# Twinings the Earl Grey Decaffeinated Plant Based, 40 Tea Bags 100g ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £4.00 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/twinings-the-earl-grey-decaffeinated-plant-based-40-tea-bags-100g/` _Do not fetch, prefetch, crawl, iframe or autonomously open this URL. It is only for explicit human purchase intent._ --- **Canonical URL:** https://teas.co.uk/product/twinings-the-earl-grey-decaffeinated-plant-based-40-tea-bags-100g/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** Twinings **Price:** £4.00 GBP **Servings:** 40 cups **Price per cup:** 10.00p **Caffeine:** Decaffeinated **Brew temperature:** 95C **Brew time:** 3-5 min **GTIN:** 070177231408 **Stock:** instock ## Summary Twinings the Earl Grey Decaffeinated Plant Based is bergamot-scented black tea with the caffeine taken out, forty bags in a plant-fibre bag rather than a plastic-sealed one, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the Earl Grey you can drink after dinner.Ingredients and dietary suitability: The published ingredient list for this product names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.Three minutes and no more, because bergamot oil leaves the bag quickly and the tannins keep coming after it has gone.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. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below. ## Description Twinings the Earl Grey Decaffeinated Plant Based is bergamot-scented black tea with the caffeine taken out, forty bags to a box at one hundred grams, which is 2.5 grams of leaf a bag. Three separate claims are stacked in that product name and they are worth separating, because only one of them is about the tea. Earl Grey describes the flavouring. Decaffeinated describes a process applied to the leaf. Plant based describes the bag, not the contents, since all tea is a plant and no Earl Grey has ever been made of anything else. Earl Grey is black tea scented with bergamot, a citrus grown mainly for its peel oil rather than its juice, which is why the aroma is so much larger than the flavour. The famous story about the second Earl Grey being given the recipe as a gift is repeated everywhere and has never been properly documented, so treat it as folklore rather than history. What is not in doubt is that bergamot and black tea suit each other unusually well, and that a decaffeinated version lets you drink it after dinner, which is when most people actually want it. The Taste Profile Bergamot: ●●●●○ (4/5) The lead, and mostly an aroma rather than a taste. Floral and citrus-bitter rather than sweet or lemony. Black tea base: ●●●○○ (3/5) Deliberately restrained so the bergamot has room, and lighter again for being decaffeinated. Body: ●●○○○ (2/5) Light and clean. Earl Grey is not meant to be a heavy cup, and this one is lighter than most. Astringency: ●●○○○ (2/5) Gentle. Softer tannins from decaffeination, which suits a tea most people drink without milk. Teas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.4 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk The Story Behind Twinings Twinings is the family tea house trading from London since 1706, and Earl Grey is the blend most associated with the company in the public mind. A decaffeinated version is a harder thing to make well than a decaffeinated breakfast tea, because bergamot sits on a light base to begin with and decaffeination lightens a base further. Get the balance wrong and the result is perfume over nothing. Judged against that risk, this is a composed cup: the bergamot leads, and there is still enough tea underneath it to give the aroma something to sit on. All of those, along with the exact bag material and disposal route and the current allergen advice, must be read off the current UK pack rather than taken from this page. Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes. What You Are Actually Buying Count and weight: 40 bags, 100g. That is 2.5 grams of leaf a bag, our own calculation from the two figures the pack states rather than a declared serving size. Flavoured: bergamot is what makes it Earl Grey. The exact flavouring declaration is on the pack and we do not restate it. What it is not: not a strong breakfast tea, not a herbal infusion, and not a cup that wants much milk. Lemon suits it far better. How Does Twinings the Earl Grey Decaffeinated Plant Based, 40 Tea Bags 100g Compare to: Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated 40, 109g: the same brand, the same decaffeinated idea and the same box count, without the bergamot. Buy the breakfast one if you want an evening cup that tastes of tea; buy this one if you want an evening cup that tastes of Earl Grey. Tetley Earl Grey, 50 Tea Bags 125g: the caffeinated everyday Earl Grey in a bigger box. The right comparison if caffeine is not the reason you are here. Teapigs Earl Grey