Twinings at the source

IF YOU’RE LOOKING for a perfectly decent cup of tea, look no further than Twinings’ extensive array of premium quality, pleasingly aromatic teas, which have been served in the British royal court for more than 150 years. Well, if it’s fit for kings and queens, what could possibly be better?
Clearly Queen Elizabeth II likes her cup of Twinings. Last week the 300-year-old English tea blender and holder of Royal Warrant of Appointment proudly showcased its expertise at the Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace, alongside other tradesmen who supply goods and services to the royal court, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the queen’s coronation.
Twinings was granted its Royal Warrant by Queen Victoria in 1837, a prestigious mark of recognition of high-quality goods and services. Twinings has never since stopped creating special blends to mark special occasions of the British royal family. The most recent examples are the Royal Wedding Commemorative Blend for the nuptials of Prince William and Catherine, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, in 2011 and the Queen Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Blend marketed in limited quantities last year.
Twinings maintains such a close relationship with the court partly because it originally popularised tea-drinking in England, which of course became the world’s best-known nation of tea tipplers.
Three centuries ago, only the wealthiest Britons could afford tea since it had to be shipped from the Far East and was heavily taxed. In 1706, 31-year-old Thomas Twining purchased Tom’s Coffee House on London’s Strand and established the country’s first tea room. The firm he founded pressed for the abolition of duties on tea to make it more affordable. Today Twinings tea is enjoyed in more than 115 countries. Its main factory produces 14 million teabags a day just for the UK.
Over the centuries Twinings has established close relations with planters all over the world to make sure it shares in the best harvests. It currently buys 170 types of tea from 16 countries, along with hundreds of herbs and flavourings for blending.
The brand is praised not only for its trustworthy quality but also its creativity and expertise in blending. Eleven master blenders work tirelessly to create new, exciting blends based on the best-quality leaves available.
“Each blender has a very focused, specialised knowledge of a particular tea-producing region, as well as a broad understanding of all tea-producing countries,” master blender Philippa Thacker told us during a visit to Twinings headquarters in Andover.
“Some teas are superb on their own, so we treasure them that way and enjoy them as they are. However, some only become great when mixed
 with other teas or flavours. That’s where our 300 years of blending expertise comes in.”
Stephen Twining, the 10th generation of the famous tea family, compares making tea to making wine. “Many people do compare tea with wine. They say black tea can be compared to red wine, Oolong to rose and green tea and white tea to white wine. Twinings has carefully created every blend with full attention to every process, from the source to the proportion of mixture, the types of tea, the colour and the clarity.”
Twinings Signature Blend is comprised of 14 kinds of tea, notably English Morning, Earl Grey Citrus, Delicate Darjeeling, Garden Party, After Dinner Mint and Sweet Berry Fusion. The firm refuses to use pre-packaged herbs and fruit, part of its devotion to ensuring the finest taste and aroma in every cup.
Stephen Twinings also enlightened us about the tradition of tea-drinking. “High tea is not just for the royal family or other aristocrats, as a lot of people think. High tea refers to tea served with main meals. In bygone days all the dishes for dinner were prepared on a high table.
“Afternoon tea is served with snacks such as sandwiches, scones or other baked items on a small and low table. The preparation of the tea on a low table gave it the name ‘low tea’, but now it’s known as ‘afternoon tea’ – for the time of the day when the tea is usually served. Anyway, we British drink tea all day, every day. I can’t function without at least nine cups a day!”
It’s a loss that the original Twinings shop on London’s Fleet Street does only retail and has such little space for tasting. Bangkok, however, is the first and only place that boasts a full-scale Twinings salon, where you can sit back and enjoy fine teas with snacks. Head over to the Twinings Tea Boutique at Zen at CentralWorld.

 On the Web:
www.TwiningsMoment.com