Twinings

I love how all the flavor note work with each other with none over powering the rest

This tea was surprisingly good! It brews a beautiful berry red colour and has a naturally sweet and tart flavour. The raspberry comes through first, with an exotic twist from the dragon fruit. I also noticed red berry undertones that gave a red wine-like quality to the tea – it’s quite drying on the tongue as well. I had no trouble finishing the whole cup.

If you can manage to find this range again from Twinings, I’d highly recommend giving it a go. I’m not a big fruit tea drinker, but it won me over completely! You can read my full thoughts in my tea review article for this blend https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/twinings-raspberry-dragon-fruit-tea-review/

Quick additional note for this tea.

Found a recipe from Twinings for a Lady Grey and lime iced tea, but I only had Earl Grey in the cupboard. The bergamot goes spectacularly well with the slightly sour lime cordial, I highly recommend trying it with EG.

The recipe is so simple: https://www.twinings.co.uk/blog/2018/july/lady-grey-lime-cooler

An additional tasting note for this tea. This time I baked it into an Earl Grey cake yesterday evening.

It’s actually my second time baking with this exact EG blend. The first time was years ago when I made an EG and white chocolate brioche loaf – it tasted delicious, but only of white chocolate. The EG just vanished while it was baking. I’m going to try this brioche recipe again with Assam/milk chocolate as soon as my tea order arrives.

I was more confident this time as I found an EG cake recipe that actually had the tea bag contents mixed into the cake mix, plus an EG syrup that had an amazing bergamot and vanilla aroma. But no, still no hint of EG flavour in the cake. Very disappointing – I was looking forward to having a slice of cake with my evening tea.

I’m not changing the tea rating, but I need to leave a note to remind myself in the future: if you want to bake with tea, don’t use Twinings EG, pick something more robust.

This was the tea I drank growing up… it doesn’t live up to my memories now I’ve reviewed it in a semi-professional way. It has that classic earl grey taste, but it doesn’t taste fresh. It feels stagnant and dull. To be honest, I still drink it regularly as I have a box of 100 tea bags to get through. It’s an everyday I-just-need-a-quick-cup rather than a great tea that I take the time to savour properly.

You can read my full thoughts in my review https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/twinings-earl-grey-tea-review/

First tasting: Brewed as recommended on the box, but didn’t taste like anything particularly until it cooled off completely. Seems it’d make a better iced tea.

I would not rate, as I usually do not like camomile on it its own.

I guess it is okay tea. Aroma was nice, no funky notes, no unpleasant stuff. Colour was nice golden and quite clear. Bit of dust settled down the mug. Taste – well, just camomile, quite soothing . But it is camomile.

Sipdown! 48/365

Nope nope nope. I didn’t expect I’d like this one, and I am proven right. It tastes like light cinnamon and chamomile, with a base of woody (though not medicinal) rooibos. There’s also something else in there that I can’t place, but I’ve now put on green tea hand cream and can no longer distinguish flavours because it’s pretty potent (thank goodness green tea doesn’t actually smell/taste this floral… phew!) I’ll give it marks for looking neat (snowy rooibos with the chamomile!) but ugh. Chamomile.

I’m drinking the cup of it instead of dumping it in the hopes it will put me to sleep, haha. It’s not terrible, but nothing I’d want again. However, I still appreciate the share, MissB!

Sipdown! 44/365

Confused as I swore I had not only drank and written about this tea before, but had done so recently…. but I guess I’m wrong. Anyhow, I had a recollection of it being lightly spiced but enjoyable, and that’s pretty much accurate. The spicing is probably lighter than it used to be, but was still enjoyable, though hard to describe. I didn’t expect a great base tea from Twinings, but it actually was, nice and rich.

Thanks MissB for the share!

This is for the February sipdown prompt, “Drink a grapefruit tea.” I’m not a huge fan of grapefruit in general, but over the years have found myself opening up to grapefruit flavoring in teas. I even have one, “Happiness” from Lupicia… but that was from my 2021 birthday order last year and still in sealed foil, and my own sipdown goals aren’t about opening up “new” tea I’m trying to preserve as long as possible, but rather focused on the oldest teas in my stash. I do tend to find the citrusy taste of bergamot sometimes tastes like grapefruit to me (other times it tastes more like a combination of lemon/lime, depending on the bergamot used). Going through my old tea notes, I found the bergamot used by Twinings, Stash, and T2 to have that “grapefruit” note to me, but the only one out of all of those still left in my stash is Twinings Earl Grey Lavender (which is one of the only Twinings EG’s not available in my area, and I had to pay way too much for a box of bagged tea to buy that variety from an online shop. Bah!)

It’s very pleasant. The bergamot is a nice strength for me… it’s bold but not BOLD! (I see from an old review that past-me thought the bergamot was a bit too strong, so obviously my tolerance has steadily increased over the years… it’s hard for me to believe there was once a time I couldn’t stand it at all!) The bergamot itself does taste a bit grapefruity at the beginning of the sip, but leans into a more lemony finish. The lavender is present but quite mellow in this blend… I can make out its distinct florality, and it blends nicely with the lemony qualities of the bergamot. I’d actually be happier with even stronger lavender (because I’m a lavender fiend), but I think this subtle touch is just right for the majority of tea drinkers. The base is malty and smooth, with a lingering citrus aftertaste that is slightly drying but not enough to feel problematic.

Could do a lot worse than this for a simple grocery store lavender Earl Grey. Raising the rating slightly.

