Twinings

Twinings order 3/27

Not gross… but weird… I can’t even discribe it. Artificial? Yeah… that’s it… Fakey Fakerton from… ok yeah I’m gonna stop now. But it’s so weird. Almost like it was made from a weird extract or syrup (w/ no sweetness).

Ladies and gentlemen I give you… raspberry echinacea matcha lemonade! 1 bag steeped in a cup of boiling water for 3 min, add 1 packet of stevia, let sit til it’s room temp, refrigerate, then add 2TB lemon juice and a tsp of matcha and shake. Mostly berry, a bit of lemonade and a vegetal matcha finish. I think I’m gonna add RoT’s Mango Chilli Green Bush and ginger next time for the ULTIMATE cold kicker.

I got excited when I saw this sitting in my teacher’s tea basket. She was excited that I wanted to try it. So, after several attempts of taking a drink (and burning myself) I finally got a taste.

First, it doesn’t really taste like much. It tastes a little peppery to me. Not bad but not something that I would drink all the time.

Second, this tea smells like bacon. I swear it does. One of my classmates sat down from me and asked where the bacon was so I wasn’t the only one.

Overall, it isn’t something I would drink all of the time but it was interesting to try.

I tried a jasmine green tea at a sushi shop a while back and really enjoyed it, so I decided to get some of this at the grocery store. It’s savory and mellow and everything I like, and it even resteeps well! (talking about the bagged version) A very good stress relief, as this week has been rough.

Honestly I was dissapointed by the lack of spice here. Maybe it was just the box I bought, but when I get chai I want to feel the spice as much as taste it. This tea has some ginger as others have noted, but it’s pretty flat otherwise.

Ok… this is getting a major rating boost. Made it the way I normally have my chai 1 cup each water and Fat Free Smart Balance milk and added a min of steeping time. No sweetener. This is the best non chocolate chai I’ve EVER had… and I’m shocked it’s a decaf bag. The spices aren’t strong, they’re very smooth… I’m not sure why, but I swear this even has a different texture than my Mayan Chocolate Chai. This has a lot of similar qualities to the authentic Indian chai I had at a restaurant once only it’s actually drinkable lol. I’m thinking the milk in that chai just had scorched milk… I dunno. Anyway REALLY good. I suggest making it w/ chocolate milk.

TWININGS ORDER 2/27

Kinda surprised I had to enter this one. I admit I don’t have high expectations for this. I don’t prefer bags and I’ve only had one decaf chai… which was a loose leaf disaster. But why not?

I find it weird Twinnings doesn’t package their bagged teas consistantly. The last tea I had was in a box not wrapped in plastic and the bags were not wrapped individually and did not contain tags… all 3 are true of this box.

When I open the box I immediately think “instant chai mix” which is odd cuz I’ve never had a bagged or loose chai that smelled like that.

1 bag/8oz water, served clean.

Once steeped, the very dark brown liquor w/ red tones smells much like it did raw. Definitely spicy- not much of the tea.

Ok, this is MUCH better than my last decaf chai experience. It’s pretty much all spice and no tea, but that’s ok- I didn’t get either in my last decaf chai experience. The mouthfeel is smooth and heavy. Not bad at all if you want a black chai w/o caffeine.

Twinings Order 1/27

I couldn’t resist a Twinnings order, my 1st, when they were giving away free samples of their new organic teas. But my order is shocking. It contains 11 fruit or herbal blends (6 purchased, 5 free samples) and are ALL bagged teas. I did this simply for the sake of cost and the fact that I knew I could get thru a box of tea faster than I could a tin of loose leaf. Storage of the tins was also a factor.

Made 24oz and had it w/ a sun dried tomato and pepper chicken pesto flat bread lean cuisine.

It’s kinda hard to tell, but the leaf seems to be EXTREMELY fine and there’s an odd scent I can’t place. Steeped, the tea smells like an orange green tea (mandarin specifically).

Once steeped the flavor is definitely of orange. Almost those orange gummy candies only w/o the sugar. At first I thought there was also note of bitter pith or orange peel, but unfortunately it’s the green tea base. There also seems to be notes of flower, but I’ve never had lotus so I can only guess that’s what it is. It was a fairly goood tea, I just wish the bitterness wasn’t there.

Because this is the thrid cold i’ve had in that many weeks I decided that I needed a destressing tea. So i picked this up to try. It smells spicy and very applely, almost like my apple and spice tea. However it tates rather bland. There is no apple taste in the tea at all. It tastes kinda like boiled leaves.

Meghann M sent me a few bags of this as part of a fantastic swap box…thanks!!

I do really enjoy this tea. It reminds me of being back in England, where there’s blackcurrant-flavored things everywhere. And of pubs, and my first taste of lager & blackcurrant. So I’ll spend this pot imagining I’m back on the balcony of the flat at Knaresborough, and put off the real world for just a bit longer.

Found a baggie full of tea whilst at Mama France’s. Brought it back with me. Pulled this out to have this morning. Hopefully it will get me through this awful state training that I’m trapped in.

