TWG Tea Company

The woman working at Dean and Deluca spoiled me with a couple samples of tea! TWG’s Moroccan Mint was one of them! They aren’t kidding when they say the mint is strong, it really is! The sip starts out smooth and mellow, but when you get to the back of it the mint really takes hold and kicks in. I’m guessing this tea would be amazing cold too. Just added a little creamer and it is really quite nice. It mellows out the highest point of the mint kick while still letting the minty flavor be dominant. This is a really nice tea! If the price was right (and this brand tends to be on the pricier side of things) I could see keeping this in stock.

Today was one of those days that I made a cup of tea in a rush and didn’t get the best results. I semi begrudgingly drank this on morning errands today, looking forward to returning home and making a proper cup of tea. Can’t win them all.

I still like this tea, but it’s not hitting the same level of enjoyment for me anymore and that’s a damn shame. I want to enjoy it and I also have one more full tin to go through of it. I did a comparison once with this and other teas that have similar flavor profiles and I can’t recall if I compared it to Cookie from Lupicia. I can’t get the page on Cookie to load either to review how I felt about it and if I should put it on my shopping list when I hit up the Lupicia store in Paris in a few weeks. Tea buying ban hiatus is almost in effect!

Edit: just looked at my past notes on this tea, Cookie was not in the lineup.

I am on my third steeping of this tea and am tasting something I haven’t before: graham crackers! More like golden grahams cereal, but without the cinnamon. It is faint, but I kinda like it.

Sip down! I had to filter out all the dust at the bottom of the tin to get the tea leaves separated. I ended up with a smaller than I’d like amount for a cup and it resulted in the most disappointing cup of the tin. It’s still a really good tea, but this last weak cup doesn’t do it any justice. I would love to buy another tin of this someday, but must wait until I have sipped down some of the other chocolate malty teas I have. This could take a while!

I’m not quite sure what tea I should post this under, or if I should post it in all the contenders profiles, so for now it will go in the winner’s corner!

Malty cocoa toffee tea taste off! I have a few teas in my cupboard that remind me of eachother, so I thought I’d do a taste off and compare them side by side. All teas were steeped at 205 for 3 minutes.

NY Breakfast
First sip, very smooth, lots of cocoa, only the tiniest bit of bitter in the back of the sip.
Adding cream… Oh god! Delicious! The cocoa is rounded out with creaminess and the flavor sits on the breakfast base. No bitterness at all and the flavor is the same throughout the sip. I sink into a cup of this every time! It is so well rounded. Coming back to my cup after 20 minutes I swear I taste a slight coconut creaminess to it.

American Breakfast – Marriage Freres
Very tangy and bright. Almost has a citrusy green feel to it. Not really getting much cocoa, it has a slight breakfasty base in the background. No almond like
Adding cream… Much smoother! The bitterness is gone. It still has that brightness to it that is familiar, but I can’t quite place my finger on. I must have had a tea that has similar qualities to it before.

Wedding Imperial – Marriage Freres
First sip was a little bitter and shocking, but also full of caramel on a deep black base. A few more sips in and the bitter fades letting the caramel shine through a little more.
Adding cream… Smooth. Caramel. Light. The base isn’t heavy on this and I think I would prefer that to carry the caramel better. It seems like a lighter version of NY Breakfast. There is a depth to NYB that WI lacks.

Toffee – Palais De Thes
First sip was smooth! It is light. The scent is sweet and toffee like. I could enjoy this one without additions, even tho it isn’t as deep of a flavor as I would like. There is a slight alkaline tang to it, which could very well be my water source.
Adding cream… Still so smooth! The toffee is still present, but maybe not as prominent as I would like.

Summary
These teas are all so similar, but so different at the same time. They all have that malty/cocoa/toffee way about them and at the same time they have different depths, intensities and nuances. When I drink one I am reminded of the others similarities. I definitely don’t need all four in my cupboard and think I could be happy with just NY Breakfast, although I will be out of NYB way before I finish off the others. If I had to list my preference starting with the favorite, it would be NY Breakfast, Toffee, Wedding Imperial and American Breakfast.

