TWG Tea Company

Avoid this tea at all costs! When I opened the tin, I was greeted with an overpowering smell of rose. Sure enough, the ingredients on the bottom list tea and rose, even though the tea is described as containing “a scattering of cherry blossoms.” All cheap “cherry” teas contain rose, but I was expecting more for this price. Also, the green tea in the blend is a mediocre tea sourced from Singapore, not Japanese sencha. Shame on TWG for marketing this tea as a gourmet Japanese cherry tea.

Finishing this off. I really enjoyed having it on-hand. Sometimes it ended up coming out bitter, but that was mostly me not paying attention to the temperature. Especially near the end, when there was a lot of tea dust in the scoop.

Still enjoyed it though. Buttery green went well with the caramel. Might buy some more…

Last cup of this for now, though.

On my second steep of this, actually. I made the first last night.

Mmm second steep is still strong. Faintly buttery green tea—with sweet caramel.

This was another tea I received as a gift for my birthday. I wasn’t really excited about it because green teas aren’t my favorite, and I usually don’t like flavored teas…

When I smelled this tea, I was even less enthusiastic. It smelled strongly of artificial peach. In tasting the tea, however, I was surprised at the nuanced flavor. This tea appears to be much more heavily scented than it is flavored. I was pleased that I could still taste the green tea, and to balance out the sweet fruit, it had a savory finish. The aftertaste was not cloying (as I usually find flavored teas to be). Overall, for a flavored tea, this one was very good.

I had to restrain myself form eating the big chunks of caramel that were scattered throughout the dry tea. It was worth it though, as the liquor had a yummy, rich, caramel flavour augmented by creamy notes of vanilla.

I got this tea from the Urban Tea Merchant in downtown Vancouver. I was disappointed that they stopped stocking THÉ Ô DOR, but TWG seems to be a pretty decent replacement line.

I’m never quite sure how to steep black tea/green tea blends so in this case I temporized by doing a slightly lower temperature and less time than I would for a straight black tea. I love the Bourbon vanilla scent of this blend – it’s sweet and rich and makes me think of baking sugar cookies. Unfortunately the flavour is more vegetal and less vanilla-y than I would like, although the vanilla is still certainly there. There’s also hints of something else under the vanilla – maybe something citrusy and traces of some sort of spices.

Having another test of this. I am now expecting the hibiscus on it, but even so, it still overpowers me. There is the tartness, the acidity, and it seems to spread all over other flavours without being balanced by anything else. Maybe there is a peach and berry underneath it all, maybe there is rooibos (rhetorical, there is rooibos evidently on the mix) but the hibiscus just takes over.I am not a good person to rate this, hibiscus really is not my thing.

If this does not have hibiscus hidden somewhere on it, I will eat my hat. My non-existant hat, but there you have it. A tiny tiny little itty amount of hibiscus but that it does have it, oh I strongly suspect so.

Dry leaf or while steeping this smells divine. Peaches with berries on a rooibos base. LaFleurBleue who sent me this sample would know what I mean when I say this is a fruity rooibos like Berry Berry Nice instead of a blend fruit rooibos like Carpe Diem or Marco Polo Rouge.

But then you taste it and instead of mellow rooibos, the underlying taste is a sharp sour acid hibiscus like tang.I can not get either the peach or berries promised in the scent or the mellowness of the rooibos which should be underneath. Nope, there is something hibiscus and just does not work with my expectations. I will keep trying though.

I got this massive urge to go and separate the rest of the sample and just barely refraining from doing DNA analysis on anything which might be hibiscus to see if it really is. But really, I would swear I can taste the hibiscus right on the middle of my tongue. I have a test where I leave a little bit in a cup overnight and then seeing the color and shape of the residue, will check.

Thank you very much for the sample, LeFleurBleue, this smelled heavenly indeed and I think I am learning somethings about TWG blends!

PS – the overnight cup test hints strongly of hibiscus as well, the residue is blue-ish pink rather than orange-brown as it with most rooibos. Examining the dry leaf, there seems to be rooibos, little tiny pink berries (a filler? they look somewhat like pink peppers used in spice teas and which taste like nothing), rose petals and tiny little pink bits of petals which could be hibiscus. Hmm, enough evidence?

