Twinings of London

Pull quote: If you don’t have time for loose-leaf tea, this inexpensive black blend teabag, which does not live up to its marketing description, might at least prevent a caffeine-withdraw headache.

Per Twinings:“A rich & satisfying robust tea, traditionally blended with Kenyan & Assam black teas.”

This morning, I brewed Twinings English Breakfast Western style without the teabag in a Finum brewing basket: 8 oz. / 1 teabag (2.1g) / 212*F / 5 min. without sweeteners, milk, or cream.

Leaf: Chocolate brown fannings (dust, “floor sweepings”)
Fragrance: Hay / straw
Liquor: Clear dark amber-brown
Aroma: Aroma? (Perhaps a Bloodhound might smell something.)
Flavor: Malty

5-min.: A smooth, light to medium-bodied malty tea. There was no obvious bitterness or astringency. This tea is not rich, satisfying, or robust even without the teabag!

Impression: If you don’t have time for loose-leaf tea, this inexpensive black blend teabag, which does not live up to its marketing description, might at least prevent a caffeine-withdraw headache.

Method:
RO water re-mineralized with an Aptera filter http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/39532-puregen-aptera-alkamag-water-filter
http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/37731-my-weigh-durascale-d2-660-digital-scale
Brewed western-style conveniently in a tea mug with a brew basket http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/29177-finum-brewing-basket.
http://steepster.com/teas/teavana/39312-perfect-preset-tea-timer

I like that this one has a bit of an edge to it… Matches my mood this week. Coming back to work from a 2-week vacation is the worst thing ever, especially if your job is in customer service, which mine is…

I will preface this note by saying that I heated my water in the microwave because that is my only option at work, besides using the Keurig, which is even more abominable in my books. So the flavor profile of this cuppa is probably off, due to my improperly heated water of indeterminate temp. And use of a stoneware mug that was merely rinsed after I used it to drink instant coffee with sugar. I also oversteeped it, to add insult to injury, so I can taste paper from the bag.

I taste something else that is pleasantly sour, like a faint hint of genuine, unsweetened lemon. Also nutty notes and the smell of wet, decaying maple leaves. Lots of earthiness. Calls to mind the rainy, gray hills of Ireland for sure. It has a bite of astringency in the aftertaste.

Despite all of its handicaps, it still proves to be a hearty, uplifting, fairly tasty experience. Not bad as a bagged cuppa, but I bet the loose version is even better with properly boiled water in a fine china cup.

Mmmm, I like this a lot! English breakfast teas tend to be almost floral, which is not a quality I enjoy in black tea (although I adore floral greens) and Scottish breakfast tea is so astringent and malty and tough to take. This strikes a nice balance between the two. Nicely blended, no floral quality, strong and malty without feeling like an assault on the senses. Also takes milk rather nicely — maintained a lovely ambery color and strong flavor even after a splash was added.

Very smooth black tea. I was surprised- I was expecting it to have much more of a bite of astringency to it. But it played nicely. Of all the UK breakfast teas I’ve tried- English, Scottish, and Irish, I find this to be the best.

This EG is like a friend from childhood whom you contact every few years, and it’s like no time has passed at all between the two of you. Steady, reliable, tangy, and balanced beautifully. Nothing revolutionary or particularly unique here, but it’s a safe bet when you aren’t in the mood to experiment.

This is really hitting the spot for me today. I’ve had two mugs of it. The black tea base is high-quality, and the bergamot has the exact right amount of presence.

The first cup was very floral, but this second one is more hardy.

I like it.

Had a bag today with breakfast at the Cracker Barrel.

Just in case you were wondering, guys, there are not a lot of breakfast restaurant options between Columbus, Georgia and Atlanta, Georgia. Like, Cracker Barrel or nothing, pretty much. And then when you get there, your options are Twinings English Breakfast, Darjeeling, or green tea. Being breakfast and all, this seemed like the obvious choice.

And it really wasn’t that bad. Considering the server just kind of gave me a small pot of hot water (16 oz. max) and left me alone, I just kept topping up my mug and left the bag in, adding a packet of sugar for each 8 oz. It never got astringent, had the bright citrus like notes of a ceylon, and generally didn’t make too much of itself.

