Twinings

Backlogging from Thursday

I picked up three bags for the week from my teacher’s tea basket. I think this tea has become a staple for our whole class. Many of us drink it now.

Apparently I have been on a Lady kick this week. We will see if this kick holds up or not.

Plucked this out of my teacher’s tea basket to have with dinner. She apparently had the same idea that I did last Thursday because there was more of this tea in the box today.

This is a blast from the past. I was getting tea bags from my teacher’s tea basket for the weekend and I decided to pick up Lady Grey today. I kinda wish I had emptied the tea box of the last four packets now instead of only taking one.

My taste must be developing because instead of being really weak, this was pretty tasty. It was nice and light. I could taste that hint of lemon in the cup along with the citrus from the bergamot. It was very nice and delicate. Lovely for when I want a lighter Earl.

I have learned today that I really need to let my tea cool down some before trying to drink it. It makes it taste better and it makes me relax.

My last cup of Lady Grey. I have to admit that I did develop a fondness for the Lady hot with milk. It was a very nice afternoon drink. I don’t see myself going out to get this tea again but I don’t see myself turning a cup away either.

Final Score: 50

Hot with milk. Still good. Nice drink to have right after supper when you are talking with your mom.

Apparently my internet decided to not work for me for a second. Just a long enough second that I couldn’t copy the note that I had just written.

It has been rainy today and I ended up reaching for the Lady since I don’t want to give up on her yet. This time I put milk in my mug before I added the teabag and the boiling water. This allowed the perfumed taste to not be as apparent and made it quite pleasant.

I think the Lady is going to become the staple for my “meh” teas. I would drink it if I was offered it but I wouldn’t go out of my way to pick it up anywhere.

This is the second time I have tried the Lady Grey tea. This time I steeped it for about 4 minutes and tasted it. It was more perfumy than the Earl Grey was and had a greater taste of sweet orange with the punch of tarty-sourness. So I put a little milk in it and that helped even out the overly perfumed taste.

I do have to say that I would have never thought that tea would make a good companion for a dinner. I was wrong. With the Lady Grey prepared this way it made the perfect compliment to the crock pot chicken that my mom made. With the sides being a fresh salad and a slice of buttered bread.

I also have to say that having tea with the meal helped fill me up more than soda or water or anything else I have had recently. Even with the smaller portion sizes I had. It was interesting and I would definitely have tea with a meal again.

I don’t think I like Lady Grey hot. I will have to try her iced and see if she goes better with my taste buds. I have to say even though I gave the Lady a good try, I think the Earl won my heart.

So I tried this tea because well, I love the color grey. What an odd reason to buy tea, right? The smell was slightly repellent, but I started to be able to pick out the citrusy parts and the tea leaves part from each other and it started smelling quite pleasant. I have never tried black tea before either so this is a first.

The tea bag contained tea leaves of relatively small size. Most of the teas I’ve drank so far have similar size, so it doesn’t really concern me. The string had the perfect length for the cup (mug) I was using. The tea bag itself got stained slightly orange-brown because of the tea. So I’m going to take a sip of this right now since it has cooled for a while (I don’t like to burn my tongue really).

The flavor could be described as woodsy with a hint of citrus. The citrus taste comes at the end of the sip after the woodsy part. It tastes slightly bitter, but in a good way. I did not add any sugar or milk this time. Even though this tea does have caffeine, you can probably get similar flavor from the Decaf version that Twinings also made. I have no idea why, but I actually feel more relaxed by drinking this tea.

So the best part? The smell. It has an interesting scent compared to those extremely obvious scents from the herbal teas I’ve been drinking. The taste is pretty rich and I have no idea how smooth a tea must be to be described as smooth, but this sure is smooth.

I think one tea bag would make quite a few cups. Two minutes already gave quite a strong flavor.

Bought this for the extra caffeine to study for my exams next week. All twenty tea bags would probably be gone by the end of that week.

very subtle tea and bergamot flavors. Probably lacking to expert tea tasters or the traditional UK tea drinker but is still well balanced, light flavor and pleasant to drink. After trying several other brands this remains my most favorite cuppa. It never fails to satisfy with every cup. It is because of this consistency in sensational flavour i always keep coming back.

My first cup of Lady Grey. softer than the more manly Earl.

