Twinings Pure Iced Tea

Tea time, tots! When I got this, the outside was covered in red goo (tomato sauce)? But I am too lazy to follow up, so I just tossed the packaging and consumed as normal. Luckily the bags are in sealed foil (36x2), and they're sewed together in a condom-esque fashion. More like sachets than bags, since there is no string with tab at the end. But it's OK, I'm not too good to go fishing in the cup (as evidenced by my acceptance of sauce-covered product). There are two options for enjoyment, according to the website/box:

Enjoy by the Pitcher: Pour 4 cups boiling water over 4 tea bags in a clean heat-resistant pitcher, steep for 4 minutes, remove tea bags. Fill the rest of pitcher with ice or 4 cups of cold water. Enjoy now or refrigerate for later.

Enjoy by the Glass: Pour boiling water over tea bag in a heat-resistant glass, steep for 4 minuets, remove tea bag, add ice to desired strength & enjoy!

Fine, fine. Very fine. I'm only one person here, so I'll start with the glass option. Queuing up my favorite Bach. How was that? Observation the first: there is no amount of ice you can put in a standard cup that will both not overflow and succeed in icing the tea. This is why you make iced coffee in huge tumblers. Anyway, I ended up with warm tea. Observation the second: It tasted like normal black tea. What are we doing here? Maybe I'll try the pitcher later, since that has the benefit of going in the fridge. Also, my head hurts and this didn't help :(

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10 

Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea (Decaffeinated)

Often, due to my lifestyle, someone comes up to me and says something totally prescriptive and horrible and expects me to not only agree, but be proud of them. That is what both ends of decaf tea drinking feels like. However, it's not all bad. First of all, it's a hot drink. And of the horrible decaf teas, this one has a nice texture (thick, not too gritty) and a cute little bubbling effect (even when the water is most assuredly "hot enough", for any British tea evangelists out there). I'm not Irish and it's not breakfast, but I sure as shoot am decaffeinated. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Twinings Pure Peppermint Tea

Moderation is not king. Either eating a single cookie destroyed me, or the stress that eating a single cookie could destroy me destroyed me. Tragically, I still want to disambiguate by eating more cookies, but I can't, because I have a job to (badly) do. So my cookie experiments will wait a few months more. In the meantime, I somehow consumed 20 bags of Bigelow mint tea, so I figured we can get our jollies by trying the Twinings mint tea. They have the same ingredients ("peppermint") and the same allergy policy (top 9 free), but this one is a cuter box, even though you can't really tell from the picture. It's a nice green. 

How is the tea? You may be shocked to hear that it tastes almost indistinguishable from the Bigelow peppermint tea. It smells a little stronger, though: first like mint (makes sense) and then a little like a bowling alley (not sure what's going on there). I say it tastes almost indistinguishable because I feel it's a little less sharp, with a little less (yes, even less!!) flavor. This is only my first cup, so I should really check back in a month, but for now I think Twinings > Bigelow. Neither brand seems to have any other teas I can consume presently, but I only did a shallow dive into the catalog, so we'll check back later to see what else we can scrounge up to get through the long autumn. 

Overall
Cost: 6/10 [4$]
Taste: 6/10

Twinings Earl Grey Black Tea

I'd say these are OK. They taste like tea for sure, meaning that they make my throat feel a lil funny. It's gritty, you know? Coats the throat like red wine. I got a little citrus vibe here, even though this is just plain (i.e. not the 'lady' version with citrus!). I guess caffeine and a quick steep is good.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

Twinings Cold Brewed Iced Tea - Peach

I would say: I like it! Tastes like peach tea, obviously not sweetened snapple or anything, but certainly peach > mint for tea, and I think black > green tea as well. Pleasant.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10

Twinings Cold Brewed Iced Tea - Mint

Yep, this sure is mint tea all right. A very minty flavor. I suppose this is more fun cold than it would be hot, but nevertheless, I do not love the flavor. Green tea maybe is not for me.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 5/10

Twinings Cold Brewed Iced Tea - English Classic

Ice tea...bag?? What a country. I drank this at an apartment that didn't have ice in it (I'm so privileged to have an ice-making fridge!), but it wasn't bad, even with no ice (or sweetener or lemon or anything). Basically this is a less intense/less gritty English Black Tea. Well, apparently this is both black and green teas mixed, but I mostly tasted the black (aka normal) one. This is a fun/good option if I'm in desperate need of caffeine too! 

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10

Twinings English Breakfast Tea - Honey & Vanilla

This tea was fine. I think I prefer to have just their plain English Breakfast tea, without any vanilla flavor (or maybe it's the honey I don't like). Whichever it is, the flavoring tastes artificial and odd. Otherwise it is drinkable, basically just fine. I was never one for tea anyway. At least it is safe!

Overall

Cost: 6/10

Taste: 5/10

Twinings Lady Grey Black Tea

This is a nice, solid, safe tea that doesn't smell egregiously bad to my sensitive partner :D. It's basically just black tea, but with a little 'lady' flavor aka citrus. I'm not sure what the other natural flavors consist of, but it's nothing I can't drink, and it's guaranteed not to be nuts. So that's good news. The citrus flavor is pretty subtle, but it does smell/taste a little more exciting than the plain black tea. I think it's better than green tea in general too. A good calming (yet supposedly caffeinated, idk if my body is aware of that though) drink before bedtime.

Overall

Cost: 7/10

Taste: 6/10

Twinings Camomile Honey & Vanilla Herbal Tea

I believe Twinings is also good about allergens in their tea, and they're less likely than Bigelow to use stupid licorice/chicory/anise, so it's good safe option for me! Unfortunately I still don't much like tea, especially Herbal Tea. No caffeine! Pretty boring. But warm, nut-free liquid is always good, so I don't hate it. Tastes like chamomile, I guess.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 5/10