I'm not much of a tea or coffee drinker, and during the winter months I often find myself reaching for a hot chocolate. This is ok for an occasional treat but as I felt like having a hot drink more than once a day a hot chocolate was not the healthiest option. For this reason I have been trying out the range of herbal, fruit and green teas from the Twinings range. I quite like green tea on it's own, but can find it a bit bitter, so recently I have been trying out flavoured green teas. One of my more recent trials was 'Green tea with orange and lotus flower'.

The health benefits of drinking green tea have been widely publicised in recent years. It is rich in antioxidants and is supposed to be helpful for lowering cholesterol, has the potential to protect from heart disease and cancer, aid weight loss and slows down the aging process. Quite impressive for a cuppa! We all know the health benefits of citrus fruits like oranges and the lotus flower is associated with purity in China.

The tea comes packaged in a green box with a picture of some tea leaves, orange segments and lotus petals on the front. On opening the box I was pleased to note that the tea bags were individually wrapped as I do like to take some tea bags to work with me, and it is not always practical to do so when they come unwrapped. A box containing 20 tea bags currently retails at £1.26 in Tesco's but can often be found on offer, as it currently is, with three boxes within the Twinings range for £3.

Making a cuppa is really easy. Just pop in a mug, pour on boiling water and leave to brew. It is recommended that you don't let this brew longer than two minutes - I have done this in the past when I got distracted and the tea does tend to get quite bitter which is not so pleasant. Once brewed the resulting tea is a golden brown colour and gives off the delicious aroma of freshly squeezed oranges. It really does smell amazing!

Taking my first sip I was pleasantly surprised to note how citrussy this was. There is a real tang of oranges, which does not taste artificial. The tea is really zesty and simply bursting with flavour. Having said that the orange does not dominate and you can still get the distinctive taste of green tea. Despite its zestiness I would still describe this as a delicate tea and really delicious. Green teas are best drunk without any milk, although you can add sweetener or honey to this drink. However I think it tastes fine as it is.

Overall, this is one of my favourite green teas from the Twinings range and one that is a regular on my shopping list. It tastes delicious, is bursting with flavour and is very good for you too! Highly recommended!