Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated, 80 Tea Bags 218g
Decaffeinated leaf gives itself up slowly, so give this four minutes and a stir rather than the three you would give the ordinary box. Most of decaf's reputation for weakness is really a reputation for being under-brewed. Handled properly it keeps the malt backbone and the grip at the sides of the mouth that tell you this is black tea and not something standing in for it. Milk, buttered toast, the late end of the day.
Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated, in brief.
Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated is the everyday London breakfast blend with the caffeine taken out, 80 bags in a 218g box, picked into the teas.co.uk selection as the cup you can make at nine in the evening and still taste like tea rather than like a substitute for it.
Water straight off the boil, four minutes rather than three, stirred at the start, then lift the bag out and add the milk.
Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated is the ordinary cup with the caffeine taken out: 80 bags in a 218g box, which is 2.725g of tea in every bag. English Breakfast is the blend most British households mean by "a cup of tea", and this is the version you can drink at nine in the evening without lying awake about it.
Decaf tea has a particular job, and it is not the job breakfast tea usually does. It is the pot after dinner, the cup for the person who stopped at lunchtime, the one somebody drinks because a doctor or a pregnancy has taken the ordinary kind off the table. What most people want in that moment is not a herbal infusion. It is tea, tasting like tea, made the same way as the morning one.
Curator notes: our taste notes are editorial, formed by checking the current pack format against the brand's published description. Our usual dispatch time for this line is 1 to 2 working days. The common questions get their answers in the detailed Q and A tab beneath.
Curator’s notes
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The Story Behind The Box
Twinings has traded as a London tea house since 1706 and English Breakfast is the blend that carries its everyday range. This box is that blend with the caffeine removed. Everything else about it is ordinary by choice: a black tea blend, in a bag, in a box, made in a mug with milk.
We will not invent a back story for it. The decaffeination process, the origin split, the nutrition panel, any certification marks and the allergen statement all belong to the carton in your hand, and pack runs change. The pack is the place to look; we would sooner point you there than guess in print. What we can tell you is the arithmetic, because that comes off the pack format: 218g across 80 bags, 2.725g a bag, one bag a mug, 80 mugs.
Decaffeinated does not mean caffeine-free. A small amount remains, the residual figure is not published at this pack size, and we will not estimate one. A herbal infusion is the safer choice if medical advice rules out caffeine entirely.
Packaging: Because the components may not share a disposal route, work from the pack in your hand and from what your council collects.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- What reaches you is the present UK retail pack, not a grey import.
- The carton states the bag materials and the recycling routes, and both can change from one pack run to the next. Bag and box might be disposed of differently, so read the current UK pack and ask your local authority.
Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated, 80 Tea Bags 218g, 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: Because the components may not share a disposal route, work from the pack in your hand and from what your council collects.
Our commitment to the planet
The taste profile
How does it compare
Decaffeinated black tea gives itself up a little more slowly than the caffeinated kind, so the most common way to be disappointed by it is to brew it like the morning cup and lift the bag at two minutes. Give it the extra minute.
The Mug
The Pot
Made with this tea
The Four Minute Mug
The everyday build, and the extra minute a decaf needs that a caffeinated bag does not.
- 1 decaffeinated tea bag
- 200 to 250ml water at 100 degrees
- A splash of milk
- Pour the freshly boiled water onto the bag in the mug.
- Stir or swirl the bag for the first ten seconds.
- Leave it four minutes, not three, then press the bag against the side and lift it out.
- Add the milk last, once the bag is gone.
What you'll end up with: A proper mug of tea at an hour when you could not otherwise have one, with the malt and the grip still in it.
The Pot After Dinner
Four cups for the table without anyone lying awake, and why the bags come out in the kitchen.
- 3 decaffeinated tea bags
- 750ml water at 100 degrees
- Milk, in a jug
- Warm the pot through with a splash of kettle water, then empty it.
- Brew three bags in 750ml, stir once, lid on, four minutes.
- Remove all three bags from the pot while it is still in the kitchen.
- Serve with the milk in a jug so everyone takes their own.
What you'll end up with: A pot as good in the fourth cup as the first, because nothing is still extracting in it.
