Magic Flute Tea by TWG Tea
Black Tea / Flavoured
S$25.00 for 37.5g (15 sachets)
First Impressions
I received Magic Flute Tea as a birthday gift this past November from a friend. The tea comes in individually packaged sachets, inside of a cardboard ox. There’s a bit of a luxurious feeling to the packaging, if only because the inside of the box is gold. The tea itself comes in cotton tea bags, which are described as being 100% cotton and hand sewn – the cotton fabric reminds me of a cheese cloth, but with a much tighter weave to it.
The dry leaf of Magic Flute has a strong citrus aroma, but I can smell the black tea base with slightly fruity notes. I had a hard time finding listed ingredients. The tag on the tea bag states “black tea, citrus & fruits” while the box itself says “an extraordinary combination of rich tea and exotic red berries”. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that Magic Flute Tea consists of black tea, vanilla extract and berries (not sure which kind, but it does smell a bit like strawberries).
Preparation
TWG Tea recommends steeping Magic Flute Tea in 95°C (203°F) water for 2-3 minutes for a cup of tea and 3-4 minutes for a tea pot. My initial steep was for a tea cup, so I opted to steep for 2.5 minutes.
First Taste
Magic Flute Tea steeps to a lovely reddish brown. I found that the citrus aroma was strong in the steeped tea. The flavour of the black tea is lightly sweet, with some fruity/berry notes and a bit of citrus freshness. I can still taste the black tea base, which is nice – I found that it has a mild malty flavour to it which is pleasant, but I did find a slightly astringent aftertaste to it. I think it could be steeped for even less time (2 minutes or 90 seconds), and it would be less astringent. Otherwise, a little bit of cream and sugar wouldn’t hurt to help temper the astringency and brighten up the flavours of the “exotic” red berries (whatever they may be).
A Second Cup?
I attempted to resteep Magic Flute Tea and found it didn’t resteep well – the tea was missing the sweetness and the citrus notes.
My Overall Impression
I liked TWG Tea’s Magic Flute Tea. It has the type of packaging that I would probably like to keep around when I’m offering tea to guests because it just has that higher end feel to it with the vintage-esque but gold packaging. The tea itself is nice, I think it would be a good candidate for afternoon tea and would do nicely with some cream and sugar. That said, I would highly recommend keeping the steep times short with this black tea to prevent it from getting astringent if you are drinking it straight.
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