First off I should give a bit of personal history with this tea which dates back to my freshman year of college and the start of my interest in teas. At the time when I started college I was used to drinking mainly soda but being cheap I soon realized that tea (and sugar) was a lot cheaper than soda to have around the dorm room and I soon found that Twinings was not only the best brand of teabag tea in the grocery store but also frequently went on sale for 3 boxes for $5. At first I focused upon English Breakfast and especially Irish Breakfast tea but when they added it I got a Twinings variety pack which included Prince of Wales. Prince of Wales was my first exposure to Chinese black tea and was what initially lead to my lasting bent on favoring Chinese teas over Ceylon and Indian teas. So when I happened to be at a tea shop that had tins of loose Twinings teas I could not resist picking up a tin of Prince of Wales for old times sake.

My initial taste of the brew in over half a decade was surprise at it being higher quality than I had initially expected. The taste of the Prince of Wales blend is indeed light and smooth as described and it is clear that a good part of the blend is Keemun black tea. Clearly it could be better especially if it was blended using higher quality whole leaves instead of the broken leaf grade, but while it lacks any slight traces of natural semi-sweetness found in some blacks I also would not call it bitter either. The Keemun that it was made from is a good mild variety without any traces of smoke. Finally to complete the experiment of duplicating my early tea experience after finishing half of the contents of the mug of tea I emptied 2 sugar packets into the remaining half cup of tea to make it in the style that I drank my tea during my college days. Wow I never realized how much sugar can destroy the more subtle notes of tea before this experiment not to mention it is no wonder why I gained so much weight during my college years with all that sugar in my tea all the time.

I’ve been so busy lately that in between my super-caffeinated cups of mate/black blend and (gasp!) heavily-sugared coffee I’ve been needing something to relax that just tastes good and doesn’t compound upon my already chemically-enhanced state of awakeitude. Peppermint tea in teabags? Heaven. Perfect heaven. So easy, so quick, so delicious. Most importantly, so hard to screw up. I’ve never noticed a difference pouring the water at boiling and pouring later. It’s actually not too bad cold-brew either — yes, there have been times where I forgot to turn my kettle on entirely. (oops.) Luckily, that wasn’t recent.

Anyways, since I’ve been drinking this a lot again, figured I’d sing its praises a little more. Twinings has kept it simple and it works so, so well.

Excellent. It’s not necessarily any better or worse than other peppermint I’ve had, but it is pure peppermint leaves, and not any kind of blend or anything. A great herbal tea for anytime, really — I like it both hot and iced.

You know… actually… not bad at all…

Ehh, this tea has a sweet grassy taste to it with a little jasmine hint somewhere in the background. I’m not impressed with this tea, but it may just because I have been accustomed to drinking jasmine pearls as my jasmine green tea staple for the past year or so.

After my 30 minute walk this morning I needed a strong tea. I used a dbl dose of this tea in a 16 ounce starbucks coffee tumbler. I wish the tea wasn’t so small (CTC) but it still brews up a robust, brisk, malty, and strong cup of tea. I miss my Mountain Malt in the the morning and I just may have to break down and buy more. I was hoping they would put it on sale but alas no go. This is still a great morning tea.

This is a very malty strong tea. I can only steep for 2 minutes (no milk or sugar) or I can’t drink it because of the astringency. It can be a very good tasty tea. This is a very fine tea and you will get some small tea leaves in your cup. I really can’t imagine anyone drinking this tea after a 5 minute steep but some do. They must have cast iron stomachs. This tea is similar to Lifeboat tea (which I prefer) and is a good wake up tea for breakfast.

This is a very robust brisk tea. It has loads of maltiness and will wake you in the morning. It does have some astringency. This tea will take milk easily as it is a very strong tea. I am drinking it plain after a 3 minute steep. If you steeped 5 minutes I think a spoon would stand straight up in this tea. The tea looks like grapenuts ( CTC? ). Its a nice breakfast tea and really not a bad cup. I’m going to try a 2 minute steep next time.

I just tried this tea with a 2 minute steep. It is at least 10 points better in my opinion. The bitterness and astringency are almost nil. You can even taste the assam tea in this blend. It is still brisk and robust, it just tastes much better.

In honor of St. Patrick’s day! I think I’m going to get some loose leaf Irish breakfast – I’m a fan. :)

Just the pick-me-up I needed before running 13.1 miles this morning!

It is interesting to contemplate what the result might be if they supplied tea at the water stations.. ;)

A bold cup, and I am really enjoying it. I agree with the description of malty. There is a hint of bitterness, but it adds to the experience. This is a good tea for the transition from lovely sleepy, sleepy dreams to harsh reality (can you tell I’m still waking up?). I probably wouldn’t drink it anytime other than breakfast, but it is a nice get-up-and-go sort of cup. I’m drinking it with a splash of milk, but the tea would be fine without it too.

Still nursing a cold, so my sense of taste is not to be trusted. The apple is coming through nicely, though!