Mount Gray

I feel like I needed this tea today.
I feel like nothing else would do.

Thankfully I have it on hand.
Maybe it’ll snap me out of this funk.

ETA: It did. It snapped me out and I feel more like a thinking breathing human being again.

Oh and here’s a trailer for the Christmas episode of Doctor Who: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TWwYLlcPekA

It’s dreary, rainy, and cold, but what do I care?! I’m on Mount Gray!

As soon as I saw this offered, I knew I had to jump on it — I’m am Earl Grey Fiend and I loved what A&D did with their last Earl. As always, it came lickety-split (with an AWESOME Mount Gray magnet. Thank you! I love the little clever extras A&D include with their teas!).

I think this might be my favorite A&D tin yet. The hand catching the plane! The bear on the top! The wood grain! The color (or mostly lack thereof) scheme! Well done, well done.

Ok, the tea. It’s supremely bergamot-y. The tea base is good and robust. I wanted to take it plain, so I only steeped it for three minutes. Perfect. I can see this one at 4 minutes with milk and sugar if I was in the mood for that, but I wouldn’t take it over three minutes if you are going to drink it plain. It resteeps beautifully. Lighter on the bergamot, but the tea is still completely flavorful and similar to many teas first steeps.

I don’t want to get embroiled in gender politics, but this is a manly Earl Gray if I ever tasted one. I love my delicate Earls, but for those times that you want to cut through exhaustion and fog — this is your man. This is an Earl at 11 :) Great for work, great for school. Love, love, love.

I used to enjoy an occasional Earl Grey over ice.
Then I didn’t.
I didn’t really like it hot either.
The bergamot seemed acidic, I don’t know what happened, really.
For a long time I didn’t like any earls…maybe they were just crappy ones that I was sampling.
But Tony loves Earl Grey, so I started picking up samples for him to try, to support his addiction. I took a sip of them here & there.
Then I started maybe enjoying them a little.
It started with the Earl of Grey by The Tea Spot, which Tony didn’t like. It tasted like lemon bars (think lemon curd on a pastry crust…delicious).
Then it was Jubilee from London Tea Room, his favorite, which is heavily laced with Orange, as well as bergamot. I didn’t like this one at first, it seemed really harsh to me, but then I started kind of liking it a little.
Some of them I still don’t really like. Maybe the bergamot is artificial or something.
So that brings me to Mount Gray.
I wasn’t sure if I should buy it. There’s 3 oz or so in the tin it comes in, that’s a lot of tea for something I might not like.
I bought it for Tony to sample. If I didn’t like it, he could have the whole tin.
He doesn’t get to have it. This tea is delicious. I will share it with him, of course, but the truth is, I love it.
The tea base is sufficiently bold & worthy, the bergamot is strong but not acidic, and not fake tasting, & there is a lingering aftertaste that I haven’t quite identified yet, but I like it.
Yay!

I had a cup of this tea this morning at work and it was awesome as usual, but I’m mostly writing this to say I am getting a kitten, and I am super excited about it!! A Siberian, because I am allergic to cats and I barely reacted to these little guys! Eep!! We are hoping to pick him up tomorrow :D I will have a tea companion! Yay! Oh and see previous notes on this tea :)

Sipdown!! (121)

Thank you Cavocorax! This is actually the last of the tea from our first swap and though I think it is a good EG, I just don’t love the taste of bergamot enough to order more. It is quite pleasant though for those that do like bergamot.

First of all, this tea came with a magnet, a magnet with a dinosaur on it. I don’t care if I have not tasted the tea yet, it is the best tea ever. Tea and dinosaurs, YES!

The dry tea is bergamot lightly scented with black tea.

The brewed tea is much lighter in colour than I would have expected, but the taste did not dissapoint. It is a strong, robust black tea base with strong bergamot flavour. The bergamot is sweet enough that there is no need to add any sugar, for my tastes anyway. Even though the lack base is strong I am getting little to no astringency which is good. This is a very bold tea.

