TWG Tea Company

Oh god the first sips are bitter! Almost coffee like and with a similar deep color. The bitterness lessens as I sip on, but it never gets to a tastes good level. Cream and sugar to the rescue? OMG, yeeeeeeeeeesss! Cream and sugar changes the game. The bitterness is knocked out. The tea is rich enough that cream and sugar doesn’t take over and the strong taste of tea comes through. With the sweetness of the sugar there is a honey like note that I get that transforms to a tea flavor. This cup is quite enjoyable now! I’m still sometimes surprised by how adding cream or sugar or adjusting brewing techniques can significantly transform some teas! I’ll have to remember this tea when I want a hearty breakfast tea.

I can’t find any mention of this tea online! My husband went to Korea and visited one of the Seoul TWG shops for me. I had asked him to pick up London Breakfast, but all they had left was a tiny amount at the bottom of the tin (and I’m learning it’s not anywhere near as lovely when it isn’t fresh) so the ladies sold him this as a similar substitute. This tastes nothing like LB, but it is a nice breakfast tea with cream and sugar. I tried it plain and I found it unpalatable, but with the additions it is nice. I don’t know what the cost was, but I’m sure I have had breakfast teas that were as lovely if not more, for a lower cost, that were easier to get. I’ll likely go through this slowly and not reorder unless I have some sort of epiphany with this tea.

I’m so glad the semester is over! I now have time again to write about the tea I have been chugging to get me through the day!

Lots of honey scent in the dry tea and once steeped. Not much flavor in the sip, which has a bitter tinge to it. The honey taste comes back on the aftertaste, but it’s more like a scent than a strong flavor. I’m having it without additions right now, but when I add cream it does change it a bit. The cream adds more of a base to the high notes in the flavor and makes the honey taste more tangible instead of all being on the nose.

Have you ever had a honey flavored candy? This tea tastes like a faint floral version of that. The aroma is lovely and a little stronger than the taste. I’m having it with a little cream and sugar which I think I prefer over having it plain. I’m not really tasting the black base at all. I don’t know that this will become a favorite, but I’m sure I will enjoy what I have. Big thanks to my hubby for picking this up for me in Korea! (He’ll never read this, but it’s out there anyway)

This is the second Chai I splurged on. I prefer this one to the Black Chai right now. It’s like a combination of Davids Tea Pure Chai and TAZO chai lattes. What would take it to the next level is if it had more spice to it. I find the chai I’ve tried so far by TWG have been slightly unbalanced. They have been spiced, but not spicey. I like a little bite in my chai. I’m not sure how to accomplish this in the tea but, it is a good candidate. One thing I need to do is brew these teas for less time. I will evaluate it next time I have it.

I had this tea upon visiting Urban Tea Merchant. I’d never had a milk oolong before, but I’ve seen enough tasting notes on various other bands to see that there is something special about it.

I only had the first steeping, but it was smooth. So smooth! I got the creamy taste as well. It goes down easily and isn’t overly powerful or fragrant. When you smell the dried version, it smells of kind of a sweet and sour milk, not buttermilk necessarily, but maybe something you might smell while enjoying bubble tea? Maybe condensed milk?

I enjoyed it and it’s going on my wishlist. If anyone has any brands of milk tea they would recommend please let me know.

The quest for Black Chai tea continues.

Bought this along with two other TWG teas yesterday when I was downtown. I steeped this too long and it was bitter and astringent. The ginger really comes through though. This is definitely a tea that is better with milk and sugar to enhance the spices that are in the blend. Right now it’s not on their website because it’s a new tea so I can’t even get the info on it. I will give a better review of this tea when I steep it properly.

At first sniff it smells like ginger, with spices in the background. I am not getting that sweet, spicy smell that I usually like in a chai. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t buy this based on smell when I was in the store. They made me a sample of it and I didn’t mind the taste of it (it was served straight, so not my usual preference for black tea.)

It has promise!

I can pick out ginger in this overleafed cup, but it has an alkaline flavor to it that is throwing me off. Yeah, I’m not into this one.