Sampler Sunday! I got these sampler teabags from a very nice volunteer in my department at the library, who remembered that I love lavender in my tea. Since today is a very grey morning, and my mood has been rather grey lately, it seemed the right time to make a teapot of lavender Earl Grey this morning. Finally drove my car to its utter death trying to “get by” with it waiting until my family would be coming back to state to deal with all the business involved with getting my grandmother into longterm care, at which point I can purchase her vehicle, the funds of which would go directly to her longterm care. But it didn’t make it… so I’m without a car at all for another week. Since it was totally dead, I only managed to get $200 for it after I’d put $1100 into repairs on it. Sad.

I gave the tea my typical brief CTC steep, though pushed it slightly longer (2 minutes) just because I wanted to make sure the lavender notes would come through. There is certainly a lovely lavender aroma wafting from the teapot… mmm. I’m also getting some lemony notes in the aroma. The tea doesn’t really hold a candle to my favorite Lavender Earl Grey from Angry Tea Room, but for a bagged tea, Twinings of London is still holding out on top for me. The bergamot is perhaps just a touch heavier than I tend to prefer but not as overbearing as most bagged Earl Greys which is why I typically avoid them; it tastes a bit on the citrusy lemon side, and there is a noticable lavender note that blends well with the bergamot because of that lemon note, and is soft and relaxing. The base tea is quite smooth, perhaps because I steeped this so briefly, so I don’t have any bitter or astringent notes in my cup. The base is a mellow malt allowing the flavors to take precidence.

This can’t really replace the loose lavender Earl Grey I keep in my cupboard, but if I found this in a restaurant or needed some cheap teabags for travel, I’d gladly take this along.

Oof this is so bitter for a lightly roasted oolong. It does have the roasted flavour but it doesn’t taste fresh or high quality. The leaves are heavily broken so longer steeps seem to get more bitter faster than they get more flavour. Main notes are raisin, molasses (but without the sweetness), charcoal, and toasted barley.

Teabox Tuesday! I was in quite a rush this morning, so I grabbed this single-serve teabag I took from the Discovery Teabox and did a quick minute and a half steep in 350ml of water in my work thermos before rushing out the door, which has so far been working for my particular tastes well with crushed-to-a-pulp CTC bagged black teas so they don’t get really astringent and bitter. And since I didn’t have any time this morning, I really didn’t have time to steep a full leaf tea, anyway. Thanks so much to Skysamurai for organizing the box and all participants!

Many of the reviews for this are leaning on the tannic/bitter/astringent side… but I can only guess they brew it the suggested 3 or more minutes rather than “3 minutes or to taste”, and my taste happens to be a minute and a half, so I’m not getting any of that. Maybe the tea is much weaker than it is supposed to be, but I appreciate dodging that bullet, as I’m getting a surprising marzipan sort of flavor I haven’t had in a black tea before. There is a malty/toast base, but I’m getting notes of honeyed almonds and cherries, particularly toward the end of the sip. It’s quite complimentary, especially since it’s natural rather than that sickly syrupy sweet flavoring you get in blended teas.

I have to say, I think every bagged Twinings of London tea I’ve tried, I’ve liked, especially compared on average to other grocery store brands. If I were going to stock some bagged teas to take on vacations or to grab to quickly steep “out the door” for mornings like today, this would probably be the one I’d go with.

- with milk and a spoonful of honey -
Apparently I’m not a fan of other citrus flavors in my earl grey lol Not much else to say, it was good but not great for me.

- with milk and a spoonful of honey -
I like this as a very neutral delicious tasting Earl grey. The bergamot is much more mild than other teas which makes it perfect to go with various desserts.

This is currently my favorite herbal tea.

For a grocery store boxed tea bag, this Mint Tea is actually pretty solid. The mint is a little overwhelming, and there is not even a hint of the green tea base, but I shouldn’t compare it to home-made mint tea, or even high quality loose leaf. For a store bought tea bag, this is not bad. Great for those wet, cold winter days, especially when a little under the weather.

Good stuff.

-E

I purchased this tea on a whim at the airport in Buenos Aires about 2 years ago. (I live in the USA.) I LOVE this tea. I can’t find it anywhere. Not even anything similar. Any coco/vanilltea I try is WEAK compared to this. It seems to be discontinued outside of South America. Every now and then to this day I do a small search and turn up empty. Lovely coconut and vanilla flavor. Add a bit of sugar and it takes away my craving for dessert. Wonderful rich flavor. The closest thing IMHO is TWG Singapore Breakfast Tea.

This tea is one I commonly drink at work when I need a little caffeine boost. I like starting my day with coffee, but after that, it’s tea all the way. I keep some at home so I can benefit from it there as well. It comes in tea bags. I steep mine for the recommended four minutes. The color is a dark amber. It has the smell of a strong-brewed black tea. The taste is intense and slightly bitter with a dry finish. It feels a little heavy in the mouth which gives it a nice richness. I feel like the strong flavor works well with the high caffeine level to help perk you up. It also seems to warm you up on the inside in a way I would compare to the internal warmth you feel from the spiciness of a chai. Definitely a good cold-weather tea.

Since I have been at my parent’s house for a few days, I don’t have the organic matcha tea that I usually drink. That being said, today I had a regular bag of twinings green tea and added a dab of honey. Yum!
10/26/2018

This is one of my favorite teas for days when I am feeling under the weather and it’s cold outside. The honey and vanilla give it a very warm and comforting taste while the camomile adds just the right amount of relaxation to it. I love to drink this at night if I’ve had a rough day and just need a warm mug of tea and a good book.