Quality. From leaf to cup.

Quality control and consistency are an essential aspect of our tasters’ role - as vital as the sourcing and blending of the teas themselves. From origin to packed product at Twinings, each particular tea is tasted numerous times before it is processed into one of more than 200 different blends, and sold in more than 100 countries around the world.

Additionally, Twinings is proud to be a founding member of the Ethical Tea Partnership, an initiative set up by the main UK tea buyers whose aim is to demonstrate that 100% of the tea we buy is ethically produced.

Excellence. Every step of the way.

Every Twinings tea goes through 15 core steps to ensure consistently superb quality. Our expert blenders often use teas from as many as seventy different tea gardens to arrive at the exact nuance of flavour for a particular blend.

1. Recipe development

Each component in a Twinings tea blend is made into a ’control’ or ’standard’ - and the blend recipe is written. Each time a batch of the blend is produced it will be tested against the control or ’benchmark blend’, ensuring a consistent taste and quality each year the blend is produced. The control is replaced every four weeks to insure that it’s based on fresh tea. This process goes on year round. We also vacuum pack a "standard" twice a year to review against the monthly standards that are replaced every four weeks.

2. Selection

Tea leaves are selected through tasting in country of origin. We source tea from over 1,100 tea gardens worldwide. Specialized buyers for each country go out and taste tea on a daily basis from a wide selection of gardens. For some teas in some regions they may visit up to 200 gardens, depending on the time of year. The goal of Twinings tea experts is to find the best tea to place in a blend.

3. Grading

Tea leaves are sorted according to leaf size, such as Orange Pekoe (OP), Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP) and Fannings. Further tasting takes place in the grading step.

4. Buying

Once the right tea and grade of tea are located, an "offer sample" is tasted by Twinings and the order is placed. Further tasting takes place before Twinings buys each of our teas.

5. ‘Pre-shipment’ Sample

The "offer sample" is compared again with the "approval sample" from the stock prior to shipping.

6. Shipping

Tea is shipped to Twinings by boat in 40-foot containers. A far cry from the days of clipper ships.

7. Quality Check

To ensure that the tea has traveled well, a sample of the tea is tasted against the original "approval sample" and "offer sample". At this point, the entire shipment can still be rejected by Twinings for not meeting our exacting standards.

8. Quality Check

To determine how the tea will pack into teabags, or, if sold loose, into containers, Twinings will measure a sample of the tea for its volumetric density.

9. Quality Check

In what is called an "organoliptic" (appearance, odor, taste) test, the dry tea and the infused tea will be examined for leaf appearance and liquor.

10. Blend Recipe

Teas are blended according to their blend recipe, which is based on percents of each specific tea that has been selected for the blend (e.g. English Breakfast, Earl Grey). We taste the blend against the control, with the goal of maintaining a consistent recipe using the best teas available.

11. Hand-Blend

A small quantity (100g) of the new blend is produced - the "mini-blend". This is tasted to compare it with the "control" benchmark blend which is permanently held in the blending room from previous batches.

12. Composition

Any changes to the blend composition are made (eg. Lifting the colour, changing the tea leaf or leaf size.) If there is a problem with the blend, (for example, the batch could be too thick or too bright), it is adjusted until it matches with the control.

13. Control Blend or Benchmark Blend?

The blend is approved and a new "control" is created (as in step 1). Once the new control is signed off, the actual blend (including the specific teas blended,) is released to the warehouse blending facility for full scale blending.

14. Quality Check

The factory makes a 1500 kilo ten-mix blend (up to 15,000 kilos). Once this blending is complete, the tea is tasted again.

15. Approval

When each of the preceding steps is complete and approved, the final blend is approved for packing. Tasting is done to compare it to the "control" one last time. Product is now released for sale as it has met Twinings exacting standards of excellence.