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Right now, this is my go-to Earl Grey Cream tea. I haven’t had very many, and I plan to try more, but I enjoy this one a lot and so it pretty much becomes the one to beat. The bright, citrusy bergamot (without being bitter!), complimented by the creamy vanilla, are very well done.

There’s something about trying a tea you really dislike, especially one you dislike so much that you can’t finish the cup. I needed a recovery tea, something to wash the bitterness off my taste buds and fill my nose and mouth with a flavor I love. I thought about having a cream Earl Grey I do really like, the one from ESP Emporium, but the steeping basket for my Kati cup needs to dry out to get all the tiny pieces of the previous tea out, so I reached for a sachet of Paris. This one hits the spot. Thank you, Paris, for being a tea I can always turn to.

Trial number 2 of this tea, with a very precise steeping length this time. It certainly smells really creamy, with a hint of citrusy bergamot underneath. I’m afraid I’m still getting some bitterness in the taste, and now I’m thinking it’s the bitterness of the bergamot actually. It doesn’t taste as much like tannin bitterness as it does the bitterness of citrus, like eating the bitter pith of an orange. I feel like this cup is even more bitter than the last one I tried! It completely overwhelms any other flavor in the tea. I’m actually dropping my rating on this tea, because I don’t think I can finish this cup! Other folks like this one, so it could just be my extra sensativity to bitterness, but this tea is not for me.

Roasty, toasty chocolate. This one is tasting even more toasted than I remember last time; it’s tasty, but I don’t know if I want that much toasted flavor in a chocolate tea. I don’t know if it’s my taste buds today or what, but I’m getting more bitterness from this one despite the fact I brewed it a shorter time than last time.

This cup is more floral and rosy today for some reason, though there’s definitely tropical fruit (primarily mango) underlying it all. It’s fitting in well with my recent kick of floral teas. I’m really liking this one, so I’m going to bump it up a few notches on my rating system. I like that it’s an Oolong because I think it goes well with the delicate flavors; a black tea might overwhelm it.

I really like this blend, but I’ve been thinking about Earl Greys and Jasmine today, so I mixed in an extra tsp of my unnamed chinese jasmine green into this cup. It probably ended up being a little too much tea for 12 oz of water, but its still enjoyable. The green tea flavor is strong and grassy, but the underlying citrus of the Earl Grey and the floral of the Jasmine do work well together. I think this one will improve on the resteep when the flavors are a little more subdued.

Hmm… I think I brewed this one a little weak. I don’t know what happened, but it’s just overall kind of weak this time. Oh well… my sample should give me a few more cups, so I can try it again at full strength, since I did enjoy this tea the first time I had it.

ETA: Occasionally I get a hint of jasmine from this cup, which I actually didn’t get the first time I had this! I guess the jasmine isn’t overpowered by everything else this time.

This is my last sachet of this tea, and I’m sad to see it go! The rose just seems to pair so smoothly with the chocolate. The beginning of the sip is all roasty chocolate, and the tail end is floral rose. I guess it’ll have to go on my shopping list!

Sampling this one again… and I’m amazed at how good it is! Not bitter, not too astringent this time, with a warm, almost spiced flavor at the end. It’s different from the Tavalon EG I had yesterday; they’re both smooth and well, blended, but they have different flavor profiles. Tavalon was bright and very citrusy, whereas this one is warm and more floral (though still with distinct bergamot-fruit notes). I have just about enough of the sample to make another cup for an Earl Grey side-by-side comparison with a bunch of EGs from different companies. I think this one will come out as one that I’d like to have a stock of, though!

Bumping this one up a bit. I’ve had a number of traditional Earl Greys now, and I wanted to try this one again. Definitely tasty; I think I like a Ceylon base, which this has. It’s not bitter, not much astringency, and it has a lovely smooth bergamot taste. At the very end there’s a hint of bright citrus that gives it a little lift. This is pleasant Earl Grey that I could drink regularly.