Posted by Gravecat at 12:05 am under Tea Reviews, Twinings. Comments (17)
That’s one hell of a long title, but unfortunately, such tends to be the way when dealing with anything beyond your bog-standard “builder’s brown” teas. Since my last review wasn’t even technically a tea, and was instead one of those “fruit infusions” that I’m unashamedly gay enough to be drinking, it’s time to tackle something that actually contains some of the world’s best leaves.
Which is to say, tea leaves.
This is actually one of my personal favourites of the bunch and something I used to plough through like there’s no tomorrow; while I’m generally more of a fan of green tea overall than — say — black, white, or the other varieties, this particular blend just tops the charts in my book. The clean, light taste of green teas tends to make them ideal for mornings or early-day activities, perhaps less suited for middle-of-the-night drinking, though that never stopped an uncultured drudge like me.
The bags themselves are fairly unremarkable, and simply smell like most green tea bags are wont to do — dry and grassy. The inclusion of the magic ingredient (hot water) is truly the key here, however, which unlocks a remarkably simple yet pleasing aroma of distinct citrus, mixed with the usual grassiness of the green tea. While I’d say it leans slightly towards the grapefruit side, it’s largely indistinct and a fairly good balance of the two, without overpowering the tea itself.
The flavour is, unsurprisingly, exactly what one would expect from the smell — an indistinct yet entirely pleasing and surprisingly gentle blend of citrus, which compliments but doesn’t smother the delicate flavour of the green tea. It’s certainly the kind of experience that could only be appreciated by someone who already enjoys the flavour of plain green tea, but the additions are more than welcome in my book. Overall, it’s quite a subdued and gentle combination, while remaining fairly light and fresh, which is why I think it wins even more points towards being an ideal candidate for morning tea, when you’re still stumbling about in a bleary-eyed, groggy haze.
If you like green tea, it’s a fantastic choice in the Twinings range and I can almost guarantee you’d enjoy it; it’s even worth trying for those of you who may not have experienced green tea at all, and are curious to try something fairly mild and easygoing. For those who staunchly prefer black tea, though, I doubt this will be enough to change your opinion on green, though you’re certainly welcome to prove me wrong.
Miranda — April 20th, 2010 @ 1:15 am
Have you ever had genmaicha? If you’re a fan of greens, I’d definitely recommend that you try it. Also known as “popcorn tea,” it’s a Japanese blend of green tea and roasted brown rice (which, in a fancy-bag or loose leaf variety, frequently resembles little popcorn kernals) that was developed in response to tea shortages during WWII. Very unique flavor, sort of nutty. I’ve had it frequently in Japanese restaurants although they usually serve it too watered-down.
Gravecat — April 20th, 2010 @ 1:24 am
I’m currently limited to the sort of thing you find in tea-bags, simply due to lack of proper equipment to make loose tea, so yes and no. Yes, I think I’ve tried it (I recall something called ‘popcorn green tea’ or similar at the local tea shop, Brew), but it’s not something I’m terribly familiar with as I’ve not had a chance to try it multiple times at home.
But with that said, yeah, I think I’ve tried it, and it was rather enjoyable!
Lu — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:11 am
You have a tea shop?! …..as deadly as it will be to my mediocre student finances, I demand we go there next time I’m visiting. I’ll buy you a teapot or something as thanks, and teach you how to brew proper tea, I guess.
I’ve yet to find somewhere near Hudds that does genmaicha, and it’s something I’d quite like to get a hold of.
Speaking of which, I need to get on and do some of my own damn reviewing, there’s a cupboard full of adventu- tea, I mean tea – out there.
Gravecat — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:15 am
Well, yes and no. I mean a tea shop in the same way that Starbucks is a coffee shop. You go there to drink tea, I don’t think they sell teapots and things. ;)
And yeah, you should get rolling on the bandwagon! I’ve got a few reviews already queued up to be posted in a few days, and more will be following. ;3
Gravecat — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:17 am
Also: How are you liking the iPhone blog theme? I’m rather fond of it myself, but I wouldn’t mind a second opinion. ;3 And I can see you browsing the site on the iPhone right now, nothing is secret from this kitty.
Lu — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:19 am
Awww man, no selling? Curses! Eh, either way, the Lu demands delicious beverages. Also, with being sick as a dog, it’s pretty hard to review tea when it’s my only source of nutrition.
I am also still buying you a teapot and teaching you how to make REAL tea, like a man. Manly tea.
Also what are you doing awake go to sleep.
Lu — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:23 am
Yeah well, I’m bedridden for the morning. Also quite liking it! And somewhat disturbed that you knew that it was me on the iPhone. I mean, it could be anybody, clearly.
Gravecat — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:25 am
It clearly could be anyone called Lu who posted a comment on the same IP address as the person browsing from: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16.
Anyone at all.
I’m on to you.
Lu — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:30 am
Yeah man! Fucking anybody could have the name Lu and be posting from the same IP as me on an iPhone. Moreover, why were you even checking to see what platform I was posting from? You’re freakin’ me out, man! :C
i don’t even own one of those godforsaken hipster phones >.>
Gravecat — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:33 am
Wooooah maaaaaaan, I’m freaking ouuuuut.
StatPress all the way. I’m relentlessly curious about my site’s visits, so I keep an eye on it when I’m bored. And yes, it tracks just about everything that it’s possible to track, so I usually know who’s doing what, though a few mysteries do often perplex me. Like, who it was that ended up on my site via a URL in an email, on a Hotmail account.
Lu — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:39 am
HOT HOT HOT XXX FURRY PORN AT GRAVEC.AT SIGN UP TODAY FOR HOT AMERICAN DICKINGS.
That is what the email said, I assure you.
Gravecat — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:42 am
HICKORY-SMOKED HORSE BUTTHOLES
Man, this entry is gonna get so many fucking bizarre Google hits now. Also: Guess who just found an old copy of the Smoothie Experiment.
Lu — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:45 am
I do try and bring an element of bizarre, yet harmless chaos into your life, yes. :3
And YAAAAAAAAAY HAPPINESS, JOY AND FRIVOLITY I really liked the smoothie experiment. Possibly the high point of your blogging career. Everything went downhill from ther- PUT THAT DOWN I WAS ONLY KIDDING :C
Gravecat — April 20th, 2010 @ 11:55 am
Bringing it up to speed now. The old site used hard-coded PHP pages for articles, but these days the site just uses WordPress-powered static pages (much easier to handle). But it means that anything I want to port over from old sites take a little conversion.
Lu — April 20th, 2010 @ 12:10 pm
This makes me _quite_ jovial, I must say. And thank you for taking the effort, it was actually one of my favourite things from your old website.
Gravecat — April 20th, 2010 @ 12:12 pm
Sha-pow! http://gravec.at/articles/smoothie/
Lu — April 20th, 2010 @ 12:15 pm
You are the most amazing person alive, and if you ever make that noise in meatspace I may just die from giggling.