Cream of Earl Grey (Organic)

I think I probably really bug Ricky here on Steepster because I’m always emailing him about merging duplicate entries, heh. This one happens to have two entries, and even though my pouch uses the other variant on the name (“Organic Cream of Earl Grey”) I chose this one because it has more entries. Well, they should be merged soon anyway.

This is the last of the three samples I bought at the shop last weekend. It smells really creamy, and it delivers. It’s possibly one of the creamiest EGC’s I’ve had, though it suffers a bit from the same faint, slightly pithy, bitter-citrus flavor that their plain Earl has. Not shocking, because that’s probably the base of this. The cream goes a long way to smoothing that out, but it’s not quite enough for me. Still, that is some super vanilla-y cream in there, with almost caramelly notes. Pretty tasty.

Thank you Whiskey Buzz,

This is no ordinary Earl Grey.
LOVE the creaminess of this and Earl Grey
Has been one of my favorites for 30 years.
Smooth, creamy, and a taste of Heaven.

I’m finishing my sample of this tea today though I was not expecting to be drinking any tea at all for the next few days. I mentioned before that I was waiting to have a dental surgery done and the date for that was yesterday, long story short: I turned up, was sat down and introduced to the dentist specialist who then refused to operate on me because my chart says I dislike the taste of blood (the taste of blood makes me heave) and further went on to insult me and ask my weight (for no reason other than curiosity) before saying I’m ‘Too big, perhaps I should consider loosing weight’. So now I am being referred to the hospital to have my wisdom tooth removed and I should be contacted in 18 weeks.. Furious is an understatement. The only joy I can get now is that I can carry on drinking tea for a while longer until I get the date for another dental surgeon to accept my case.

Happy weekend everyone, hopefully I will calm down and be able to enjoy it myself too.

Although I always steep my teas with boiling water, I tried this with slightly cooler water. It wasn’t strong enough for my at 6 minutes, so I ended up closer to 10. I would stick with boiling water!

Day 5 of 24 days of tea (and my BIRTHDAY, woot!) Unfortunately, I forgot about the tea steeping and ruined the blend. Way too bitter, dang. I think I’ll make a purchase of this later to try again though since it got some great reviews.

I’ve found Cream of Earl Grey to be extremely temperamental. Don’t follow the brewing instructions, this tea needs to be lightly steeped for just 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and it’s completely divine even without milk and sugar. I need to set a timer with this guy, and as soon as that 2 1/2 minutes are up, I take it out regardless of how I’m feeling it might taste, and it always comes out great. It’s become my morning routine to brew this tea and do a 2 minute clean up while it steeps (I always think of Loonette and her Ten Second Tidy on the Big Comfy Couch).
I’ve been drinking it straight, just because I feel that adding sugar or milk to tea can quickly turn a good habit into a bad one. But this morning I had it with milk and some agave, and it was just blissful. Sometimes, you need to indulge yourself!
Yes, I had a very bad first impression of this tea, but God only knows how long I had steeped it for. With a little TLC, this tea can go a long way :-)

Final sipdown of this one. Still enjoying it after three cups.

Sample package label:
“BLACK TEA / ORGANIC
Lovers of Earl Grey adore this creamy alternative to the original blend. We’ve added a touch of vanilla for an unexpectedly rich, creamy taste experience.

Ingredients – Organic: Black tea, marigolds, cornflowers. With natural and organic flavoring.

1.5 tsp. / 98*C 208*F / 3-5 min.
USDA Organic / Canada Organic Biologique / PAREVE”

6-oz water with total dissolved solids (TDS) of 19 ppm, heated to 212*F and allowed to cool to 208*F – verified with DAVIDsTEA digital thermometer
1 Heaping Tevanna teaspoon

Introduction: I understand Cream of Earl Grey from DAVIDsTEA is a blend of organic Sri Lankan and Chinese black teas. Most EG teas have a 100% Sri Lankan (Ceylon) base. Having the addition of a Chinese black tea, was a significant reason for wanting to sample this EG tea. Our current EG has a Ceylon base and I can’t get past the astringency. Other primary reasons: My wife loves EG and prefers organic teas.

This tea has a vanilla / floral fragrance, which is different than a classic lemony Earl Grey.

Dark brown hue.

3-min & 4-min Infusions: The initial taste at both these time points was too light.

First 5-min Infusion:
There was a strong vanilla & floral aroma, but we didn’t detect a lemony aroma as is typical of a classic Earl Grey.
This tea was very smooth and rich with a strong vanilla & floral taste and a very subdued oil of Bergamot lemon flavor. There was no hint of bitterness. There was a moderate amount of astringency, as compared to our current Earl Grey Cream from Whistling Kettle. The reduced level of astringency appears to be consistent with this EG tea’s reduced level of Sri Lankan black tea.
2nd 5-min Infusion:
The second infusion was enjoyable. I was surprised that the flavoring was still present.

Impression: This tea is a good choice for creamy vanilla lovers who also appreciate strong floral notes.

For those who prefer a classic lemony Oil of Bergamot flavor:
“It’s complicated.” The additional natural ingredients that give this Earl Grey its rich full-bodied taste are much stronger than the classic Oil of Bergamot EG flavor. Achieving just the right balance must be quite a challenge as the number of ingredients increases. DAVIDsTEA also offers an Earl Grey.

Suggestion: For those like my wife who love the classic EG aroma & flavor, DavidsTea may also wish to develop another version of their Cream of Earl Grey where the oil of bergamot is as strong as the other natural ingredients – a Cream of Classic Earl Grey.

Many thanks to DAVIDsTEA and Natalie for providing this very generous size free sample.

This will not be a totally precise tasting note as this was tasted together with 5 other EGCs but this one has a solid flavor that lasted 3 steeps and can possibly live up to another steep or so.

For the 1st steep, I liked how this tasted more than I did the other 4…but not so much more than ZenTea’s :)

Hot or cooled down, this did not get bitter! Hooray! And in the end (after the 3rd steep), this was the best tasting of all 6 EGCs that I tried.

This is really and surprisingly good! The emphasis here is definitely on the cream (and this tea does taste distinctly creamy to me, more than it tastes of flat-out vanilla). The bergamot’s present, but it’s on the lighter side. The tea base (Ceylon?) is light and smooth. This is more delicate than the Earl Greys I usually go for, but I find myself enjoying it quite a lot. Thanks for this sample, Teamore! I can see myself keeping some of this (or another Earl Grey Cream – suggestions welcome!) in stock, especially for the winter.