Twinings of London

I’ve never been a huge fan of straight black teas, but as a St. Patrick’s Day baby I felt inclined to give an Irish Breakfast blend a go. My coworker is a big fan of English and Irish Breakfast teas and donated a bag of this Twinings of London bagged tea so I could review it on my blog. I’m not particularly a fan of bagged tea, either, but she claimed it was a “better brand” and I wasn’t going to turn down some free tea.

The scent of this tea brought back so much childhood nostalgia… I was instantly transported back to my grandmother’s house! It occured to me, that growing up as a small child, I associated a single scent as the “smell of tea,” much like one might associate a single scent with the smell of coffee, and that “tea smell” always made me think of my grandma’s house. Of course, now that I’m grown and have become an avid tea drinker, I know that each tea has a very unique aroma, but now I know… my grandma must have been drinking an Irish or English Breakfast blend!

As far as the taste, it wasn’t as bad as I remember. Usually straight blacks just come off too harsh for me so I prefer flavored blends with some sort of desserty or spicy or fruity taste, but trying it “English style” with a bit of milk and sugar, I actually found it quite pleasant! Perhaps my palate has just changed over the years, or maybe I just needed to take it English style to balance the astringencies.

I’m sure I would enjoy a looseleaf variety more, but as far as bagged tea goes, I was pleasantly surprised!

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/tea11/

This is the spiciest ginger tea I’ve ever had, and I absolutely love it. This would be a nice tea to keep around for when you are sick. It also does well cold (I imagine iced with honey or agave would be excellent) or with milk. Really, I find ginger very comforting (even when it is burning my throat).

According to the Twinings website, this is 70% peppermint and 30% spearmint, but I’m getting mostly a sweet peppermint vibe. It mostly just tastes like peppermint. It is a good cup, but nothing special.

Wow this tea has a long name, but it doesn’t taste nearly as complex as the name would have you believe. I get mostly chamomile-hay, citrus, maybe hints of dried fennel seed, but unfortunately not as much fennel as I was hoping for. This mostly tastes of chamomile.

Another sipdown of a somewhat boreing, but tasty tea. I’ve had this twice, both times with milk.

It is bitter if only had plain, but it is sweet and smooth if you add soy milk. There is some malt, but not as much as I like in a black tea. I do find the flavour to be as intense as the caffeinated English Breakfast, however I’ve never tried the caffeinated All Day blend.

Super malty, slightly sweet, and delicious by itself or as a latte. No bitterness at all, and lots of flavour. While it is a generic malty black tea, I do get some baked bread and creamy notes. This is one of the better bagged black teas I’ve had, and I can taste how fresh it is (probably this year’s harvest).

I’m really impressed with how fresh and tasty the teabags are from Twinings in the UK. The ones available in stores in N.A, are not even close to as fresh + usually have a lower quality base. The teas I’ve tried that I ordered from the UK Twinings site have been as good as looseleaf, while the bagged teas I can buy on Amazon or in a grocery store are of lesser quality. If you want to try Twinings teas, buy directly from the UK site and pay a few bucks more for shipping. The quality and freshness are really worth it.

This actually does taste a lot like garden mint (like the English mint or Spearmint you would pick out of your garden). I’ve experimented with drying my own mint leaves or brewing them fresh, but both taste completely different from bagged teas. Finally I have found a bagged tea that is super fresh and exactly like my experiences with homemade dried mint leaves. I really enjoyed how bright this tea is-it almost has hints of lemon (lemon mint?) in it. Very tasty and possibly the freshest mint tea you can find.

Works probably? Not the best I’ve ever tasted.

This is a really nice rooibos. Smooth, vanilla. delicious red rooibos. As a latte it was a great desserty drink for the end of the day.

Refreshing lemon aroma over an earthy background.
Solid maltiness in taste, no bitterness, delicate lemon undertones, no tartness.
Really good lemon black tea.

I feel like it says all that I feel about this tea when my thought today was “well, might as well finish this off today.”
Nothing special, and quite frankly I bought it for its Beauty and the Beast themed packaging (weirdly the only one that had Mrs. Pots on it. Surely someone was missing some brilliant marketing there, eh?)
Well, another sipdown! One closer to my goal.

I’ve had a couple of cups of this, more out of a desire for hydration than a desire for this tea. Its also nice to help combat the dreaded tickle in the throat.
Hmm. I shall be through this very soon, but I doubt I’ll have much more to say than that.

Ok, so this tea. This tea is almost entirely ignorable. I have drunk many, many cups of it, and after each one I say to myself “I really should log this” and then I just wander away, blissfully and utterly unconcerned.
Its that sort of brew.
If it was bad I would log it. If it was good I would log it. If I was conflicted I would log it. Never before have I just so entirely given only meh in its direction.
Poor tea. More hot water than impression….

So this weekend I was out on a little trip, meaning I was away from my teas. I brought some bagged things, and this was one of them. I thought it seemed holiday-ish.
Its a war between the orange and the cinnamon. Not unpleasant, but the two flavors are not layering quite as I expected them to do. I expected it to taste very Christmas-y, but it was more like orange juice with cinnamon in it.
Better than it sounds, but not brilliant, flavor wise.
Hmm. More cups are needed for futher analysis. Fortunatly, I have some of those.

Favorite bagged breakfast tea. Used to be my go to tea before I finally gave in to the world of loose leaf.

I would call this tea unobtrusive. It’s smooth, not harsh, not overly bland but there’s nothing distinct in it. To drink, not to savour.

Too much hibiscus, even with a very short steep in cold water.

And sipdown!
Lots of this was drunk without logging, which is totally fine. Its that sort of tea- uncomplicated, easy to drink, basic.
And now a sipdown! One closer to my goals.