*side note: I keep running into other teas I should have included in this comparison. Lupicia’s Cookies would have been a good one to add.

I am still loving this tea! Today I steeped it concentrated, then poured it over ice with a little sugar and cream. It reminds me a little of several other chocolate malty type teas like MF’s wedding imperial and american breakfast. I feel like I should have a face off with those three tea, choose my favorite and restock the winner when I’m done with the others. I’m trying so hard to narrow down my favorites and get my cupboard in order!

Mmmmmm… I really wanted this tea this morning. The first sip I took was bitter, but I wanted cream and sugar which round out any sharp edges. I’m not sure what I did to make the first sip bitter, but I’m happily sinking into this cup how it is. Earthy malty chocolate creamy goodness to start my day! I’m already through half this tin and am going to miss it dearly when it is gone.

Today I’m having this with cream and sugar. I’m still getting the solid breakfast background with the chocolate coming through part way through each sip. It’s really nice and I have apparently drank a decent amount of it in the past two months judging by how much of the tin I have gone through. It does remind me of New York since that is where I bought and first tried it. It’s neat having that association with this tea!

This smelled the most intriguing out of the six TWG tea I sniffed yesterday, so it came home with me. It smells chocolatey and maybe a little malty. I’m getting a good solid breakfast tea base in the flavor, topped with mild yet present chocolate. I’m having it unsweetened and I wonder how much the chocolate will round out with sugar. As it is, this is a really smooth tea! I may have overleafed, but this tea seems forgiving and I got a nice cup out of it. Well done TWG!

You can definitely smell the bergamot on the dry leaf. Was a bit surprised when I brewed it up—it doesn’t brew up dark like a puehr, more like a black.

But it tastes like a puer—the earthy, peatness adds a sweet undertone to the bergamot, and it works quite well for me. Though I burnt my tongue on the first sip, so I can’t say if I’ve missed anything (you’d think after several years I’d have learned to be patient in waiting for tea to cool). As it cools, the peat gives way to a bit of yunnan multiness as well. I wonder if this is a blend.

I’m not sure if we are tasting the same tea. Mine came in a sachet. I truly love the scent; pleasant, light, not overpowering. Not a connoisseur or expert. Just at entry level here. But i certainly do enjoy this concoction.

and because it’s getting fun to say…. Another tea for Cavo! ah hah hah hah hah ha!

yes, had a lovely cup of this today and the rest of the sample is off for cavo to try since she needs more chocolate teas in her life. This one’s not too bad…closer to a milk chocolate than a dark chocolate and pretty tasty, though given the price and the distance, likely not one i MUST HAVE! Thanks again for sharing charlotteZero

This was a pretty tasty cup tonight as we worked out a group order from Lupicia. Not something I need to restock, but I am a fan. I appreciate charlottezero sending me some of this to try out.

Final Count: 138 (tooooooo slow!)

I’m going to have to agree with CharlotteZero on this one in that it smells wonderful, but it one of those teas you have to brew cooler and for less time, lest it turn into a messy less amazing tea. All that aside though, this was pretty tasty, and i’m looking forward to playing with it a bit more before i land on a final rating :)

Mildly spicey , floral.

I have had bad luck with finding a chocolate tea that I really like. This one smells amazing (chocolate & cream), but when it’s brewed according to the instructions the cup is pretty tannic mid-sip. I think I may have over-leafed this, so perhaps it will turn out better next time. I might also try lowering the steeping temperature to see if I can make the tea taste more like the dry leaf smells smells.

This French earl gray by TWG is quite a disappointment. It is still a nice cup of tea. However, the aroma and scent of bergamot is very mild that it doesn’t qualified to be a nice cup of earl grey. Plus it is kind of expensive. So anyone who is looking for earl grey with a more than mild taste of bergamot, this shouldn’t be the choice.

Brewed leaves have a super-bright & fresh lemongrass smell with sweet pine notes. The tea is a bit more subdued version of that, but also earthy with creamy tree bark. After the assault of potent aromas from leaf to brew to liquor, the taste is unexpectedly smooth and the lemongrass mildly well balanced. The citrus/lemongrass flavor does seem to fade with temperature as the tea cools.

