Twinings of London

We went out for brunch yesterday and I was feeling like a hot drink when we got there. The restaurant had bagged tea by Twinnings so I gave this one a try since I liked the Lady Grey a few weeks ago. The bergamont was well balanced with the black tea base for me. Not too in my face, but not too much in the background. I also really enjoyed the black tea base on this
I will be on the hunt for the a loose leaf sample of this and the Lady Grey. I am curious to see how the loose compares with the bagged tea.

Nice enough. Nothing special, but quite pleasant, as Twinings teas normally are. A bit too bitter, but that could easily be solved by adding either milk or cream.

I love this tea! It’s got just the right balance of lemon and ginger, and it’s sweet by itself.

Although I’ve started to get into loose-leaf teas and quality full-leaf sachets from places that also do loose leaf, I realized that preparing even a sachet takes too much time for the mornings when I work early (which means waking up at 3:30 am). When I’m up that early, I need a quick, strong cup of tea that doesn’t take too long to prepare (I estimate that I steep the bag for two minutes, but I don’t keep very close track with this one). I add some milk and sugar to make a sort of builder’s tea that I can drink quickly. I turned to Twinings, remembering it from my childhood, and haven’t been disappointed. It gets strong quickly, and the taste is robust enough to handle the milk and sugar well and wake me up.

I wasn’t so sure about this tea when the aroma first hit me. The first thing that came to mind was “Lemon Pledge” (like the furniture polish). Then I thought “Aw man! I just wasted my money on this tea when I could’ve had Pledge straight from the bottle!” I prepared it with 2 packets of Truvia sweetener since I wasn’t sure about honey flavored Pledge. The tea actually turned out kinda nice though. It’s more like lemon fruit loops! I’ll try it with honey next time.

I’ve always got some of this on hand, no matter what other teas I’ve got in the cabinet at the moment. My go-to when I just want a nice, simple cup of tea.

yummy

As is my wont for the first time trying any tea currently, I am having this tea plain. (More often than not, I make my straight black teas with milk and honey.)

This is very malty. Slightly astringent, but in a way that is almost sweet rather than off-putting. I think that having this normally, I would prefer it with milk, but it’s not bad this way either. That, however, may be exactly what helps make it a good breakfast tea. It’s robust and has a firm flavour that will stand up to the doctoring for a good morning cup.

Another morning, I’ll have to do it up that way and see….

Its an okay chai, nothing special. Even after steeping it for 10+ minutes it isn’t as strong/spicy as I would like. The flavors are definitely there but it’s just not enough

After all the wonderful suggestions about where to start on my Earl Grey adventure, I decided to start with basic, basics. I tried good old teabags! Haven’t had a teabag in eons. I just started with Twinings because I could find it in the grocery store and it didn’t cost much. I like it. Nice aroma, good taste. Something I could drink a lot.I have gotten into teas that are more exciting and it was nice to go back to simple. I don’t think I’ll skip my more interesting teas but I will have this in my rotation of teas. Now I think I expand and try some others. I had so many suggestions (Thanks!) that I was pretty overwhelmed. Now that I have an idea what a basic EG tastes like, I can move to variations.

Now that I have had a chance to drink a little more EG I like it even more. If this is the ‘boring’ Earl Grey, I can’t wait to see/taste what’s next to try.

Earl Grey was my introduction to tea. I started drinking it because of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Captain Picard’s oft repeated “Tea, Earl Grey, hot.” line. As soon as I tasted it I fell in love. That was many years ago, far from where I live now and I got my first taste of it bagged from Taylors of Harrogate as a gift from my father when he came to visit me while I lived in San Antonio, Texas.

Now it is many years later and I still have a strong love for Earl Grey, but I have no easy access to the brand that started my love affair with this tea. But then I discovered Twinings and fell in love all over again. While I realize that as a bagged version of the famous tea it will never live up to loose leaf I also realize that sometimes you gotta go with what you got. I have a whole box of this stuff up in my pantry and I never allow myself to run out. Sometimes you really just don’t have time for a cup of freshly brewed loose leaf and it’s nice to know that I have an old standby that I can fall back on in such times.

This English Breakfast tea is a classic for me – I just love the taste and smell of it. This blend is especially wonderful because it is not too strong but not too mild either. It is a very comfortable & enjoyable tea and I would highly recommend it to everyone. Even if you are not an ‘avid’ tea drinker, this is a basic tea that you should have in your cupboard for a rainy day or snowy evening.

I went on a chai craze this winter, and purchased a variety of chai teas. This one can definitely hold it’s own. It’s not too heavy on any particular spice, but comes together in a nice blend. I will be repurchasing.

i suspect i’ll really love Assam tea on its own (last time i had it is too far from memory to recall), since i really loved this (and this isn’t the first English Breakfast i’ve had btw). i bought a nice big box of this (around 50 bags?) discounted since i like to have a nice standard black tea on hand to double up any flavored blacks or tisanes without running out of them too quickly.

then i decided to have a cup of this on its own (2 bags) with a spot of coconut milk & brown sugar. how yummy! i truly appreciated it… i get that it’s bagged fannings, a bit tannic probably without additives, but i was quite pleased. can only imagine how the loose leaf will taste! that said, i look forward to trying more versions/variations of English Breakfast & straight Assam!

highly recommend this with coconut Silk & brown sugar.

One of the strongest white teas I have ever tasted it has personality and a salty flavor.