Twinings of London

After a childhood of fresh ginger and lemon juice infusions, it was hard to imagine a tea bag living up to the rejuvenating flavour I love. But this one was quite good!

I’m still amazed at how real it tasted. It was like fresh lemon juice and zest with earthy ginger. I brewed it way too long the first time (3 minutes) and it was almost too strong to drink. 2:30 is about right to tame the acidity and fire.

It needs honey, a lot of honey.

The flavour isn’t amazing or even soothing… but it’s real. I respect that.

Also I’m noticing a huge difference in the boxes sold in the US and the UK. Not sure what acrobats with swimming hats has to do with lemon and ginger, but it’s nice to look at I guess.

https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/twinings-lemon-ginger-tea-review/

I still had a tin in the cupboard, and having finished the Chelsea Breakfast tea I had been taking recently, I decided to finish the tin as well.
For me this is the reference English breakfast tea, with a strong malty backbone. By visually comparing the grade, I assume the tea making up this blend of Assam and Indian tea leaves is broken. E.g. on the Kent&Sussex Tea &Coffee Co website it says (of a visually similar grade) “English Breakfast BOP Tea is a popular blend of Assam and Ceylon Teas, that uses only Broken Orange Pekoe. But what does that mean? The term “broken”, as it might already suggest, means that the tea leaves have been quite literally broken into smaller pieces, which often boasts a stronger character in cup compared to that of any FOP tea (Flowery Orange Pekoe).” And indeed, this EB tea is strong in character…even when the tin has been in use for over its “best before” date.
It might well be that you´re not into these strong and malty, even bold, teas, but I quite like them, especially in the morning. The only problem they have, according to me, is their tendency to turn (too) bitter when oversteeping, or cooling down.

I enjoyed this more than I expected. The flavor is mostly a light orange taste with a little bit of sweetness, but not quite enough. The spice is almost entirely absent. I have a bunch of orange teas that I would choose over this one, so I wouldn’t buy this, but having this one tea bag was nice enough, if a bit weak.

This tea was surprisingly good! It brews a beautiful berry red colour and has a naturally sweet and tart flavour. The raspberry comes through first, with an exotic twist from the dragon fruit. I also noticed red berry undertones that gave a red wine-like quality to the tea – it’s quite drying on the tongue as well. I had no trouble finishing the whole cup.

If you can manage to find this range again from Twinings, I’d highly recommend giving it a go. I’m not a big fruit tea drinker, but it won me over completely! You can read my full thoughts in my tea review article for this blend https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/twinings-raspberry-dragon-fruit-tea-review/

Sampler Sunday! I got these sampler teabags from a very nice volunteer in my department at the library, who remembered that I love lavender in my tea. Since today is a very grey morning, and my mood has been rather grey lately, it seemed the right time to make a teapot of lavender Earl Grey this morning. Finally drove my car to its utter death trying to “get by” with it waiting until my family would be coming back to state to deal with all the business involved with getting my grandmother into longterm care, at which point I can purchase her vehicle, the funds of which would go directly to her longterm care. But it didn’t make it… so I’m without a car at all for another week. Since it was totally dead, I only managed to get $200 for it after I’d put $1100 into repairs on it. Sad.

I gave the tea my typical brief CTC steep, though pushed it slightly longer (2 minutes) just because I wanted to make sure the lavender notes would come through. There is certainly a lovely lavender aroma wafting from the teapot… mmm. I’m also getting some lemony notes in the aroma. The tea doesn’t really hold a candle to my favorite Lavender Earl Grey from Angry Tea Room, but for a bagged tea, Twinings of London is still holding out on top for me. The bergamot is perhaps just a touch heavier than I tend to prefer but not as overbearing as most bagged Earl Greys which is why I typically avoid them; it tastes a bit on the citrusy lemon side, and there is a noticable lavender note that blends well with the bergamot because of that lemon note, and is soft and relaxing. The base tea is quite smooth, perhaps because I steeped this so briefly, so I don’t have any bitter or astringent notes in my cup. The base is a mellow malt allowing the flavors to take precidence.

This can’t really replace the loose lavender Earl Grey I keep in my cupboard, but if I found this in a restaurant or needed some cheap teabags for travel, I’d gladly take this along.

Teabox Tuesday! I was in quite a rush this morning, so I grabbed this single-serve teabag I took from the Discovery Teabox and did a quick minute and a half steep in 350ml of water in my work thermos before rushing out the door, which has so far been working for my particular tastes well with crushed-to-a-pulp CTC bagged black teas so they don’t get really astringent and bitter. And since I didn’t have any time this morning, I really didn’t have time to steep a full leaf tea, anyway. Thanks so much to Skysamurai for organizing the box and all participants!

Many of the reviews for this are leaning on the tannic/bitter/astringent side… but I can only guess they brew it the suggested 3 or more minutes rather than “3 minutes or to taste”, and my taste happens to be a minute and a half, so I’m not getting any of that. Maybe the tea is much weaker than it is supposed to be, but I appreciate dodging that bullet, as I’m getting a surprising marzipan sort of flavor I haven’t had in a black tea before. There is a malty/toast base, but I’m getting notes of honeyed almonds and cherries, particularly toward the end of the sip. It’s quite complimentary, especially since it’s natural rather than that sickly syrupy sweet flavoring you get in blended teas.