Not surprisingly, a slice of lemon goes really well with this tea. In an odd way, a slice of lemon actually brightens it to the point where it no longer needs any kind of sweetener like honey or stevia and it exhibits a “false sweet” I can’t describe. This vanishes once iced, so if you plan to ice it you’ll probably want to be adding stevia, honey, or some other sweetener.

Crisp, refreshing, different.

TWG finally managed to let me down, wow. I picked this up from Dean & Deluca instead of a TWG salon, just because I was there and I wanted to try a few new TWGs.

Looks like a shoumei white, leaves with no buds and brews fairly dark. This makes sense as well, since the characteristic TWG floral blend you find in a lot of their other main teas is present and pairs well with the lightly fruity crispness of the lower quality showmei whites. The strength of the floral and berry notes is dialed way down to make room for the tea to come through, but in my opinion is still too strong and the white tea is too low a grade to warrant their name being on the label or to even notice this is much of a tea at all. I think this is one of those “mass market/appeal/bulk” teas some larger firms pump out to milk their brand value to appease the accountants and shareholders, while keeping a portfolio of much better single-estate and higher quality blends to keep the connoisseurs and fans attached.

I’ll finish what I have, strip the label and keep the double-lid tin for future teas I buy and bring home from their tea rooms, but unless I find some for darn cheap it probably won’t make its way back into my collection.

Picked up 100g of this at the TWG salon in Manila while on a trip and restocking my 1837. O..M..G… Absolutely, wholeheartedly, definitely my top #1 white tea of any kind, one of my top 5 teas of all kind, period. I had been a fan of whites and good/fresh silver needles before, but this just completely blew me away. The problem now is that I’m spoiled when it comes to silver needle white tea, and while I keep searching for that more affordable replacement I also don’t have to travel halfway around the world for, and some have revealed “hints” of this tea in the background, the closest I have gotten is maybe 60%.

The first time I brewed this I was a bit scared.. at over a dollar a gram, I wanted to brew it a bit more conservatively, but I followed the shop’s recommendations and went right to 190F / 4tsp-300ml / 8 minutes. Was not let down at all. The brewed leaves smell like a cross between a creamy custard and hazelnut coffee creamer. The liquor smells like sweetened and toasted almonds and egg shells, tastes wonderfully complex, sweet and smooth for a perfect evening drink-a-thon. There is not even a hint of grass unlike some other not-so-fresh silver needles, and I have put this through 5 infusions (8, 10, 15, 15, 20 mins) without much muddling of flavors or appearance of straw/hay notes or astringency. I have experimented with some other brewing methods including cooler temps and longer/shorter infusions but I keep coming back to what the twg folks recommended.

What really sets this apart has been only what I could describe as this very unique eggy-custardy-flan-caramel-vanilla-ish profile I solely associate with whites and silver needles now, and am very excited when trying a new white when I think I sense a faint note of that…. just because I hate the fact I have to travel really far and/or spend huge bucks to get this.

Really unique and prized in my collection.

This has got to be one of my all-time favorite black teas, I have yet to find something to replace this at my #1 spot, and although a few have come close nothing has de-throned it just yet. Being one of TWG’s signature teas, I usually pick it up at one of their salons while in Asia or UK and keep a good supply of it so I don’t run out. Awesome value for the price too, IMHO.

The brewed leaves smell of ripe forest berries muddled with black Vietnamese sugarcane, makes me want to eat them. The aromas of the liquor itself are a bit more subdued, kind of like a hot caramel was poured on top of said berries. The taste is very smooth, but surprisingly not fruity like you would expect based on the smell — center stage are some wood barrel notes, like ones used to age a berry wine or liquor. Although it is excellent unadulterated, 2-3 tsp of raw honey (per 300ml) makes the berries explode to the forefront while the caramelized sugarcane balances it out, reminds me of a dark berry creme brulee. Rockstar all the way.