Yesterday, I met up with a friend from NZ who I hadn’t seen in almost 10 years … it was fab to catch up with her 
we had a lovely time. Also, completely unexpectedly, she brought me tea!
Twinings New Zealand Breakfast tea! It turns out that this was a winner of a competition to create a New Zealand tea blend – it was originally going to be a Limited Edition tea but has been so popular that Twinings are going to keep producing it . The NZ Twinings homepage currently has stuff up about it – including a lovely little video clip.
Source: don’t know where the tea is from (packet just says ‘tea’). I also don’t know where to buy this – probably your best bet is trying to find a friend in New Zealand to send you some … as it’s such a new product it seems unlikely to be stocked by New Zealand shops overseas. (I looked at a couple online and they definitely didn’t have it)
Cost: no idea. See above comments about sourcing …
Ethics: the box displays the fact that Twinings is part of the Ethical Tea Partnership. This is more widespread than e.g. the Fairtrade mark, looking to change things at an industry level (whereas Fairtrade is – currently at least – much smaller).
Brewing instructions: the box says boiling water, 3-5 minutes, drink with milk – good general advice for a medium-strong (or stronger) black tea. 3 minutes works for me.
Appearance: the downside of having done so many tea reviews already is that there are a limited number of ways to say tea-coloured … it’s tea-coloured. Or: look! I took photos! Can you think of a better way to describe it?
(Apologies for colour difference in the background – camera was doing automatic things and I didn’t want to fuss with it …)
Nose: A slight smokiness – like lapsang souchong, but not as overwhelming.
Taste: black tea with a hint of smoke – not too much – and a slight floral aftertaste. My MIL picked up the box and said “oh, does it taste like Earl Grey?” at which I went “huh?” – turns out the ingredients are tea and bergamot flavouring. I’d known there was something floral but not twigged that that was it – so I don’t think it’s very Earl-Grey-ish at all!
Food match: I had some yesterday afternoon with chocolate loaf cake, which was nice. I think it would go pretty well with most foods.
Mine, all mine ... although if you come to visit me I'll make you a cup
In summary: I really rather like this – it’s definitely my new “normal-tea-tea” (fortuitously, I had just run out of Williamson Traditional Afternoon). It’s tea, and it’s lovely, and it’s normal enough that you could serve it to people who said “um, just normal tea please” but it’s also just a tiny bit interesting. Mmmmm. If it wasn’t after 10pm I’d be tempted to go and have a cup now. Lovely.