Strong black tea with a great blackcurrant flavor. The blackcurrant is strong, and reminds me of the syrups used to make lager & blackcurrants.

I wish it were a lager & blackcurrant right now.

(will add rating & steeping times later, can’t do on iPhone)

I may have used water that was a tad too hot, but I like the outcome either way. It’s exactly like one might expect. Heavy on the lemon, light on the ginger, and even lighter on the herbal tea flavor. It brews up to a pleasant shade of yellow. The scent of the tea itself is almost purely ginger, but then again, I have a cold, so I’m sure a lot of subtlety is being lost on me. If I get a chance, I would like to try this again with honey or agave nectar.

I’ve noticed that a lot of us have been trying this tea when we’re sick. Hmm.

Yummy tea! Almost sweet by itself. I love this with some sweetener and a splash of milk. This is a delicious tea to have in the morning or afternoon.

Nice and smooth flavor. Pleasent experience. I was surprised that a tea bag was able to give a taste as good as comes out from a brewed tea.

I just needed something easy and mild this morning to go with a chocolate chip cookie. This did the trick. There is really nothing of merit to say about this tea, but if all you’re looking for is something that will not overpower or distract whatever it is that you are having with it yet is still relatively pleasant, this is not a bad option. It served its purpose today.

This was sent to me by a friend and one day, totally intending to grab a different tea bag as I was half-asleep and just needed a cup NOW, I made this by accident. While I normally enjoy my tea just as it is, there are some I deliberately take with cream (1/2 and 1/2) and sugar (pure, granulated cane sugar). So I made this tea and dosed it with both cream and sugar and took a sip.

Oh, wow. Wow, wow, wow. DUDE!

I was awake. I swilled the cup and made another and have already put in a request with my friend for more of this, as I can’t find it in my area. A definite favorite.

I also made a cup of this without cream or sugar, and it’s brilliant both ways. Good anytime, it’s not at all heavy, bitter or tangy like some fruit-flavored/berry-based teas. It’s just wonderful and a fantastic hit with me.

My other liquor store tea purchase! I had this bagged (from a very old box) ages ago and thought it was pretty good. I had always wanted to try the loose leaf version, but not enough to actually order it.

It’s surprising to me to see all the little cornflowers and citrus peels in the dry leaf. I’m pretty sure that’s not in the bagged version so it’s nice to see that loose is a bit of a step up, you know?

The smell is exactly as I remember, but stronger. Lemon loveliness. The taste, though, is a little more oomphier than I remember. Not a surprise, really, given how old the bags were when I had them. This is a bit more even on the bergamot and lemon (instead of more lemon-focused), but it still manages to be light and pretty like the super-old bagged version of years ago. Just light and pretty with a bit more tingle on the tip of my tongue. It does have a nice lemon aftertaste. I enjoy that.

It’s not really a OMG, must start my day with this tea, but it’s definitely a step up from yesterday’s Prince of Wales in that I don’t think food is required for this to be a happy cup.

We spent the night at the parents’ house last night so we could all get up way early this morning for a quick day trip down to Austin… which is four and a half hours away. I finally got home about an hour ago and have much Steepstering to catch up on. Though it might have to wait until tomorrow (or, given that it is after midnight, perhaps I should say ‘later today’).

For some crackmad reason, I didn’t bring any tea to my parents’ so I had to raid my mom’s cupboard. Sadly, this was the only full octane tea she had (most of the rest being herbal or decaf) so I grabbed a couple of bags, some rock sugar, whole milk and boiling water and had a wake-me-up-cup at 6am this morning.

Surprisingly, this was good. Not overly strong but the teabag was likely rather old so that could have played into it. But even with the muted flavor, there was still a nice lemony taste to it. Not lemon peel or lemon rind but sweeter – more like candied lemon perhaps? I’m sure the sugar played in to that but it was still nice. I got hints of bergamot after the lemon, but in my world this is pretty much a lemon tea. And I like it.

Any chance they make a loose version of this? Because I think this would be nice to have around but still prefer having loose teas on hand over bagged.

The last couple of (loose leaf) boxes I bought of this have been terrible :(

Really dusty, really stale, really bloody disappointing! Especially as this ‘was’ one of my absolute favourite teas .. Don’t know what’s up with that, but I do know it’s not just me as my daughter who lives in another city has also found this the case .. So bad in fact that we both threw it out .. .. ..

And to this effect, I’ve sadly had to drag my rating waaaay down .. But man oh man, me & Irish, we were damn good while it lasted – and yes I say the same thing about my now ex husband!

Solid – Bold – Hearty – the Coffee of the Tea world!

This hits the spot like nothing else does and makes me want to yell ‘Assam me baby coz that’s what I’m talking ‘bout!’

The point is Twinings Irish Breaky – Me Love You Long Time ♥ ♥ ♥

*and I’ve upped the rating because I haven’t had this for a while and it’s even better than I remember it ..

I’m all over the Twining Irish Breakfast at the moment .. Really, if you could read my mind and see us together you’d call me perverted, and I’d have to agree :P