Diamond Jubilee

As SimplyJenW noted, the tin is beautiful! A keepsake for sure.

The floral notes when opening the tin are very powerful and the grapefruit smell is also very noticeable.

The tea is very much like a Lady Grey but with more citrus and a stronger floral component. If you don’t care for Lady Grey, chances are good that you won’t like this much. Lucky for me, I love Lady Grey. :)

My regret, also like SimplyJenW, is that this is only in sachets. Loose leaf would be great to try so I can portion my own and experiment. I guess I can do that anyway, just have to open the sachets, hm? :)

I didn’t sweeten but it would handle it well, I think.

I am still undecided if I will be adding this to my “always restock when low” list but I would not hesitate to recommend to friends.

This is another sample from Lala!. Thanks again!
I really enjoy earl greys and this one is no exception. It is citrus and delicious!
Boiling for 4 minutes
I would probably rate this 90

My favorite Earl Grey thus far has been Harney’s Earl Grey Supreme so I was very interested in trying Diamond Jubilee which is a skillfully blended Earl Grey with a twist. This selection has a hint of grapefruit essence, which is a wonderful addition to the black teas and citrusy Bergamot. I initially steeped it for 4 minutes, but preferred it at 3 1/2 minutes. I liked it a lot warm, but also think it would be very nice cold, and I recommend it to Earl Grey lovers.

Thank you, Dinosara for this sample!

This is a lovely Earl Grey. The addition of grapefruit adds a brightness to the tea that I enjoy. All of the flavors are present but subtle. None of the flavors jump out at me. Instead, they all kind of quietly mingle together in a really delightful way. This one could certainly find a space on my pantry shelf.

Holy citrus! Now this has some tang. Probably not the best night time tea to try, but I just couldn’t wait after reading bluebelle’s tasting notes about this one. I really like it. It seems I alternate getting a tease of the bergamot and then the grapefruit. The grapefruit adds a bit of a sweet to the tea while the bergamot adds the spicy citrus.

i’ll be honest. i can’t remember this cup.
i’ll have to try again.
but i’m still counting it as “drank in 2013”. i’ll just amend my note at a later date.

(sorry for clogging your dashboards up with my catch-up notes from yesterday. the holidays can be hard.)

I’m rather late to celebrate the Queen’s jubilee, but better late than never, right? Tasting one small cup of this and then passing the rest of the sample pack on to Mercuryhime for our book club swap. :) Even though I like Earl Greys, I think that I tend to not pick them as often because I feel like a lot of them taste the same, or are way too overdone on the bergamot. I can already tell that this Diamond Jubilee tea is different – the bergamot is very soft and it smells sweeter than a normal Earl Grey. I know there is grapefruit in this blend, so maybe that’s what causing the sweetness in the aroma. The flavor is a lot less intense than I expected, but in a good way. There is a light, sweet citrus flavor and finish. At the end it’s malty with a little bergamot. I’m not tasting any of the grapefruit, just an overall sweet citrusy flavor that is wonderful. I sure do hope Her Majesty drank some of this wonderful tea to celebrate her anniversary!

-Dry blend has medium black and brown tea leaves and twigs with fuzzy long green tea leaves.
-Dry leaves smell like sweet bergamot. Tea liquor aroma is of malty black tea and fresh lemony bergamot.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy medium orange brown color.
-Light sweet citrus flavor and finish. Malty bergamot aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. A delicate cup. Muted bergamot flavor with a hint of sweet citrus.

I do not often like to stray from ‘pure’ teas into the realm cross-bred or sweetened teas, but my reward circuit lights up when I read the word grapefruit – such a satisfying flavor in teas.

This is simply a majestic tea. I find it wholly unbelievable that any Earl Grey aficionado would not applaud this blend – the grapefruit addition makes it delectable. Steep it as any EG and you are all set to enjoy a good to the last drop treat.

Fortunately, this is available now in loose leaf, and I picked up 1/4 pound at H&S Soho location. Since this is a great tea to share, I wonder how much of that amount I’ll actually consume…

Gorgeous silver tips! Really nice. Of course I love Harney earl grey anything.

I am really disliking the holidays this year. I wanted to go see Nadastrom in DC tonight, but even thinking about driving to DC is giving me a headache. So I’m going to drink beer? That I won’t spend too much money on? (not likely) But tomorrow is running, the free fine arts museum, my favorite cafe, and new Sherlock. Fanfic on my Kindle. I can’t complain about that. May next year bring the rebirth my yoga teacher keeps talking about hahaha.