Wow, what product is that? This is the generous offer from Twinings New Zealand Breakfast Tea. And when you live in central Auckland, where birdsong is not a given, this is a very romantic image, and quite an achievement if delivered from plant material grown in Sri Lanka, India and China. It took me a long time to try this product, partly because I have my own tea habits and partly because at $6.69 shelf price per 100 gms discourages experimentation.. Tea to me though is a very personal and central part of my life, as food products are.<\/p>\n
My own blend has more recently been a blend of Dilmah Ceylon tea, mixed with Twinings Darjeeling and Lapsang\u00a0 Souchon, in the ratio of 3.5 : 2 : 2. This produces a harmony of flavours, a lovely smooth, soft yet rich taste without tannic bitterness, refreshing yet warming (definite malty feel) too which is wanted for a morning drink (and suitable all day ), and the smokiness from the Lapsang Souchon is not pronounced, an underlay of something\u00a0 earthy\u00a0 and yet mysterious. I even delay breakfast sometimes to have a second cup! I should note that I add a spoon of raw sugar,, which I far prefer to the empty taste of white sugar, and use full fat cow’s milk to whiten. There are many factors of course to making a great tea, and the variability sometimes comes as a nice surprise , and sometimes not.<\/p>\n
MyTaste Evaluation<\/strong><\/p>\n What did I think of the Twinings New Zealand Breakfast blend? I found it strong, somewhat \u201cchemical\u201d and lacking in the natural plant taste I seek, and strong in a lemon taste rather than \u201cfloral notes\u201d. Possibly the New Zealand market seeks a stronger tea, and the Breakfast teas in the Twinings range (English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast) are strong generally.\u00a0 Billy brewed indeed.<\/p>\n Pricing<\/strong><\/p>\n There is a natural wastage in loose tea, as more is often made than is actually needed. My own blend, which I make just for myself,\u00a0 works out at 27 cents per very large cup.\u00a0 The Twinings fruit teas are close at 23 cents per cup, Twinings Breakfast tea bags 16 cents per cup. At the low bulk end, tea bags go all the way down to 7 cents a cup (Dilmah 100 packs, close to my estimate of making a cup of Dilmah loose tea \u00a0on its own) and even 4.4 cents per cup (Liptons Yellow label 180 packs).<\/p>\n The Category<\/strong><\/p>\n Two trends are obvious within this category, the overwhelming move \u00a0towards tea bags (shelf \u00a0space\u00a0 given to loose tea is well under 10% of the total), and the expansion into Infused\u00a0 Fruit and Herbal tea.\u00a0 These are possibly suited to a market wanting quick convenience and\u00a0 portion control in many current usage situations, interest in a wider range of health issues and benefits, and a gradual move away from the traditional which variety in loose tea\u00a0 on its own cannot satisfy. Black tea sales in supermarkets are in a declining pattern with Herbal tea (up 11%) and Green tea (up 6%) both growing in the last year on top of good growth the year before that. Having said that, Black tea remains 60% of sales. Generally the market gets the product it wants, but the loose Twinings tea I buy is not available in tea bags, and is not stocked by Countdown at all, so trends become self fulfilling.<\/p>\n Infused Fruit and Herbal \u00a0teas are not made from Camellia Siinensis, the tea plant, are caffeine and tannin free.\u00a0 Interestingly, Ready to Drink \/ Iced Tea makes up just under 9% of sales, declining slightly in the last year.<\/p>\n What I would Like to Taste<\/strong><\/p>\n Twinings Pomegranate and Raspberrry ($4.69 \/ 20 bags)<\/p>\n Twinings Apple and Pear (as above)<\/p>\n![\"Combined](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/webcloud78.au.syrahost.com\/~mytasten\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Combined-Image-v2.jpg\")
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