Earl Grey

My mom is turning fifty on Friday, but she had her birthday party last night. Because she is the mature woman, aging gracefully, she rented most of a pub, hired a musician, and dragged half of her friends up on stage at various times to sing or play ukelele with her. There was singing. There were thundermugs. There was the YMCA. There was a conga line while an Indian man sang ‘Guantanamera’.

I don’t drink (mostly) and I had to drive home, so I contented myself with diet Coke until I was on my way to the bathroom and spotted, beside the cupcakes that my sister had rearranged from “HAPPY BIRTHDAY THERESA” into “IT’S A TRAP”, a small tin of this tea and a hot water dispenser! Yes, at the bar, surrounded by loudly carolling drunks, I found tea!

The tin turned out to actually be a repository for a motley collection of tea bags, mostly Red Rose, some Bigelow, some Tim Horton’s. But there was one bag of the Tazo left, so I snagged it and brewed up a cup. My cousin Jo kept stealing sips until she asked, “Why does this taste weird?” “Because it’s Earl Grey.” “Ohhh!”

Okay, the tea: I don’t know what I was expecting from a black from a Tazo, since I’ve only had their herbal blends before. The first thing I noticed was that it brewed up very dark, very quickly, but wasn’t bitter when I finally snagged the bag. The flavour was mild and pleasant, certainly not the best but not the worst. There wasn’t much of an Earl flavour, more like an OP with a back-hint of bergamot. What flavour it did have had good staying power, though; I resteeped the bag three or four times through the night. As an alternative to beer it was just what I wanted, but I won’t seek it out again.

There seems to be a lot of hate for this tea, but I’m not sure why?

I happen to find it a fairly decent Earl Grey compared to Twinnings (cardboard-tasting) or Second Cup (too much orange) or Stash (licorice?! how’d that get in there??), yet not quite up to par with Numi’s aged Earl Grey. Still, if I’m craving a London Fog I keep a stash of these teabags in my purse and head down to the local cafe to order an extra hot vanilla steamer. Then, I just add my own teabag. Easy-peasy-bergamot-squeasy.

I find that on it’s own it can be rather overpowering with bergamot. However, steep this baby in extra hot milk and it really holds its own. There’s nothing more disappointing than ordering a London Fog only to be underwhelmed by the Earl Grey. Me, I’ve solved that problem.

Still on the road, this time for another conference, which means a lot of tea slim pickings at the hotels. This morning I had a bag of this and it really wasn’t half bad. Sure, I wasn’t really paying close attention to it much, but I remember being pleasantly surprised. I like very bergamotty Earl as long as it doesn’t get super astringent and bitter, and this tea fits that profile. I guess the tea bag was pretty fresh, too, because I didn’t have problems with it being really weak like some people, nor did I have it get bitter on me. Yeah it wasn’t super exciting, but I’ve had way worse.

I am obsessed with recreating the Starbucks Earl Grey latte, which I think is all about their vanilla syrup, and not really about the tea. But here I am with my vanilla-soy milk and earl grey tea, trying my best. I oversteeped the tea on purpose, and I am still suffering from the weak-flavor problem. I know this isn’t the more expensive Starbucks’ Tazo Earl Grey in nicer bags. but I am not going to bother to pay extra just to drown the thing in vanilla soy milk. These are very strongly flavored, but hmmmmm…. might have to just try leaving the tea bag in. I mean, I chose Tazo because Sbucks uses it, but also because if these things don’t deliver the strength I need in the drink, nothing will. Seriously, like bergamot before buying a box of this stuff.

Had a bag of this! I didn’t expect much. It kind of ranks down there with the worst Earl Greys I’ve ever had. But it seems like any of the bagged Earl Greys are WAY worse than the loose leaf. I swear I’m not being a tea snob… even Harney’s teabag of Earl Grey was not as good as their loose leaf. Loose Earl Grey is one of my favorites but bagged Earl Grey is some of the worst I’ve ever had. The bergamot must be the difference. But this one smelled like a fake sort of lemon and the taste is a bit too bitter. Not really like bergamot. Luckily I only had the one bag.

Had a bag of this lying around since March and finally got around to brewing it. It reminded me that even though this is a mainstream, grocery store bagged brand, it’s still a solid Earl Grey. Especially sweetened.

I am using an actual tea cup, so it is no wonder that one glass of the Earl just wasn’t enough for me. And I have six different Earl Greys to compare to each other. So why not make this an Earl Grey day?

I still haven’t gotten rid of these tea bags, so I thought I would try it again. The liquor is very dark and the tea smells soapy. I only brewed it for four minutes and the tea is harsh. It also tastes slightly soapy.

But this is also the tea that the Earl Grey lattes are made out of, so let’s try a splash of milk with it and see how that goes. gets milk Now it kinda looks like iced coffee. The milk made it drinkable, but it isn’t really mind-boggling. I taste the bergamot now, but it still has a very harsh flavor to it. It tastes rather flat.

I could see this being a good tea to make a milk tea with. Or even to put some sugar and boba in it and make an Earl Grey bubble tea. But I still wouldn’t reach for it on my own. I might keep it around and use it to experiment with some Earl Grey baking that I want to do. I’ll have to see how it compares to Biglow Earl Grey.

One of those elaborate flaboyantly aromasized teas that are just over the top with perfumation! However it’s really how bad do you want the caffeine. I was pretty out of it this morning, a cup of this woke me up and got me ready to conquor a day. To be honest, I don’t think I’ll be having this one again, after two sips I was ready to put it down. It has some enjoyable moments, but earl grey in general isnt my cup of tea. I enjoy heavily aroma teas, but as long as its an aroma that I enjoy. DIdn’t enjoy this one at all…. Smelled like an evil concoction of bergamot. Just saying. Time to enjoy the beautiful florida sunshine while Im here :D

We went through several pitchers of this iced this evening at a family gathering. Seemed like the pitchers were empty just as soon as we could make another. With so many people and so much commotion, it is a good thing that it was very forgiving with steep time. We all got busy and forgot it was steeping at one point. Later the gang just couldn’t wait and we rushed one pot. It was a great tea for the crowd!

Apparently I’m in an earl grey mood lately. I had a pot of decaf (without a brand name, otherwise I would have logged it!) at an Asian restaurant last night. I know… earl grey at an Asian restaurant? It was the only decaf they had.

So today I went to Starbucks because I needed a venti size drink but didn’t have a large mug in my office, and I was hoping for large quantities of green tea. Well, it’s exams, and the students (rightfully) have been buying up everything in our Starbucks, so they were out of it. I figured that of the in-stock options, this one would probably fair best, so here we go…

Now, off to 3 consecutive hours of presentations/meetings!