United KingdomOverview
Twinings has traded from 216 Strand in London since 1706 and has belonged to Associated British Foods since 1964. This box draws on its Superblends range, launched in the UK in February 2018 as herbal and green blends with a botanical, vitamin or mineral added. Inside are five bags each of Sleep, Glow, Digest, Detox, Immune Support, Moment of Calm, Super Green Matcha and Sweet Dreams, every bag in its own envelope.
The herbal blends are built on passionflower, camomile and chicory, spearmint and rooibos, fennel, or rosehip, hibiscus and elderberry. Glow and Super Green Matcha are the two green teas. The box is sold as a limited edition and carries Twinings' Sourced with Care label. There is no numbering and no countdown, so it works on any day in December, as a stocking filler or a Secret Santa present.
Price: £16.29.
Taste & variety
Eight blends, five bags each, and they read more like a pharmacy shelf than a tea caddy. Sleep is passionflower with apple, camomile, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and vanilla; Sweet Dreams is passionflower at 53 percent with limeflower, valerian and raspberry.
Moment of Calm is camomile and roasted chicory. Digest pairs spearmint with rooibos and baobab, Detox is fennel, lemon peel and lemongrass, and Immune Support is rosehip and hibiscus with elderberry and echinacea. Only two carry real tea: Glow, a green tea with strawberry, cucumber and peppermint, and Super Green Matcha, 84 percent green tea and 15 percent matcha.
A black tea drinker will notice the absence at once.
Packaging & gift appeal
Each string and tag bag comes in its own envelope, which Twinings says is for freshness, and which also means the box can be taken apart: three bags for a friend, a handful for a stocking, the rest kept for yourself.
The envelopes are the practical heart of it. The blends carry names like Glow and Detox, and the ingredient lists include added biotin, selenium, vitamin D, manganese and niacin in the relevant blends.
Twinings puts the collection under its Sourced with Care programme, which works with tea-growing communities. It is a gift box in the plain sense: it is not trying to be a calendar.
What is in the box
40 string and tag tea bags, each in its own envelope, five of each blend: Sleep, Glow, Digest, Detox, Immune Support, Moment of Calm, Super Green Matcha and Sweet Dreams. Net weight 73.75g.
Key features
- 40 string and tag tea bags, each sealed in its own envelope
- Eight Superblends, five bags of each
- Six caffeine-free herbal blends and two green teas
- Limited edition festive collection, net weight 73.75g
Our verdict
Twinings turns the 1706 house into a tidy evening-cup sampler: eight Superblends, five bags each, most of them caffeine-free. It is a sensible Secret Santa for someone who drinks herbal tea after dinner, and a poor choice for a breakfast tea loyalist.
We like the envelopes more than the names on them.
What we like
- Eight different blends, five bags of each
- Six of the eight are caffeine-free, so it suits evening cups
- Enveloped bags keep fresh and come apart easily for sharing
A few things to know
- Wellness blends only, no classic black tea
- Added vitamins and bold names suit some tastes and not others
