I don't go out of my way to drink decaffeinated teas. If they come my way and regular tea isn't available, I'll drink them, but I'd rather have the caffeinated version any day of the week. The regular Twinings English Breakfast Tea is unremarkable in every way, neither particularly great nor particularly awful, but definitely drinkable. When circumstances led me to trying the decaffeinated version of the same tea, I expected more of the same. I was disappointed.

First of all, this tea is an ugly dark green color if you don't vigorously move the bag around in the water while steeping. If you keep the motion going strongly enough, the tea turns dark brown. Either way, it has lots of white residue on top and looks extremely unappetizing. I had to really psych myself up to even try the tea.

Once I did, I wasn't terribly happy. Unless you steep for two or three minutes, the tea is undrinkable. At some point around two minutes it changes into an unpleasant but palatable astringent brew that tastes sort of like a bitter mud. This tea tastes absolutely nothing like the caffeinated Twinings English Breakfast Tea. That said, I generally get used to the flavor and find it drinkable over time. I think it numbs your tastebuds so you stop noticing the flavor. It gets much worse if, as mentioned above, you don't steep long enough or if you try to get a second cup from a bag.

There's no indication of the ingredients anywhere on the packaging which always bothers me. I assume it's a black tea of some sort, but I have no idea what kind or whether it's a mix of a variety of types of leaf.

If by some miracle you try this tea and like it, it will be an expensive option for you because you'll only get one cup per bag. That really increases the price of a tea compared to teas that might cost more per bag but yield several cups per bag. I wouldn't pay the one cup premium for this tea (then again, I wouldn't buy this tea again even if I got ten cups per bag).

I was really surprised that this tea was so different from the caffeinated version of the same tea from the same company. The regular tea isn't the least bit bitter and doesn't have any of the visual unpleasantness. While it isn't the best tea I've ever had, it's a perfectly pleasant tea. Conversely, the Twinings Decaffeinated English Breakfast Tea is bitter and astringent and tastes like mud all while looking unappealing. Avoid it like the plague.