diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Component/Utility/Twig.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Component/Utility/Twig.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..42fb23d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Component/Utility/Twig.php
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+<?php
+
+/**
+ * @file
+ * Contains \Drupal\Component\Utility\Twig.
+ */
+
+namespace Drupal\Component\Utility;
+
+/**
+ * Contains Twig-related utility functions.
+ */
+class Twig {
+
+  /**
+   * Checks if a given variable is a valid Twig variable.
+   *
+   * @param string $variable
+   *   The variable to be tested.
+   *
+   * @return bool
+   *   TRUE if $variable is a valid Twig variable, FALSE otherwise.
+   */
+  public static function isValidVariable($variable) {
+    // Twig uses the same variable naming rules as PHP.
+    // @see http://php.net/manual/en/language.variables.basics.php
+    return preg_match('/^[a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][a-zA-Z0-9_\x7f-\xff]*$/', $variable) === 1;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Asserts if the specified string is not a valid Twig variable
+   *
+   * @param  string $variable
+   *   The variable to be tested.
+   */
+  public static function assertValidVariable($variable, $message = '') {
+    // Asserts passed as a string are not evaluated when assertion checking
+    // is off. This allows us to skip the expensive preg_match() in
+    // isValidVariable when not running in dev. Also, we need the fully
+    // qualified namespace as the string is evaluated in assert's namespace.
+    assert('\Drupal\Component\Utility\Twig::isValidVariable($variable)', $message ?: '"' . Html::escape($variable) . '" is not a valid Twig variable.');
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/core/modules/views/src/Plugin/views/PluginBase.php b/core/modules/views/src/Plugin/views/PluginBase.php
index d844969..ab074d7 100644
--- a/core/modules/views/src/Plugin/views/PluginBase.php
+++ b/core/modules/views/src/Plugin/views/PluginBase.php
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 
 use Drupal\Component\Plugin\DependentPluginInterface;
 use Drupal\Component\Utility\Xss;
+use Drupal\Component\Utility\Twig;
 use Drupal\Core\Form\FormStateInterface;
 use Drupal\Core\Language\LanguageInterface;
 use Drupal\Core\Plugin\ContainerFactoryPluginInterface;
@@ -367,19 +368,16 @@ protected function viewsTokenReplace($text, $tokens) {
       // dot-delimited strings, but need to be turned into associative arrays
       // for parsing.
       if (strpos($token, '.') === FALSE) {
-        // We need to validate tokens are valid Twig variables. Twig uses the
-        // same variable naming rules as PHP.
-        // @see http://php.net/manual/en/language.variables.basics.php
-        assert('preg_match(\'/^[a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][a-zA-Z0-9_\x7f-\xff]*$/\', $token) === 1', 'Tokens need to be valid Twig variables.');
+        Twig::assertValidVariable($token);
         $twig_tokens[$token] = $replacement;
       }
       else {
         $parts = explode('.', $token);
         $top = array_shift($parts);
-        assert('preg_match(\'/^[a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][a-zA-Z0-9_\x7f-\xff]*$/\', $top) === 1', 'Tokens need to be valid Twig variables.');
+        Twig::assertValidVariable($top);
         $token_array = array(array_pop($parts) => $replacement);
         foreach(array_reverse($parts) as $key) {
-          assert('preg_match(\'/^[a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][a-zA-Z0-9_\x7f-\xff]*$/\', $key) === 1', 'Tokens need to be valid Twig variables.');
+          Twig::assertValidVariable($key);
           $token_array = array($key => $token_array);
         }
         $twig_tokens[$top] = $token_array;
diff --git a/core/modules/views/src/Tests/Plugin/PluginBaseTest.php b/core/modules/views/src/Tests/Plugin/PluginBaseTest.php
index 0ef1724..cf9534c 100644
--- a/core/modules/views/src/Tests/Plugin/PluginBaseTest.php
+++ b/core/modules/views/src/Tests/Plugin/PluginBaseTest.php
@@ -44,13 +44,60 @@ public function testViewsTokenReplace() {
   }
 
   /**
+   * Tests that array tokens are replaced correctly.
+   */
+  public function testViewsTokenArrayReplace() {
+    $text = '{{ foo.bar.baz }}';
+    $tokens = ['foo' => ['bar' => ['baz' => 'I am replaced.']]];
+
+    $result = \Drupal::service('renderer')->executeInRenderContext(new RenderContext(), function () use ($text, $tokens) {
+      return $this->testPluginBase->viewsTokenReplace($text, $tokens);
+    });
+    $this->assertIdentical($result, 'I am replaced.');
+
+    // Array tokens can also be passed using dot-notation.
+    $tokens = ['foo.bar.baz' => 'I am replaced.'];
+    $result = \Drupal::service('renderer')->executeInRenderContext(new RenderContext(), function () use ($text, $tokens) {
+      return $this->testPluginBase->viewsTokenReplace($text, $tokens);
+    });
+    $this->assertIdentical($result, 'I am replaced.');
+  }
+
+  /**
    * Tests viewsTokenReplace without any twig tokens.
    */
-  public function testViewsTokenReplaceWithTwigTokens() {
+  public function testViewsTokenReplaceWithoutTwigTokens() {
     $text = 'Just some text';
     $tokens = [];
     $result = $this->testPluginBase->viewsTokenReplace($text, $tokens);
-    $this->assertIdentical($result, 'Just some text');
+    $this->assertIdentical($result, $text);
+
+    $text = 'Just {{ some }} text with brackets and no tokens';
+    $tokens = [];
+    $result = $this->testPluginBase->viewsTokenReplace($text, $tokens);
+    $this->assertIdentical($result, $text);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Test that invalid tokens are flagged appropriately.
+   */
+  public function testViewsInvalidTokens() {
+    // We cannot use @expectedException since this class does not extend from
+    // PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase.
+    try {
+      $text = '{{ foo-bar }}';
+      $tokens = [
+        '{{ foo-bar }}' => 'bogus',
+      ];
+
+      \Drupal::service('renderer')->executeInRenderContext(new RenderContext(), function () use ($text, $tokens) {
+        return $this->testPluginBase->viewsTokenReplace($text, $tokens);
+      });
+      $this->fail('Failed to assert that "foo-bar" is an illegal Twig variable.');
+    }
+    catch(\Exception $e) {
+      $this->assertIdentical('"foo-bar" is not a valid Twig variable.', $e->getMessage());
+    }
   }
 
 }