Twinings

The second taster of the small Twinings taster box. Another hibiscus-backbone fruit infusion, but here the hibiscus doesn´t overpower the blackcurrant and blueberry, as this infusion is named. I´m not a big fan of blackcurrant, but here its strong flavour is reasonably balanced (with the hibiscus?). Cannot get the blueberry though. Overall a more than decent fruit infusion.

The other day, my husband “discovered” a litle taster box by Twinings he had received once and had put aside in his bag. I am now doing the tasting of the 3 different fruit infusions, starting with this “strawberry & raspberry”. Both the tea bag as the steeped tea smell nicely, nothing too artificial (quite common with these fruit infusions), and this is fortunately confirmed when drinking it.
The only thing that starts to bother me with the "better "of these fruit infusions (in my opinion when taste isn´t artificial) is that they seem to be all aromatised hibiscus infusions, so the hibiscus is key and the name of the infusion is the aroma which makes the difference between the different infusions, in this case strawberry and raspberry. Very easy to drink, although I prefer infusions a bit less dominated by the hibiscus…

079/365

If there’s one advantage to having a cold, it’s forcing me to be a bit more creative with my tea. This isn’t a particularly exciting tea at the best of times, being straightforward chamomile and mostly dust at that. No whole flowers here! In an effort to try and help myself sleep and soothe my throat at the same time, I added the juice of 1/4 lemon and 1 tsp of honey to a cup I’d steeped for 3 minutes. It’s actually delicious, and breathed fresh life into a normally boring supermarket staple. I sometimes find chamomile too sweet, and I worried that the honey would push it over the edge, but the fresh lemon juice brings it back from the brink and adds some much-needed balance.

I still didn’t sleep very well, on account of not being able to breathe, but my throat felt soothed for a while at least.

076/365

Nothing fancy today, because I have an absolutely awful cold and basically can’t taste much of anything. This one’s an old familiar comfort tea for me – I know exactly what it’s like, and it doesn’t matter that my tastebuds can’t really do it justice. I should probably add that fate conspired this weekend, because I had picked out some other teas to try, then I got sick, and then my neighbour came round and asked if I wanted her tea selection box since she doesn’t like tea, and I was obviously all over it. More so because it means I can save those other teas for a time when I feel better.

Anyway, the tea. It’s sweet and malty; classic assam. Is it the best assam I’ve ever tried? No. But it’s one of those formative teas that got me interested in the first place, so I have it to thank for that. As a bagged black from a large supermarket brand, it’s pretty good.

I was away for the weekend, and this is one of the teas they had where I was, so I gave it a try. French Vanilla Chai? That sounded interesting. But I don’t really like vanilla so it was just okay for me. I also added honey cause I couldn’t find any sugar. I think I was also tasting the cardamom, which was also a downside for me. Won’t be having it again, but it was drinkable.

Very nice tea, the citrus flavors of orange and lemon really come through nicely and are very refreshing.

Intriguing even bit mysterious, romantic tea. It has smoky, woody aroma to it and smells like tobacco, honey. Mild taste and mild strenght. Good for late afternoons. One of my favorites all purpose tea.

A nice cup of Earl Grey. Fragrant, floral but delicate aftertaste. No astringency, no bitterness so common in many Earl Grey teas. Good tea for someone who isn’t into strong flavors.

hmm, this made an interesting coldbrew. Grassy, vegetal, lightly nutty notes with some seaweed. It tastes like a typical sencha. This is the type of green tea I don’t care for, but I’m working on finishing up the last few teabags I have. It did taste very fresh and high quality. Even the lingering astringency was a little bit pleasant.

I love love love this herbal. Perfect balance of mint and vanilla and needs no sweetener. Just a very pleasant cup. Recommended.