gather dust.

For a similar tea, I prefer CuppaGeek’s Spiced Fall Evenings.

I would have liked the flavors to be stronger. The orange certainly comes through but the cinnamon and spices leave much to be desired. I think this one would taste better as a cold tea, will have to try that at some point to confirm.

Had high hopes for this one but ultimately I found that the flavor left much to be desired. I didn’t use too much water so it couldn’t have been overly diluted. Had a lot of potential but just wish that the pomegranate and raspberry notes were more prominent.

If Twinings wanted to reach the crowd that says ‘idgaf about health benefits, give me something that tastes good’, they might have luck renaming this

Ginger Spice Mojito.

And in this moment, I realize mojitos have spearmint, this does not. It however tastes remarkably like a mojito.

Licorice is the second ingredient — Don’t be fooled! It gives that slight hint of syrupy taste and body like I’d get in a mojito. The lime and ginger are well balanced, the clove and cinnamon are perfect touches. White hibiscus? Has anybody here had it before? Maybe it provides some tangy tart? Twinings call this uplifting and I agree!

I did a thing and took the last bag from the tea drawer. And I don’t regret doing it.

Update: tastes better with milk, but still not worth it

The usual ones are better and cheaper.

This one, I have to say, is plain (just the little bitterness), it is relatively strong though (not sure if it’s because the size of each teabag is larger with this one), as they said on the package, but I have hoped for a better flavouring profile with such price.
The aroma comes out mostly when it’s just brewed and becomes difficult to detect later. It feels like a stronger version of breakfast tea but is different to Scottish breakfast (not floral, maybe because it’s Assam), I can’t see what the golden tip brought. However, the good point is that the liquid itself is very smooth and silky.
Makes me believe more than half of the money probably went to the packaging design.
P.s. one of my teabag broke apart from its string when I unroll it, not ok twinings

Cold Brew!

I had online Dungeons & Dragons for a couple hours yesterday and this is one of several teas that I prepped in advance to get to drink during the session. I made it pretty strong with two of the little sachets steeped since I always find one of them to be too thin. When you steep it that way it almost because like liquid Jello mix though. The liquor is sort of thick and a little bit syrupy and the taste is this really saturated and sweet watermelon/strawberry kind of blend with just a little tang to it. The finish doesn’t really taste like mint so much as it just feels very cooling.

Regardless, I appreciated having it to sip on!

Steeped this one cold brewed and deskside on Monday because I needed something cold to drink while I waited for my regular morning cold brew to properly steep in the fridge. I think I compared this to Jello with my first tasting? I still sort of stand by that but maybe a little less so. It reminded me more, I think, of strawberry kool-aid? The watermelon is just so light and reeeeaaalllyyyy reads to me more like a berry than a traditional North American watermelon flavouring. The mint is light too, but nice in the finish. It was tasty overall but I think I’m still struggling a little with the titular flavours not super succinctly matching.

Cold Brew!

Big thank you to my GeekSteep partner in crime Marika for bringing this tea back from the states for me to try – I couldn’t find it at any of the physical locations here in Canada where I’ve seen the other flavours, and watermelon + mint is such an appealing combination that I just had to know what it would be like…

It definitely different than I expected. Both titular flavours are present but neither are the strongest flavour!? In fact, it’s almost like a strawberry/generic red fruit taste that takes over the sip and it’s reminding me a little bit of those red jello snack cups? Once you get past that note, it’s easier to enjoy the watermelon (which is more of a tart/sour watermelon candy) and then the cooling minty finish. I think this is one of those teas that I’ll enjoy more on the second tasting, now that I have a better sense of what to expect…

I didn’t expect anything from this bag I grabbed from a tea box, but actually, it’s totally delicious. It really tastes like gingerbread! Perfect light ginger flavor with other spices and something genuinely like baked goods. I’d drink this one again for sure! I had it with milk, and it’s one of the best takes on gingerbread I’ve seen in a while.

Mild flavor, a bit orangey, sort of light and fake. I’m glad I only have the one bag from the tea box. The flavor needed to be way stronger. The reviews are right on this one!

Not sure how to describe it but typical Chinese tea flavour, surprised but enjoyable straight, it’s easy to drink, and nice light colour

Ok I want a STRONG rich milk tea and this is the closest one I’ve got so far:
1tbsp+1tsp tea (~9-10g I guess) with ~225mL water and 50mL milk (adjustable)
You’ll get a very nice copper colour and a burst of flavour, malty or caramel like.

This was so good I haven’t tried drinking it straight before I ran out of a tin..

Bag from the tea box. The mint is so tasty, and it goes really well with the green tea. It’s mild and delicious. I usually drink herbal mint teas, but here, mixing it with the green tea does add a special something – a bit of complexity maybe. I also like that this is decaf. I don’t know that I’d order it, but I wouldn’t mind a few more bags.

