ref: Twinings English Breakfast loose tea

This week I thought I would put off my next tea shipment for a bit and save
money on shipping by purchasing a tin of Twinings loose leaf tea. The last
tea I had by Twinings was Earl Grey last year.

Before putting it in the cart at the grocery store, I checked the label for
a freshness date. There was a "best before" stamp but the code in that
section did not resemble a date at all. There was only one other choice
for loose tea, besides a Twinings Earl Grey, an 8 oz box of Lipton loose
tea. Looking at the picture on the front of the box of Lipton, I could see
fannings and bits of leaves and twigs. I opted for the Twinings since I
thought it was be of reasonable quality.

Well, I was wrong. I opened the tin and broke the foil seal to find
fannings and dust. There was barely any scent. I decided to try it anyway
in case I could make it work if I cut down on the amount and steeping time.
After I put the tea in my bone china teapot, I could see tea dust all over
the handle and around the opening of the pot. After the tea steeped for 2
1/2 minutes, I pulled out my Chatsford (fine mesh) filter basket. I poured
some and found it stale and too strong...tannic. I watered it down to make
it somewhat drinkable. It was worse than drinking teabag tea. When I
looked in the bottom of my pot, there was a lot of sediment from the
powdered tea...it was as though I'd made french press coffee and been
drinking that from my pot. My tea cup was badly stained and had sediment in
the bottom. I had to use oxy-clean and a denture tablet the get the stains
out.

Bottom line: I'm not buying Twinings again. I have bought their tea on and
off since I was in my early teens...more than twenty years. I've stayed
away from their teabags for a couple of years now but I still expected the
loose leaf tea to be usable in a pinch. Yesterday morning I wished I'd
bought the Lipton loose leaf --if you can believe that! I brought the tea
back to the store and got a refund. I was offered an exchange and I
declined.

I'll be placing my next order this weekend.

Renee