Prince of Wales (loose leaf)

Very nice tea. I tasted it straight before I “doctored it up”. There was no trace of bitterness, just a little touch of a malty flavor on the middle of my tongues. A very mild tea, it still stood up well to vanilla coffee creamer (I’m out of soy creamer right not) and some sweetener. IMO this is a good staple tea, and I really wish my grocery store had it on the shelves!! I picked up a tin at the tea shop in EPCOT yesterday, since we were there for a day of fun, and I know that I like the bagged version of this tea.

I’m somewhat torn about giving this a poor review. When I first became addicted to tea at the age of 19, four teas by Twinings became my favourite – Earl Grey, Russian Caravan, Ceylon Orange Pekoe and Prince of Wales. Russian Caravan and Prince of Wales complements each other perfectly, probably due to the Keemun being in both blends. If I understand correctly, Prince of Wales tea is Keemun blended with Ceylon or Indian tea, and Russian Caravan is Keemun blended with Yunnan tea and sometimes with the addition of Lapsang Souchong. Overall I had a slight preference for Russian Caravan as the Prince of Wales blend had a somewhat flat taste to – a surface taste of the Keemun with very little depth of flavour. Having said that, I still enjoyed Prince of Wales consumed with milk and got my flatmates hooked on it as well.

For about ten years living abroad, I couldn’t get Prince of Wales tea as Twinings no longer sold this tea in the EU so I developed a real taste for Keemun tea instead. I loved the nut-like flavour and beautiful aroma of freshly brewed Keemun tea in the late afternoon or evenings.

On returning to Australia, I was really looking forward to drinking Prince of Wales tea. The first thing I noticed was the flat taste and I forgot how much this becomes evident over time. In the last few months, I have started drinking most of teas black, occasionally with lemon. The Prince of Wales was completely undrinkable after the first cup, even with lemon and additional hot water. This may have been an off-day – maybe I brewed for too long, or perhaps a poor batch of tea. So I’m sitting down again with another pot of Prince of Wales to test.

Opening my Twinings tin (which must be at least 30 years old based on the lettering) I get a waft of that beautiful, nutty Keemun aroma. The tea leaves are standard Broken Orange Pekoe of fairly uniform length. The first cup I have made with soy milk. The taste is nutty, but the tea is pretty weak – possibly too much milk so I top up with the tea pot. Now this is more like it – there is still that nuttiness, but slightly sweet with a hint of chocolate and vanilla. There is a bit more depth and now I realise that what I had thought of as being “flat” is actually due to having one strong dominant taste, whereas Russian Caravan is a more complex, layered tea. I can’t really detect the maltiness that other people have found.

Now for the moment of truth – black without lemon. The aroma is lovely and strong, as is the colour. There is virtually no astringency or bitterness. The nuttiness is there and the sweet flavour, and it has a real ‘body’ to it. This wouldn’t be the first tea I would reach for if I wanted a cup of black tea as the milk tempers the tea and balances out the nutty flavour. Without milk, it tends to be a bit too strong and it is obvious that the actual tea is not the best quality (although it is far from being the worst). If I was going to drink black, it would be in the afternoon with something sweet like a few squares of chocolate.

So, an old favourite has been redeemed. :)

This blend has a profound, almost spicy note without milk. Its taste is insuring one that nicely fermented leafs from Yunnan & Anhui have been used for this blend. Be generous with the portioning. Use the water at boiling point and keep steeping it for 3.30min. Second brew can be made with 4.30min steeping time…
Adding milk would break the spell of magic that is happening on one’s taste palate. Seriously!
Although it has a great flavor it really is a mild tea for afternoons.
Would not be my first choice for breakfast.
By the way, I compared loose leaves of this blend with tea bag. Bags are rubbish in flavor but surprisingly more awakening…

Did I get the same Twinings loose leaf Prince of Wales as everyone else? Because my experience with this tea could not be more different from everyone else’s reviews.

I first tried it last week, steeped 5-6 minutes in boiled water with sugar, and then some milk. I did not like it then but I had been sick so I refrained from passing any judgement.

I’m better now so I gave it a second chance. I steeped it only 2 minutes, 1 tsp for about 8 oz of boiled water. I added sugar, no milk.

I still don’t like it, got the same impression as before :-/ It’s too smoky for me, everyone says it’s lightly smoky but to me it’s too smoky, I never had smoky tea before this so I fear I might hate a tea that is really smoky. I can hardly taste the tea and the smoky aftertaste lingers in my mouth for hours, even after I brush my teeth.

Any advice from the Prince of Wales lovers on Steepster? Did someone at Twinings accidentally spill liquid smoke over my tea so it’s just the batch? Am I not preparing it right? I hate to give up on a tea, there are so few that I don’t like.

Very good Chinese black tea for the price. Chinese blacks are a completely different flavor than Indian ones. I think that is why some people are saying it’s weak. I like the Chinese more since they more complex in flavor. I drink this straight up or just a bit of sugar, no milk (unlike Indian teas which I feel need both).

First off I should give a bit of personal history with this tea which dates back to my freshman year of college and the start of my interest in teas. At the time when I started college I was used to drinking mainly soda but being cheap I soon realized that tea (and sugar) was a lot cheaper than soda to have around the dorm room and I soon found that Twinings was not only the best brand of teabag tea in the grocery store but also frequently went on sale for 3 boxes for $5. At first I focused upon English Breakfast and especially Irish Breakfast tea but when they added it I got a Twinings variety pack which included Prince of Wales. Prince of Wales was my first exposure to Chinese black tea and was what initially lead to my lasting bent on favoring Chinese teas over Ceylon and Indian teas. So when I happened to be at a tea shop that had tins of loose Twinings teas I could not resist picking up a tin of Prince of Wales for old times sake.

My initial taste of the brew in over half a decade was surprise at it being higher quality than I had initially expected. The taste of the Prince of Wales blend is indeed light and smooth as described and it is clear that a good part of the blend is Keemun black tea. Clearly it could be better especially if it was blended using higher quality whole leaves instead of the broken leaf grade, but while it lacks any slight traces of natural semi-sweetness found in some blacks I also would not call it bitter either. The Keemun that it was made from is a good mild variety without any traces of smoke. Finally to complete the experiment of duplicating my early tea experience after finishing half of the contents of the mug of tea I emptied 2 sugar packets into the remaining half cup of tea to make it in the style that I drank my tea during my college days. Wow I never realized how much sugar can destroy the more subtle notes of tea before this experiment not to mention it is no wonder why I gained so much weight during my college years with all that sugar in my tea all the time.

Just picked up a tin of this, loose. The taste is just what you’d expect from a blend that is mostly Keemun black, with some various other teas (including green and oolong) mixed in. The overall smell is nice, but the vegetal notes from the lighter varieties of tea disrupt the smoothness I like in a black tea with milk. My girlfriend feels the same way – she likes the overall smell, but feels hoodwinked by parts of the flavor. It’s still a decent tea, but might do better without milk.

I like this tea ok loose, but to be honest I think I prefer the bagged version. More of the floweriness comes through, as opposed to the leafy flavors in the loose version. If I’m in a place without loose tea, bags of this tea are a welcome sight.

Velvety and light, almost a whisper of a black tea. Good for winding down, not winding up.

nice cheap loose supermarket tea.
It’s smooth and light, hasn’t a very strong flavor, quite light for a black tea.
I like it in the morning, with milk.

This is, so far, the best tea I’ve drunk. It’s ALSO my first loose-leaf tea! Anyway, I nice mild cup, just right for my tastes, considering I’m not a fan of more astringent teas