The Great Tea Tease - another review by ‘Grumpy’ Steve Collins
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The Great Tea Tease - another review by ‘Grumpy’ Steve Collins
After his much-lauded Frozen Chip-Off from a couple of weeks ago, @TheGrumpster is back with a new review. Got any requests for future product tests? Let us know below!
There are a great many teas on our supermarket shelves, but which tea is the best?
In order to test the teas, I gathered together three tea-loving friends together with She Who Rules the Roost (my wife) to partake in a blind tasting test.
I chose common teas from the supermarket, which consisted of:
- Woolworth’s Home Brand English Breakfast
- Lipton English Breakfast
- Twinings English Breakfast
- Nerada Black Tea, and
- Bushell’s Blue Label
Neralda Black Tea was the only loose leaf tea, the others were all tea bags.
I made the teas in teapots and put three teabags of each into their respective teapots, and three teaspoons of loose leaf, in its pot. I added boiling water and steeped each for precisely three minutes. Each tea was presented to the tasting panel in order, from one to five. As one tea was being tested, I brewed the next pot in order to keep the process the same each time.
There were four criteria for the panel to consider: Colour, Aroma, Flavour, and their Overall Impression.
The panel was sequestered in our dining room, away from the kitchen, so they had no idea which brand they were tasting. Keeping She Who Rules the Roost out of the kitchen was negotiated when I agreed to do the washing up and drying of the testing crockery afterwards. She does drive a very hard bargain.
None of the tasters took sugar with their teas, and one preferred to drink her tea white, so a small jug of milk was provided. I figured that the tasters should be able to drink the samples the way they would normally drink their tea, as that’s what their tastebuds are used to.
Water was provided so that the tasters could clear their palate after each tasting. Small cups were also provided for each individual tea as I did not want them to drink too much tea too soon, and I washed each cup after each tasting so as not to leave any residue in the cup that could change the taste of the new tea.
Each was given a marking sheet, with the teas marked only as 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 so that they genuinely had no idea which brand they were drinking. The teas were ranked out of 10 on aroma, flavour, and overall impression.
Marking for colour was close as the teas were marked (in order 1 to 5): 7, 8, 8, 7, 8.
For Aroma they marked 7, 7, 8, 7, 8.
Flavour markings were 7, 6, 8, 7, 8.
Overall Impression was: 7, 8, 8, 7, 9.
Tea Brand | Total Scores |
Tea no. 1  | 28, 22, 20, 22 = 92 |
Tea no. 2  | 29, 28, 28, 23 = 108 |
Tea no. 3  | 32, 24, 24, 21 = 101 |
Tea no. 4  | 28, 24, 16, 23 = 91 |
Tea no. 5  | 33, 27, 32, 24 = 116 |
Therefore No. 5 was first, No. 2 was second, No. 3 was third, No. 1 was fourth and No. 4 was fifth - a difference of a staggering 24 points between the lowest and highest rated.
The tea that ranked last in our review was no. 4 - Twinings English Breakfast.
Coming in second was tea no. 1- Lipton English Breakfast.
In the middle was No. 3- Nerada Black tea
The second best was No.2 – Woolworths Home Brand English Breakfast
And the winner, by a considerable margin, was Tea No. 5 – Bushell’s Blue Label.
That last result was rather surprising as Twinings does have a reputation for being a reputable brand. The panel had no idea which teas were being tested, and they were surprised when the names of the teas were revealed to them.
To celebrate the successful completion of the tasting I provided high tea for them, and each taster could enjoy their personal favourite from the tasting.
It was mutually agreed that tea is more enjoyable when accompanied by scones, jam and cream, together with caramel cake and lemon sponge.
As a bonus, She Who Rules the Roost did help with the washing up for the post-tasting wing ding.
What did you guys think of this review? Do the ratings match up with your personal tea preferences?
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twinings no too simpy no flavour 
