I can’t get past the aroma. Bergamot is an ingredient in a lot of hair products, which made it very unappetizing to me. 
So, as a Canadian now in Texas with limited tea options, where does, say, Twinings English/Irish breakfast fall in the scale?
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It’s all personal taste, but from my POV, Twinings is fine enough- it’s decent quality and you’ll get a good cup of tea from it. If your choices are limited it’s probably one of the better choices out there.
If you like your tea black, it’s probably a good choice, because its flavour is a bit less punchy than Rob’s preferred Yorkshire. The latter is the sort of stuff you want if you take milk and sugar, but still want a really punchy robust taste.
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Hey, as supermarket teas go, Twinings is quite serviceable. Especially the straightforward black teas you mentioned, IMO.
Most supermarkets now have jumped on the organic/natural foods bandwagon and carry at least a few decent selections of tea beyond Twinings, tho. Presumably even in TX?
@joemcmahon: Twinings lapsong souchong, however—revolting
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My favoured biscuit for snacking with tea!
Dark Chocolate Homewheats are the best, but they’re not for dunking and neither are Jaffa Cakes.
Rich Tea are not boring, average or bland. They are the overlooked, underrated baseline of biscuits. I know these things.
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I get Lapsang from Spice & Tea Exchange online. Loose leaf at around 9USD/oz. You are absolutely correct, it IS a polarizing tea. Like it or hate it, not much “meh” going on here.
“Drinking a campfire” is an apt description, all right! I find it reminiscent of smoked, greasy, salty mackerel - yum. Just what you need to “dunk your bikkies” (NOT)! But along side a plate of those yummy “dumplings in white sauce” pictured upthread, it would be a sturdy complement. YMMV
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As I say, divisive. I love a good cup of it with a nice dollop of tarweed honey, which is apparently a hyperlocal California thing.
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If it’s fresh, it’s usually a good solid B+ to A-. If it’s not fresh, it’s premium-price Lipton, and I’d buy Red Rose first.
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Yeah, I find it hard to be too exercised about branded teabags: looseleaf tea, treated respectfully is a different proposition. Of course I don’t take milk or sugar so my taste doesn’t propigate so much.
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Weighing in a bit late but with a slightly different viewpoint: Australian.
I’m a two level teaspoons of sugar, milk, steep for as long as possible, kinda tea-drinker. Don’t drink coffee. Only started drinking tea about 10 years ago.
Used to favour Bushell’s extra strong all the time, but was drinking too much and having trouble sleeping. So stepped down to normal strength Bushell’s. Now prefer Twining’s Irish Breakfast, Assam Bold, Morning or Afternoon. Their vanilla chai before bed. It’s not particularly authentic (started drinking tea by having chai or lemon tea in India) but it’s good before bed. Hate Twining’s English breakfast extra-strong or normal strength - too tannin-y.
Lipton’s etc are palatable if desperate for a cuppa. Dilmah (Sri Lankan) earl grey if I’ve run out of milk (thanks Captain Picard for the inspo!).
There’s a brand called Nerada here which actually is grown, processed and packaged in Australia. It’s also organic. It’s pretty good! I’ve had their normal and chai. Again, the chai isn’t like Indian-style chai, but it’s still good. Closer to Indian-style is Nature’s Organics chai. Sometimes I’m in the mood for their peppery chai, sometimes I’m not.
What else? Oh. A brand called T2. Melbourne breakfast tea is good. Their loose leaf black chai is outstanding.
Any kind of lapsang souchang is foul, in my limited experience. Like drinking a bushfire.
I thought that was the result of being run over by Thomas the Tank Engine.
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I salute you!
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Oh, depending on the occasion, time of day, mood, food accompanying, and of course the tea itself, I take milk and rock sugar (Kandis), or even cream.
There’s a whole different tea culture around parts of northern Germany.
But even then, I use high quality tea. And not that dust or broken CTC in bags.
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