Twinings Darjeeling, 40 Tea Bags 100g
Altitude is the whole story here. Bushes grow slowly in thin cold Himalayan air, the leaves stay small, and what comes out of them is pale golden amber with a high grape-like sweetness. Anyone expecting the colour and weight of a builder's brew will call it weak, and that is a difference in kind rather than a fault. Its real place is after food, where the dry clean finish clears the palate instead of sitting on it, and where caffeine pitched medium rather than high is about the right amount to be drinking that late in the day.
Twinings Darjeeling, in brief.
Twinings Darjeeling is the light, floral, faintly grape-like end of black tea in forty bags.
Brew it just off the boil for three minutes and drink it without milk: the aroma is the whole product, and milk covers it completely. Anyone expecting the strength of a breakfast tea will think it weak, which is a difference in kind rather than in quality.
Twinings Darjeeling is the light, floral end of black tea, in forty bags at 100 grams. Darjeeling is grown in the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal, and the altitude is the whole story: the bushes grow slowly in thin cold air, the leaves stay small, and the tea that results is pale, aromatic and nothing like the heavy Assams and African blends that fill most British tea caddies.
It is worth saying plainly that Darjeeling divides people, and that the split is almost always about expectations rather than quality. Anyone who pours a cup expecting the colour and strength of a builder's brew will find it weak. Drunk on its own terms, without milk, it is the most fragrant black tea there is: light-bodied, faintly grape-like, with a dry finish that makes it the natural afternoon tea.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Water temperature, steep times and the milk question are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Twinings
Twinings is the family tea house trading from London since 1706, and it has sold Darjeeling for a very long time.
The thing most worth knowing about Darjeeling is that it is a region rather than a recipe. The gardens sit at altitude in West Bengal, the bushes are largely the small-leafed China stock rather than the broad-leafed Assam type, and the picking season is split into flushes that taste markedly different from one another. A bagged Darjeeling at this price is a blend across gardens and across the season, built for consistency, and that is the right way to buy one unless you are specifically chasing a single flush.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Forty bags, 100 grams: 40 cups, one bag each, at 2.5 grams a bag. That is the pack's own count rather than any arithmetic of ours.
- A regional tea, not a blend of regions: sold as Darjeeling. Within that it will be blended across gardens and across the season, which is normal and is what keeps the cup consistent.
- Drunk without milk: this matters more here than with any other black tea we sell. Milk flattens the aroma that is the entire point of the cup.
- What it is not: not a strong tea, not a breakfast tea, not a decaf, and not a first-flush speciality. It is an everyday route into an unusual flavour.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: about 95 degrees Celsius, just off the boil.
- Steep: three minutes, covered, then remove the bag.
- Milk: no. This is the one black tea we would argue about. Milk covers the floral aroma completely and leaves you with a weak ordinary tea.
- Lemon: a very thin slice if you want it, though it competes. Sugar is better left out entirely.
- Storage: sealed, cool, dark and dry, away from coffee and spices. Aromatic teas lose their aroma first and fastest.
- Resteeping: a bag gives up most of itself in one pass, so a second steep is thin. Loose Darjeeling resteeps well; a 2.5 gram bag does not.
- Best with: afternoon, scones, light sponge, cucumber sandwiches, and on its own between meals.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Twinings Darjeeling, 40 Tea Bags 100g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Twinings
Twinings has been blending tea on London's Strand since 1706, the same address, three centuries later. Holders of the royal warrant for tea since 1837, they're the brand most-associated with Earl Grey, English Breakfast, and the polished afternoon-tea aesthetic. Wide flavoured-tea range; ethical sourcing through the Twinings Community Needs Assessment programme.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
The taste profile
How does it compare
Darjeeling is the black tea most often ruined by treating it like an ordinary one. It does not want a full rolling boil and it does not want five minutes, and the two mistakes compound: too hot and too long together strip the aroma and leave a thin, bitter cup that convinces people they dislike Darjeeling.