This is probably the best friggin tea I’ve ever tasted.

It costs almost literally an arm and a leg ($30 for 3oz), but it tastes like the sweet glorious dream of a simpler time, so I’d say that’s ultimately worth it.

Seriously though, this tastes damn fantastic. I want to high five both Dean AND Deluca (presuming they are people?) for being this awesome and creating this masterpiece.

If you don’t like rose flavors, get out. Also, you’ll hate this possibly. But I am a big rosey dude and this is both a blend of excellent white and green tea with a mild-ish but certainly strongly present smell and taste of rose gardens. This tea could not possibly taste or smell any better than it does.

It cost a pretty penny as all TWG tea tends to cost, but I say it’s well, well, well, welllllll worth it. Pick some up, you won’t be disappointed. And if you are, send it my way and ill kiss your face for making my life better with the best tea of all time. Seriously. I love it. If this tea was a student, honor roll for sure. It would be one of those students that somehow gets MORE than a 4.0 GPA. I didn’t know that was possible, but this tea could do it. It’s put magic.

Nice flavour. I have to admit that I’m going to experiment a little because I used it in my new Cuisinart PerfecTemp tea maker. I can taste the ginger, but it doesn’t dominate the tea.

A quicky from the iPod! My sister and her husband received this as part of a wedding gift in the summer.

Not bad at all; a smooth black tea with some prevalent peach notes to make it softly sweet and fruity. The light astringency comes off as rather pleasant.. Maybe it’s that way because I always understeep my black teas.

I’m glad I got to try this! I had completely forgot about it until I opened my sister’s and brother-in-law’s pitiful tea cupboard. What they lack in tea they make up with (unwanted) pigeons on “their” apartment “balcony”, however. City birds are fearless and better at sleeping through the whine of the sirens that ricochet off buildings than I am!

I am grieving… because after having been stored in my cupboard for a year, this tea has become stale and lost its charm. When I bought it in Singapore a year ago, it had the most amazing aroma, whether dry or brewed. It’s the refreshingly sweet aroma of fresh mint and strawberries! The green tea base was lovely too. Somehow, I think the tea was too wonderful to be named “Weekend in Shangahai”, for I had visited Shanghai and didn’t think it’s such a nice place. I had a hard time deciding whether I liked it or Weekend in Casablanca (which I bought at the same time) more. My rating for this tea was based on my first tasting experience with it.

And what did I find today? The sweet bouquet was still there when I opened the tea tin, but it was much less intense. That did not really bother me… but the weird, foreign taste in my first brew did. I couldn’t really describe it but it tasted like Chinese herbs. You know, herbs stored in the old drawers of Chinese pharmacy for ages and sold for medicinal purpose. I was shocked. Then I thought maybe it was because I used the same cup to brew a hibiscus tea yesterday (Of course I washed the cup after using it. But evil hibiscus does sound like the culprit right? I admit that I’ve never liked hibiscus :P). So I got more dry leaves from the tea and brewed in another cup.

This time, there was less foreign taste. In fact, there wasn’t much taste in the liquor. It was bland, with only the faint aroma of mint+herbal medicine. That really broke my heart. I guess this is the punishment I deserve for buying tea at a rate much faster than my consumption. :( Oh god… I promise that I will drink more tea every day from now on…

This tea smells absolutely delicious. It has an aroma that is both sweet and rich. It’s a scent that’s very… busy. Much like New York itself, I suppose. The cocoa in this blend really comes through in both smell and taste (though less in the latter).

This seemed to be a red tea, instead of the usual black. There was the same sourish aftertaste that I had gotten from a rooibos tea once. Also in the aftertaste was a herb-ish taste from the bergamot. The bergamot aroma and flavor were not as strong as TWG’s Earl Grey Gentleman Tea. I love bergamot, so this mildness disappointed me. I couldn’t detect much citrus flavor; I was more preoccupied with the floral notes of the cornflowers. Unlike ‘regular’ Earl Grey, I don’t think this tea could stand up to the addition of milk.

