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It’s funny, I remember I quite liked this as an evening tea before reading reviews that said it has a beautiful aroma, but the taste doesn’t stand up. So I went back & tried it again, & now I see exactly what they mean. I was letting the heavenly aroma, with its strong strawberry & creamy notes, trick my tastebuds. Once I really concentrated on the taste, rather than smell, it proved less berry, much less cream and more hibiscus. It’s also quite tart, & because I don’t like to add sugar if I can help it, I think it isn’t the tea for me (unless it was just to brew a cup & sit it beside me like an air infuser!).
How disappointing – if the taste matched the aroma this tea would be AMAZING. If the aroma wasn’t SO good, the tea by itself would be pretty good, but once the expectation was set it just didn’t deliver.
Still enjoyable, but I’ll look for a better version.

It must be said – I am NOT A FAN of standard green teas. Having recently found out I was brewing them too hot (boiling water – URGH!), I have revisited a number of them. While this does reduce the bitterness, I was disappointed that they still taste like, well grass. Not that I have eaten grass, but they taste like it smells (or rather what cut grass smells like after it starts to dry out, something Aussies really know about because of the recent droughts). And because green tea has been advocated for good health, I REALLY wanted to like it…
Well, after much searching I may have found my go-to green tea.
The advantage is this one is designed to drink hot or cold! On that basis I bought two 20 infuser boxes on a twofer deal, so thank goodness I like it…
Admittedly I have only tried it cold so far, but the matcha/green tea combo means the grassy taste of the green tea comes through but doesn’t dominate. There’s that lovely earthy umami taste the matcha adds.
I added the teabag to my water bottle & left it in, as the taste wasn’t that strong even after 3 mins. I imaging if you leave it in indefinitely the typical green tea bitterness will start to dominate, so maybe about 5 mins max, or if you’re a fast water drinker, just finish the bottle!
I’ll have to try it hot next – they recommend the very short steeping time of 30 secs (time for 3-4 dunks) so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

NOTE – I dropped a bag in to cold infuse before heading to work (about 15 mins drive). Then got distracted by said work, so at least 20-30 mins before my first sip and yes, BITTER. So about 5-10 mins maximum seems to be the optimum time.

I may be a OCD about doing things in the “right” order, & it might be alphabetically last of the five flavours, but it’s not coincidental that I tried this one last… I’m NOT a big fan of watermelon. So I didn’t really expect to like this one & on first taste I thought I wouldn’t. Overpowering watermelon was all I could taste. But brewed a lot longer than the recommended 3-5 minute minimum, suddenly there’s strawberry & subtle mint in the mix.
Still never going to be my favourite, but very pleasant & refreshing. A good alternative to the other four flavours.

NOTE – I LOVE the sound of the flavour that Steepsters from the UK have reviewed, Coconut, Pineapple & Green Tea. Why do they have that flavour & we Aussies don’t? Conversely, it seems like Brits don’t seem to have the divine Passionfruit, Mango & Blood Orange, or Lemon, Orange & Ginger… Why Twinings, why?

This flavour is just pipped at the post as my favourite cold infusion by the Passionfruit, Mango & Blood Orange.
If you brew the 3-5 mins recommended, the rose is strong & sweet at first, like Turkish Delight. But as I have learned with all these cold infusions, they benefit from more time, to let the secondary flavours come through. In this case the lemon emerges more as you infuse longer, & reduces the fairy-floss sweetness of the rose…
Awesome, & so refreshing!

By far my favourite of these cold infusions & it smells divine too!
The passionfruit is strong at first, but as with all of them, a longer brew time (recommended 3-5 mins – I say at least 10 mins) brings out the secondary flavours – in this case, blood orange, which I love.
The mango is so subtle it is hard to detect… a pity, because that would have added to the richness of the taste, but the drink is still great without it.
This will be my go-to flavour all summer!

I really like lemon and I really like ginger, so this should have been a favourite of the five In’fuse flavours, but this one lacks some sweetness which would take the edge off the sourness of the lemon and the zing of the ginger.
A bit stronger on the orange taste?
Perhaps a little honey?
Or more infusion time?
NOTE – On my second try, I did infuse for longer & I liked it a little more. There was a hint of orange coming through, which I didn’t get the first time.
On the other hand, the ginger was stronger too & left a gingery aftertaste in my mouth, which wasn’t unpleasant, but not as refreshing as the other flavours.
I can imagine it being great if you have a sore throat, especially with some honey added.

In trying to kick my Coke Zero habit, not that I drank a huge amount (1-2 mini cans at work), but sugar substitutes are turning out to be mostly pretty bad for you. So I was looking for a cold drink with no added sugar, but that would give me the refreshment & energy boost I need on a hot day at work.
I was commenting to a workmate about this & coincidentally, she had just bought a pack of this cold water infusion, which Twinings released in five flavours recently. One sniff & I was ready to try it myself, hence…
It tastes strongly of Ribena (blackcurrant) at first, but the longer you infuse it (definitely at least 10 mins), the more the blueberry & apple come out & the better it tastes.
You can reuse a few times too (I have gone up to 4) but if you plan to do that, keep the infusion times to the recommended 3-5 minutes otherwise there’ll be no flavour left by the third infusion…
It tastes great if the water is iced, but if that’s not an option, you can still drink it at room temperature too. How good is that?
Next, the other 4 flavours…

This tea reminds me of my tea with my nana. Not that it was necessarily this specific tea she served us, but it was always strong black tea with milk. It could have been the Aussie icon, Bushells, but more likely it was Tetleys, because despite living in Australia from when she was 12 until she passed away at 91, she was English to the core.
Drinking black tea takes me back to times spent with her and makes me miss her a lot, but also reminds me that she is still sending comfort in the form of a good, strong cuppa.
And this IS a good, strong cuppa. Nana would have loved it!
The first thing you notice is the very dark liquor and rich aroma. I nearly always add milk to black tea because I still find it hard to drink it without. But I think in this case it works well, resulting in a strong but malty smooth taste, compared to some other EBs I have tried, which were astringent & bitter.
There is only one other EB I have tried to date that I prefer, & that is Madura Estate tea (from the north coast of NSW). But it’s a pretty close-run race…