Twinings

Just burned my tongue drinking a combo of one bag of this and one bag of tazo chai, just thought I’d share…the combo tastes good, despite my pain!

Two boxes of twenty bags for five bucks. Almost out of the Tazo organic chai. Been drinking the tazo chai all week and I am drinking the twinnings now. The cinnamon is overpowering everything else, so I am a bit disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I really like cinnamon, but I want chai right now and I’m getting red hots. You know, the cinnamon candy? Oh well, it’s still tasty and I will be getting my Necessiteas samples next week, so until then-bring on the red hots!

juicy and refreshing, even hot. I wanted something thirst-quenching and caffeine free. Obviously, it’s a bagged tea, so it’s not as fresh as a loose leaf blend with larger fruit pieces would be, but it’s not as bad as I feared. I’m definitely getting strawberry, then just something generally a bit tart and fruity that’s probably the mango+hibisucs combo.

The last of the three varieties of Twinings “Voyage” in my hotel room. Excited to try it because all I can tell from the single serving pouch is that it has coconut in it. I can smell it from the bag, though none too strongly.

I have to admit to being disappointed in this one. The coconut is too mild and just plain flat tasting, and the black tea is rather harsh. Here on Steepster I can read a fuller description of the tea than is printed on the package and see that it is also supposed to feature vanilla and cocoa…as if! Didn’t get that at all.

When there’s Tea Frog’s Coconut White tea in the world, I won’t waste time messing about with this one.

Now this sounds pretty interesting – a mix of black and rooibos. Never seen that before! Then adding pineapple and hibiscus to the mix? Well, let’s see if it works. I gave it about four minutes and ended up with a medium orange-brown liquor with a noticeably fruity flavor. On first tasting, I definitely get the pineapple element layered over rooibos, with the black tea adding astringency that I don’t think would otherwise be there. I’m hesitant to cite the hibiscus – I can’t find it in the flavor or in the color – but overall I’m not really missing it.

I like flavored rooibos, but I usually choose it at times when I don’t want caffeine, so to have it blended with black tea seems a bit counterintuitive to me. Still, not a bad blend overall and I’m glad I got a chance to expand my blended tea horizons today.

I’m traveling this week and in a hotel that features some Twinings varieties I’m not familiar with, including this one. I had a quick cup of it this morning with sugar but no milk. It’s surprisingly tasty for a bagged chai, and has a nice balance of cinnamon and clove plus hints of cardamom and pepper. No real trace of an underlying tea character though. I don’t think I’d go out and buy it compared to fresh loose leaf chai, but I was happy to have it as an alternative to garden variety English Breakfast this morning.

Pleasantly light oolong flavor. Nicely bitter aftertaste.

This was part of a variety of samples sent to me by a friend, who does happen to be here. Thank you again!

I wasn’t sure how strong it was going to be, so I tried it with food – something I don’t normally do. Since it affected how I tasted the tea, here’s what I had with it: a little dish of Boston cream pie-flavored yogurt (basically like vanilla) with a bunch of David Rio instant chai mixed in and a bowl of those Tasty Bite Madras Lentils (if you haven’t had them, they’re savory and spicy, but not hot-spicy) with a whole wheat hot dog bun (sweet) underneath and pepper jack on top. On its own, the tea tasted…well…basically like black tea (I’m not the one to ask about plain black teas). After the sweet yogurt, the EB tasted a tad towards the green side, which was very nice; however, it tasted more towards the other (fermented?) end after the lentils, which I was surprised by and still liked. After it got cold, it was still the same to me, except it was cold. This would be worth trying to drink with meals or snacks just to see how different foods affect the taste. That was interesting.

I want a good night’s sleep tonight, so I’m starting some chamomile early.

I was rather sad the first time I had this. I was hoping for a much stronger apple taste. It’s very light; it definitely takes a backseat to the chamomile. The apple helps to cut the flowery of the chamomile and keeps it from being overpowering. It’s a good chamomile, but not one I’d buy again.

It is interesting how you can taste different things at different times. I didn’t prepare the tea any differently this time nor am I eating anything but today I can taste just a little smokiness in this tea. Maybe I should brew other tea and see if I pick up any nuance I have missed before. Maybe I have a new super power! (because I have so many old super powers)

I would like to send a congrats out to Earl Gray and English Breakfast on their baby. Who even new they were dating? I drank the first half of the cup black since that is how I take most me tea and it was good. It is a malty, barely smoky, hints of bergamot pretty smooth tea. The package said best with milk so I added a little and it smooth out an already pretty smooth cup. It be thorough I added some sugar and it was the same tea only sweeter. It is a pretty nice morning tea.

Chai Ultra Spice is only ultra gingery to my taste, and not ultra spicy, possibly because they didn’t put in any black pepper. They claim there is cardamom in there, but you could have fooled me, I didn’t taste it at all. Also, I looked at the ingredients list, and I’d really like to know what “natural chai flavour” is. Last I checked, “chai” means tea, and I seriously doubt it is natural tea flavor they’re talking about.

But, that said, if you’re looking for a bagged tea that tastes like liquid gingersnaps when appropriately doctored up with sweetener and milk, this is the tea for you. Even though it wasn’t the ultra spicy chai I was hoping for, it was pretty decent anyway.

I am a big fan of the cherry/cinnamon version of the moment of calm, so obviously this one was one not to be missed.

Sure its a grocery store appearing tea, but still I was pleased with its riverdance on my palate. The mango mellows and smooths the cinnamon’s tap dance aross my taste buds. The orange is subtle but its citrus flick is notable.

I love this one at work between lashings of ‘normal tea’ and it has that soothing ‘anti-brain popping feature’. Tis a keeper, well until work stops being stressful. ;)

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve had this tea. It’s one of my favorites. I was in a bit of a hurry today, and only steeped for 3 minutes. I think I prefer 5; at that steep, it’s a thicker, richer cup. At 3, it’s very light and delicate with apple being very prominent, and the cinnamon a barely-there note. Both ways are yummy!