A Nice Cuppa Char!

One of the things I love is a nice cuppa char! Or in English, a nice cup of tea. I love a good traditional milky English tea with two sugars but I'm also really into mint tea, green tea with lemon and lemon and ginger tea. I like the calming/relaxing and cleansing/detoxing properties of these teas and they work wonders in my opinion.

Twinings is one of the most well known premium brands of tea and definitely one of my favourite. I mean don't get me wrong we have a good old box of PG Tips in our cupboard, but when it comes to speciality teas, Twinings have it all!

You might not know this but back in 1706, the most popular drinks in England were coffee, gin and ale. Tea had been drunk in China for thousands of years, but it had only just been imported to England. The man that found Twinings: Thomas Twining, of course, loved tea himself and started selling it from his coffee shop in London, much to the suspicion of people. However, he promised to sell only the finest qualities and varieties. His pledge soon won him and his tea a lot of fans, including Jane Austen and Charles the 2nd. By the 1750's, tea was the most popular drink among the working classes. Thomas kept selling tea and opened the first tea shop in London.

Twinings have a huge range of tea and are always bringing out new varieties regularly. They have a free samples section on their website where you can request two different flavours of tea to sample. I have done this several times, especially when they have new varieties, so I can try them and then often I have gone out and bought myself a full box :). I think it's great that they offer this on their website as sometimes you might like the look and sound of a certain tea, but instead of wasting money on a full box and the taste not being right for you, you can request a sample first to make sure you like it...perfect!

My favourites from their collection are the Lemon Green Tea, Green Tea has a lot of benefits but the British Journal of Nutrition has revealed that drinking more than three cups of green tea a day was found to protect against cell deterioration as we age. DNA tests showed the equivalent of five extra years on the tea drinkers lives. I think this is pretty amazing and I always find that I feel good after a cup of this, the lemon makes it more refreshing and I find it relaxes and calms me. Another of my favourites is the Lemon and Ginger Tea, the spicyness of the ginger and zestiness of the lemon compliment each other perfectly. I'd recommend this if you're feeling a bit 'bleurgh' as I like to call it (basically if you're feeling a bit low or tired) and need a bit of a boost! I love the flavour of this it's gorgeous. The last favourite of mine is Pure Peppermint Tea. This is a really good detox tea, it's light and refreshing and is also used to help with digestion. I do have a little bit of sugar with the green tea and mint tea, just to add a little sweetness to the drink, which makes it much more enjoyable, especially with the green tea as it can be a little bit bitter. I have found with the green tea you have to learn a certain knack to making it. When I first started trying it out, I was doing it all wrong and I'm not going to lie, it tasted wrank! I had to look into how to making it more, which sounds ridiculous, but trust me, now I know how to make it properly, I'm always drinking it, it's lush! I know some people would disagree with me though...I ordered it in a cafe once and I could hear all the women behind the counter talking about how it smells and each smelling it as they were making it...how rude ha, ha. My tip for making it though is make sure there is fresh water in the kettle and once boiled leave for about a minute. Then pour the boiled water over the teabag into your cup and leave to steep for about 30 seconds to a minute...to me this is the perfect taste (with a little sugar). If you leave it to steep for too long, it will taste bitter and not very nice!

                       

                                                     

Pictures courtesy of Twinings.

As I said above, Twinings have a huge range of teas and aswell as their Everyday Teas, it is worth checking out their White Teas, Green Teas, Fruit and Herbal Teas and the rest of their range (they have a lot!) to see if any of their tea takes your fancy. If you need help relaxing, need to be revitalised, need help getting to sleep or want a bit of a detox, then they are sure to have something to suit you. That's the joy of speciality teas! I want to try their Camomile, Honey and Vanilla Tea next. It sounds so nice and Camomile is great for bringing a sense of calm and just relaxing you and I can imagine the honey adds a lovely subtle sweetness to the tea, so there might not be any need for added sugar. I'll drink the rest of the teas I have at home first before I buy any more otherwise I might aswell open a Twinings Tea cafe ha.

Twinings do deliver to the UK and internationally, but it's best to take a look at their delivery information page to find out more about this :). You can buy their tea online and in the following supermarkets: Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda. You can of course also buy Twinings tea from their historic shop at 216 Strand, London, WC2R 1AP. The shop is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and on Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.

Are you a fan of Twinings tea? What is your favourite type of tea? I'd love to hear what kind of tea you drink (if you drink tea at all) and if you drink speciality teas, whether you find that they work for you :).

Gem XxOo
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