Twinings Refresh Juicy Raspberry Lemonade with Hibiscus (Ocado) By @Cinabar

I have had quite a day, mainly trawling around two different cities completing, or attempting to complete, a lengthy list of chores. We hit traffic and had a couple of failures along the way, but thankfully managed to get most of what needed doing done.

Once home, I was looking forward to a refreshing drink and a sit down when I remembered this can of Twinings Refresh Juicy Raspberry Lemonade with Hibiscus waiting in the fridge. Fizzy iced tea sounded perfect.

The can is on the smaller side, but it states that it contains added vitamins and minerals to support mind and spirit. I'm not sure vitamins and minerals work quite that quickly, but I'm more than willing to give them a try.

There is a gentle fizz when you open the can, but this isn't strongly carbonated like a can of pop. It's more of a lightly sparkling drink, which works well with the iced tea style. The flavour is very refreshing. It isn't overly sweet, but the fruity raspberry gives it a lovely boost, while the tea and lemon add a sophisticated, grown-up feel. There is also a subtle floral note from the hibiscus.

Overall, this is a well-balanced and mature-tasting drink that was exactly what I needed after a long day.

Twinings Cold Infuse Rose Lemonade (No Tea) Bags - For Water Bottles (Asda) By @Cinabar

This year we have had a very good hot summer, this means my consumption of ice cream and cold drinks has gone up, and hot drinks has gone down. The tea companies must be feeling the reduction in people who want a hot steaming mug of tea. The other big trend is water bottles, everyone is trying to up their water intake, there is only one solution to this problem for tea companies and several have now released bags meant for cold water. Yes, instant iced tea, well by instant it still takes a few minutes to infuse but close enough and no heat required, but technically it doesn’t even contain tea. "Slow infuse, make your own water based cold drink”, isn’t quite as catchy. The no tea part confused me, it is made by Twinings after all.
I have a confession, I also don’t have a water bottle either, but please don’t worry about me, I drink plenty. I have access to a water machine and a kettle at work, so I’m covered. I do however have a huge big drinking glass, so I picked up a box of the new Twinings Cold Infuse Rose Lemonade bags, and I thought I would give it a try.

I filled my huge glass with cold tap water, and added the bag. There is no string on the bag, like you would expect on a tea bag because the idea is you leave it in. The bag should be left for at least 5 minutes, but up to 8 hours, perfect for a day at work. It said to shake the drink, but I just agitated it with the straw, and the water went a shade of pink. I left it probably nearer 10 minutes before taking my first sip, and I had stirred it quite a bit. The flavour was okay, it was mild, sweet and had a nice floral hint and a bit of lemon. As I sipped the drink later in the afternoon the flavour was stronger, but it never became strong, and it never really got to the point where I loved it. I think this will appeal to the “I must drink more water” crowd, those that probably drink enough if they included their cups of tea/coffee, and cans of pop, which do all count towards your daily needs, as they are made with, shocker, water.

For me the flavour never quite got further than tasting a bit washed out, and I was craving a splash of cordial in my drink instead. I was also disappointed that what I thought might have tea in it didn’t, which was an opportunity missed I think.

Twinings Little India Chai Nespresso Tea (@Morrisons) By @Cinabar

Having just moved we have bought a few new gadgets for the house, one of which was a Nespresso maker. We just got a small one and I immediately popped down to the supermarket to see what capsules where available. The official ones only seem to be for sale online, but I was quite pleased with the choices in the shop. I picked up a couple of different coffees to try, and then this Twinings Tea caught my eye, Chai is probably my favourite flavour of tea and I couldn’t resist these Little India Chai Nespresso Tea pods. My first test of the Nespresso machine were the coffee, as that is the intended function, but for my third cup I went on to try this Chai tea.

I popped the pod in, pressed the lungo button and watched as water dripped through. I was confused by this, and took a closer look at the pods, turns out they have a protective cover on that needs removing first, d’oh, which the coffee ones didn’t have. In reality this confusion and annoyance lasted several minutes before the penny dropped. So I tried a second pod with the plastic peeled away, and managed to brew myself a nice tea, to which I added some milk and sugar. Shame to have lost a capsule though, but it wasn’t very obvious what you needed to do.
The flavour of the tea was actually impressive, it was a very warming drink with plenty of cinnamon which is my favourite spice. The black tea flavour was still present and the milk and sugar set it off perfectly. This was a good mug of Chai, but to be fair it wasn’t that dissimilar to the Chai teabags I can buy, so there was less to gain from these pods. The coffee from the Nespresso beats any instant coffee by miles, so I think that is the type of pod we will be buying in the future.

Twinnings Apple & Elderflower flavour Green Tea (@NLi10)

We all love a bargain, so when I was pointed towards these reduced (£1 off!) tea-bags in a handy resealable bag I couldn't resist.  Sure the pyramids will get a little squished but it keeps them nicely fresh for work.

It's also a good subject for the iPhone X's portrait mode (apparently you can take pictures of people instead of just cats and food - who knew!)

It has the usual nonsense on the back, plus good tips for not over-brewing it, and advising people not to add milk.

The tea-bag is a lot harder to convince a phone to focus on, it's like a little pendulum.  The leaves are a little smaller than I'd expected, but then green is just the tips.  They expanded out nicely once heated and all the apple bits floated pleasingly to the top of the bag.  They thought this through!

The smells on opening the bag were pretty strong, and the tea kept the flavour too (which is always a worry with fruit teas).  The green wasn't too harsh - a very anglicised blend - and the apple was the dominant flavour with the elderflower as a hit at the end.  Fabulous cup of tea, that is a bit more of an elevenses tea than I was expecting, which is great because i don't really have a 'green' for that time of day (I tend to default to PG decaf, which I know is essentially a mostly green blend).

Initially I was most excited to have a way to keep my occasional teas that bit fresher when taking them out and about, but these tea-bags are something I'd happily pay full price for.  It's giving me a few ideas for Christmas surprise boxes too ...

Twinings Nutty Chocolate Flavour Assam Tea (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

It was the mention of praline on the bag of tea that made me pick it up. It describes the tea as being nutty like a praline truffle, and that appealed to me lot. As much as I love the combination of chocolate and nuts I still wasn’t sure how that would work with tea, but there is only one way to find out. The tea bags are in a re-sealable bag and are in the pyramid style. I opened up the pack and the tea bags smelt amazing, they had wonderful rich chocolate and nut tones, and I started to think I’d accidentally purchased some kind of hot chocolate.
I popped one of the tea bags into a mug and poured on the hot water, again the aroma was fantastic. I left it to brew for about four minutes, and until the tea was a decent colour. I added a drop of milk and gave it a sip. I think the aroma had got my hopes up, the flavour was really quite mild. The tea was predominantly a pleasing Assam, with a lovely aftertaste of gentle nut and chocolate. It was a good flavour, but it was far more delicate and subtle than I’d expected. I have to admit I still really enjoyed the mug of tea, and as winter draws in this will be a soothing cupper for the winter months.