Thanks so much to Epi Tea for the pre-release sample of this!
Uh… this is kind of long. Sorry! Skip to the second half for the actual tea :)
Whew. Busy morning. I dropped my sister off at camp, came home, brewed and photographed this. I had computer issues. Panicked. I only have one tea bag, and I need the photo for my blog, and if I can’t get the pictures of the memory card, I can’t drink this tea yet! And of course it was time for work too. I changed into my uniform and drove all the way out there, punched in, rang out a customer, checked the schedule and realized that my 11-5 is next Tuesday, not this Tuesday. Sigh.
I punched out, changed back into street clothes, figured I might as well pick up some envelopes and school supplies while I was there. I was looking at notebooks, and a girl was complaining to her mum that the only notebooks we had were black or grey. I work there… even on my day off, I feel obligated to do what I can. Especially during Back to School season (our busiest). So I ran up the ladder and pulled a couple of boxes down for her. My boss walked by, just sort of shook his head in exasperation at me. Customer was happy, though, so that’s all good.
On to the tea. I didn’t put any milk or sugar in this, but I don’t need to. There’s usually too much bergamot in Earl Greys, but I didn’t get that impression with this one at all. The first flavor I get is lavender. Not overdone lavender, just lavender. Good. I haven’t had lavender in awhile, and I forgot how much I liked it! That’s intermingled with the black tea base (Ceylon? Assam?). And then, finally, at the very very end of the sip, almost in the aftertaste, comes a bit of the dry, soapy bergamot.
That sounds bad. It’s very, very good. It compliments the cool dryness of the lavender really really well, and it almost lends a texture more than a flavor.
I’ve found my Earl Grey. This is fantastic. I want to buy some as soon as it’s available!
