Twinings

Managed to catch one of my workers boiling water and filled up my travel mug with it. Got to my car (this morning was spent visiting half my schools delivering goodies), pulled this teabag out of my purse, and made it whilst I was trapped in the parking lot by a school bus.

I’m liking it! It’s got a classic breakfast blend taste, and isn’t too bitter or astringent. Not my favorite breakfast blend (ahem…LiberTEAS…ahem), but I can see myself drinking this a lot at work.

Ideal for creativity boost… which I desperately need…

Interesting. I had brewed this once late yesterday. So today I got the second steep out of the leaf for my morning cup. The taste was very close to my remembrance of the Charleston Plantation Governor Gray. It was going down so easily I had the cup half gone before I realized. Nice.

Logically if you are going to speculate on what Spock would drink you have to follow it with some next generation goodness. Tea, Earl Grey, hot. I don’t have a replicator (darn)
So I ‘borrowed’ this from my coworker’s stash. It has been a long time since I’ve had the Twinings version. My usual Ahmad uses a Ceylon base so it has some bite. This is much smoother whatever Twinings uses. I miss the bite. Both are slightly drying. I find in the bagged version of this the bergamot is brighter. With the loose, I could stand it being turned up a notch or two. Minor personal taste complaints aside, this tea accomplishes its purpose. It is a basic yet solid Earl Grey that is very affordable. If I did not have an equally affordable alternative that I liked a little better, I would undoubtedly drink this several times in a week.

The reviews here seem to be all over the place on this one. So here goes another. I haven’t had Twinings Earl Grey in a couple years. When they reformulated I found the bergamot in the bag form to be way too bright. Tried it today in loose leaf. It was a freshly opened tin with better than a year before expiration. Surprised me there was not much aroma to the dry leaf or the brew. Where is that intoxicating bergamot aroma I crave? While I personally found the tea base to be enjoyable, Ceylon I believe, the bergamot was too subdued. I don’t get it. There was no resemblance to the bag form. Twinings has to have better quality control than this. Surely there was something wrong with this tin. It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t up to the standard I expected.

This tea kicks my butt in the afternoon when I’m starting to get sleepy. Nice and strong, even seems surprisingly forgiving when I accidentally steep it too long. Distractions at work? Never! Probably because it is so strong that my tastebuds aren’t given a chance to notice anything tannic about it. I drink it straight, but it probably would mellow out with some milk.

Something happened to my palate a few months back in that all traditional Earl Greys started to take on a soaplike aftertaste from the bergamot oil. It didn’t matter how long or how little I steeped it. Heartbroken, because I happened to like Earl Grey, I started looking for alternatives with a similar flavor profile.

I found this Lady Grey in a supermarket and decided to give it a try. Overall, a very tasty afternoon tea for a cheap price. The lemon helps cut the bergamot flavor and leaves it with a nice, crisp citrusy flavor. Not at all tart and no soapy aftertaste. I like keeping this one at work.

This is our annual Christmas morning tea, served with gingerbread.

I like the fact that this doesn’t taste of just cinnamon, you really do taste the other spices as well.

Got this tea bag from a hotel. I’ve never been a fan of fruit infusion but I needed tea to wake me up, and this was what I found from my box of tea leaves! It surely smells good – the smell resembles that of blackcurrant yogurt. For the taste, it is intense blackcurrant while the ginseng and vanilla are nowhere to be found. I guess the steep time was a bit too long…

8:30 am class this morning and I needed something with a bit of a kick – so a robust Assam seemed like a good idea. It’s definitely stronger and has more body than Twining’s English Breakfast and I can taste a bit of that characteristic malty Assam flavour. The tea maybe isn’t as flavourful as I might like, but at this hour I’m not inclined to be too picky.

Not as strong as I’d like, but an ok choice for a black decaf.

A friend at college gave me a bag to try. It’s not bad, but it’s not my beloved Ultra Spice Chai. I’ve always liked vanilla, but it doesn’t need to be in chai tea. That said, I did enjoy it, though, probably not enough to go out of my way to purchase a box of it for myself.

I am pleased with this tea and think it was a great was to transition from teabags to loose leaf. I would recommend it to any beginner to loose leaf tea or even tea in general.

Really, there are so many mediocre earl grey blends out there… and this is one of them. I generally like Twinings, but I am definitely not impressed with this tea. Really, it seems like a cardinal sin to make a bad earl grey blend. It’s just that much more disappointing.

A classic tea blend from one of the oldest tea companies in existence. Perhaps I should be drinking this with my pinkie out. ;D

Ugh, I am so spoiled by loose leaf. I picked up a box of this because I like having chai at night, and it was on sale, so it was worth a try.

I steeped it for 20 minutes and it still tastes weak and watery. If you like ginger, though, you might like it just fine. The spice blend completely overwhelms any black tea flavor, and is dominated by ginger. Some cinnamon and clove are detectable, but I couldn’t find the cardamom. I’ll probably finish the box; it’s not bad just unremarkable and kind of artificially sweet from the ginger flavoring.

Grabbed brunch before class today… Was in the mood for tea, and this sufficed. It was pretty weak. Tolerable, but weak.

I always like this more than I’d remembered liking it (if that makes any sense)… I never look forward to drinking it but when I do, it’s actually pretty good. I’m not a big peach fan in general so I think that’s why it normally doesn’t tempt me much. It definitely has a strong peach flavour and scent but it’s not overbearing. It’s a nice change from the other flavoured black teas I tend to drink, and especially good on a cold fall day!

Teabag smells like orange (vitamin C) candy that I like :) Cant really smell cinnamon.
Tea still smells the same. Who woulda thought that the orange smell can overtake the cinnamon smell….
Hmmm first sip was weird. Nice aftertaste but the very first impression was a bit wtf. Lets try it again.
OK its not bad but I’m not overly delighted with it either. I prefer the apple cinnamon one. This orange tastes artificial to me…

It’s a decent chai, but I miss that particular “zestiness” that I’ve come to known of Indian chai. It’s a decent taste, much better than other bagged chais I’ve tried, but I still miss that spike that the ginger can give.

This is my standard go-to bagged tea. Mostly because it’s the only Earl Grey I can buy at the grocery store in boxes of more than 24, but it’s a simple unoffensive tea. Nearly impossible to oversteep, so it’s great for those times when you’re a bit distracted and can’t baby your tea during the brewing process. The tea doesn’t stand on its own very well, but I prefer milk and sugar anyway.