Twinings the Earl Grey Plant Based, 120 Tea Bags 300g
One saucer, laid across the cup for the first minute, does more for this tea than any other change available to you. Bergamot is a volatile oil. It rises with the steam, and an open mug hands a good part of what you bought straight to the kitchen air. Cover it, three minutes, then lift the bag out even if the colour still looks pale, because the colour comes from the base and the base is not the point. This is the household box rather than the trial one, so it is worth keeping properly closed between mugs; a scented tea fades faster than a plain one. Bitter-orange and floral on the steam, medium bodied underneath, finishing dry enough that the citrus never tips over into perfume.
Twinings the Earl Grey Plant Based, in brief.
Twinings the Earl Grey Plant Based is the household-size box of black tea scented with bergamot, 120 bags in a 300g box, in the range whose bags are plant fibre sealed without plastic.
Picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the stocking-up box for a house that already drinks Earl Grey.
Water straight off the boil, three minutes covered, then lift the bag out: bergamot is volatile and a long brew trades it for tannin. Lemon suits it better than milk.
A 120-bag box is a stocking-up box. It is not the size you buy to find out whether you like Earl Grey, it is the size you buy once you already know.
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.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind The Box
Twinings has traded as a London tea house since 1706, and Earl Grey is the blend most people picture when they picture Twinings. The name belongs to the 2nd Earl Grey and the origin story has been told several different ways over two centuries; we are not going to pick one and present it as settled history. What is not in dispute is what the blend is: black tea scented with bergamot, a small bitter citrus, and a style that has outlived every fashion that came after it.
This box is that blend at scale. Everything on the pack beyond the name belongs to the pack: the leaf origins, the exact form the bergamot takes, the nutrition panel, the certification marks and the allergen statement. What we can tell you is the arithmetic, because that comes off the pack format rather than out of a marketing line: 300g across 120 bags, 2.5g a bag, one bag a mug, 120 mugs.
The bag material is why this version sits beside the ordinary box. Conventional tea bags are usually heat-sealed with a small amount of plastic; a plant-based bag is sealed without it. Whether yours is home compostable or only industrially compostable is stated on the carton, and those are not the same thing.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- The box that arrives is the current UK retail pack rather than a grey import.
- The bag is plant based and sealed without plastic, which is the whole reason this line sits beside the standard box. The exact fibre and the disposal route are stated on the carton.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Twinings the Earl Grey Plant Based, 120 Tea Bags 300g, 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
Earl Grey has a narrower window than plain black tea. Bergamot is volatile and leaves as steam while the tannin keeps extracting, so a long brew loses the thing you bought it for and keeps the thing you did not.
The Mug
The Pot
Made with this tea
The Three Minute Mug
The everyday build, and the saucer trick that keeps the bergamot in the cup instead of in the kitchen.
- 1 Earl Grey tea bag
- 200 to 250ml water at 100 degrees
- A thin slice of lemon, or a splash of milk
- Pour water straight off the boil onto the bag in the mug.
- Cover with a saucer for the first minute so the bergamot stays in the liquid.
- Lift the bag out at three minutes and press it once against the side.
- Finish with lemon, or a splash of milk if that is how you take it.
What you'll end up with: A clear, dry, scented cup with the citrus still on it, which is what you lose if you walk away and come back at five minutes.
The Pot With Lemon
Four cups for the table, and why the bags come out before it leaves the kitchen.
- 3 Earl Grey tea bags
- 750ml water at 100 degrees
- 1 lemon, thinly sliced
- Warm the pot with a splash from the kettle and tip it out.
- Brew three bags in 750ml, lid on, for three minutes.
- Remove all three bags before the pot goes to the table.
- Serve with lemon slices on a saucer beside it rather than in the pot.
What you'll end up with: A pot that is as good in the fourth cup as the first, because nothing is still extracting in it.
Iced Earl Grey With Lemon Peel
The one black tea that is arguably better cold than hot.
- 2 Earl Grey tea bags
- 250ml water at 100 degrees
- A full glass of ice
- A strip of lemon peel
- Brew two bags in 250ml for four minutes, deliberately stronger than a mug.
- Cool to room temperature, then chill.
- Pour over a glass packed with ice so the dilution lands where you want it.
