Earl Grey (full leaf sachet)

Oh, oh, oh, oh what a mistake I made last night! I was freezing and I had the big one of this right before class at 7:30pm last night. I DID NOT SLEEP A WINK! It was a very delicious, citrusy, lavendery mistake, but a mistake none the less! I am going to get something herbal from now on!

Has this ever happened to you? “You don’t want that tea? Give it to _____! She’ll drink anything!”

Thus, a nearly full box of Earl Grey bags on my desk, minus one suspiciously eyed, hesitantly tested bag.

I will finish the cup, but (apologies to those of you who like this) it tastes like furniture polish.

Correction. Maybe I will finish the cup.

This is a review for the newer “full leaf” tea sachets that you can find at Starbucks, not a flat tea bag. I got a cup of this at the airport today… Yes, back at the airport. I have seen way too many airports in the past month, even for me.

I immediately put milk and sugar in this mostly because I wanted something comforting and was too tired and annoyed at having to be my the airport to mess with trying this tea on its own. Nevertheless, this is quite clearly a much better quality tea than the tea bag version. The bergamot was nice and strong, but with good flavor too. Maybe sometime I will try this on its own.

I was craving bergamot and I had this lying around (untouched for ages) and out of desperation I brewed some up. Now I remember why I left it sitting. This stuff tastes how I imagine lavender scented perfume would taste, with a slight aftertaste of soap. On the bright side, I’m re-watching a fantastic documentary called “Wild China”. It shows different regions in China and explores each regions nature, wildlife and culture and let me tell you, it’s a BEAUTIFUL country with amazing people. On my list of top 5 places to visit in the world, China would be number one (with Japan and Canada following). But now I’m rambling a bit. But if you’re bored or looking for something with substance to watch and you have Netflix, you should definitely stream it or rent the discs. It’s a great documentary about a beautiful and culturally rich place (and, of course, the motherland of our precious tea).

This was my 2nd cup of tea at breakfast.
I can’t say I’m a fan, but at least the lavender wasn’t too prominent. I love lavender, the smell of it is wonderful, but I don’t care for it in my tea or in my food.
Gratefully I’m home now, where I have a crazy & wonderful selection of teas that I do love!
BTW…did you know that under the ‘companies’ heading, there are 4 listings each for Stash & for Tazo? This applies to several other company listings as well. If I had more time, I’d go in & consolidate all the multiple listings, just because (look out, here comes a rare left brain moment, someone let Ms Theresa out of the closet) it really irritates me! Maybe a group of us could each agree to take a letter of the alphabet, & clean up that letter, consolidating all the companies & reviews that have multiple listings. Any comments?

I needed a pick me up this afternoon and my stash at work only has herbal tea…that wasn’t going to work. So I hopped on over to the campus bistro thing and got this. As it steeped I swear it smelled like fruit loops…yes the cereal. After the first sip I knew I needed to doctor this up with some sweetener and skim milk. I usually don’t add much of anything to my teas, but this needed it in a big way.

Thankfully we’ll be passing a real Starbucks tonight where I can get a Green Tea Latte mmm…

This is the box of Earl Grey that my junior got me for a gift. I have been putting off actually trying some because I don’t really like the Tazo brand. So, I have decided that if I don’t like this one, then I will just pop the box into my teacher’s tea basket when I get back to school.

It smells like an Earl. I think it smells a little stronger than Numi’s Aged Earl or Twining’s Earl or Lady, but it doesn’t smell bad. It is very astingent. I can feel my mouth get dry as I take a sip. It tastes like perfume. Yeah. Mouth drying perfume. I think I can see how it might taste good as a latte because the milk would tone down the flavors. But, I don’t normally drink milk with my Earl Grey. And if I did, I would want to start with a better Earl.

So, I had a minor outpatient surgery yesterday to get a cyst removed. So I’m drinking Earl Grey tea and relaxing. I’m listening to Soul Surfer by Bethany Hamilton, on Overdrive. It’s a nice Summer evening. Perfect for drinking tea. I love Earl Grey tea anytime.

Maybe it is the books I am reading (everyone is drinking tea and wine in them) or the fact that I purchased this for my husband – his insesent whinning about how I have all this tea and I am not sharing made me purchase some of this Earl Grey; man! men can be such babies when they are left out! LOL

When I popped open the tin, I nearly decided to not give this tea a chance, so overwhelming was the scent of lavendar that I was worried this tea would taste soapy. Lavendar is always a scary scent in foods and teas, too much heat makes it soapy and yet too little heat will not always steep the tea correctly.

This tea steeped fast, and turned a dark burnt caramel or chocolate colour.

I noted a lot of malty floral scents, but no lavendar… strange.

It tastes REALLY bitter, which makes me a little sad, because I don’t have any cream and I find sugar and honey ruin the taste. … Maybe if I had some agave, it would help?

We’ll see what happens as it cools some more.

I had a very busy day, and didn’t have time to stop and think … much less brew a cup of tea. So after dropping my youngest off at her dance class, we went to Starbucks and got a cup of Earl Grey to help ward off the lack-of-caffeine headache that was starting.

It’s OK… certainly not the best Earl Grey I’ve had. Even a bit bitter and I didn’t let it oversteep.