I can see why it’s a good restaurant tea (it wasn’t fussy at all) and I for sure would order it again if I was going to be in a breakfast place somewhere.

I’m not going to lie, though – I was excited to get home and have some real, time-intensive tea to drink. I imagine I’ll be drinking some Japanese teas tonight while I (finally!) finish reading Shōgun. Yay for weekends!

meh…. not that good of a tea. rooibos to me tastes like brandy

It’s not the best of Twinings’ flavoured blacks, but it’s certainly not the worst. It’s not very remarkable, not particularly tasty. I’ll drink the whole box, but I will not buy it again.

Lemon bars with earl grey infused into the shortbread layer…Mmmmm. Now this is the way to have bergamot

My brother bought this and I’m too broke to buy tea lately so I figured I’d try it! I’ve had most of the other Twinings teas before and they weren’t really stand out. This is probably the best one I think. I am getting a rather malty Assam flavor which I like. It left behind a sweetness that lingered in my mouth for about 10 minutes. Didn’t need any sweetener or anything creamy.

This tea is one that I would choose over and over again! This is because it has a powerful taste that is not exactly bitter but not too light, also its great either with milk or without.

Today, we went to a bakery for the cutest little cupcakes in a jar. So we sat down with our jars of cupcakes and some tea. They had a large selection of mediocre bagged teas, so I opted for my default- English Breakfast. I’m finding that this bagged tea + paper cup = cardboard-y and bitter (bitter mostly because they always let it steep for so long before giving it to you). Anyway, the flavor was mostly drowned out by my extremely sweet cupcake, so I guess it worked itself out.

sigh
I can’t wait to get back to Canada where my collection of tea awaits me…I brought a few teas with me thinking that if I was moving to China there would be plenty of options for buying tea….well, no where close to me! There are supermarket teas that I can’t read and don’t particularly trust. And there are some that I recognize – like this one, which has become a staple for me as I try to ration my favourites that I brought along!

My favourite thing about this tea is that I find it wonderful for an upset stomach, which, unsurprisingly, is fairly common here. It’s a bit weaker than I’d like – if I was home I’d use two teabags, but I try not to go through it too quickly. Ginger is one of my favourite flavours – I’m a huge fan of homemade ginger beer so any tea that is gingery (Davidstea Super Ginger for example) is great for me!

I do find that the bag breaks apart sometimes and I end up with floaty bits of ginger in my timolino. Not a huge deal for me at all but it might bother some people.

A friend brought me two new teas to try from Taiwan – I can’t read the packaging but I think one is a green and one is an oolong. Lemon and ginger is nice but I’ll be happy to switch it up!

Sipdown!

This was an extra on top of the Stash bagged teas I so generously was given by Kat_Maria from the Take It Away thread, and I sipped this one down before it even entered my cupboard. Go me! I was not going to let my tea number increase.

I’ve only tried a few Twinings teas, and that was a fair while ago. Stash is definitely my tea bag company of choice. Overall, this was pretty decent but a little bitter and harsh on the end sip. For a bagged Earl Grey, I’ve had much worse though.

This is my pantry back-up daily tea, for when I run out of my favorite and don’t have time to make loose leaf. It tastes good, but occasionally makes me a little nauseous feeling, no idea why.

Nice, light citrus-y tasting black tea. For a bagged tea (as well as the price), it’s not bad.

this one’s definitely got bite to it. if you’re more of a ginger fan than a lemon fan, i’d recommend it, or if it’s a cold winter night and you need something warming. just don’t steep it too long or it’ll be too spicy to drink. i’m not a terribly big fan of ginger, but lemon ginger tea is one i keep around in case of illness. still, this one might be a little too much ginger for me.

i enjoyed this bagged tea almost exclusively for over 10 years. i reluctantly tried other teas over that decade, but this brew served my needs and i still have 3×20 boxes from my last amazon shipment in november so i still drink it at least once a week.
today, i brewed this as well as an EB leaf blend from another company. twinings was the maltier brew, had stronger caffeine content and was also much darker in color. my gf likes this blend with milk, no sugar, so if you enjoy tea that way, you may enjoy this blend too. however, now that i have experience with several other teas, i realize that this twinings blend does not combine as well with milk and sugar so i have committed to using up what i have left and moving on.