Twinings of London

Now that I think of it, the sore throat I was flirting with last week has vanished. I shall credit my aggressive use of tea for this small victory!
This is being drunk down very fast. Its easy to get a few cups in while I’m working, as it requires no thought to either prepare or drink (not a criticism.)
And its ginger touch probably helped with that itty bitty sore throat!

Its a rainy day, and rainy days are great for tea. And I just so happen to have a lot of this to drink.
I’m also nursing the worlds smallest cough, so this tea is good. My brain has somehow sorted this tea into an idea “drink when sick” blend, so I’m hoping it can curb sickness.
Its got a little kick of ginger, and a little dash of juicy lemon, but mostly its hot water. That’s ok, I think. I think that’s the point here, and, if so, its nailing it.

The wheel of fate has stopped on this blend as one of my new take to work teas, where I suspect its going to do rather well.
I have already had two cups of it, which is two more cups than I’ve had of it in the last two months, and its doing a nice job soothing the baby cough that I currently have, and would like very much if it did not grow into a grown up cough.
Keep on working at it, tea!

I’ve brought a handful of herbal teabags with me to work, and have been sipping on them all afternoon.
This one is mild and generally inoffensive, which is just fine. I just wanted a warming drink today, and this does its job.
Oddly, I think this little number will really start to shine when I catch my next cold. Its really gonna earn its keep then.

Oh drat. I forgot to log this tea in my cupboard, bringing my total back up to 45! Eeek!
Oh well, a soothing cup of this will take the edge off of my cupboard mismanagement.

I purchased a tin of loose Twinings Earl Grey and am astounded at how mediocre the flavour is. I expected more bergamot and a little complexity or interesting twist to the flavour as you get with say David’s Teas Earl Grey.

Twinings was flat and lifeless. Not horrible but not impressive. Not bitterness, just no interesting flavour notes. Very straightforward, which I would not whine about had the price been lower.

Went out for dinner in a private room at a restaurant. felt a migraine coming on. so I left early to try to beat the nausea home. Oh, god, if it weren’t for the pain the shimmery circular rainbows around all the light would be pretty. I mean all the lights. Street lights. Stop lights. Tail lights. Once I was safely home with meds taken and a cold wash cloth plastered over my eye, I decided a mild tea might be good. I chose this one for its convenience and anti-nausea properties.

Ugh. Awful. It is peppermint, but with a gross sick flavor at the end of the sip. By sick I mean vomit-like. I didn’t throw up so it’s not from me. Poured it out and am now making some ginger tea.

This one sounds like it should be so good, but it’s just not. maybe it’s just me though.

I like peppermint tea in the evening when I’m feeling a bit over-full and/or gassy. I usually have Pure Peppermint by Twinings or Peppermint by Stash in the cupboard, but I have only a couple of tea bags left. At the grocery store today I saw a holiday tea display. (yes, I know, it’s not even Halloween yet!) and one of them was this one. They were on sale for only $2.29 for a box. I decided what the heck? and picked one up.

I do like the convenience of bagged teas now and then. Like other peppermint teas I’ve had, this started out as a light greenish yellow, and darkened to brown as it brewed. The description says it has a smooth, creamy taste but to me the flavor seems to be straight peppermint. This may be because my nose is once again not receiving scents. I hope someone else will review this tea and chime in on the flavor. Regardless, I like a nice peppermint tea and this one fits the bill. And the price is great.

I have absolutely no idea where this teabag came from, but there it was in my little wooden box waiting for me to discover it.

At any rate, it was a pleasant evening discovery. Bigelow’s Ginger Snappish, which is my go-to for this flavor combo, is mostly ginger and a little lemon. This is its daffodil-yellow opposite: mostly lemon with a little ginger, though the spice got stronger as I sipped it bag-in-cup.

Now, if I can just remember where I got it…

I didn’t expect much from this tea but found myself pleasantly surprised. Nice tea that requires no milk or sweetener to enjoy. I will be adding this to one of my daily drinker options.

I was impressed with this tea. It had a nice bold taste without any of the bitterness that sometimes accompanies black teas. Though I didn’t actually have this tea at breakfast—this morning was definitely a coffee kinda day—it made a nice late afternoon drink. And, of course, loose leaf is infinitely better than bagged.

Today drinking this grandpa-style in a big 350ml mug. Gives a nice thick black liquid, tastes earthy without any off notes or getting too strong. The leaves sink to the bottom once they soak through, making it easy to drink with it straight in the mug. I got two mugfuls out of this, with a third that was quite watery but not all the way back at water.

Fine for a day with a cold! (So I wouldn’t have noticed anything subtle going on). 1 mini tuo varies from 4.5 to 5.5g.

I’ve had it gongfu style previously – it was much better in longer steeps (1 min plus) and I note there was a little sweetness at one point. That’s why I had it down as a candidate for trying again in a mug.

So there are fires near enough to where I live that the smoke fills the air. (I am in no current danger from the fires, they are just close enough to wreck the air quality.) So I am sniffling and coughing and full of gunk and have been pouring hot water down my throat at a rapid pace.
This is perfect weather for herbal teas that I don’t particularly care for! Even for ones that I do like, honestly, but the don’t care-for-ems are particularly great, as I’m drinking big quantities of them.
Which is all to say that I drunk this bagged rooibos sample down without much care that it was only a basic rooibos, just glad to have a warm beverage to sooth my throat.
And its a sample sipdown! Huzzah!

Granted, I haven’t had this tea on its own, but I have had it as a fog tea. It is the tea that the café at my work uses when they make a fog tea for me in the morning (I always manage to get there when they’re out of earl grey). It is very smooth and nice. A wonderful start to my day when I don’t make my own cup in the morning.

Sipdown! Pretty good chai with lots of spicy cardamom, clove, and cinnamon. The base is decent (as is usual with Twinings tea), but not amazing. No malt, nothing creamy. If you want to take it up a notch, try coldbrewing this really strong and adding vanilla soy milk and a shot of espresso.

The aroma is rather faint, sweety, with only traces of blackcurrant and some hints of vanilla.
The taste is watery, slightly sweet, not a lot of blackcurrant.
Certainly drinkable, but that’s it.

Quite liked this one! Drank it black. The lavender and bergamot play well together and give it a flowery/ perfumey flavor, although not cloyingly so. A little bit of vanilla would have made this just about perfect. The base is a typical Twinings smooth, non-astringent, non-aggressive Chinese black tea. They make such good stuff.

I miss being able to find Stash’s Breakfast in Paris at the grocery store, but this is a perfectly acceptable substitute. Simultaneously relaxing and bracing.

Quick Review

I was trying to brew this gongfu style, but i feel that I messed it up. It could be that the water was too hot (170 F) or that it’d be much better off Western styled. I’ll have to play around with this while I still have some. Perhaps I’ll brew it Western style at work and add a second review…

Notes: Bitter & astringent

Rating for the session: 60/100