Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection, 20 Tea Bags 40g
Everything in this box is the same style, which is exactly what makes it useful. A run of Earl Greys one after another tells you whether you want bergamot bright and lemony or dark and perfumed, and most people have drunk one version and formed a lifelong opinion from it. They all carry caffeine, so work through them in daylight rather than after supper. Take them on consecutive days, not side by side. The base is light throughout and none turn hard at three minutes, so they are difficult to ruin.
Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection, in brief.
Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection is a twenty-bag box holding more than one Earl Grey.
Five Earl Greys, four envelopes of each: Earl Grey, Vanilla, Lavender, Strong and Lady Grey, per Twinings.
Earl Grey is black tea plus bergamot, and everything interesting is in the ratio. Taste one blend a day rather than four in an hour, three minutes each, no milk, then buy eighty bags of whichever one wins.
The box holds 20 individually sealed envelopes, four each of five Earl Greys: Earl Grey, Vanilla Earl Grey, Lavender Earl Grey, Strong Earl Grey and Lady Grey, per Twinings.
Earl Grey is not a blend so much as a treatment. Black tea plus bergamot, a small bitter citrus from Calabria, and everything interesting happens in the ratio and in the base tea underneath. Turn the bergamot up and you get the famous perfumed cup that some people find soapy. Turn it down and lean on the tea, and you get something closer to a scented breakfast blend. Put several of those side by side over a week and you learn something about your own taste that no amount of reading will teach you.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description, and describes the range rather than any one blend in the box. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Storage, steeping times and how to taste the box are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Twinings
Twinings has been trading from the Strand in London since 1706, and Earl Grey is the blend most associated with the name. The Discovery Collection boxes are a newer idea: small assortments built around one theme, sold so that somebody can taste across a style instead of committing to eighty bags of a single one. There is a black tea version, a green tea version and a herbal version of the same idea. This is the Earl Grey one.
The tasting profile above is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description, and it describes the range you will find rather than any individual blend in it.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- An assortment, not a blend: the bags are not interchangeable and the box is not a single tea in different wrappers. That is the product.
- Drunk clear: Earl Grey is a black tea but a scented one, and milk covers the bergamot. Lemon is the traditional addition and it works.
- What it is not: not an everyday box, not caffeine-free, and not a gift set with a tin and a ribbon. It is a plain cardboard box that happens to be the most useful twenty bags of Earl Grey you can buy.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: 100 degrees, freshly boiled.
- Measure: one bag per 200ml.
- Steep: three minutes, covered, then lift the bag out without squeezing it.
- Service: clear or with lemon. Not milk.
- Storage: sealed, dry and dark, and away from anything strongly scented. Bergamot travels between packets, which cuts both ways.
- Best with: lemon cake, shortbread, a plain scone with the jam left off, or smoked salmon.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection, 20 Tea Bags 40g, 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
The brewing here is easy and the tasting is the hard part. Bergamot is volatile, which means it leaves the cup as steam, so a covered brew and a reasonably prompt drink matter more than precision about timing. Nothing in this box will punish you for three and a half minutes instead of three.
The Afternoon Cup
How To Actually Taste The Box
Made with this tea
The Side By Side Tasting
How to make The Side By Side Tasting with Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection.
- 1 bag from the collection
- 200ml just boiled water
- The same cup every time
- Somewhere to write one word
- Brew one bag in 200ml of just boiled water for exactly 3 minutes, covered.
- Lift the bag out without squeezing it and drink the cup clear.
- Write one word down: lemony, floral, soapy, heavy or thin. One word is enough.
- Tomorrow, the next blend in the same cup with the same water and the same 3 minutes.
What you'll end up with: A written answer to what you actually like, and a reason to buy eighty bags of one thing instead of guessing again.
Iced Earl Grey with Lemon
How to make Iced Earl Grey with Lemon with Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection.
- 3 bags from the collection
- 300ml just boiled water
- 1 lemon, juiced, plus wheels to serve
- Plenty of ice
- Brew 3 bags in 300ml of just boiled water for 4 minutes, then cool to room temperature.
- Stir in the juice of one lemon.
- Pour over full glasses of ice and finish with a lemon wheel.
