Twinings Lady Grey Tea is a sort of scaled-down version of the classic Earl Grey black tea, and resembles one of those eclectic beverages, because its flavor is not derived from a single herb or oil Rather, Lady Grey tea features numerous taste impressions from orange peel, lemon peel, and of course, the black tea.
The lemon by far dominates the palate with this tea, but caffeine levels as well as the strength of the citrus seasoning appear meeker. The creation of this version in the early 1990s, was motivated by people who liked the masculine Grey, but wanted an improved, gentler, slightly less bold tea with the same essence as the original, which had been a mainstay drink for over a century in England. Some gad sought to escape the at-times overpowering flavor of Earl Grey. Ladies, ladies, ladies, ladies! This drink is for you.
As with about all black teas, this Grey is easily sweetened with stevia or most any rebina-based agent. However, sweeteners that have more than just sweetness as their taste (E.g. maple syrup, honey, brown sugar, and molasses) may clash with the predominant citrus flavor here. So be careful about liberally applying these. Test a small amount first.
The price of this product is close to other flavored tea recipes, and the same as Twinings’ other offerings in their classic black tea lineup. Since Twinings has been in business for generations and since it produces so many great tea products, It’s obvious that they appreciate quite well, the finer details of producing flavorful tea products, as they feature lots of them, including this one.
Benefits, Pros, Features, and Advantages
Folks who find Earl Grey tea overly strong tasting and smelling will enjoy this weaker variation of that classic drink.
It features a visual “strength meter” on the box, that shows just how pushy this particular tea is, in relation to others in their catalog.
Has humble caffeine levels; somewhat less than the English breakfast tea, and way less than the Irish breakfast tea formulations. It will not shock you awake in the morning. But it may save you from that 4:30 PM late-afternoon work drowsiness if you start drinking it right after lunch. And, it’s a first-rate complimentary beverage to wake up with after a later afternoon siesta.
This classic tea beverage conserves its freshness and original flavor for years without noticeable loss of the original essence of freshness, as the box comes wrapped in virtually airtight cellophane, not to mention the individual teabag wrappers.
The best-if-used-by date is roughly three years out from the purchase date of a freshly minted box. But it will remain newfangled for much longer, without much noticeable flavor loss.
This is an excellent tasting dark liquid, cold or hot.
Contains no artificial colors or sugar, and is gluten-free.
When brewed according to the accompanying guidance, it turns out as a darker red or orange colored tea. So if you’re a tea fan who seeks a toned-down tea for your palate, try this Twinings offering.
Ladies like its quieter, unassuming nature.
Disadvantages, Cons, Disadvantages, and Problems
Drinking Lady Grey on an empty stomach, in our experience, can produce slight nausea.
Though the caffeine herein is notably reduced, we can still experience a wired, revved up effect, particularly when we’ve had no tea in recent days. Drinking too much can induce nausea. But with Earl Grey tea, it takes considerably more cups to turn our stomachs.
May not be all-natural. The ingredients list refers to “citrus flavouring,” but gives no details about whether this is a natural or artificial agent or agents.
Brewing Instructions
Each tea bag makes one cup of tea.
By The Cup
- Boil enough fresh water for the number of cups of this tea you’d like.
- While waiting for the water to boil, unwrap 1 teabag for each cup you’re making.
- Put the bags into each cup.
- When water boils, immediately pour into the cups.
- Steep for two to five minutes or until it becomes strong enough for your taste.
- Discard the teabag(s).
- Sweeten tea as desired.
- Enjoy.
By The Pot
- Use hot water to rinse out tea-pot prior to brewing, in order to preheat it.
- Again, determine how many cups to brew.
- Put the desired amount of fresh, filtered water in your kettle or pot.
- Put the kettle on your stove and switch on the heat.
- While waiting for the water to boil, remove the wrappings from the desired number of teabags.
- Remove tags from the teabags, to evade possible corruption of the tea with ink or other chemicals from these stamps.
- When the water boils, add the unwrapped teabags into the pot at once.
- Immediately remove pot from heat and turn off the stove.
- Allow bags to steep in the pot for two to five minutes.
- Remove the teabags from the pot with a straining spoon and throw them out.
- Pour the tea into cups, sweeten to taste, add milk, lemon, lime, or orange as desired, and enjoy.
Ingredients List
Black tea, orange peel, lemon peel, citrus flavoring.
Product Rating
This drink contains just moderate levels of caffeine, is child’s play to prepare, and pretty good tasting and smelling. The citrus however, we found a bit much; perhaps overly exaggerated. But our objections to this are not intense ones. So our rating is thus, 85 out of 100.
Where To Buy Twinings Lady Grey Tea
Look for this Twinings tea product in the deep blue, that displays the pale yellow Twinings of London logo near the top, at larger stores, supermarkets, and tea shops, as well as online at . Check the references below for a lengthy list of suppliers and resellers.
References
- Lady Grey Tea Health Benefits
- Lady Grey Tea on Wikipedia
- Where to buy Twinings Lady Grey Tea
- Twinings of London Web Site
Revision History
- 2014-12-01: Fixed typos, added whitespace, and adjusted ad placement.
- 2014-09-07: Originally published.