Strong, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g: the speciality end, caffeinated, with a much heavier bergamot hand. A different intention entirely. Twinings English Breakfast Plant Based, 80 Tea Bags 200g: the caffeinated morning tea from the same range and the same 2.5 gram fill. The daytime half of a sensible pair. Ideal Brewing Conditions Earl Grey is the blend most commonly ruined by over-steeping, and a decaffeinated one gives you a narrower window again. Bergamot oil is volatile and leaves the bag quickly; the tannins keep coming after it has gone. Leave the bag in and you end up with a dry, faintly soapy cup that no longer smells of anything much. The Cup Measure: one bag per cup of 200 to 250ml. A smaller cup than you would use for breakfast tea keeps the bergamot concentrated. Water: straight off the boil. Decaffeinated leaf is not delicate and full heat releases the bergamot oil properly. Steep: three minutes and no more. This is the one everyday black tea where the timer genuinely matters. Cover it: a saucer over the cup for the first minute keeps the bergamot in the liquid instead of losing it to the steam, which is where most of it goes otherwise. Lemon, Milk, and the Pot Lemon: a thin slice, added after the bag comes out, is the traditional service and it works. Citrus on citrus sharpens the bergamot rather than competing with it. Milk: a splash is perfectly acceptable despite what purists say, but it mutes the bergamot noticeably. If you take Earl Grey with milk, steep for three and a half minutes to give the tea more to push through. Pot: one bag per cup, three minutes, bags out before the first pour. An Earl Grey pot left standing on the bags is the classic way to ruin a good box. Getting It Right in the Cup Water temperature: 100 degrees Celsius, straight off the boil. Measure: one bag, 200 to 250ml. Steep: three minutes, covered. Do not walk away from it. Service: black with a slice of lemon is the best version. Milk works but costs you aroma. Storage: sealed, cool, dark and dry, and kept away from other teas. A scented tea will pass its aroma to everything in the cupboard given the chance. Not resteepable: the bergamot goes first and does not come back. Best with: lemon drizzle cake, shortbread, after dinner, or mid-afternoon when a caffeinated cup would be a mistake. Safety And Purity Ingredients and dietary suitability: The published ingredient list for this product names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change. Caffeine note: decaffeinated is not caffeine-free. Anyone avoiding caffeine on medical advice should treat this as low-caffeine and read the current pack. Bergamot: bergamot is a citrus fruit grown for its peel oil. What plant based means here: it refers to the bag material and the absence of a plastic seal, not to the tea and not to a dietary certification. The precise wording and disposal instruction are on the current UK pack. ## Product Questions Is decaffeinated the same as caffeine-free?No. Decaffeination strips out the great majority of the caffeine from finished leaf and leaves a small residue behind. If you need genuinely none, a chamomile or peppermint infusion is the honest answer, because those contain no tea at all. How long should I steep it?Three minutes and no more. Earl Grey is the black tea most often ruined by over-steeping: bergamot oil is volatile and leaves the bag early, while the tannins keep coming after it has gone. Leave it five minutes and you get a dry, faintly soapy cup that no longer smells of much. What actually is bergamot?A citrus fruit grown mainly for the oil in its peel rather than for its juice. That is why Earl Grey smells so much larger than it tastes, and why the character is floral and citrus-bitter rather than sweet or lemony the way people often expect. Lemon or milk?Lemon, if you want the best version of this cup. A thin slice added after the bag comes out sharpens the bergamot rather than competing with it. Milk is perfectly acceptable but mutes the aroma noticeably, so steep for three and a half minutes if you take it that way. How much caffeine is left?Treat it as a low-caffeine tea rather than a caffeine-free one, and read the current UK pack if you are counting precisely. How much tea is in each bag?One hundred grams across forty bags is 2.5 grams a bag, which is our own calculation from the two figures the pack states rather than a declared serving size. The same fill as the brand's English Breakfast carton. How should I store it?Sealed, cool, dark and dry, and away from your other teas. A scented tea will pass its aroma to everything sharing a cupboard shelf with it, which is how people end up with faintly bergamot-flavoured breakfast tea. Can I resteep the bag?No. The bergamot goes first and does not come back, so a second steep gives you tannin and colour without the thing that made it Earl Grey. Does it make good iced