Tea for 2, 3, 4...... (Twinings Everyday)

Member Name: Suzela

Product:	Twinings Everyday
Date:	23/10/07 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Delicious and refreshing

Disadvantages: perhaps a tad expensive

I love my tea - in particular I love my brand of tea, Twinings Everyday Tea. I love it so much that I do indeed drink it everyday and at any time of the day. So really it is what it claims to be.

So why do I love it so much? Well simply because it is delicious and refreshing and each tea bag makes a consistantly good cup of tea. Other brands have produced great cups of tea and not so great cups and you were never quite sure which you would get but this never fails to hit the spot for me.

It is a blended tea and as Twinings has always represented good quality fine teas to me I am sure that it is a blend of only the finest teas. Unfortunately I cannot ascertain what they are from the box or the website and should imagine that the blend is quite a closely guarded secret. But no matter as the important thing for me is the taste and the overall experience of drinking it.

I am quite picky about my tea and how it is prepared. Whether it is the right way or not I don't know but it is what works for me! I normally brew my tea direct in the cup (well actually it is more of a trough in my case - no small cups of tea in this house, at least not for me!) But I have decided to make it exactly how they recommend you do it on the Twinings website www.twinings.co.uk

1. Use freshly drawn water in the kettle (so not the same water that has been left over from the last 4 kettle boilings then - damn I am so lazy!). It recommends that your kettles are descaled regularly (we do actually do this - boils so much quicker!)
2. Teapots should be warmed with water which is then tipped away (I think my teapot almost died when I dusted it off the shelf - it doesn't say if this can be hot tap water or if it has to come out of the kettle but if it is out of the kettle it would suggest that you have to boil the kettle twice for one pot of tea - not too eco friendly there then!)
3. When making tea add one bag per person plus one for the pot (lucky pot!)
4. Water should have just boiled when you pour it into the pot
5. Leave to brew for 3-5 minutes and stir
6. Pour into a cup, add milk and sweeten (if this is your kind of thing - personally I just add milk).

So I did that. I even went without my huge denby trough and poured the tea (which I brewed for 3 minutes) into one of my clear glass cups so I could look at the colour (but fear not I tipped it into the trough and filled it up after I had a look!). The first thing I noticed was the medium gold colour of the tea. It was really clear and there was no scum in the pot. It steams suitably and you get a lovely tea smell wafting up in the steam. It smells like freshly cut grass with a hint of citrus. You just know from the smell that it is going to be refreshing.

I took a sip of the tea au naturelle and although I can't really stand tea without milk, I was pleasantly surprised. It was clean tasting and you could detect the hint of citrus I could smell. It was quite tart and there were the tannins - not too strong but there nonetheless. I find tea without milk overpowering but this wasn't - it just tasted fresh. There was no real aftertaste - except that you knew you had just sipped tea. I then added the milk and it turned a lovely rich creamy gold colour. The milk for me balances all the flavours in the tea for me and so I went to sit down and have my afternoon cuppa.

There is something about this tea which apart from being refreshing is also comforting. You feel like you could snuggle up on the sofa with this tea in the winter like you would a cup of hot chocolate. It does have a very enlivening quality too. I wake up in the morning feeling like death and 10 minutes later I feel refreshed even before my shower. And by the same token its comforting qualities mean than come late evening I can enjoy a cup of tea and relax without worrying about bouncing off the ceiling all night!

I did a little digging around the Twinings website though because not being able to find details of the blend had disconcerted me a little - my immediate thought was "oh no this is going to be exploited tea!". But I was reassured to see that Twinings is a member of the Ethical Tea Partnership which is committed to ethical tea sourcing. For more details of what this is and what they do visit here http://www.twinings.co.uk/aboutusourpolicies.asp

So how much will this golden tea nectar set you back? Well it is sold in boxes of 40, 80 and 160 but in our local Sainsbury they only sell the 80 and 160 boxes and they are £1.97 and £3.78 respectively. How much I hear you exclaim? Well yes this is a slight downside to the product but it is still only just over 2p a brew! One thing though, you would think for that price you would have a lovely foil fresh package but no you have a traditional style card box so you do need to decant into a tea caddy to maintain the freshness. For me it's a plus point because it's easily recyclable but some might find that an inconvenience.

All in all I am so glad that I switched to this brand of tea and there is another good reason as well - it doesn't seem to stain the cup so much (which is always good news as it saves on washing up!). So if you ever fancy a change from your usual brew, I would strongly recommend having a try of Twinings Everyday Tea. It's simply lovely.

To find out more about Twinings as a company just visit their website
http://www.twinings.co.uk/aboutus_hotspots.asp


This review is also on Ciao (same username)

Summary: A totally refreshing cuppa!