Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea features a substantial caffeine kick and a clear, deep orange-red color with modest bitterness if you steep it too long.
Twinings, as with most black teas, is easily coaxed into sweetness with stevia or Equal. The price of this product is about average as compared with other black tea renditions we’ve tested. Twinings has lots of experience in producing their line of classic black teas, and this Irish Breakfast tea is the subject of this, our latest tea review.
Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea has rested on our pantry shelves for well over a decade. As all-day tea drinkers for more than twenty years, we’ve downed several boxes of this Black Tea during that time. They served Twinings breakfast teas now and again at lunches in my high school dining room, and some friends drank it daily and offered it whenever I’d visit them, when they wanted to quickly recover from their hangovers from the previous night’s partying. This is a decent tea, that is definitely on the stronger side of medium strength, and pretty close to maximum strength in terms of caffeine content. this classic black tea blend is impeccable for those seeking a full-bodied tea that wields a highly energizing caffeine wallop.
Benefits And Features
Singly sealed and wrapped teabags. The tea bags are individually wrapped in an aroma-tight foil and arranged in a single row within the thick paper box.
Remains forever fresh, virtually. This classic black keeps for years without perceptible decline in flavor, as the box comes wrapped in virtually airtight cellophane.
Sweetens with little sweetener. It sweetens up very well when you add stevia, sugar, honey, or the diet sweeteners like Truvia, Nectresse, and Equal.
Accepts most any sweetener, neutral or not. Sweeten this tea as much as you like, with virtually any sweetener you desire, and it will still taste like a robust, black tea rendition.
Distant use-by date. The best-if-used-by date is roughly three years out from the date I purchased my box. But it will remain fresh for longer without losing much great flavor loss.
Great caffeine source. Irish breakfast tea has a lot of caffeine; a bit more than the English breakfast tea. So it will indeed shock you awake in the morning, or save you from that 4:00 PM late-afternoon work drowsiness. It is also a great midnight snack tea, for third-shift workers who find it difficult to stay awake once the sun goes down. And of course, it’s a good complimentary beverage to a substantial breakfast like those often prepared in Ireland. Thus its name: Irish Breakfast Tea.
Pleasant tasting cheap tea. This is an excellent tasting beverage as a hot drink. Each serving costs less than twenty cents.
No metal. Twinings avoided metal staples when fastening the string and tags to each tea bag. Instead, a knotted construction is employed, in which the teabag itself appears to have been assembled around the knotted end of the string, opposite the tag. Nonetheless, without staples, the strings holds tightly to the bag.
Completely natural black tea. This product contains no artificial colors or flavors, and is gluten-free.
Dark in color. This black tea, when brewed according to the accompanying instructions, comes out very dark. So if you’re a tea drinker who really enjoys a strong creamy taste in your tea, and like to add lots of whole cream or half and half, this Irish Breakfast Tea will retain its color much better for a given amount of added flavoring.
Attractive packaging. The artwork and packaging is of great quality, and even when you remove the outer cellophane, no tea smell invites you in, until you actually tear open one of the teabag envelopes. They took excellent care to seal this breakfast tea quite well.
Disadvantages
Can stain clothing, table surfaces, dishes, et al. Being darker in color than most green teas, especially when you steep it for many minutes, this beverage can stain clothes if you accidentally spill it on yourself. If this happens, rinse it out with clear water right away if the affected clothing can be washed.
At times, too much caffeine. As mentioned previously, this dark tea lots of caffeine. So we must limit the number of cups of this “go go juice” that we consume each day, in order to steer clear of the caffeine jitters.
Not a good appetite suppressant. Perhaps the higher amount of caffeine within stimulates hunger.
Speeds metabolism too much if not careful. Particularly when we’ve not taken any tea in recent days, I can become “wired” when I again consume it, and can feel sick when pedaling a bike or briskly walking after drinking it. It can make us feel quite nauseous when we’ve gone without it for several weeks.
Brewing Instructions
Each tea bag makes one cup of Irish breakfast tea.
By The Cup
- Boil enough fresh water for the number of cups of this tea you wish to brew.
- While waiting for the water to boil, unwrap one teabag for each cup you’re making.
- Put the bags into each cup.
- When water boils, immediately pour it into the cups.
- Steep for two to five minutes or until it becomes strong enough for your taste.
- Discard the tea bag(s).
- Sweeten tea as desired.
- Enjoy.
By The Pot
- Use hot water to rinse out tea-pot prior to brewing, to warm it.
- Again, determine how many cups of black tea you wish to make.
- Put the desired amount of fresh, filtered water in your kettle or pot.
- Put the kettle on your stove and activate the heat.
- While waiting for the water to boil, removing the wrappings from the desired number of tea bags.
- Remove labels from the teabags, to avoid possible contamination of the tea with ink from the tags.
- When the water achieves a rolling boil, immediately add the tea bags into the pot of boiling water.
- Remove pot from heat and turn off the stove.
- Allow bags to steep in the pot for two to five minutes.
- Remove the bags from the pot with a straining spoon and discard.
- Pour the tea into cups, sweeten to taste, add milk, lemon, lime, or orange as desired, and enjoy.
For Iced Tea
- Unwrap 4 tea bags.
- Remove the labels from them.
- Put these teabags into a tea-pot.
- Then, in a separate container, boil four cups (1 quart) of fresh, filtered water.
- Once the water boils, remove from heat and turn off the heat source.
- Pour this water into the teapot, over top of the tea bags.
- Steep for five minutes.
- Remove and discard the tea bags with a straining spoon.
- Add sugar, lemon, orange, and/or lime as desired to the brewed tea.
- Fill desired number of glasses with ice.
- Pour steeped tea into these glasses.
- Enjoy.
Ingredients
Black tea.
Product Rating
This tea drink is simple to prepare, has the caffeine kick that we appreciate at times, is effortless to flavor, and very good tasting and smelling. So our rating is 95 out of 100.
Where To Buy Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea
Look for this Twinings tea product in the green and white box with the Twinings trade mark egg-shaped logo, at larger grocery stores and tea shops, as well as online at Amazon and eBay. Check the references for a robust list of suppliers and resellers.
References
- Irish Breakfast Tea Health Benefits
- Irish Breakfast Tea on Wikipedia
- Where to buy Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea
- Twinings of London Web Site
Revision History
- 2915-01-12: Tweaked content and added whitespace for enhanced clarity and ease of reading.
- 2014-09-21: Added a picture of the product.