Earl Grey

It has been a long time since I’ve brewed an Earl Grey. It was one of the teas that kept me attached to teas, back in the day of the occasional cup of bagged tea. I always loved Earl Grey. Even in a crappy tea bag. I had to wait until just the right time to open this tea. Waiting until it called to me, instead of grabbing it in one of my “whatever” sort of moods.

I must admit, I was a bit worried when I smelled the dry tea. The bergamot was strong—almost overpowering. I’d forgotten that smell. Actually, given that I’d only had bagged EG before, I’d probably never really gotten the pure, potent, punch of the bergamot before. It reminded me of David’s Tea Countess of Seville, which I wasn’t a fan of, with that strong citrusy scent.

I was wrong to be worried. This tea is delightful! The bergamot isn’t overpowering, but definitely present. Vaguely citrusy. It pairs well with the tea base, which is smooth and not bitter even after a five minute steep (what? I know, amazing, right?). It doesn’t have a lot of body, it feels kind of thin, but not in a bad way. It feels exactly the way it should. The entire tea just tastes right.

I am officially OUT of this tea. I hate a few dustings left in the can that I couldn’t bare to part with, but they’re gone now. Wasn’t even enough for a full cup. I should have just poured the fannings into my LAST cup.

Quite nice. I’ve had good days and bad days with this earl grey. I don’t always love it, but sometimes I make a cup of earl grey and realize I’m not in the mood for it. And I find that bergamot is oddly sensitive to temperatures and steep times, like the tea itself. So I have days where the bergamot just seems unenjoyably bitter on its own.

I never liked this earl grey as much as Hazo’s, but I do like the two for very different reasons. This is certainly a very nice, fruity grey. Today’s cup turned out perfect.

I don’t know what I am going to do with the tin now. Obviously I could still use it for other teas—it’s a perfect little tin—but I can’t bring myself to rip off the tag, and I certainly wouldn’t put ANOTHER company’s earl grey in there. I want to keep the tins as a set. Hum.

(Backlogging) I served this at my Murder Mystery Tea Party last night. We started out with my newly arrived Earl Grey in honor of the major character in our little murder mystery story — Mr. Earl Slater. I’m not the biggest fan of any earl grey myself but it was still a damn fine cup of tea.

Ricky: “Pretty standard earl grey.”

Brewed in Tiny White Teapot

I bumped my rating a couple notches as I think this brewed a bit better today. I recommend steeping less than the five minutes recommended by A&D. Generally I prefer my teas to be on the strong side, but I thought this one was smoother and had a better proportioned (I’m not entirely sure what I mean by this, but I’m standing by it) flavor after steeping for only four minutes.

This BOP quality black tea contains some stems within a mish-mash of brown, darker-brown and black leaves. The aroma is standard Earl Grey (oil of bergamot) but more assertive than most.

The used leaves retain the bergamot scenting as does the dark amber and cloudy liquor. Although, the liquor also has other hints of citrus and faint heated notes, the bergamot is the most prominent aroma by design.

The flavor of the bergamot fruit is the only one I get from this black tea. There’s a standard level of astringency from this tea as well. However, a pleasant surprise is the elongated finish and tail on this tea.

I found this tea pleasant and enjoyed it’s more prominent aroma and flavor profiles compared to other Earl Grey teas.

This time with a bit of cream!

I haven’t been logging my teas lately… The demanding work of being a design student!

Anyway, I’ll start logging in teas again starting with Andrews & Dunham.

I decided to purchase Andrew and Dunham’s because I was really intrigued with what was so “damn fine” about them. I received my collection of tins from series three, and two. I enjoyed the graphically designed labels, and the hand silk printed box it came in. Beautiful.

That aside. I started with Earl Grey.

Earl Grey has a special place in my heart, for being my first loose leaf tea I’ve ever brewed. It also happens to be the favorite, and the only loose leaf my best friend would drink. I cracked the tin, with the familiar aroma of bergamot. It’s a more aromatic version of the blend, reminds me of kinda like how a Tazo Earl Grey smells like, a bit more fresh, and no musk.

I steeped this in my white teapot, five minutes at boiling. The brew came out light amber. I tasted this straight with no additions. Nice start, full bodied, citrusy, but unlike other Earl Greys, its’ finish was surprising light, but still smooth, and (the shocker)- creamy…

I was so excited about the last detail so much that I immediately poured another cup, but with half and half with agave nectar. Delicious, enjoyable, sweet! Went well with a Russian tea cake I bought at Whole Foods.

I’d score this higher if it was organic, other than that- yes it is a DAMN fine cup of tea.

Earl Grey! My love. There’s pretty much nothing better to fix a morning where you’re really dragging your feet. There’s something about bergamot that gets me GOING.

This one is exceptional, which at this point, is no surprise to me. I’ve been drinking tea exclusively from A&D for the past several days and the world is so very blissful as a result. Another day, another review above 90%! God bless you, A&D, for procuring and selling wonderful tea in such a creative and interesting way.

This EG is not shy; one whiff of the dry leaves will make your hair stand on end. Indeed, after brewing my current cup (4 minutes is better than the suggested 5, by the by), the bright scent of bergamot is everywhere! The bergamot is certainly more citrusy than perfume-y in this case, which is much appreciated, and is much more subdued post-brew, which is a GOOD thing! The chocolate-coffee flavor of the base tea is just right. This is a cup that will demand your attention. Good for rainy days. A little milk and a biscuit makes it even better!

For some reason, today’s steeping of this tea came out all so very weak. :( I wasn’t too happy with it. Sigh.