Tried cold steeping this tea… no good! First sip was a little alkaline with a ginseng tang to it. As I sip a little more, the ginger comes out, a bitterness arrives on the back of the sip and the ginseng hangs on in there. It smells great, like there might be cinnamon in there, but it doesn’t translate to the taste. Now the back of the sip is all bitter and ginseng and I’m done! No more cold steeping Istanbul!

Steeped at 175 for 3 minutes and poured over ice!
I’m liking this cup! The ginger is there, but is mellow. I still don’t get the juicy orchards, but the tea in the background is really well balanced. There is something a little more in the immediate after sip, but I can’t put it into words. I think I’m going to become well acquainted with this tea as the weather heats up!

After reading the description, I’m not sure why I chose this tea. I do like ginger. Maybe it was the combo of different types of teas? Maybe I’ll never know what I was thinking. I ended up steeping it at a low temp for a short period to avoid bitterness from the green and white tea, but not all of the leaves uncurled.

The ginger is odd here! Usually I find ginger to be a very bright high flavor, but it has a lot of depth to it here. My brain first thinks smokey and then I realize there is no smoke flavor. Adding sugar makes the ginger a little more crisp, but doesn’t do anything other than that. Cream really doesn’t add to it either. I get a hint of a hearty black tea that I didn’t taste before. It isn’t a bad tea, it just isn’t meeting my ever rising bar of expectations. I might try it cold steeped before I totally give up on it.

Overall, Istanbul is kind of boring. I think I might spend my weekends elsewhere.

I was likely attracted to this tea for the description of mint and berries. I’ve had a couple cups of this hot without exciting results and decided to try cold brewed. I get a lot of green tang, a little fruit flavor behind that and not much else. I’m not feeling it.

I just realized this is my first tea of 2017. I’d better step up my tea game because this is no way to start off a new year!

First sip was a little green and bitter. I couldn’t make out the flavors at all. The subsequent sips are much better! I get the green base mixed with the strawberries first and then the mint comes in at the back and rides out the aftertaste. I don’t think I have ever had strawberries and mint, which is why this tea sounded so intriguing. Adding sugar really amps up the berry flavors! It is almost floral at the front of the sip, then I get sweet berries, then more floral and mint in the aftertaste. I must try this cold brewed and iced sometime! I bet the mint would perk up quite a bit! So far I like this!

Cold brew is the way to go on this! I cold brewed the tea bag overnight with some sugar added in (a little too much sugar) and it is way better than it was hot. The pineapple flavor really comes out nicely, but there is still that dirt/ginseng flavor. Don’t think I’m a ginseng hater, I like it and it’s alkaline taste, but it is a little odd mixed in a fruity tea. It blends okay with the pineapple at the beginning of the sip, but the aftertaste is all ginseng and reminds me of when I was younger and would get the liquid ginseng shots from some of the Asian markets near where I worked. I loved the little bottles they came in. As I get closer to the bottom of this cup, the ginseng seems to fade or maybe my brain is just muting it out, but the pineapple is more prominent and that is nice. I like this a lot better now! I still don’t feel like it is something I’d pick out and buy, but I’m glad to have tried it.

I was sniffing this tea bag while waiting for the kettle to heat up and was trying to pin the familiar scent. Pineapple. It smells like pineapple candies I used to have when I was young. It still smells faintly of that once steeped and the pineapple comes out well in the flavor. I first get the pineapple flavor and when that trails off at the end of the sip, the ginseng creeps in and tastes a little like alkaline desert dirt, which is oddly nostalgic this time of year with the big burn in the desert coming up and all my friends who build the city posting that they are off to the playa already. Even so, it’s an odd aftertaste that I’m not exactly at peace with. Adding sugar perks up the pineapple, but also amplifies the ginseng, which isn’t what I was hoping for. Adding cream changes the whole thing again! Pineapple at the front of the sip is gone, but creeps in a little at the very end leaving just a suggestion of pineapple and the ginseng is really muted. I don’t get any berries in this like the description says. This tea is interesting, it makes me consider trying more pineapple teas in the future, but I certainly wouldn’t follow it to the check out lane and invite it home with me.