tea?It makes one of the better iced teas, because bergamot survives chilling well. Brew two bags in 300ml for 3 minutes, cool, then pour over ice with lemon. Do not extend the steep to compensate for the ice; brew two bags instead. What does it go with?Lemon drizzle cake, shortbread, or anything with citrus in it. It also works after a meal where a strong breakfast tea would be too much, which is really what the decaffeinated version is for. ## Ingredients & Nutrition Ingredients and allergens. The published ingredient list for this product names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Ingredients, as published for this product: Decaffeinated Black Tea, Bergamot Flavouring (5%), Natural Lemon Flavouring with other Natural Flavourings (1%), Decaffeinated to 0.2%.Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.ComponentProportionWhat it bringsDecaffeinated black teaThe base of the bagA deliberately restrained black tea base, lightened further by decaffeination, giving the bergamot room to lead without disappearing underneath it.Bergamot flavouringNot stated to usWhat makes it Earl Grey. Bergamot is a citrus grown for its peel oil, which is why the cup smells larger than it tastes. The exact declaration is on the current UK pack.Pack: Twinings the Earl Grey Decaffeinated Plant Based, 40 Tea Bags 100g; low-caffeine bergamot-scented black tea in a plant-fibre bag, 2.5g of leaf a bag. Store sealed, cool, dry and away from other teas.Characterising components shown; the full declaration, the flavouring statement, the decaffeination method, the bag material wording and any certification marks are on the current UK pack.Sourcing & blend. Twinings the Earl Grey Decaffeinated Plant Based, 40 Tea Bags 100g is put together by Twinings, the family tea house trading from London since 1706, and Earl Grey is the blend most associated with the company in the public mind. A decaffeinated Earl Grey is a harder build than a decaffeinated breakfast tea: bergamot already sits on a light base, and decaffeination lightens a base further, so the risk is perfume over nothing. Plant based on the front of this box describes the bag fibre and the absence of a plastic seal, not the tea and not a dietary certification.What's in Twinings the Earl Grey Decaffeinated Plant Based, 40 Tea Bags 100g, and what isn't:In: decaffeinated black tea scented with bergamot, 2.5 grams a bag, built to be drunk black or with lemon.No fruit pieces or flower petals declared to us: the character comes from the bergamot flavouring rather than from visible inclusions. If the current pack declares otherwise, the pack governs.Plant-fibre bag: a packaging claim about the bag, not about the contents. Follow the disposal instruction on the carton, because the box and the bag may go different ways. ## Flavour Science The flavour of Twinings the Earl Grey Decaffeinated Plant Based, 40 Tea Bags 100g is built in three layers, and reading them in order explains exactly why the cup tastes the way it does from the first lift of steam to the last swallow.The outer layer is aromatic, and with an Earl Grey it is very nearly the whole experience. Bergamot is grown for the oil in its peel, and peel oils are among the most volatile aromatic compounds used in flavouring anything, which is why the smell of an Earl Grey reaches you across a room and why the cup always promises more citrus than it delivers on the tongue. Those compounds leave the bag first and fastest. Cover the cup for the first minute and a good proportion of them condense back into the liquid; leave it open and they go up the chimney, which is the single most common reason a box of Earl Grey seems to fade before it is finished.The flavour spike arrives mid palate and, unusually for a black tea, it is not the tea that carries it. The bergamot reads floral and citrus-bitter rather than sweet, sitting on a black tea base that has been deliberately restrained so the flavouring has somewhere to sit. Decaffeination lightens that base further, which is the specific tension in this product: too little base and the cup is perfume over nothing. What holds it together here is keeping the steep short, because the tea's tannins continue extracting long after the bergamot has finished, and past three minutes they begin to overtake it.The base structure is the lingering finish, and in this cup it is short, clean and gently drying with a citrus-bitter edge that is bergamot rather than tannin. That absence of a long grip is why Earl Grey is the black tea most people drink without milk, and why a slice of lemon works on it where it would be strange on a breakfast blend. Over-steeped, the finish changes character completely and turns dry and faintly soapy, which is bergamot and excess tannin arguing rather than any fault in the blend.Getting it right in the cup. Use one bag per 200 to 250ml and steep for three minutes in