Twinings Pure Camomile tea (chamomile is also correct but I’m sticking with camomile as that’s the spelling Twinings use) was a great tea! It’s exactly what you’d expect it to be, without any extra frills.
I reviewed it to work out the best infusion time and to compare it to other camomile teas on the market. So far, Whittard of Chelsea and Teapigs have delivered some excellent camomiles in both loose infusion and tea pyramid style.
Here’s how Twinings scored against them.
Twinings Camomile Tea at a Glance
- Blend: Pure camomile!
- Flavour: Dark, golden and very heady camomile with a thick, syrupy mouthfeel
I thoroughly enjoyed this infusion. It’s fresh, rich and full-flavoured. Too many herbal blends are either weak and watery or super strong with anise and ginger. This one is just beautiful with every sip. The packaging is different from UK to USA, but the actual tea inside is the same.
Full Review – Pure Camomile Tea
- Type: Tagged paper filter tea bag
- Ingredients: Camomile
- Health Benefits: Soothe away anxiety, insomnia and colds
- Flavour Notes: Sweet honey and wet hay
- Aroma: Thick golden syrup, strong fresh hay
- Milk or Lemon: Neither
- Where to Buy: Amazon or Twinings Official Website
Camomile is my go-to when everything else fails. When it’s 4am and I still can’t sleep or my hands are shaking with nerves. It’s important to me that my camomile tastes good!
The first thing I noticed was that unlike many of my paper Twinings sachets, this one was foil. Opening it, the aroma is super strong and fresh. Honey is the usual sweet note to camomile infusions but this was more intense and sugary, it reminded me of golden syrup drizzled over pancakes. It’s warm, sunny, sweet and has notes of hay too.
Once brewed, it was a very dark colour compared to the usual warm yellow colour. It has tinges of orange and sunset in it.
Taking a sip, the flavour is camomile honey and vanilla loveliness. It’s not as strong and sweet as the aroma, but still very soothing. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t initially disappointed that the flavour wasn’t as full-bodied as the aroma, but still when I compare it to other camomiles and judge the flavour alone – it’s delicious.
How to Brew Twinings Calming Camomile
I brewed Twinings Pure Camomile for 2 minutes and 30 seconds with just boiled water. You could do a longer, slower, 80°C or even 70°C brew to draw out more of the sweetness and hay notes… but really you don’t need it.
If you’re brewing it in the middle of the night with tremoring hands, it’s good to know you don’t need to fuss over water temperature.
During the day, I have no hesitation dunking custard creams in a mug of camomile tea – but that’s my personal tastes. The creamy biscuit-ness goes well with the honey sweetness.
You definitely don’t want to be adding extra sweeteners, milk or lemon to this tea. It’s perfect how it is.
Why Camomile Tea Twinings?
Twinings have a growing range of herbal teas that they update the packaging on every year or so. I’ve also noticed they’ve moved into other areas of the market, selling these tea juices that you add to water to make an instant iced tea. I’m not sure about those, it seems a little gimmicky to me.
But I am sure about their camomile blend. It’s delicious and yet so simple. The sole Twinings camomile tea ingredients are camomile petals and buds. Sure, they’re finely chopped, but the flavour is excellent. With herbal blends, finely chopping the ingredients isn’t really a bad thing unless it goes stale.
I’ve no idea where the camomile is sourced from and previous experience with contact Twinings tells me that they don’t really care to find out. It could be from multiple sources across the world.
Twinings are good. They’re not ground-breaking, but their camomile is certainly impressive.
Summary
This pure camomile infusion is very nice, very strong in aroma and incredibly enticing. I have no trouble recommending it to anyone who loves camomile or wants to give it a try for the first time. It’s one of Twinings’ best and you can find it easily on Amazon (or buy it directly from Twinings, if you fancy)!
About Me
I like experimenting with teas. The idea of a Twinings camomile spearmint tea alone is enough to get my mind thinking about new recipes for hours. I regularly review teas at Immortal Wordsmith, so use the tags below to navigate them or check out the full tea review index.
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