Customer Reviews

Twinings Earl Grey Tea - 3.53 oz. Loose Tea Tin

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Twinings was founded in London, England in 1706, and has a long and respected tradition of producing only the finest of teas. Earl Grey tea was named after Charles Grey, Second Earl Grey (1764-1845), and is a mixture of black tea and oil of bergamot (a small acidic orange). It is said that Earl Grey learned the recipe of this delicious tea from a Chinese Mandarin and brought it home to England, where it has been a favorite ever since.

OK, let's get down to brass tacks - this is a great tea, produced by a great company, and is my all-time favorite. The tea produced has a wonderful aroma, and an excellent taste. But, a couple of words of warning - don't over-steep the tea, or it will quickly become bitter and unpalatable. Also, while sugar goes well with this tea, I have found that milk dilutes the bergamot too much, and lemon completely hides the bergamot which is the reason for drinking it!

That's my review. If you want a wonderful smelling and tasting black tea, then Earl Grey is for you. If you want tea from a great tea producer, them Twinings is for you. If you want a nectareous drink, then buy Twinings' Earl Grey tea!

Earl Grey is my favorite blend of tea by far - no competition there. The biggest secret with this tea once given to Earl Grey of Hoswick Hall (British Prime Minister in 1830 - 1834) by a Chinese manadarin, reportedly in gratitude after the earl saved his life, is to get just the right doseage of bergamot oil, a rather intense, tangy scent derived from the bergamot orange (which in turn is a cross between the pear lemon and the sour orange; the latter is native to South Vietnam, and its oil was probably the recipe's original ingredient). Using too much bergamot oil can easily obscure the black tea's natural flavor - but with Twinings you just can't go wrong, because the original Earl Grey turned to this very company for a match to the quickly dwindling supply he had received from his Chinese friend.

(From the Twinings website: "When the mandarin's tasty gift began to run out, Earl Grey asked his tea merchants, Twinings, to match it for him. Twinings unique blend was the Grey family's long-standing favourite. When guests inquired about it, they were directed to Twinings on the Strand, where they would ask for Earl Grey's tea by name.")

Unless you insist on having *all* your tea with cream or milk, I recommend having this one without any kind of milk products: not only does the original recipe not call for such an addition; in my mind it just plain ruins the blend's particular flavor. (But that's just me, of course.) Whichever way you have it, though, if scented teas are your kind of thing, Twinings Earl Grey should be right up your alley.

I bought this as a gift for my brother, and every day when he brews tea, he quotes Captain Picard from the Starship Enterprise: "Earl Grey. Hot." He has compared this tea to the teabags he had been using and finds this tea to be of much richer flavor. It is an excellent tea, there is no doubt.

This is the same Twinings Earl Grey Tea you drink using a tea bag but by using loose tea leaves instead, it seems to give you a richer flavor because the water has been able to circulate around the tea leaves better. If you like your tea a little less potent, you can either let it steep a shorter period of time or use less tea thereby making the tin of tea leaves produce more cups of tea.

You also get the tea packaged in a tight fitting tin rather than a cardboard box so that the tea will stay fresh longer. Stores in my shopping area do not carry loose teas so to be able to get a loose tea flavor I like that will give a nice robust flavor and be packaged in a tin container for freshness and convenience is a double win for me. Shopping at Amazon makes it a real bargain for me.

...the tea did not originate with Twinings, but rather with Jacksons of Piccadilly. Robert Jackson's partner George Charlton received the recipe directly from the Second Earl Grey in 1830; their website states that "Jacksons remain sole proprietors of this original formula, which remains unaltered today."