Nice mint flavor with a bit of creaminess. They could get away with amping up the creaminess even more, but the flavor was pretty good. Some murkiness appears as it sits. Overall, a solid bagged choice from the tea box. I grabbed a few bags and finished them all in no time.

Happy birthday to my bestie Todd! And Happy National Mojito Day! Today the prompt is to drink a tea with either lime or mint flavor notes. At one point in time I actually had a lime and mint “mojito” inspired tea, but it has been long gone from the cupboard now. I couldn’t find any teas in my current stash that combined both, so I’ll be drinking a mint tea and a lime tea today!

I’ve had this box for a while, after my local grocery sent me a dollar off Twinings coupon and I felt the need to use it, but this is my first time breaking into it. I do like mint tea to soothe my tum on bad GI days, and was curious how I’d feel about this one that mixes a vanilla flavoring with peppermint, as opposed to just plain peppermint whole leaf or a good peppermint/spearmint/lemongrass blend.

A single teabag in 350ml of 205F water, left soaking. I really enjoy the aroma coming off the cup; there is a sweetness to the peppermint that does remind me of a peppermint candy or the namesake, a buttermint.

Mmm… yes, this is quite nice! It isn’t as crisp as drinking a full leaf peppermint herbal (this is peppermint fannings with a lot of the mint taste coming from flavoring), but the mint flavor is pleasing and I do like how it pairs with the vanilla flavoring. Neither flavor is overbearing and they meld together nicely. As my cup cools a bit and I continue to sip, I have a nice cooling sensation building on the back of my tongue and throat, and the sweet vanilla does lend a sort of sweet cream note that really does remind me of a buttermint.

I bought a box of this a long while ago and didn’t remember that I didn’t like it until I bought another box. Brewing this hot is rather uninspiring if you’ve had a good smoky and smooth Lapsang Souchong. I don’t mind trying a bagged tea as they are easier for traveling and go cups.
I also don’t drink a lot of iced tea, its not something I gravitate towards, it seems un-natural to water down my tea. But we’ve had some hot days here and we started boat tours this week so I need something cool to sip on while I blather on about the history, rocks, plants and big horn sheep in our canyon. So I gave this a shot, brewed it hot in my go cup and added ice to the top. Wow that mellowed this tea out. Now its just mildly smoky and can stand up to 8 oz of ice. Not bitter at all. I’ll finish what I have, but won’t be buying again. Iced its not that bad, hot its barely drinkable.

Following the directions, I used cold water and let steep for five minutes. After the five minutes were up, there was about a centimeter of tea-colored liquid at the bottom of the glass. The rest of the cup was still clear. Not what I expected. I dunked and swirled the bag a bit so that it would mix, but it still looks pretty light. Letting it steep a bit longer.

Ended up steeping for several more minutes and finally just decided to sip with the tea bag in. Interestingly, it tastes a little like orange flower water. So slightly floral. Overall, I’m not a fan. It wasn’t strong enough for an iced tea, in my opinion, and the flavor wasn’t anything special.

This is the last of the bags from my swap with Devon Bartholomew – so fun to try some new-to-me bagged teas!

A very busy afternoon/evening yesterday and a somewhat busy morning today has lead my body to decide it will no longer respond to my demands. It’s achy, sore, and sleepy, so I’m having one last caffeinated beverage this afternoon to push me through until bedtime. I’m so tempted to take a nap, but I have to wake up earlier than usual tomorrow for work and I want to be sure I can sleep tonight.

Just a short 3-minute steep for this one and it brewed up much darker than I expected. The flavor is solid and a bit lighter, which I would expect from something that is more of an afternoon blend. It’s probably not one I would purchase, but it’s certainly one I’m enjoying. Thanks, Devon Bartholomew, for letting me sample all the bagged teas!

Very unusual for me to crave anything than proper tea/ coffee/ alcohol but it could be perfect storm of weather and lack of vegetables. All fruit is there so it must be absence of vegs in diet that make someone appreciate true herbal tisane. Isn’t that why dark teas are so prevalent with nomads, to compensate their mineralless diet with microbiology ? Anyway, I had access to company car during first few weeks of pandemic, more accidentally so, and was forced to shop closer to stone layer arteries. Result – raiding shelves with herbals. Some teas didn’t arrive so had to brace for the worst. Since then I casually check supermarket shelves for those. The last one, only got because delayed regular heicha restock, and knew there would at least few days of fermented detox overlay. But the taste is kind of wintery. That’s why I am surprised that I am enjoying it. Maybe there is a portal to Australia. Normally, anything with turmeric tastes dusty to me. This one, probably because of star anise, is sublime. Always cautious of licorice but this is less common and not as heavy. Orange bit in would have dismissed but maybe there is a variety that glided into this soup. This is the 2nd blend from this brand that I actually consciously keep in mind between reboils. Maybe I should start making my own blends, like stuffing melons with tian jian. Should have patented this before the supply of both was disrupted by you know what. Will have to wait for next big calamity like alien invasion event. I’ll be ready then with my digital copyright alibi.