What you'll end up with: The best iced tea in this box. Bergamot and lemon reinforce each other and neither needs sugar to work.
Earl Grey Poached Pears
How to make Earl Grey Poached Pears with Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection.
- 4 bags from the collection
- 600ml water
- 4 firm pears, peeled
- 100g sugar and a strip of lemon peel
- Brew 4 bags in 600ml of just boiled water for 5 minutes, then lift them out.
- Dissolve the sugar in the hot tea and add a strip of lemon peel.
- Simmer the peeled pears in it, barely bubbling, for 20 to 25 minutes until a knife slides in.
- Cool the pears in the liquid, then reduce what is left to a syrup and spoon it over.
What you'll end up with: Pears that taste of citrus and tannin rather than of sugar. The bergamot survives cooking better than most tea flavours do.
Earl Grey Cold Brew for the Fridge
How to make Earl Grey Cold Brew for the Fridge with Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection.
- 4 bags from the collection
- 750ml cold water
- A lidded jug
- Drop 4 bags into 750ml of cold water and put the lid on.
- Leave in the fridge for eight hours or overnight.
- Lift the bags out and drink within three days.
What you'll end up with: Clean citrus with the tannin left behind. Cold water never pulls the harsh compounds out, so this needs no sugar at all.
Bergamot Sugar for Baking
How to make Bergamot Sugar for Baking with Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection.
- 2 bags from the collection
- 200g caster sugar
- An airtight jar
- Cut two bags open and tip the dry leaf into the sugar.
- Shake the sealed jar and leave it for two days, shaking once a day.
- Sieve the leaf out, or leave it in if you want the flecks visible.
- Use it in shortbread, in a lemon drizzle, or on top of a plain sponge.
What you'll end up with: Sugar that carries the perfume into baking without wetting the mixture. A good use for whichever blend in the box turned out not to be your favourite.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Black tea | Printed on the current pack | The base of every bag in the box. Deliberately light across the collection, because a heavy leaf would compete with the scent instead of carrying it. |
| Bergamot | Varies across the collection | What makes a tea an Earl Grey. The range from one bag to the next is the reason the box exists: a light citrus lift at one end, a deeper perfume at the other. |
| Average leaf per bag | 2g | Our arithmetic on 40g across 20 bags. An average rather than a measurement, because the bags are not all the same blend. |
Ingredients, as published for this product: Earl Grey: Black Tea¹, Bergamot Flavouring (4%), Natural Lemon Flavouring with other Natural Flavourings (1%), Vanilla Earl Grey: Black Tea¹, Natural Vanilla Flavouring with other Natural Flavourings (5%), Bergamot Flavouring (2.5%), Bergamot Peel (0.3%), Lavender Earl Grey: Black Tea¹, Natural Bergamot Flavouring with other Natural Flavourings (8%), Lavender (8%), Strong Earl Grey: Black Tea¹, Bergamot Flavouring (4.5%), Bergamot Peel (0.3%), Lady Grey: Black Tea¹, Orange Peel (3%), Lemon Peel (3%), Flavouring, ¹Rainforest Alliance Certified.
Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.
Ingredients and allergens. Twinings describes these teas as suitable for vegans; all five are black teas and contain caffeine. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Pack: Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection, 20 Tea Bags 40g; an assortment of caffeinated scented black teas, GTIN 0070177236564. Store sealed, dry, dark and away from your other tea. Read the ingredient declarations, any certification marks, the bag material and the best-before date off the current UK pack.
Characterising components shown. This is an assortment, so there is more than one ingredient declaration on the box and no single one can be reproduced here.
Sourcing & blend. Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection, 20 Tea Bags 40g is put together by Twinings, the family tea house trading from London since 1706, and Earl Grey is the blend most associated with the name. The Discovery Collection idea runs across the brand's range, with black tea, green tea and herbal versions of the same small tasting box; this is the Earl Grey one. Our assessment of the cup rests on the pack format and the brand's published description.
What's in Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection, 20 Tea Bags 40g:
- In: several different Earl Greys, each black tea with bergamot, at an average 2g a bag. The full declaration for each is on the current UK pack.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Twinings Earl Grey Discovery Collection, 20 Tea Bags 40g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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