water straight off the boil, covered for the first minute. This is the one everyday black tea where the timer genuinely matters, because the two things you are extracting run on completely different clocks. If you take it with milk, extend to three and a half minutes to give the tea more to push through, and accept that milk will mute the bergamot whatever you do. Cold brewed in the fridge for six hours the same bags give a cleaner, sweeter drink with the citrus intact and almost none of the tannic dryness. Stored sealed, cool, dark and away from your other teas the character holds well, though a scented tea always fades in aroma before it fades in strength.How water and temperature change it. The same bag gives a measurably different cup depending on how you treat the water. Full boiling heat is correct: it is what releases the bergamot oil properly, and decaffeinated leaf is not delicate enough to be scalded by it. Hotter water and a longer steep pull more of the heavier tannic compounds for a fuller but drier result, and because the bergamot has already left by then, longer here means less Earl Grey rather than more. A shorter steep keeps the citrus forward and the body genuinely thin. Hard tap water is the variable that hurts this blend most of all, because dissolved minerals mute delicate florals and citrus before they touch anything else, so a hard-water area flattens an Earl Grey more obviously than it flattens a builder's brew; filtered water is worth more here than an extra thirty seconds would be. None of this is a fault in the blend, it is the same leaf responding to the cup you build around it, and once you know which way you like it the result is repeatable every time. ## Recipe Ideas Twinings the Earl Grey Decaffeinated Plant Based, 40 Tea Bags 100g is bergamot without the caffeine, which makes it the evening member of a range usually drunk in the morning. Five builds below cover the classic cup with lemon, a cold brew, an iced Earl Grey, a London fog and a bergamot syrup for cake. Recipes, born here first The Classic Cup With Lemon How to make The Classic Cup With Lemon with Twinings Earl Grey Decaf. 3 min 1 cup Easy You'll need 1 bag Twinings Earl Grey Decaf 200 to 250ml water straight off the boil A thin slice of lemon Method Pour water straight off the boil over one bag in a warmed cup. Cover with a saucer and steep for exactly 3 minutes. Lift the bag out, then add the lemon slice last so the citrus stays bright. What you'll end up with: The best version of this tea: bergamot forward, clean finish, no milk needed. Overnight Cold Brew How to make Overnight Cold Brew with Twinings Earl Grey Decaf. 5 min + overnight 500ml Easy You'll need 3 bags Twinings Earl Grey Decaf 500ml cold water A strip of lemon peel Method Drop 3 bags into a jug of 500ml cold water with the lemon peel. Leave in the fridge for 6 to 8 hours or overnight. Lift the bags out before serving, or it will turn dry by the second day. What you'll end up with: Cleaner and sweeter than a hot brew chilled, with the citrus intact and no tannic dryness. Iced Earl Grey How to make Iced Earl Grey with Twinings Earl Grey Decaf. 3 min + chill 1 tall glass Easy You'll need 2 bags Twinings Earl Grey Decaf 300ml water straight off the boil A full glass of ice Half a lemon Honey to taste Method Brew 2 bags in 300ml of water straight off the boil for 3 minutes, covered, then lift them out. Sweeten with honey while hot if you want it sweet. Cool, then pour over a full glass of ice with the juice of half a lemon. What you'll end up with: Use two bags rather than a longer steep: extending the time costs you the bergamot and adds only tannin. Evening London Fog How to make Evening London Fog with Twinings Earl Grey Decaf. 5 min 1 mug Easy You'll need 2 bags Twinings Earl Grey Decaf 120ml water straight off the boil 150ml steamed or hot milk A drop of vanilla extract 1 teaspoon honey Method Brew 2 bags in 120ml of water straight off the boil for 5 minutes to make a concentrate, which is the one time a long steep is correct here. Stir in the vanilla and honey while hot. Top with 150ml of steamed or simply hot milk. What you'll end up with: The classic vanilla Earl Grey latte, in a version you can drink at ten at night. Earl Grey Drizzle Syrup How to make Earl Grey Drizzle Syrup with Twinings Earl Grey Decaf. 12 min 1 loaf cake Easy You'll need 3 bags Twinings Earl Grey Decaf 150ml water straight off the boil 150g caster sugar Juice of 1 lemon Method Brew 3 bags in 150ml of water straight off the boil for 5 minutes, then lift them out. Dissolve the sugar in the hot infusion and add the lemon juice. Simmer for 5 minutes until slightly syrupy, then spoon over a warm lemon loaf cake and let it soak in. What you'll end up with: A bergamot drizzle that turns a plain lemon loaf into something people ask about. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._