Apple Crunch: A Refreshing, Summery Tea

I have to admit, it took me a long while to work my way onto fruit tea. My abiding memory of fruit tea as a youngster, was suffering from discomfort after having a tooth taken out and trying to drink some red concoction that didn't taste remotely fruity. I tried it again as a teenager and thought the texture of fruit tea was just a little "off".

In January of 2013, trying to drink less caffeine (it didn't last too long before I was back on the Earl Grey!) I decided to take advantage of the myriad of deals that supermarkets had on fruit tea. Detoxing after the Christmas over indulgence meant that almost every shop had discounts on every fruit tea going. (The same happened this year, too!).

Overall, I like most fruits, with apples being my favourite, so I decided to try Apple Crunch.

On opening the box the aroma of apple was pleasant, and the first thing that sprung to mind was a juicy, fresh green apple that had been kept in the fridge. As it brewed, the smell got stronger and stronger. It was so fresh, I may of well mashed up some apple and poured hot water over it. It was very natural, and I felt that I was going to drink something that not only tasted nice, but was healthy, too.

Twinings suggest, on their packaging, that you brew the tea for 3 to 4 minutes. It's impossible to over brew fruit tea, you just get a stronger taste to it, whereas other teas, in particular white tea, go extremely bitter if over brewed. As I stated above, I always found the texture of fruit tea a little odd, which is one of the reasons I didn't drink a lot of it. Then, when contacting Twinings, I happened to mention it, and the customer service agent told me to keep the tea bag in, and that will go a long way to stopping any strange texture and she was right.

As I took my first sip, I felt immediately refreshed, almost like you would if you were drinking a cordial or fresh fruit drink. I didn't think a tea product could be that refreshing, or thirst quenching, but it was. The apple flavour was full and mighty, with a sweetness to it that was extremely pleasant. (Remember fruit teas are sweet enough, no sweetener or sugar needed!). There was no after taste to the tea, it didn't repeat on me like some can do. When finishing the cup, I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. It certainly made a different from lemon tea, or mixed berries, which seems to be the standard flavour for fruit teas.

The only slightly disappointing part of the tea is that when it is brewed, the colour reminds me ever so slightly of dirty water. I don't know what colour I was expecting it to be, but I knew it wouldn't be green! (I don't think the picture is representative of the true colour, but I do try to get what the final brew looks like!)

My boyfriend is a local Councillor and each Christmas we (mainly me as he also has a day job!) have to hand deliver over 3,500 Christmas cards to the residents. Last Christmas, during a day of posting, I suddenly felt extremely thirsty. And the one drink my body craved was apple crunch tea. I had water with me, but it just didn't hit the spot. As soon as I got home, I made a cup, let it cool and drunk it down almost in one go.

Last summer, I made a large jug up of apple crunch using several teabags. I let it cool, added sugar free lemonade (something like Sprite would be good too) and poured it over ice cubes to make a apple crunch punch. This can be done with any fruit tea, and I would highly recommend doing it with one of the ginger infusions. The kick of ginger goes well with the coldness of the ice cubes. Tea is versatile, and is warming in winter and cooling in the summer!

Apple Crunch is available in all the major UK supermarkets and obviously online, too. It's priced around the £1.30 mark for 20 teabags, but as it stands at the time of writing it is available from some supermarkets for as little as £1 a box. I would highly recommend this tea if you wish to cut back on caffeine or what to try something different, and it really does make a difference from the standard lemon and ginger or mixed berries.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how natural and wonderful this tea tastes. I'm pretty positive that once you try it, you'll be hooked. I notice quite often that the slot on the shelves for Apple Crunch is often empty or running low on stock. (Quite often I've had to take the last battered box from the shelf!). I think that speaks for itself, and is proof positive that Apple Crunch is a popular blend with customers.