- Twist a strip of lemon peel over the glass and drop it in.
What you'll end up with: A clean, bracing iced tea where the bergamot reads brighter than it does hot, and no sugar is needed.
London Fog
Earl Grey as a latte, which is the one situation where milk is the point rather than the problem.
- 2 Earl Grey tea bags
- 120ml water at 100 degrees
- 150ml milk or oat milk
- A few drops of vanilla extract
- Brew two bags in only 120ml of water for four minutes to make a concentrate.
- Lift the bags out and stir in the vanilla while it is still hot.
- Steam or heat the milk and froth it, then pour it over the concentrate.
- Sweeten only if you want to; the vanilla usually does the job on its own.
What you'll end up with: A milky cup where the bergamot still comes through, because the tea was brewed at double strength before the milk arrived.
Earl Grey Tea Loaf
The overnight soak that turns a box of tea bags into a cake, with no butter in it at all.
- 3 Earl Grey tea bags
- 300ml water at 100 degrees
- •300g mixed dried fruit
- •250g self raising flour
- •150g soft brown sugar
- •1 egg, beaten
- Brew three bags in 300ml for five minutes, 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 and butter it, and serve it with another cup of the same tea.
Earl Grey Poached Fruit
A pudding built from three tea bags, some fruit and a pan.
- 3 Earl Grey tea bags
- 500ml water at 100 degrees
- •4 pears or 6 plums, halved
- •100g caster sugar
- A strip of lemon peel
- Brew three bags in 500ml for five minutes, then take them out.
- Dissolve the sugar in the hot tea with the lemon peel.
- Poach the fruit gently for fifteen to twenty minutes until tender but holding its shape.
- Reduce the liquid by half over a higher heat and pour it back over the fruit.
What you'll end up with: Fruit in a dark, faintly bitter, citrus-scented syrup. The tannin keeps it from being sickly, which is exactly what a sugar syrup on its own cannot do.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Black tea | The base of the blend | The body, the grip at the sides of the mouth and the caffeine. Medium bodied here rather than heavy, because it is built to carry a scent rather than to shout over one. |
| Bergamot | Not stated to us | The defining character: a small bitter citrus, floral and sharp together. The form it takes in the current blend and its proportion are declared on the carton, not by us. |
| Dose per bag | 2.5g | 300g across 120 bags. One bag per mug of 200 to 250ml, 120 mugs from the box. |
| Origin split | Not stated to us | A blend rather than a single origin. |
| Bag material | Plant fibre, plastic free | Sealed without the plastic used in conventional heat-sealed bags. Whether it is home or industrially compostable is stated on the carton. |
Pack: Twinings the Earl Grey Plant Based, 120 Tea Bags 300g; GTIN 0070177231309; 120 plant-based tea bags in a 300g carton, 2.5g of tea each, 120 mugs per box. Caffeinated black tea. Best before the date printed on the carton.
Characterising components shown; the unquantified black tea base makes up the remaining body. Ingredient percentages, nutrition figures, caffeine milligrams, certification marks, the exact bag fibre and the full allergen statement belong to the current UK pack and we do not restate them here, having not read it. The 120-mug yield and the 2.5g dose per bag are worked out from the pack count and weight, not pack claims.
Sourcing & blend. Twinings the Earl Grey Plant Based, 120 Tea Bags 300g is put together by Twinings, the family tea house trading from London since 1706, and Earl Grey is the blend the house is best known for. This box is that blend in the plant-based bag format at household size, which is the version bought by people who have already settled the question of whether they like it. The carton you receive is the current UK retail pack rather than a grey import.
What is in Twinings the Earl Grey Plant Based, 120 Tea Bags 300g, and what is not:
- In: black tea scented with bergamot, in a plant-fibre bag sealed without plastic, and nothing else in the bag but the listed components and the tea base.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: any sweetness is natural to the leaf, and there is very little of it. This is a dry, scented black tea rather than a sweetened one.
- Not a herbal infusion: this is real tea leaf and it contains caffeine. A shorter steep does not change that.
- Plastic free bag: plant fibre, sealed without plastic. Home compostable and industrially compostable are different routes and the carton states which applies.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Twinings the Earl Grey Plant Based, 120 Tea Bags 300g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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