I have to say, I think every bagged Twinings of London tea I’ve tried, I’ve liked, especially compared on average to other grocery store brands. If I were going to stock some bagged teas to take on vacations or to grab to quickly steep “out the door” for mornings like today, this would probably be the one I’d go with.

- with milk and a spoonful of honey -
I like this as a very neutral delicious tasting Earl grey. The bergamot is much more mild than other teas which makes it perfect to go with various desserts.

This tea is one I commonly drink at work when I need a little caffeine boost. I like starting my day with coffee, but after that, it’s tea all the way. I keep some at home so I can benefit from it there as well. It comes in tea bags. I steep mine for the recommended four minutes. The color is a dark amber. It has the smell of a strong-brewed black tea. The taste is intense and slightly bitter with a dry finish. It feels a little heavy in the mouth which gives it a nice richness. I feel like the strong flavor works well with the high caffeine level to help perk you up. It also seems to warm you up on the inside in a way I would compare to the internal warmth you feel from the spiciness of a chai. Definitely a good cold-weather tea.

This is one of my favorite teas to drink with brown sugar and milk. It is strong and bright while maintaining a smooth, robust flavor. I brewed this around 10 am this morning while I read a book and relaxed by my window. It was a great start to my day without the crash I get with coffee.

This tea had an interesting flavor to it! The flavor reminds me of cough drops in some way, it is not the sweetest flavor in it’s natural state but I still enjoyed it. I looked up the benefits of this tea was very happy to see how healthy it is. So although it may not be a favorite I do admire it and will come back to drinking it every now and then. It was really cool to learn that this tea is a member of the Fabaceae plant family in South Africa.

A nice flavourful black tea with apple flavouring. It happens to be a nice dried apple flavour rather than the dreaded green apple, red delicious apple skins, or candy flavours I taste in many other apple teas. I’m not usually big on apple flavours, but this one is mellow and warming. No spices, either, (most apple teas run the risk of having cinnamon shoved in front of it) so just a nice black tea and dried fruit.

I don’t taste any smoke like others have tasted. I get a typical smooth malty but slightly brisk black tea flavour. I had this with a touch of vanilla soy milk and that may have drowned out subtle notes.

Not terrible but very lacking. It tastes like a watery orange PEZ candy dipped in orange oil with a tiny bit of cinnamon. Where’s the rooibos?

This tea reminds me of my tea with my nana. Not that it was necessarily this specific tea she served us, but it was always strong black tea with milk. It could have been the Aussie icon, Bushells, but more likely it was Tetleys, because despite living in Australia from when she was 12 until she passed away at 91, she was English to the core.
Drinking black tea takes me back to times spent with her and makes me miss her a lot, but also reminds me that she is still sending comfort in the form of a good, strong cuppa.
And this IS a good, strong cuppa. Nana would have loved it!
The first thing you notice is the very dark liquor and rich aroma. I nearly always add milk to black tea because I still find it hard to drink it without. But I think in this case it works well, resulting in a strong but malty smooth taste, compared to some other EBs I have tried, which were astringent & bitter.
There is only one other EB I have tried to date that I prefer, & that is Madura Estate tea (from the north coast of NSW). But it’s a pretty close-run race…

Sampler Sipdown September! My monthly theme this month is to work through my plentitude of smaller samplers to try to clear out some much needed cupboard space! Since I am having a blistering migraine today and my triptan didn’t work, forcing me to leave work early today, I grabbed this single teabag that a former coworker gifted me that I have yet to try. The migraine nausea is pretty bad, and ginger tends to help with that.

This is so much better than the Stash Lemon Ginger I revisited not long ago, which had a really artificial tasting lemon flavor to me, and a really overbearing ginger flavor. If I ever decide I need to have some quick bagged Lemon Ginger tea around, this is certainly the brand I’ll go with from now on. The lemon flavor in this tea is more tangy and citrusy, reminding me more of lemon juice, it’s a bit tart but since I’m fine with tart/tangy notes I find it really nice. But most importantly, the ginger is very reasonable, leaving just a little bit of spice at the finish but no lingering unpleasant heat. It comes off more strongly in the lemon than the ginger, and for my personal tastes, that’s just how I like it.

Bought this one yesterday just because I am a big fan of Twinings and English blends in general. I am sadly disappointed. It’s hard to call it tea. It is just dusty powder, the one that you find in the cheapest teabags sold in markets. Smells and tastes like a typical, cheap Indian Assam CTC tea. What happened to Twinings? I love Gunpowder and Prince of Walles, I used to drink a lot of Lady Grey, but this one is complete disaster and shame to your company.

A really solid tea for on-the-go mornings. The sachet has no flavour and gives the leaves room to expand. This Darjeeling is fabulous-definitely one of the best I’ve had.

Lightly sweet, malt, never bitter or acrid. Very smooth.