English Breakfast (Loose)
11
Percentile
4 ratings |
|
Commercial Description
...Tea from Kenya and Malawi provides the briskness and coppery-red colour while Assam gives full-body and flavour. The robustness from these regions is complemented by the softer and more subtle teas from China and Indonesia. The combination of these varieties yields a complex, full-bodied, lively cup of tea that is perfect any time of day.
Ratings & Reviews
Page 1 of 1 page with 4 reviews
40 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 2/5Ian Hemingway (10 reviews) on Dec. 17th, 2017
Overpriced for what you get. I like the tin though. This is a utility tea; it'll wake you up without being unpleasant tasting.
42 Aroma: 2/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5Tchuggin' Okie (401 reviews) on Sep. 8th, 2017
Twinings teas in general consistently fail to impress me, though before this, I mostly had tried a few of their bagged offerings. A box of this was available at an estate sale, really cheap, so I figured to give it a run. While it's better than their bagged teas, and not a bad tea at all, I'm still no fan.
For a loose-leaf tea, the product was very granular and finely chopped, as if they simply took the same stuff they put in bags and poured it into a red-painted steel can instead. The aroma was inexcusably weak, even after steeping for longer than usual because of the feeble experiences I've had with their other teas, with moderately dark color in-cup. The flavor wasn't as faint as the aroma -- pleasant enough but rather plain and flat in character. If there really is Assam in here, it's not enough to boost the blend's potency noticeably. Every single other English breakfast tea I've had (bagged or loose) has been better, so far. That said, I wouldn't feel badly serving this to guests, since it has a tolerable, moderate black-tea body. I won't launch the rest of the tin's contents into the compost pile, but I'll probably prioritize other teas over it and/or make big batches of flavored summertime iced tea from this stuff. If you do flavor your tea with lemon juice, lime juice, peppermint, spices, or other additions, I definitely recommend doing so here to cover the blandness of the base tea.
Even though I'm an inexperienced rank amateur at the tea-drinking avocation compared to a lot of folks on this site, greener than the freshly picked leaves, fairly obtuse to subtlety, I absolutely fail to understand how this brand has been impressive enough, to enough people in the U.K. and U.S., to last as long as it has. Maybe other offerings from them will come along to change my mind.
62 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 2/5Alex Zorach (1453 reviews) on Jul. 26th, 2017
The commercial description of this tea is pretty grandiose...it makes it sound like a masterpiece of blending, and I would say it's not.
To me, this is a classic but somewhat run-of-the-mill blend that is enjoyable but stands out in no way. I would not describe it as complex, although it's a good bit more complex, and more tasty overall, than the same tea in tea bags. I've drunk it several times in different settings, and it's always fine, but falls short of good enough for me to want to buy it on my own.
Flavor is robust, a bit harsh though, especially if brewed more strongly, and harsh both in being slightly more bitter than I prefer, and more astringent. The aroma is a little weak; I find not strong enough relative to the harshness, so I can't quite ever brew it to satisfaction.
I think this tea is a bit expensive, overpriced. Compare to Ahmad Tea; hands down I prefer any of Ahmad's loose-leaf pure black teas to this one, the closest in overall flavor or character is probably the Ceylon, but I'd take either of their Assam's or the other Ceylon OPA. All of them are well under half the price of this one. For $5 for 100 grams, the typical price of Twinings' loose-leaf tea, you can buy some much higher-end teas. Upton Tea Imports' catalogue is literally swimming with quality black teas in this price range.
I'll gladly drink this over most of Twinings' tea bags and most other mainstream tea bag brands, but I would never buy it. And I think Twinings could up their game a bit and keep this blend in a similar price range, at least if they were catering to people with tastes similar to mine. Perhaps this is made for people who take their tea with milk; I always drink mine plain.
70 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 5/5Plowboy (24 reviews) on Jul. 26th, 2017
Other reviews of this tea seemed to be about the bagged variety, so I hope it's OK to create a new category.
This is the first loose leaf tea I ever tried, mostly because it's the only one I could find. It's about $10 for 7ozs. at Cost Plus.
It has a faint smell in the can. It has small leaves with flecks of gold. It brews up clear and dark red with a pleasant but not strong aroma. It's smooth with a slightly sweet taste with just a bit of a bitter after taste.
It's a good tea, and while I'm pleased to have found a world of high quality tea, this is still something I'd happily drink.
Page 1 of 1 page with 4 reviews
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