From the second the tea was poured I could smell a very strong, sweet vanilla aroma. Apart from that I could not smell much else. Taste-wise, it wasn’t bitter but it was rather tasteless and delicately sweet. I have the suspicion that it was diluted a tad too much. No tea, however ‘delicate’, should be this bland. The vanilla was definitely there though, judging from the scent. There was also a sourish aftertaste, probably due to the natural flavor of the rooibos.

It’s been over a year since I first started out with this tea. Since then I’ve tried various other Earl Greys, but this one tops the list. There’s something about the bergamot in this one that isn’t as sharp as the others, and there’s a sparkling note it that I can’t put my finger on. Finished my canister a while back, and I find myself missing it dearly. Saving up for a new one! This tea is going to be a permanent presence in my cupboard once I find the space for it!

Earl grey is my favorite tea, and it was TWG that introduced me to it! Needless to say i fell in love pretty quickly. The bergamot aroma is very strong, and the taste almost equally so. Apart from the bergamot, I’m not getting any citrus flavor, but that’s fine with me. The flavor holds up well to milk, which I love.

Quite a lovely gourmandish green tea, good to kickstart an early morning in the office! The caramel note seems to come out more in loose tea version (can someone else pls confirm, thks) but I prefer it bagged for convenience.
PS: DO NOT steep for too long! Honestly 1-2 mins is quite sufficient to get a flavourful cuppa for the 1st steep. Remove the bag for a 2nd steep (mine’s usually 3 mins).

I found this rather rich both in fragrance and taste. The fruity note is fairly sweet and tends to dominate the green tea. Still nice enough but if you’re after green tea, you might be disappointed.

I came across tea while visiting Singapore. Upon first smell I was almost put off by the strong aroma. It was hard to pinpoint what it was but something was a little off-putting but that said there was also something intriguing. Having just gotten into tea I was hesitant to buy a quantity in case I didn’t care for it. Luckily they offer sample sizes and I brought one of those home with me.

I’ve now had three cups from the same groups of leaves – over about a two hour period. This tea has a great flavor (despite my initial smell reaction) and is very easy to drink. As the leaves are refreshed for subsequent cups the flavor mellows out quickly and now on my third cup is not assertive at all – though still pleasant.

The green tea serves as a canvas for the cherry blossoms so it is definitely not a dominate flavor component. It comes more to the forefront the longer you refresh the same leaves.

Delicious(ly expensive). I can certainly agree with reviewers who have commented on the tea’s coffee taste. The guy who helped me buy my tea earlier today mentioned that Napoleon has “hints of mocha” so that may be your answer.
As for my experience with this tea, it’s very vanilla-y, very caramel-y, with a definite mocha nose. The liquor is a beautiful warm amber and, thanks to carrying the tea around in my purse all day, it has left my purse smelling like goodness and yum as opposed to receipts and hand sanitizer.

I picked up this tea along with another flavoured black at the urban tea merchant in Vancouver, which is all TWG teas.

I don’t have a lot of black teas at home so I’m really glad I got this one. It’s not too strong of a black tea and it has a nice caramelly sweetness to it, kind of like a dessert tea. It has really caramel pieces in it too which, unfortunately, means it does contain milk but it also helps with the flavour. The aroma of the tea is stronger than the actual taste of the brew, but it doesn’t really let down the tea too much.

This tea was a bit pricey considering I could probably find something similar for cheaper at another tea shop, but it does come in a very beautiful tin. So, overall, I’m happy with this tea. Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to refill this when I’m out. :(

Somewhat unrelated, I took a picture of my tea collection today. It’s small but still beautiful. I wish I had more room in my cupboard or I’d probably have more. :P
- http://instagr.am/p/Ohw1ScuR-l/

This is my everyday tea for the most part. I’ve recently been drinking a lot of first flush Darjeeling, but it might be too expensive to become a habit. I went to Singapore a month ago and this tea changed my life while I was there. Singapore Breakfast tea made me quit coffee and completely switch to tea!