Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Description:
Our modern version of green tea. The unfermented tea leaves are processed gently, encouraging the mellow tea flavours to come through to give a smoother flavour with no harshness. Ideal with or without milk!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I had my reservations about this Everyday Green Tea from Rington’s Premium English Teas. I think that by now, I’ve shown that I’m a little less than enthusiastic when it comes to bagged tea. That said, I do occasionally find not only what I’d deem ‘acceptable’ bagged tea but what I might even call tasty!
This is one such bagged tea. Sure, I’d be happier if this were a loose leaf tea. But, for a bagged tea, this is pleasant. It’s tasty.
To brew it, I heated my kettle of freshly filtered water to 175°F and put one tea bag into a mug. Then I added the heated water and let it steep for 2 minutes.
It tastes like ‘green tea.’ It’s smooth, sweet and buttery. It has vegetal notes that are a little grassy and a little like lima beans.
The tea is not bitter but there is a fair amount of astringency to this – much more so than I’m used to experiencing with a green tea. It starts out rather subtle and it develops and now that I’m halfway through the cup I’m finding this to have a dry, astringent finish.
Overall, this is alright. It isn’t something I’m likely to stock in my pantry but it’s not something I’d refuse if I were offered it, either.
Organic Chai from Twinings of London
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Twinings of London
Tea Description:
Select black tea from Assam expertly blended with sweet and savoury spices including cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and ginger to deliver a flavourful tea with a warm, soothing aroma and a fresh, spicy taste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
After trying two other rather lackluster teas from Twinings of London recently, I wasn’t sure what possessed me to actually try another today. But I tried to keep a positive outlook and without having too high of expectations, I brewed this cup of Organic Chai from Twinings of London.
My initial thoughts: this is better than both the two previous recent tastings of this company’s teas. I can taste the robust Assam tea beneath the bold spices. I like that all the flavors that I expected to taste are represented.
About now is where I might say something like “the flavor of the spices are well-balanced,” but I can’t really say that because they aren’t well balanced. I taste more clove than any other spice. I taste a hearty cinnamon flavor and in contrast, there is very little ginger flavor. The cardamom is tasted, but, it’s not as strong as the clove and cinnamon.
But! I do like the Assam here. It’s a rich and flavorful tea. It’s almost creamy because of its thick, malty texture and I find that very enjoyable.
Overall, it’s not a terrible chai. It’s certainly not great though. It’s not the tea that I’d keep stocked in the cabinet. There are so many great teas out there and this is simply average or perhaps even just slightly below.
Lady Grey® Black Tea from Twinings of London
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Twinings of London
Tea Description:
Lady Grey® is offered exclusively from Twinings. This light black tea is perfectly balanced with the citrus fruit flavours of bergamot, orange and lemon to deliver a delightful tea with a refreshing taste and uplifting aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
After my less than exciting experience with Earl Grey tea from Twinings of London, I found myself skeptical about this Lady Grey® Black Tea from Twinings of London. So, my hopes and expectations were not high when I brewed this tea. I guess it’s a good place for me to start with a tea because it’d be difficult to be disappointed by it, right?
And fortunately, with low expectations, I’m finding this much more tolerable than I found the Earl Grey tea. I guess when I say “Earl Grey” I get excited because I love me some bergamot and so my expectations are immediately set pretty high and that tea really let me down. This one doesn’t disappoint me and I’m not sure if that’s because it’s a tasty tea or because I wasn’t expecting all that much from it.
I like the combination of lemon, orange and bergamot. I like the way the other citrus flavors bring out the flavors of the bergamot. That said, the black tea is still kind of blah. It tastes stale. It tastes boring.
Not horrible, just boring and blah. I can’t help but feel like the flavors would be much better suited for a better tea leaf. Or perhaps a tea company that actually cared about its product to not mince it to dust and stick it in a tea bag.
Ahh … I feel the tea snobbery steeping into my soul!
Earl Grey Tea from Twinings of London
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Twinings of London
Tea Description:
Twinings has been blending my family tea for years. Today, I am proud to continue this tradition with the tea celebrated throughout the world known as Twinings Earl Grey. Legend has it that my ancestor, the second Earl Grey, was presented with this exquisite recipe by an envoy on his return from China.
Fine black tea perfectly balanced with the distinctive flavour of bergamot, a citrus fruit.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I can’t believe I haven’t yet tried this Earl Grey tea from Twinings of London! I’ve tried so many! This being a more ‘common’ brand that is more readily available, I am surprised that I’ve not tried it. But there you have it!
And to be honest, I really wasn’t missing out on much. Sadly, if this is one of the Earl Grey teas that people are exposed to early in their tea drinking experience, I can see why there are so many people who don’t really care for Earl Grey tea.
That’s not to say that this is bad, exactly. But it’s certainly not great. If this was one of the first Earl Grey teas that I had tried, I probably wouldn’t be as enthusiastic an Earl Grey drinker that I am today, so I guess it’s a good thing that I haven’t tried this Earl Grey until now.
The aroma is kind of dull – both the dry leaf and the brewed tea. The brewed tea is a little more lively than the dry leaf, but it doesn’t have that bright, invigorating bergamot aroma that I’ve come to love when it comes to Earl Grey.
And that dull flavor translates to the cup too. This just … isn’t all that exciting. It’s one of the most boring Earl Grey teas I’ve tasted. And as I mentioned earlier, I’ve tasted a lot of Earl Grey tea.
The black tea is kind of boring. It’s just kind of … blah. So much so that I find myself struggling to come up with some descriptive words to describe what I’m tasting but I can’t seem to do it because it’s just so uninspired.
Generally, when I drink an Earl Grey tea, I’m excited and roused with joy over drinking one of my very favorite tea flavors – but that’s not happening right now because this tea lacks excitement in general. It’s just really quite ordinary. In a world full of exciting teas, why would anyone limit themselves to something so average?
Energy Ayurvedic Tea from TeaVeda
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: The Veda Company
Tea Description:
Mildly caffeinated with green tea, one of the nature’s antioxidant wonders. Boost your “Energy” with energizing, tasteful and exotic blends of lemongrass, mint and hibiscus.
Learn more about the teas from TeaVeda here.
Taster’s Review:
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I really do like the concept of the Teaveda teas. I love the beautiful tins and the matching tea ware. I just kind of wish that the Veda Company paid as much attention to this blend in particular as they paid to the packaging and tea ware, because this tea is really quite average. 
While I’m enjoying this blend, I’m not really getting a sense of “Energy” from it. The flavors are very subtle and the overall cup is just sort of “ho-hum”.
The mint, which is normally a rather assertive herb, is quite subdued here. The lemongrass is bright and has a lemon-lime sort of flavor to it that I find enjoyable.
As for the hibiscus … well, it’s no secret that I’m not a big fan of hibiscus. I’m happy to say that the hibiscus is a gentle flavor here – I’m not getting an overly tart flavor from it nor am I getting the syrupy thickness from it. Then again, I did only steep the tea for 2 1/2 minutes so I didn’t expect to get a thick texture from the hibiscus.
I think that maybe the hibiscus helps to emphasize the lemon-y notes of the lemongrass just a bit, but other than that, I can’t say that there’s a really distinct hibiscus note here.
The green tea is pleasant. It’s smooth and buttery. It’s not bitter and it’s not astringent. (Bonus points for that!) Overall, this tea is alright. It’s not my favorite tea that I tried from Teaveda and I guess I just expected more from a tea that calls itself “Energy.”