Infused and enthused (Twinings Lemon and Ginger)

Member Name: M0zza

Product:	Twinings Lemon and Ginger
Date:	25/06/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No caffeine

Disadvantages: Can't dunk a biscuit

Every now and again I feel the need to detox my system and this invariably involves cutting out the caffeine. As I drink several coffees at work and several teas at home each day this means that a decent replacement is always required. Caffeine free teas have been tried and discarded, and several herbal and fruit teas have gone that way as well. But I decided to give them another shot and went for a company who I trusted to make quality teas, Twinings, and their 'Revive & Revitalise' Lemon and Ginger.

So I went out shopping with my wife, and whilst contemplating the virtues of reusable shopping bags... no thats another review. The tea and coffee section of the supermarkets nowadays is massive, but the gold band and black text of the Twinings logo is usually rather distinctive on their all black tea boxes. With their herbal/fruit teas they have decided to go with lighter shades. I suppose to make them feel more 'summery' and 'healthy'. In this case the gold band is nearly lost in the yellow at the top of the box, and if only giving the box a casual glance the picture of the ginger may look more like something our cats leave behind. For holding just 20 teabags the box looks rather large. But I suppose these teabags aren't the usual 'cram it in' PG Tips type teabags most people are used to.

On opening the box you are hit with a very strong smell of ginger. Which isn't too surprising as ginger root does make up over a third of the content of the teabag. What was surprisingly was that I was expecting individually wrapped mini-teabags on a little string with a little tag on the end as, in the past, that is what I have been presented with when buying 'speciality' teas. But on this occasion the twenty teabags are just plain white rectangular teabags, paired together and loose in the box. I most definitely prefer this as it cuts out on uneccessary packaging, and the string invariably always comes off.

So I put the kettle on, tore off a teabag, added it to my cup and waited for the water to boil. The box dictates that you leave the teabag in for three minutes to infuse. In our one hundred miles an hour world I hardly think anyone does this anymore, but I did so this time and sat tapping my fingers waiting for the one hundred and eighty seconds to lapse as hot water gently changed to a pale yellow.

To begin with the smell of the drink reminded me very strongly of Lemsip, but then any hot lemony drink will I suppose. Still this did not bode well and I was not looking forward to the first taste. The taste was very pleasant, the first thing to hit you is the mild lemon taste, and then at the back of the mouth the very slight burn of the ginger. It certainly didn't taste like lemsip, and I had no trouble finishing my first cup.

One of the things people won't be used to in this age of the teabag, is that unlike with "regular" teabags the contents of this bag are varying in size and this results in some sludgy remnants of the infusion at the bottom of the cup.

I will say that this is something I could drink once or twice a day. But as I drink a lot more teas and coffees than that I'm still going to have to come up with another caffeine free brew to help replace the rest in my detox period. I'll have to check out what other infusions Twinings have to offer.

A 20 teabag box of Twinings Lemon and Ginger is available from all reputable supermarkets at an approximate price of £1.50.

Summary: Whilst this is an enjoyable brew it won't replace my usual cuppa.