Australian summers are three months I’d happily go without, although I do love the tropical fruits of summer. That’s where Twinings Mango & Lychee Green Tea comes in on a cold winter’s day.
The tea is a tea bag containing broken first and second flush green tea from Shejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces in China and blended with natural flavours of mango and lychee.
Steeping one teabag in 200 mL of water at 80°C for 1.5 minutes, the infusion was a cloudy golden yellow colour with a sweet mango aroma that recalled mango flavoured jelly crystals. Served hot, the same artificial mango flavour came through at the head of each sip ahead of a heady floral hint of lychee in the body before the moderately astringent, brisk notes of green tea take over towards the end of the sip, leaving a mouth puckering astringency lingering on the palate. The overall flavour doesn’t bring lychees to mind immediately but recalled artificially flavoured mango jelly. This ‘artificial’ taste is likely a result of the pairing of mango with the pronounced perfume-like floral sweetness of fresh lychee. It’s an enjoyable tea, perfect chilled with pitted lychees and mango slices.
This Twinings Mango & Lychee Green Tea contained 20 tea bags. It was blended and packed in the United Kingdom and purchased in London, the United Kingdom in 2013.