The Mug
The Pot
Made with this tea
The Proper Mug
How to make The Proper Mug with Twinings Darjeeling.
- 1 Twinings Darjeeling bag
- 250ml water just off the boil
- A saucer to cover the mug
- Boil the kettle and let it stand half a minute, to about 95 degrees Celsius.
- Pour 250ml onto the bag and cover the mug with a saucer.
- Steep three minutes, no longer.
- Lift the bag out without squeezing it, and drink it without milk.
What you'll end up with: A pale golden cup with a high floral nose and a dry, clean finish. The saucer and the half-minute wait are the whole technique, and both are easy to skip.
The Afternoon Pot
How to make The Afternoon Pot with Twinings Darjeeling.
- 4 Twinings Darjeeling bags
- 1 litre water just off the boil
- A lemon, thinly sliced, optional
- A warmed pot
- Warm the pot with hot water and tip it away.
- Add four bags, one per cup, and no extra for the pot.
- Steep three minutes with the lid on, then take all four bags out.
- Pour into pale cups and offer lemon rather than milk.
What you'll end up with: Taking the bags out matters more here than with a heavy tea, because Darjeeling turns astringent quickly and the second cup from a pot left standing is noticeably worse than the first.
Clean Iced Darjeeling
How to make Clean Iced Darjeeling with Twinings Darjeeling.
- 5 Twinings Darjeeling bags
- 500ml water just off the boil
- Ice
- A strip of lemon peel
- Steep five bags in 500ml at about 95 degrees Celsius for three minutes, then remove them.
- Cool to room temperature without refrigerating, which keeps it from going cloudy.
- Top up to a litre with cold water.
- Serve over a full glass of ice with a strip of lemon peel and no sugar.
What you'll end up with: The floral character survives chilling far better than the body of a heavy tea does, which is why iced Darjeeling tastes deliberate rather than like leftovers.
Overnight Cold Brew
How to make Overnight Cold Brew with Twinings Darjeeling.
- 5 Twinings Darjeeling bags
- 1 litre cold water
- A sealed jug
- Drop five bags into a litre of cold water in a sealed jug.
- Refrigerate for six hours, or overnight.
- Lift the bags out and drink within two days.
- Serve straight, cold, with nothing added.
What you'll end up with: The preparation that flatters this tea most. Cold water never extracts the astringent compounds at all, so what you get is the floral top note on its own, clean and faintly sweet.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Altitude character | inherent to the region rather than an added component | Slow growth in thin cold air is why the leaves stay small and why the tea is aromatic rather than heavy. |
| Dose | 2.5 grams a bag, 100 grams across 40 bags | A standard dose. Adding a second bag gives astringency rather than strength, because the body is light by nature. |
| Pack | 40 tea bags, 100 grams | One bag a cup, 40 cups a box. The pack's own count rather than any arithmetic of ours. |
Pack: Twinings Darjeeling, 40 Tea Bags 100g; light floral Himalayan black tea, best drunk without milk. Store sealed, cool, dark and dry, away from coffee and spices. Read the ingredient list, the allergen advice and the best-before date off the current UK box.
Components shown are those we can state honestly from the product name, the pack weight and the bag count.
Sourcing & blend. Twinings Darjeeling is put together by Twinings, the family tea house trading from London since 1706. That is company heritage and not a statement about where this box was packed. The tasting profile below is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. A bagged Darjeeling at this price is blended across gardens and across the picking season, which is normal and is what makes the cup the same from box to box.
What's in Twinings Darjeeling, 40 Tea Bags 100g, and what isn't:
- In: Darjeeling black tea, 40 bags at 100 grams, with the full declaration printed on the box.
- No flavouring, fruit or petals: this is plain black tea, not a scented or flavoured blend.
Asked about this tea
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Twinings Darjeeling, 40 Tea Bags 100g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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