Twinings' Christmas Tea Bauble Review

   I was lucky lately and got the chance to review the wonderful new Twinings tea bauble. It's a very clever idea, and I admit to being a little bit in love with it. It's simply a bauble, with teabags inside it. I saw it first on their Facebook, and managed to bag one to review.

   Now, when I first saw it, I saw the lovely pattern on the bauble, the wonderful metallic but Christmassy tones, and got really very excited. I do love Christmas, afterall. I knew that the bauble broke open, and that there was tea inside, too, and the colour of the bauble depended on the tea inside. Blue is Liquorice Allsorts Earl Grey, green is Mint Humbug, and red is Jasmine Pearls Green Tea. I drink a lot of green tea, so I picked out the Jasmine Pearls, but in truth I think all three of the baubles look great together, and on their own, but the red one moreso.

   There is one thing that needs to be said from the very beginning: Twinings know how to present their products. They have gorgeous pictures of their products on Facebook, which is very frequently updated, and then products are purchased from their website, they are delivered wonderfully. Even the boxes they're shipped in are pleasant. But I love the black and gold filigree boxes that individual 'pick and mix' tea bags come in. But this bauble is in a wonderful cube box with a clear front, covered in the same colour and design as the bauble itself. The ribbon connected to the bauble itself is tied in a lovely bow on top. Very nice presentation indeed, and so it should be for £10 retail.

   Opening the box to get to the bauble, I was surprised by the quality of the product. In truth I had expected a plastic bauble, kind of like the plastic balls that split in half that you pick up in Superdrug filled with little bathbombs (the ball of which can double up as a mould for making your own bathbombs). But it wasn't! It was metal - nice and smooth and cool, but not too heavy.

   This is a good thing because it means they'll last. And the design is so cute that I certainly want mine to. But when I went to open it to get at the tea inside (which just so happens, actually, to be my favourite tea in the world - Twinings Jasmine Pearls Green Tea, write it down, that's it, that's it), I found the ball to be a little on the difficult side to open. Now, once again, this is a good thing. The metal ball would act as a wonderful place to store the teabags, as they would be kept fresh and away from contact of the outside world due to the stiffness of the ball, and it also means that it won't suddenly fall open while hanging on the tree. So, you can keep it on the tree, keep your teabags in there which will stay nice and fresh, and it's win win all around. I've opened the bauble about 7 times to show people, and it's just as stiff as the day I got it, and I'm quite pleased with that. I've also kept the teabags in the bauble and there's not been any negative effects - no mold, no strange smells, no dancing gnomes, nothing unwanted at all.

   The teabags are not loose inside when you receive it, they are packed in a small, sealed plastic bag for freshness, but they do just fine in the bauble itself.

   As I said, I was surprised by the quality of the product. Oh, and I also much mention that the design is so clever, it wasn't until I'd had the bauble itself in front of me for about 15 minutes that I realised it has little teacups, teapots and milk jugs hanging on the branches, and that none of the baubles have the same design, but rather similar variations. The bauble will surely be a gorgeous decoration on larger trees, and better still if you have all three...or several of each, but that's getting a little bit too far. Though I'm sure Twinings wouldn't mind!