I admit, I'm a tough customer when it comes to decaf tea--I just don't like it. I tried this out of curiosity, in a sense, to see relatively how bad it was.

Twinings Irish Breakfast, in my opinion, is a pretty decent tea--it's one of my favorite ones, and I like it much more than their English Breakfast, so this was a logical choice of one to try.

The flavor is extremely muted...there's not much bite, only a muted bitter aftertaste. I prefer teas that have a bold, up-front bitterness. There's more astringency than bitterness, and I don't like that. The color is pretty rich: a reddish brown.

The caffeinated Irish Breakfast has a lot of aromatic qualities that are completely lost in this tea--a hint of wintergreen, a rich malty quality, and a suggestion of rice. All I noticed in this tea was a very faint maltiness.

In the end? No...they don't pull it off, as far as I'm concerned. I'll stick with a naturally caffeine-free herbal tea if I want to avoid caffeine--something like rooibos or red raspberry leaf.

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