Overnight Cold Brew Jug
No heat, no bitterness, and a jug in the fridge you can drink at midnight.
- 4 decaffeinated tea bags
- 1 litre cold water
- 1 lemon, sliced
- Ice to serve
- Drop four bags into the jug and cover them with a litre of cold water.
- Chill for eight hours, or overnight, in the fridge.
- Lift the bags out; do not squeeze them, which is what makes cold brew cloudy.
- Serve over ice with lemon slices.
What you'll end up with: A soft, sweet, almost astringency-free tea that needs no sugar, and one you can pour at any hour of the night.
Yorkshire-Style Tea Loaf
The overnight soak that turns four tea bags into a fruit loaf with no butter in it.
- 4 decaffeinated tea bags
- 300ml water at 100 degrees
- •300g mixed dried fruit
- •250g self raising flour
- •150g soft brown sugar
- •1 egg, beaten
- Brew four bags in 300ml for six minutes, deliberately strong, and lift them out.
- Soak the dried fruit in the hot tea with the sugar, covered, overnight.
- Stir in the flour and the beaten egg the next day until just combined.
- Bake in a lined loaf tin at 160 degrees fan for about an hour, until a skewer comes out clean.
Slice it thick, butter it, and serve it with a cup of the same tea.
Tea-Braised Prunes
A pudding, or a breakfast, made out of three tea bags and a pan.
- 3 decaffeinated tea bags
- 400ml water at 100 degrees
- •300g stoned prunes
- •2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
- A strip of orange peel
- Brew three bags in 400ml for five minutes, then take them out.
- Dissolve the sugar in the hot tea with the orange peel.
- Simmer the prunes gently for twenty minutes until plump and glossy.
- Cool in the liquid and keep them in the fridge for up to a week.
What you'll end up with: Prunes in a dark, faintly tannic syrup. The tea keeps them from being sickly, which is what a plain sugar syrup cannot do. Good with yoghurt in the morning or cream at night.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Decaffeinated black tea | 100% | The whole of the bag. A breakfast-style blend: malt backbone, medium body and enough astringent grip to stand up to milk, softened a little by the decaffeination. |
| Dose per bag | 2.725g | 218g across 80 bags. One bag per mug of 200 to 250ml, 80 mugs from the box. |
| Residual caffeine | Not stated to us | Decaffeinated is not caffeine-free. |
| Origin split | Not stated to us | |
| Bag material and carton | Not stated to us | Bag material and recycling instructions are stated on the carton and may not share a disposal route. We have not assumed either. |
Ingredients and allergens. No allergen from the list of 14 major allergens is named in the ingredient list published for this product. Recipes and allergen advice are changeable, so the current UK pack deserves a look at the time of purchase.
Ingredients, as published for this product: Decaffeinated Black Tea, Decaffeinated to 0.2%.
Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. If anything here differs from the pack, the pack wins.
Pack: Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated, 80 Tea Bags 218g; GTIN 0070177235031; 80 tea bags in a 218g carton, 2.725g of tea each, 80 mugs per box. Decaffeinated black tea. Look at the carton for the best before date.
Characterising components shown; this is a single-component product and the unquantified black tea base makes up the whole body. The decaffeination process, residual caffeine, nutrition figures, ingredient percentages, certification marks, bag materials and the full allergen statement belong to the current UK pack and we do not restate them here, having not read it.
Sourcing & blend. Since 1706 Twinings has run as a family tea house out of London, and English Breakfast is the blend that carries its everyday range. This box is that blend with the caffeine taken out, which is the version bought for the end of the day rather than the start of it. You get the UK retail carton as currently sold, and not a grey import.
What is in Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated, 80 Tea Bags 218g, and what is not:
- In: decaffeinated black tea, and nothing else in the bag but the tea base.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: it is the plain, unflavoured and unsweetened sort of black tea, not a flavoured one. Any sweetness comes from the tea leaf, and there is only a trace.
- Not a herbal infusion: this is real tea leaf, and it keeps the malt and the grip that a herbal substitute cannot give you.
- Not caffeine-free: decaffeinated means most of the caffeine has been taken out, not all of it. For a drink with none at all, choose a herbal infusion.
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Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated, 80 Tea Bags 218g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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