Natural Bergamot Earl Grey (TE18)

Tea of the afternoon…. (SRP #11)

My cello lesson was cancelled for today, so I had an extra half hour to burn! I really wanted Earl Grey Supreme from Harney, but I remembered that I have a few Earl Greys in my sample stash. I still have a few from LiberTEAS, but I settled on this one since it has been in my stash since last September. I think what happened is that I love Earl Grey in warmer months and can’t get enough of it then. In the colder months, I am more of a chai and spicey flavored tea drinker.

Well, I wish I could say I was taken by this tea. It is good enough. Just not something that will work for me. This is a very sweet version of bergamot, but it lacks the brightness of Lord Bergamot from Steven Smith or Earl Grey from Lupicia. And it does not have the fabulous tea base to carry it with a lighter bergamot taste like my beloved Earl Grey Supreme. It finally came to me that it is more like a candy version of what I would expect Earl Grey to taste like. I did experience that with Upton’s Earl Grey Creme when I tasted it relative to others…..Upton’s Earl Grey Creme is kind of more like Creamsicle tea to me. Ah. Definitely not a wasted taste test, but I think I am going to brew up something better. Time for sachet 2 of 15 from my Lord Bergamot box…..

Usual teapot method.

PS. The cello lessons are going well. My greatest piece of advice, you are never too old to do something big.

Knowing that I love Upton’s Earl Grey Cream Vanilla, I wanted to test some of their other Earl Grey choices and ordered 3 more to try (including this one). I picked this one first, because the bergamot aroma from the dry leaves was not overpowering (just right).

Being somewhat new to tea, and to Earl Greys, I’m not an expert by any means, but this tea is very enjoyable to my tastebuds. I’m not getting any bitterness from the tea and the orangey flavor is noticeable, but not over the top. What more to say? Added about a T. of honey to 15 oz. and thinking it wouldn’t have needed that much sweetener (which is a good sign, yes?).

Drinking this a bit mindlessly/tiredly (s’been a busy yet boring Monday!) after watching part 1 of Victoria Wood’s tea series thing. I was so disappointed she didn’t go into darjeeling, all the (imperialist-ugliness-glossed-over, granted) Empire-y romance of the estates. Also doesn’t look like she’s going to do Taiwan, alas (could be wrong though, only halfway through the whole program). Curious if she talks about how the internet has changed the premium tea market globally in the last 10 years (something I’m personally fascinated by). Hum. Who knew Morrissey likes weak bagged Ceylon! Ha.

I should probably like this more, but it has that thing standard orange blossom essence often has, a…I don’t know how to put it really, a specific strange element in the fragrance I don’t care for at all (it’s one of the reasons I was uber brand loyal to A. Montaux Orange Blossom Water and panicked when he recently closed shop—his never had that smell while just about every cheap bottle in Indian and Mediterranean grocery shops has it in spades). Even if it’s not, it makes me think “synthetic”. Not plastic quite, but kind of like those old ‘70s spraycoated braided and coiled rope-like fibrous trivets? Like fake glossy straw or something. Anyway. Aside from that part, I like this tea; it’s better than many in the vast array of EG offerings from Upton. Not my favorite from them—Lavender EG and Vanilla Creme all the way—but perfectly decent, again aside from that one smell component I just never like.