Well I have scaled the summit of Mount Gray and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now it is time to scale Mount Tuesday.

cough i tried. and failed. Sorry Cavo! Not to worry the remaining part of your sample will go to a good home. While i love the base in this, as i do most of the A&D teas, i just cannot get past that whole bergamot thing. this is not a kinda sort of EG…THIS IS AN EG! BOLD! IN YOUR FACE! not for Sil… heh glad to have gotten to try it and make sure though :)

Late morning cuppa…..

Just like JacquelineM, I had to jump on this one. I love a good Earl, and also, love Andrews & Dunham. A complete ‘no brainer’ in my book. It got here in just a few days, and I too love the magnet they included. It seems they always include something extra cool in their orders. As always, the packaging is too fun.

Onto the tea….Wow! Bergamot! The tea base is nice and hearty/mellow. It needs to be that to stand up to the ‘pow’ of bergamot this one packs. I would put this one just a little stronger than Lupicia. I do think the black tea base is a blend, but I am having a hard time sorting it out precisely. I would guess China black with a bit of Ceylon. I think the bergamot in this one is less on the orangey side (like the Lupicia), and more lemony bergamot. Lovely! I am so happy I bought this, and that it is NOT a limited edition!

Usual mug method.

I’ve been neglecting my tea lately. The husband and I are in the process of house shopping (and offering!) so all these things I mean to do… yeah, they haven’t been getting done. Shame on me. But today, I’m trying to reverse the trend. First step tea review, next step the world!

Ahem. So I realize this is random, but I like the fact that Mount Gray is spelled with an “a”. What can I say? I’m a Southern girl. “Grey” is not my default setting.

The smell is fragrant and a bit sharp. Spicy, I’d say. Perfume-y (just a tad) but in an expensive way and something that had a strong white pepper note or something. It tickles my nose, but it isn’t unpleasant. Currently, my top EG is Whittard of Chelsea’s, so I can’t help but compare a little. I don’t detect the earthy edge WoC’s had in this one, though that could be because the pepper tickle in my nose prevents me from massive sniffing.

In my cup, the smell mellows greatly. It has been a bit since I had WoC’s (my default tea lately has been a comforting Keemun) but I think this is mellower in cup. It’s a bit more floral and sweet than the peppery it was dry, but it’s pretty – soft and sort of cushy with an occasional twang of pepper.

So I’m a tiny bit mixed on the taste. It’s not overwhelmingly flavored – the bergamot is nice and light – definitely noticeable but not punch-you-in-the-face – but it edges a tad towards the floral. Not disturbingly so, but I do tend to prefer my bergamots with a tad of a peel note to them (I like that note of sharp intensity in my citrus). This one lacks that note, it seems. Also, the tea itself feels kind of… thin? I’m sure part of that is the fact that I do such short steep times (about 1:30) but other teas can feel silky and sexy after that steep time, why can’t this one? And, as is the case with most EGs, the flavor of the tea itself is definitely not a main player. I’m not even sure I’d say it is a backup singer. More like the random percussion dude that plays the maracas. You don’t really notice him, but he does add nice depth to the song.

All that whining aside, the balance of the flavoring is really nice. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it’s just flat out pretty. Soft and very easy to drink, the overall vibe is nice and relaxing. It’s the kind of tea that you heave a big sigh after sipping, releasing all your tension. As it cools, the balance of the bergamot shifts a tad from floral to citrus-sweet, and I like that.

I can’t say that yes, this is what Jean Luc Picard would drink, but I definitely don’t think he’d dump it out of his teacup.

Thank you Terri Harplady for a bit of this to try! I wanted an Earl Grey today! I may have overleafed this one, but I had the water cooling a while, so that may have helped. I steeped for three minutes. I was actually expecting a darker cup color. This was quite light! A bit malty but not tough enough for me. The flavor isn’t my favorite EG… it was unique though. Tough to describe! The bergamot flavor just wasn’t as lovely as I wished. The second cup was the same, even though I used just boiled water. I’m happy to have tried this one, but I’d rather have my EG favorites.