Twinings

This tea smells AMAZING, so christmassy! I could not wait to drink it after opening the box.

However first time it tasted awful, reminded me of soap. I thought “oh no maybe I made it wrong or forgot to wash my strainer properly.” So I tried again being super careful to ensure nothing would taint the flavour and followed recommended prep to the letter.

Still tasted soapy. It makes a better potpourri than a cuppa.

I have absolutely no idea where this teabag came from, but there it was in my little wooden box waiting for me to discover it.

At any rate, it was a pleasant evening discovery. Bigelow’s Ginger Snappish, which is my go-to for this flavor combo, is mostly ginger and a little lemon. This is its daffodil-yellow opposite: mostly lemon with a little ginger, though the spice got stronger as I sipped it bag-in-cup.

Now, if I can just remember where I got it…

Not a big fan of this tea.

The Chamomile was subtle but overpowered by what smelled and tasted like artificial vanilla flavoring. I didn’t get any hints of honey. I added honey powder and milk in hopes to enhance the flavors, but it only made the tea slightly more drinkable by sweetening it, but it did not enhance the flavoring.

I didn’t expect much from this tea but found myself pleasantly surprised. Nice tea that requires no milk or sweetener to enjoy. I will be adding this to one of my daily drinker options.

A friend was in the UK, and she picked this tea up for me while she was there. She’s not very knowledgeable about teas, but a salesperson recommended this tea to her. It’s a Ceylon tea, which I don’t drink very often; I prefer bolder teas. I found it very mild, but maltier than I’d expect from a Ceylon.

I was impressed with this tea. It had a nice bold taste without any of the bitterness that sometimes accompanies black teas. Though I didn’t actually have this tea at breakfast—this morning was definitely a coffee kinda day—it made a nice late afternoon drink. And, of course, loose leaf is infinitely better than bagged.

Straight forward green tea. Definitely pick up on the grassy notes. Enough flavor that it didn’t require me to add any sweeteners or milk. The brew time was short compared to other teas I drink to get the desired flavor (3 mins for this brew).

I tend to use green teas as a base to other teas I drink, but, tonight, I opted to go for it plain and found it to be pleasing and light on the palate. Nothing amazing, but nothing I would avoid, either.

Good straight forward flavored tea. I would have not known it is decaffeinated had it not been on the label. A nice English Breakfast tea option that I can have in the evening before bed.

English Breakfast is not a favorite tea of mine, but this one was enjoyable. I added a slight amount of milk to it, which is something I don’t typically do with teas, but I enjoyed it with this one. Not a necessity, though, as there is enough flavor to drink without any additives.

It would be a tea I’d recommend to friends who are looking for a decaf along this lines.

The scent was promising but the tea, itself, was disappointing compared to what one expects from a Chai tea.

I’m not usually a chai fan, as I find them to be a bit too strong for my liking, so I didn’t hate the tea, but I didn’t like it either. Looking at this from a chai/vanilla perspective, I felt they missed the mark in both directions.

The tea was weak enough I never even removed the bag while drinking it, which is highly unusual for me when it comes to chais.

I prefer to not add sweeteners, but I may try a bit of milk or honey as suggested by other reviews and see if it changes my opinion.

EDIT TO ADD: I did a second brew at 190 degrees, steeped for 5-6 minutes, and added a bit of honey powder to it. It made no significant boost to flavor other than to make it slightly sweeter. Still would not recommend.

Very strong fruit aroma. Mainly cherries, but also strawberries. Raspberries and red currants hide in the background.
Dry taste, with no sweetness at all and slight earthy notes of the black tea.
Not bad.

Sweetish fruity aroma with strong notes of straw.
Fruity taste with the base tea barely discernible, bland.

Today drinking this grandpa-style in a big 350ml mug. Gives a nice thick black liquid, tastes earthy without any off notes or getting too strong. The leaves sink to the bottom once they soak through, making it easy to drink with it straight in the mug. I got two mugfuls out of this, with a third that was quite watery but not all the way back at water.

Fine for a day with a cold! (So I wouldn’t have noticed anything subtle going on). 1 mini tuo varies from 4.5 to 5.5g.

I’ve had it gongfu style previously – it was much better in longer steeps (1 min plus) and I note there was a little sweetness at one point. That’s why I had it down as a candidate for trying again in a mug.

So there are fires near enough to where I live that the smoke fills the air. (I am in no current danger from the fires, they are just close enough to wreck the air quality.) So I am sniffling and coughing and full of gunk and have been pouring hot water down my throat at a rapid pace.
This is perfect weather for herbal teas that I don’t particularly care for! Even for ones that I do like, honestly, but the don’t care-for-ems are particularly great, as I’m drinking big quantities of them.
Which is all to say that I drunk this bagged rooibos sample down without much care that it was only a basic rooibos, just glad to have a warm beverage to sooth my throat.
And its a sample sipdown! Huzzah!

(this review is for the mesh sachet form, I don’t know if they offer it in teabags or other forms as well)

1 sachet coldbrewed for 3 minutes in 550 mL cold water. It is a green tea, and you can taste the base. I really find the delicious melon and berry flavours pair with the base in a way that makes the tea perfect for a coldbrew. If you’ve ever had those green skittles that come in the berry package (melon berry), this is what that tastes like. Not sweet or artificial, but very fruity and summery.

I would say this tea compares a bit unfavorably to the Trader Joe’s English breakfast tea bags. The Twinings is more expensive and less flavorful. The Twinings is an adequate cup of tea, but definitely lacks the crisp and bright flavor that one seeks in a cup of tea in the morning.

Honestly I have grabbed this sample bag today purely to bring my cupboard down to three pages. I like the look of it when its three pages, not four with one tea dangling all on its own on the last page.
This strikes me as a beginners green tea. Unmemorable, inoffensive, practically unobtrusive. Not destined to make a repeat performance in my cupboard, for all it was easy to drink.
A cheat-y sipdown, but a sipdown all the same, and now my cupboard can be three pages again. Whee!

So I have made an oops.
I was doing so well on the sipping down, and feeling good about the shape of the cupboard, that I got a little soft.
I was reading an article about Jane Austen, and it was saying that she was in charge of the tea chests in her family, and in charge of the ordering of tea from Twinings. How neat! So I may have wandered over onto the Twinings website, and seen that they had special edition packaging of some teas, tying in with the Beauty and the Beast movie. And as I love tea, and as Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, and I love almost all versions of it, and those teas are all non caffeinated and I’ve been wanting to drink more tea in the evenings and…..
Well. Ooops.
In addition to my new herbal teas they also sent along sample sachets, ballooning the cupboard totals up again, and argh, whoops, oops.
Fortunatly, single sachets are great for the office, and I brewed this up to help with the headache.
Its a basic but quite decent breakfast blend. It doesn’t make my taste buds sing or my mind fall into rapture, but nor does it bore or repel me. Its basic, solid, and perfectly pleasant in many ways.
I enjoyed my cup, but will not run out and buy any, and I am pleased to have another tea to knock out of the cupboard.

Granted, I haven’t had this tea on its own, but I have had it as a fog tea. It is the tea that the café at my work uses when they make a fog tea for me in the morning (I always manage to get there when they’re out of earl grey). It is very smooth and nice. A wonderful start to my day when I don’t make my own cup in the morning.

If you are sick, a squeeze of lemon and a drop of honey is perfect for your sinuses. This is primarily what I turn to this tea for. Which is why it’s a lower rating – I’m just not big on peppermint as a go-to flavor. My husband prefers this tea over all others when he’s sick.