Twinings: Christmas Blend Tea

So, so far, I've reviewed two Christmas tea's. These have been from Whittards and Marks and Spencers. Today I am reviewing the third Christmas tea I have in my tea cupboard.

Today the tea is from Twining's and it's their Christmas Blend. It's priced at £7.50 for this lovely little scenic caddy.

Looking at the ingredients this tea is eerily similar to the Whittard's tea. The ingredients are pretty much the same. There's orange peel, a black tea, safflowers, but here lies the difference. Twinings have opted for Christmas spice, where Whittards went for cloves. So, even though the ingredients are very similar, the tea's taste a lot different!

With regards to the caddy, isn't it pretty? Who doesn't love a London at Christmas scene? It's extremely cute, with all our iconic London icons. A black cab, Big Ben, a red telephone box and a Christmas angel sprinkling magic over the capital city, which could easily be the statue of Eros which normally sits on Piccadilly Circus! The packaging, as always with Twinings, is lovely.

Inside this delightful tin box sits a aromatic and attractive tea. Amongst the stark, dark black tea are lovely dashes of orange from the orange peel. And to be fair, Twinings haven't scrimped on the orange peel. As you can see in the picture below there is a liberal sprinkling!

I will start this review by stating that this tea I think is the same blend from last year. Twining's, it seems, has found a recipe that works and is sticking with it. I think that is fair enough, though, if anyone at Twinings read's this, I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY miss your Mulled Spiced blend from 2010 and your Christmas Cake blend from 2013 and 2014!

As I have done with previous Christmas tea's I added a splash of milk and a tiny bit sugar. It's how I take my spiced tea's and thought it only fair to review all the tea's under the same circumstances.

So, I loaded two generous teaspoons in a teabag, added milk and sugar and waited for this spiced tea to infuse.

Christmas Blend is a highly spiced tea, and that is the difference between having something like cloves to using something like Christmas Spice as Twinings have done with this tea.

As the tea brewed the whole kitchen filled with that wonderful spicy scent. It certainly smells yummy and it's very hard to leave the tea to infuse for any length of time. You just want to dive right in.

This tea tastes like it smells. It's very, very spicy! It's actually very reminiscent of their recent pyramid spiced chai latte tea's.  But does it make for a decent cup of festive tea?

I would say a very cautious yes. From the first sip  your mouth certainly feels as though it's alive. Your taste buds absolute buzz when sipping this tea as the Christmas spice works it's way around your mouth.

However, I honestly feel that a dash of sugar really is needed to tone this tea down a little bit, especially if you don't like overly spiced tea's. The sugar just takes the edge of what possibly is a firecracker of a tea if taken without sugar. That's great if you like spicy food and drink but if your less keen or have a more subtle palate then I would recommend adding a sweetener of some kind!

It is a festive tea though and it really is Christmas in a cup. The tea is blended very well indeed and having had several cups (it's a hard life being a tea blogger!) today every single cup has tasted identical and that really does count for a lot.

I am disappointed slightly in the fact that as a citrus lover, and despite the huge amount of orange peel in the blend, you simply don't get any hint of orange and that is a big let down for me. And that is simply because the Christmas spice is so strong that it does tend to wipe out the flavour of the orange and the actual tea in itself. Perhaps next year, Twinings, if using this as their blend could look into reducing the spice ever so slightly, so that the natural sweetness of the orange could come through.

Overall, this is a nice blend. It certainly packs a punch and is a tea that you'll never forget. It is perfect to be taken in front of a crackling fire, with some chocolates at your side and something good on the television!

And, to let you know, that as a stroke of genius, Twinings have catered for every taste in their Christmas range. You can get a festive English Breakfast, Christmas Chai and Merry Christmas Mint infusion. All come in their own caddies so if Christmas Blend isn't your thing, you can still celebrate with a tea of your choice. Sadly, I can't review these tea's as money is tight this time of year, but maybe next year I'll take a break from Christmas Blend and try something new!

Seeing what Twining's has included in their Christmas range has become a tradition for me since I became a tea drinker and now I'm back, living in London, I have very easy access to their adorable shop on The Strand. For this, I consider myself one of the luckiest girls in the world! Nothing quite beats going up to their teeny shop and seeing the gorgeous packaging on the shelves.

And already, I'm looking forward to what surprises Twinings have for us all in 2017!