123 Tasting Notes
Bought this off the Twinings website (on sale, plus a one-day code for free shipping). The caddy is lovely, so even if I don’t like the tea it’s no great loss.
For some reason the website didn’t list the ingredients for this product, and I was a bit disappointed to see “Christmas spice flavouring” on the label. Upon opening the caddy, it smells a bit acrid, maybe like imitation mulled wine flavour (that seems to be a popular addition to Christmas teas around here), and hardly any hint of vanilla.
I used a heaping teaspoon of the loose tea and just enough water to cover the infuser (a bit less than 8 ounces/240 mL), steeped for 5 minutes, added 1 tsp sugar and a bit of unsweetened soya milk. It’s pretty bland – worse than I’d expected when I ordered it, but definitely better than the sickly artificial scent that wafted out of the tin. I think I can actually sort of taste the vanilla. There’s some spice in there, but chai it ain’t.
Preparation
Made a small pot (2 slightly rounded teaspoons loose tea, ~400 mL boiling water) this afternoon – one cup straight, one steeped ~30 seconds longer with unsweetened soya milk added. I usually take black tea with sugar, but I’m pleased to find out that I like this one just fine without. I had the milky cup with a blueberry brownie, which played nicely off the tea’s citrusy notes.
Preparation
Admittedly, I bought this tea for the tin – Beatrix Potter characters, plus it was on sale! How could I pass that up?
I’ve made this tea 4 or 5 times now, and it actually stands out from the dozen or so other bagged black teas I have in my pantry. My tea-tasting isn’t very well honed yet, but it tastes… zingier, I guess? Good with or without milk. I won’t be running out of this anytime soon, but when I do, I think I’ll be buying it again.
