I've been buying this for years; I brew about a pot a day, steep for 4 minutes. For about a year, I've really noticed a big decline in quality. Tea is full of dust/bits, not nice tea "strings", reviews of others on Amazon have noted same. I called the company in New York, the rep argued with me but sent me a "free" can; unfortunately, it was just as bad as the others I'd been buying lately. I tried a can of Taylor's Earl Grey, cost was quite a bit more, tea looked right, but I just did not care for the flavor so went back to Twinnings. Any advice?
We are not tea connoisseurs by any stretch of the imagination.
Yes, we experienced something similar about 20 years ago. The quality changed with Twinnings. We found that the Earl Grey tasted a little flat the Bergamot flavour just wasn't what it once was.
Try a specialty Tea Shop or perhaps your Health Food store might carry some loose tea. Fairmont Hotels also stock their own brand of tea.
On a rainy day we especially enjoy Lapsang Souchong, a black tea, from Sri Lanka.
P.S. Perhaps try steeping the Twinnings tea for 3 minutes (that may be more to your liking).
P.P.S. I think the Fairmont tea comes in bags. The tea is large leaf so one could take it out of the bag and steep it like loose tea (at least it was large leafed when it tried it several years ago- maybe that has changed too).
You might try the Fortnum & Mason's brand. It's available from Williams & Sonoma, https://www.williams-sonoma.com/shop/.... I bet it's more expensive than Twinings, but if you are looking for a quality tea ....
(BTW Twinings is spelled with only a single, not double, "n" in the middle. See https://twiningsusa.com/?gclid=EAIaIQ.... Rhymes with mining, not sinning.)
Thank you for letting me know, as English is not my first language. Your help is very much appreciated.
You are welcome Olunia. The misspelling was in the opening post so it's no wonder that you repeated it. (It was also originally in the title but I flagged that for the mods & asked them to correct it so the thread would be picked up in future searches for "Twinings.")
Spelling is the hardest thing about the English language. Our verbs are so easy compared to Spanish, French, etc.
Thanks for the advice. Yes, this is twice as expensive.
I'm a huge fan of earl grey, obsessed with bergamot. I've been drinking the Republic of Tea "Earl Greyer" for a while, I like it quite a bit. I use the bags, but they do make a loose version:
https://www.republicoftea.com/earl-gr...
Smith is a quality tea purveyor (You can get a discount on first purchase), slightly more expensive:
https://www.smithtea.com/products/lor...
I would definitely look for a shop in your area that might sell bulk teas.
There’s a market in SF, Rainbow, with a huge bulk bin area (no meat/fish is sold there.)
I tried their bulk Earl Grey and didn’t care for it, not sure why.
A piece of TV trivia for the Earl Grey obsessed:
On one episode of ABC's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" (hosted by the late Regis Philbin), Bergamot was the correct answer for (ready for this?) the $500,000 question - about the flavoring in Earl Grey tea. As I recall, the contestant had no idea and backed out...into $250,000...no mere bag o' shells. Sure, I knew it...and had a cheap chuckle accordingly.
Two possibilities that are easily accessible to the OP in San Francisco, but also available via mail order:
One is Numi, a Bay Area company that makes quality teas; I think they only sell loose-leaf tea online in bulk quantity, but their boxed teabags are readily available at local stores and use better-quality tea rather than finings (the powdery dregs in Twining's teabags).
https://shop.numitea.com/Aged-Earl-Gr...
The other is Mighty Leaf, owned by Peet's. I don’t use their Earl Grey, but their Pride of the Port blend is a personal favorite. You can buy tins of their loose-leaf tea in any Peet's shop, and you could test it out by ordering a tea if you wanted. They probably use teabags to brew it in the shops, but Mighty Leaf uses tea leaves, not finings, in fabric teabags, so quality is similar.
Numi Aged Earl Grey is my daily favorite - I was able to order it in tea bags on line during the stay-at-home days. They offer a range of high quality and interesting teas - I often include a box with a gift of home baked treats.
My mother is partial to Yunnan tea, and tells me that Numi's Chinese Breakfast is a high-quality Yunnan. She had been buying the teabags to take with her when traveling, and ordering loose-leaf Yunnan from other sources, until she discovered she could order a pound of Numi’s loose-leaf, and now it’s her top choice for her daily consumption.
Big tea drinkers here. We have been ordering fro Palais de The. They sell loose tea in sealed bags so you do not have to keep buying the tins! The tea is excellent.
https://us.palaisdesthes.com/en_us/
A very-occasional tea drinker here, but I do keep Earl Grey on-hand for making cookies.
(and a perhaps-monthly cuppa). Tip-toeing in to suggest Bigelow - relatively inexpensive and if you don't care for it you could always use it up in cookies.
https://shop.bigelowtea.com/Bigelow/b...
The cookie recipe from Real Simple http://food.realsimple.com/realsimple...
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