333 Tasting Notes
I was skeptical about this one—it’s not the flavor profile I usually go for, and I only threw a bag of it into my purchase at the Twinings shop last month to make it to the required minimum of 15 miscellaneous teabags. But I’m actually enjoying it quite a bit. It tastes quite strongly of lime, which is a bit off the beaten track in the herbal tea world. It’s pleasantly tart, but it doesn’t taste especially strongly of hibiscus. I can’t say I can really pick out the blood orange or pineapple, but it does taste pleasingly of tropical fruits in an abstract sense. I might pick up a box of this one sometime to mix up my usual berry-based lineup.
This is a decent blend for what it is. The green base is pretty meh, but there’s a strong note of sweet, syrupy lychee to make up for it. It’s got nothing on the greats of the lychee world, like Butiki’s magnificent and much mourned Lychee Oolong. It’s not a particularly complex blend, or an outstanding one, and I don’t think it’ll be a restock. Still, not bad for less than £2 on special.
This one is nice and gingery, and while it’s more spice than fruit the rhubarb comes through decently. I could’ve done without the liquorice root, though—this is sweeter than any rhubarb tisane has a right to be, and I suspect I would’ve liked it better without this stealth addition. It’s not bad, and I won’t rule out restocking it given the price, but I think I prefer Teapigs’ take on this flavor combo.
This one just tastes generically sweet and creamy to me, not like fudge or chocolate. Which may be for the best; green tea and chocolate don’t strike me as a wonderful flavor combination. In fact, this blend has got a lot in common with Twinings’ Salted Caramel. And it really is quite sweet, bordering on excessively so. It’s okay, but definitely not something I’ll go out of my way to drink again.
Why are Twinings’ UK teas and tisanes so much better than their US counterparts? From the infinitely stronger and more flavorful breakfast blends to the exciting herbals they don’t carry back in the States, it’s almost as if they were two separate entities. Anyway, on to the tisane, another of the teabags I picked up at the Twinings shop a few days ago. It’s mostly blackcurrant, with some hibiscus undertones. The blackcurrant flavor is very pleasant; I only wish the rhubarb came through. I suppose the hint of sourness from the hibiscus hints at it, but that’s all. This blend seems very similar to Twinings Blackcurrant and Blueberry, and I think I like them both about equally. I’ll definitely purchase one or the other again.
On Thursday I made my way to London’s Twinings shop, where you can buy individual teabags of a bunch of their blends. Though they don’t have quite as much variety as I might’ve liked, it’s nonetheless a great opportunity to try new varieties—especially those you might be on the fence about, like I was about this one.
This tea sounded so weird, but I know it and some of the other Indulgence blends have gotten rave reviews so I thought I might as well sample them all. And it is weird, a little, but it’s good. The caramel flavor is pretty true to life, and it gives the tea a rich, buttery mouthfeel. It makes for an unusual flavor combination with the green base, but not a bad one. It’s a very enjoyable blend, on the whole. I’m not sure it’s a restock for me, but I certainly wouldn’t object to drinking it again.
Well, I finally made it to Yumchaa in Soho today! It’s a really cute place, and a nice place to stop out of the chaos of central London. I was torn between this and a few of the fruity rooiboses (and I’m sure I’ll be back for those soon enough), but in the end I couldn’t help but fall for the impressive array of fruits mentioned in the description. It didn’t quite live up to my expectations—the fruit flavors were neither as strong nor as distinct as I might’ve liked, especially the rhubarb—but the green base was smooth and pleasant and the faint berry flavor that did come through added a hint of something extra. I’m glad I tried this tea, and I wouldn’t be averse to drinking it again—it seems like the sort of blend that might be better iced, anyway—but it wasn’t quite the transformative tea experience I’d hoped for. Still, very much looking forward to trying more from Yumchaa now that I’m in London.
Sad Butiki sipdown. Though this isn’t as strong as my usual breakfast blends, the Darjeeling—which I love—comes through nicely. There’s a hint of citrus and some very faint cocoa. This one pales in comparison to Heaven’s Trash, but nonetheless it’s a blend I would’ve liked to be able to get some more of.