Summer fruits they say? Smells like peaches to me! It tastes very peachy, but there is something else in there too. The peach flavor reminds me of Lupicia’s Momoko, which is the first peach tea I have had that I like and tastes like real peaches. This tea is like that, but is a slightly less intense in both peach and cream. I’m having it without anything added and it is really nice. The green tea is hidden behind the peach and is pretty smooth. If I hadn’t tried Momoko, I’d be pretty ecstatic about this tea. As it is, Momoko is less expensive, easier to obtain and has a slightly better flavor. Even so, it’s still a great option if you are looking for a good peach tea!

This tasted a little tart when I first sipped it. I may have put too little water in it, but cream and sugar fixed it right up. I’m getting mostly fruit in this cup, but I can’t say what kind. I can’t really pick out the tea in there. The aftertaste is floral, smooth and nice.
It’s a nice tea, but it’s boring and doesn’t make the cut. I’m glad to have tried it tho! Yay for free samples with my Urban Tea Merchant order!

I may have found the first TWG tea that is definitely not for me! I’m getting mostly bitterness, but I’ll try cream and sugar to see if it mellows out. OMG, that is so much better. It still has a harsh edge to it, but it is drinkable now. I’m getting a little maltiness in there and it is smooth at the end of the sip. Still… I don’t like it.

I have had the Misfits song London Dungeon stuck in my head since seeing this tea in my cupboard earlier. I love the Misfits. sigh Anyways… tea! I’m getting some of the deeper darker chocolatey notes this time in this tea. I’m still able to pick up the brighter notes that I was referring to as lemon in a previous review. It is a perfect tea for a little cream and sugar. It is reminding me of TWG’s New York Breakfast and I’m wishing I had some of that to compare the two side by side. Unfortunately none of the places I can buy TWG from has both in stock which would make the higher shipping cost more worthwhile.
I’m getting a little bit of malt with the chocolate on the sip. The higher lemony taste comes in and out throughout the sip. I would like to get my hands on more of this someday.

I got a free sample of this with my Urban Tea Merchant order! It smells really good… almost like a lemony custard dessert. I think I didn’t add enough water because the tea has a little bite to it, but the lemon is really nice. I don’t get red berries at all like it says in the description. Adding a little cream and sugar mellows out the bite. Mellow creamy lemon goodness!

This is a really nice cup! The heartiness of the tea balances out well with the fruit… what ever kind of fruit it is. This is a tea I could see ordering in the future!

Looks like this tea has been sitting untouched in my cupboard for two years now! Unfortunately it hasn’t gotten any more exciting with age. I cold steeped it overnight in the fridge. It tasted of generic fruity green. I added a little sweetener hoping that might better define the fruit, which cut down on the slight green bite, but really didn’t do much to make the flavors transform. I get a light fruity floral flavor, but nothing very exciting.

TWG teas have been so hit or miss for me. There are a few that I really enjoy, but so many of them strike me as unremarkable.

I must have chosen this tea because of the pomegranate blossoms. It’s the first time I have heard of them being used for anything and I have no idea what flavor they are. The tea is nice and well balanced. The green base is even, but hidden behind floral flavors. I can’t pin what type of floral (probably because I have no reference for pom blossoms), but it is pleasant. My mouth feels a little dry after I sip the tea.

It’s nice, but not a rebuy.

Cold steeped this. I’m getting a green bite along with what tastes like rose (also with a bite), but I’m guessing is the cherry blossoms. I think I added too much tea and ended up with a slight concentration which I am cutting with a little cream. The cream mellows out the flavors and makes for an okay cup, but I’m not getting the “addictive” finish mentioned in the tea’s description. It’s a miss.

Light, fruity and floral is about all I’m getting from this cup. A little flatness at the end of the sip as it cools. Eh.