Twinings of London

For Christmas my sister got me a Tea For One set that came wit ha couple bags of Twinings Earl Grey. I thought the bags looked a little old and beat up but decided to try one anyway, I’ve been meaning to do a comparison of Twinings and Bigelow bagged Earl Grey.

I can taste the bergamot… But I can also taste the cardboard box the Tea For One set was in. It would be unfair to give this tea a rating when it has gotten old and the packaging damaged. So far Bigelow is winning in the bagged EG comparison but I’m pretty sure Twining can do better than this.

Thank you to Twinings for sending three teas of our choice to try! This is the sample I most wanted, based on reviews I have read here on Steepster. I was especially interested in whether this one would resteep.

I was a little surprised when I just read that this is a blend of Chinese teas because I could have sworn I tasted some Indian leaf in this. Then I read that it is Yunnan and southern province teas and it made sense, because there is a lot of assamica varietal in yunnan plus they tend to have a slight maltiness.

This is good. It is smooth. I took it without milk and sugar and it was not harsh. There was a hint of tingling or peppery flavor from the yunnan. It is not premium loose leaf tea but is very drinkable and easy to carry and make, so I think it qualifies as a Cheapster Steepster because….I like the resteep even better than the first steep! It is not strong, no, indeed. But it is now ever so lightly smoky and is even smoother.

This is nothing like the PG Tips or Yorkshire Gold that makes me hide under the bed until it has been tamed with milk and sugar. It is more delicate, but not frail. I doubt it would wake up an Assam lover but it is good mid-morning tea for me!

After a sleep-deprived day and a half nursing shift at my parents’ farm (and lemme tell ya, when you get me as your nurse you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel!) I probably couldn’t have told you whether I was drinking coffee grounds or sawdust.

Bless either Dad or my sister, one of them thought to stick a fresh box of Twinings on top of the microwave. Bucked me up, settled my stomach, and kept me upright most of the day today.

Sometimes the tea you need the most isn’t the fanciest.

Working out of a temporary/makeshift office this week…but there’s a Keurig in it. The problem is … I don’t think I’m very impressed with it. Have had two cups of Twinings EB and I’m not getting much but “hot leaf juice” flavor out of this. Something about brewing through all that paper and plastic makes me wonder how any of the real tea personality can get through.

finally found boxes of this tea again after eons of going without. this is my morning must-have. i steep it for 6 minutes usually & take it with one sugar cube and enough milk to turn the tea a caramel colour. it remains my favourite tea, especially in the mornings. it’s strong & tastes right. growing up in a British family where tea was steeped in a Brown Betty tea pot for ages has left me needing strong tea. this Irish Breakfast fits the bill nicely.

To me this is the standard English Breakfast, an easy tea that is hard to mess up and that I can enjoy whenever. I like it with milk, sugar, both, or straight up (which is how I had it today). English Breakfast tea will always make me think of backpacking across England (the Cotswold Way) when I was 14 or 15. That was way before I got into tea, but I drank this every day and loved how British people would always drink it with tons of milk and sugar!

The only bagged tea I keep around right now. My friend made it for me when I was sick once and I said, “what tea is this?! It tastes like the botan rice candies I used to eat when I was a kid!!” So if you want a delicious tea that tastes like Japanese candies, drink this with loads of honey! This is like ultimate comfort food to me, I don’t care if it’s cold or hot out, middle of the day or middle of the night, I will never ever say no to this tea. :)

My mom was trying to be nice… she really was. Before she left for her 2 week business trip she decided to make me some lemonade. I’m not a real big lemonade drinker, but it’s good w/ matcha and in Arnold Palmers… except that she made Crystal Light and not real lemonade w/ stevia which is how I drink it. I can feel my teeth rotting just thinking about it. Oh well. I decided to first try to salvage this by making an Arnold Palmer.

2 bags steeped in 1 cup water just below boiling
1 cup Crystal Light
1 tsp lemon juice

Not as teeth rottingly sweet as I expected. Pretty good.

Another beautiful morning at Sunset Beach! Yesterday we got to see not only the woodstorks of Vereen Park (have only sighted them once before in about 6 visits) but we saw their babies, too! They still had that awful baby bird hairdo that is so cute, but were old enough to walk around and fish with Mama, and Daddy awed us by flying over. Magnificent!

As for the tea, it was just so-so. It is a basic cup of tea, not offensive but not ringing any bells for me. I did a shorter steep because I thought that it might get bitter quickly being a bagged tea. Perhaps a little more time would have made a more robust tea.

There is a tea room nearby. Hope to get there later today and see if there is something delicious to report!

teet-da da da…tee da da da…

I think I am getting hooked on to Earl Grey!