I was super excited to get my Quater to Tea samples in the mail yesterday when I got home from work.
As everyone in my life knows, I am a slave to the Earl, so this is the first one I had to try.
The dry tea is small, broken pieces of black tea but there are some currants in it, even for the small sample that I received. There is enough in the sample package for two servings of tea.
The dry tea smells very strongly of artificial cherry candy flavour. Similar to black cherry nibs. The brewed tea does not smell artificial. It is a sweet black currant smell.
This is one of those teas that has a magic timeframe in which to drink it. It is not that it is finicky. But there is very little taste when it is really hot, there is a great taste for that moment it cools a bit, then once it starts to cool a lot it morphs into a bit of artificial tasting. It is also a little metallic tasting as it cools with a bit of an astringent tang. It loses the bergamot flavour and the currant flavour profile be comes quite strong.
While this tea is in its magic moment, there are sweet black and red currant flavours. The bergamot almost tastes like candy. The bergamot and currant flavours blend well together. This blend is quite sweet on its own. The black tea base is moderately bold. It hides underneath the currant flavours. It is smooth and the liquor feels thick. There is initially no bitterness or astringency.
This one is definitely not a traditional Earl Grey as I would say the currant flavours are the dominant flavour. It is still pretty good though. This would probably be a good tea for those bergamot-haters out there (cough, cough…Sil).
Thanks to A Quarter to Tea for the free samples.
hahahahahaha