Twinings

Lemon & Ginger is definitely not the first flavour I would have thought to make for a product line of cold infuse teas because, to me at least, that’s more of a “sick tea” that you drink hot – maybe with honey? That said, I was pleasantly surprised. The lemon here is much, much stronger and sweeter than what’s used in the Strawberry Lemon and the ginger is at a strength that I personally enjoy. So, that is to say, fairly light. I still think I’d like this more as a hot tea, but it was nice!

A late night cuppa because I felt like I needed something cold and I didn’t have an ongoing cold brew and what was in the fridge was not yet ready to be strained. I’ve been doubling up on the sachets of these cold infuse teas lately because it’s been delivering the perfect level of potency for me that way, but this one didn’t work quite as well. It was very heavy and richly flavoured with a lot of mango in particular coming through in the taste but it tasted very chemical in its composition and the percentage of flavouring overall was harsh to the point where it left my tongue almost just a bit numb.

I guess I’m just not feeling the mango/passionfruit combo right now because this was definitely my least favourite of these four cold infuse teas. It was tangier than the others with some of the sour and sweet notes of the passionfruit coming out and a juicier mango than I expected – but relative to other mango or passionfruit teas that I own I just thought it was thin in mouthfeel and a bit unbalanced. Still not bad at all, though! Very drinkable.

Cold Brew!

One of the few teas I drank this weekend (because I was feeling sick). I double up on the sachets and filled a 20 oz tumbler to the brim with ice cold water and ended up drinking that throughout the coarse of the day because I was a thirty, thirsty whom constantly felt overheated and the chilling temperature was as refreshing to me as the semi-sweet strawberry jello type flavouring with its subtle lemony undertones. Way better than just drinking water, IMO.

As someone who cold brews daily, I was of course very intrigued when I saw this line up of “cold infuse” teas from Twinings at the grocery store during my last big haul…

I have some mixed feelings on them – part of me really appreciates that they’re ready to drink in like five minutes but the other part of me feels like that’s a bit of a fundamental misunderstanding of why I like cold brewing. If I want a quick cold/chilled drink, I’ll just make an iced tea, y’know? Cold brewing is great because I can start a brew in the morning or evening and then just forget about it for hours and hours and just come back to it whenever it’s convenient for me.

The other thing with these cold infuse teas is that the reason they actually can steep so quickly is because there’s such an incredibly high amount of flavouring in the tea. There are basically two kinds of flavouring: “liquid” flavouring and “solid” flavouring, each with their own advantages. Looking closely at all four of the different flavours I bought, I can actually see the large amount of compressed flavouring within the ingredient mix. So over the course of those five minutes when you’re shaking your tea to “infuse” it what you’re actually doing is just dissolving the flavouring into the tea.

Now, I personally don’t have anything against flavoured teas at all – but at a five minute cold infusion time you’re really not allowing anything else in these blends to actually steep aside from the tiniest bit of hibiscus or apple. At that point, why not just by a flavoured water enhancer that you can just squirt into some water??

But, all of that said…

It’s a damn good strawberry flavour. Sweet and juicy without really much acidity to it, and then a refreshing “RTD Style” lemon that has its own kind of soft sweetness. It’s not really very strong compared to a standard iced tea/cold brew because nothing has really “steeped” – and the mouthfeel is thin aside from the texture of the flavouring. But yeah, for what it is I think it nails the two flavours.

I prefer the loose leaf so I can make a stronger cup.

Sipdown! (70 | 274)

Another swap teabag down!

This sounds good to me in theory, but there’s something odd about it… I think maybe it’s the lime blossom part? It’s coming off a little perfumey, yet also limey, which is a strange combination. And it kind of tastes like Windex in the same way that lime Skittles always did to me. Luckily they replaced those with green apple.

Anyway, the chamomile and orange parts are fine, but the lime blossom is weird. Now I might need to seek out an orange chamomile tisane, because that sounds yummy…

Sipdown! (62 | 266)

Another swap teabag!

This is actually quite pleasant. It has a nice sweet and tart orange flavor, augmented by just a little hibiscus tartness. The ginger adds a nice touch of spiciness. And I actually like the honey flavoring as well, it’s subtle enough that it doesn’t taste cloying.

Not something I would buy for myself, but I’m enjoying it this evening on the couch!

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I got a single wrapped teabag of this in my recent swap. Perfect for a late-night sipdown! :D

The chamomile is the strongest flavor here, which I don’t mind as I love chamomile. It’s soft and mellow with a nice honeyed note. The spearmint makes a nice accent and adds a refreshing cleanness to the blend. Apparently there’s lemongrass and linden in this as well. It’s been a while since I’ve had linden in a tisane, but I think I can taste it here? Especially at the end of the sip.

Obviously this doesn’t taste overly fresh or anything, but it’s perfectly lovely for a low-maintenance bedtime brew and I’m happy to be sipping on it. :)

Big bags tea bag and well, either this one haven’t aged well, or it is plain boring. I had to search what loganberry is, and well I know the vice versa berry — a raspberryblackberry (dunno correct name) but it seems it is different plant to loganberry. We have that one in our garden and I love them.

But this tea is unfortunately hibiscus forward than berries, and while it wasn’t bad, it was nothing remarkable than generic berry fruit tea. It had some tartness, but it was quite mellow and as I said, nothing to write much about, unfortunately. To be honest, disappointed about this cup.

Another foilwrapped tea from my big bags. There are still many hidden to drink and try. Sadly, this tea is discontinued already, which is shame because it’s not that bad even being that old.

It’s a bit on the rough side of spectrum of white teas, but aged whites are delish and I noticed quite similar flavours here among common hay in old teas. It was a bit stonefruity and a little of autumn leaf pile. Of course, none of those were strong as a loose leaf (even when it was a dragonball). But they were somehow noticeable.

And the fruit line? It was truly a hint of Pomegranate. It was there. Some fruity undertone was there. Probably the flavouring was a bit flat than fresh, but it was there. I can imagine it being made in loose leaf. But as a tea bag, it wasn’t bad either.

From the tea box. This is a nice rooibos! Good depth, sweet, no distracting weirdness. Not much to say since it’s plain, but I like it! I grabbed a few bags to make some pitchers for the fridge. I tried a long resteep, and it ended up tasting exactly like the paper tea bag, so I won’t be doing that again! This is one of the better plain rooibos teas I’ve come across lately.

I like brewing this for 3 minutes. But I also like keeping the tea bag in my cup for 15 minutes. The bergamot flavor in this is perfect. Earl Grey version comes off a bit strong.

Mini note for exam tea #2
The cucumber, mint, and nettle combination is nice when you are in the mood for it. The stevia is very strong though so it’s not for everyone. The base tea isn’t super noticeable but isn’t bitter or astringent whatsoever.

What can I say about this classic, an eponymous favorite? It helped get me through highschool. I wrote to Twinings as a kid when I noticed that the ingredient changed from OIL of bergamot to bergamot FLAVORING. They tried to assure me that it was still a high quality tea, which may be true, but I’m still a curmudgeon! I drink this from teabags now. The string tag advises “steep 3 minutes” and the pouch warns “do not microwave”. But, why?