Earl Grey White

Today I need to do some serious cleaning.
We are having company this week and so I have to clean the Guest Bedroom/Dump-It-And-Run Room.
So, I went to the room, opened the door, peered in, shut the door and went to start the kettle.
I need tea to give me courage for this.
I grabbed something quite substantial, and it was this tea.
I love Earl Grey, it really is my favorite tea.
And nothing irritates me more than a “Shy Earl Grey”.
This tea is not shy…AT ALL.
If you are new to Earl Grey’s or not a huge fan of Bergamot than this probably is not the tea for you.
In fact, although I am a fan of Bergamot, I do believe Teavana could just tone it down a bit.
It does overwhelm the tea some.
But,overall, If a Earl Grey Fan, you are not gonna go wrong in trying this tea.
For me, I probably won’t be hurrying out and buying more of this particular brand just yet, mainly because there is a lot of Earl Grey’s to try out there in this big wide world.
Now, excuse me while I go and brave the dreaded spare room…

I’ve tried the traditional Earl Grey teas from a variety of places, but none of them ever “did it” for me. But this one is very different. Sure the bergamot is there, but it isn’t as harsh as it seems in more traditional Earl Grey teas.

In fact this one is very light, but pretty smooth when drinking it. I also added a little agave to sweeten it just a little. There’s also a pretty color that comes out in this tea. The smell is amazing – that’s the best way to say it. This is a tea I plan to keep in my stash.

Read more here: http://wifeywoman.teatra.de/2011/09/16/my-gateway-tea/

Since I had such a bad experience with this tea last time I drank it, I decided to cold brew some of it in the fridge overnight to see if that would make any difference in my opinion on it. Bleh….I wish I knew what it was in this tea that tastes so bad to me. Maybe it’s the bergamot? I’m not sure because I don’t really know what it tastes like or if it’s what I’m tasting. I think I may have to swap the rest of this away….

This tea is just not my thing at all!

This is one I’ve had kicking around for a while. This time, I kept the water temp super low so as not to burn the crap out of the leaves like I did last time I made it.

It’s a decent tea, at least by my newbie standards, but I… I fear I’m starting to lose my taste for bergamot. I don’t know why, I think the astringency is starting to get to me. But it’s the only white tea I have (there’s my cue to try some new ones), and after a long day following a shitty night’s sleep and having taken two Excedrin earlier this evening, I figured I needed something that was a little lighter on the caffeine than my standard green tea.

There’s not really a whole lot else I can say about the flavor, apart from a lighter bergamot twinge than the Earl Grey black tea from the same company.

I was worried that I’d hate this. I haven’t had an Earl Grey since my last Twinings bag at a continental breakfast.

Funny thing, I don’t hate it. Which is great.

As soon as I opened the seal on the bag that the tea came in the scent of bergamot almost knocked me over. It was the strongest bergamot I can remember experiencing.

Surprisingly, the tea wasn’t nearly as strong as a brewed cup. This isn’t to say that it’s weak, because it wasn’t by any means, but it was lighter than any other Earl Grey that I remember. Drinking it, the white tea hardly came out because of the bergamot, but made a subtle base so as to not make one feel as if they are drinking hot, diluted bergamot oil.

It was lovely (clean, as some people describe it), and I believe I’ve found my Earl Grey of choice.

Maybe they (whoever invented the blend) should have made the tea blend with white tea in the first place…

Steeped for 3 minutes but forgot to try it with a little almond milk this morning (oops)! Earl Grey is growing on me and I can’t wait for all the samples I’ve ordered this week to arrive from KallyTea and Upton Tea!

Being someone who has always loved the scent of bergamot in Earl Grey but has always felt let down by the flavor, this was defiantly a home run. This is less of an “Earl Grey” and more of a white tea dipped in the bergamot oil. In my previous review of the Copper Knot Hongcha, I mentioned that it was one of my go-to teas at work, this was in my tumbler even more frequently than that tea. The blue cornflower pedals give the dry leave a nice look but also give it a very distinct taste; which coats your mouth with a flavor reminciant of something starchy. I don’t even like to call this tea an earl grey since the quality is so much higher than that of such a traditional tea. Even if you’re not a huge fan of Earl Grey I recommend trying a cup of it, you may be surprised.

Anyone who takes a glance at my tea cupboard would probably hypothesize that white tea isn’t really my thing and they would be right. Periodically I’ll read about the health benefits of white tea (less processed then black! Less caffeine to drink a pot of later in the day and not feel like the energizer bunny at bedtime! Whoo-hoo white tea!), smell a sample in the store (the white doesn’t over power the other scents, so I get lured into believing at the vary least it shouldn’t be less flavourful then a tisane), or read a great description online (yes Butterscotch tea I mean you). And then I’ll taste them, and promptly swear that I’ll never buy another white tea again (over priced, high maintenance, liars, each and every one of them!), and the tea will be set aside for guests … or my mother (sometimes I really think I must have been adopted, how can someone like white tea and hate black tea? And not just anyone, but my own – supposed – flesh and blood).

This was another buy from my Teavana Boxing Day sale it was pretty cheap for a white tea with the 75% discount and then my %15 quantity discount (I was I’ll keep how close I was to the %20 discount a secret between myself and my addiction), $2.13 for a white tea is pretty amazing, and if that wasn’t enough to sway me the promise of bergamot was.

When I opened the tea my first thought was ‘holy bergamot batman!’ (don’t judge me) the smell is fantastic, my second thought was please please don’t let the tea be a lie. Good news, the teas wasn’t a lie. The bergamot flavour was as strong brewed as it was dry. Admittedly I didn’t taste any actual TEA flavour, but I’ve resigned myself that between white tea, and, gee, I don’t know…water, there is no difference. (Sorry white tea fans – white chocolate fans too, I’m sure I owe you an apology for all the times I’ve campaigned to get white chocolate disqualified from being called chocolate – I’m sure to you white tea has a distinct and lovely flavour, or perhaps you like it for it’s lack of distinguishable palate).

I happen to love bergamot having a tea dedicated to that taste alone is ok with me.

I’ve also brewed this with a few leaves from my bergamot mint plant, which adds a pleasant fresh taste to the brew.

I tend to stay away from Teavana since they are overpriced, hype up the health benefits, and their sales associates are often too pushy. However, I stopped in to look at their tumblers since I haven’t found one I like online or in other stores. I purchased one and have been very happy with it.

I got a cup of this to go (though it was highly recommended that I buy a few ounces and a tin). They didn’t let it steep long enough but it still had a nice balance of citrus and white tea.

a very solid earl grey tea. thought it was a little too earthy at first but I like it a lot more now. has become a staple for me in the morning. I like it with sugar but no milk. and it’s pretty cheap for teavana.