Earl Grey Decaf

Now I get to raid my mom’s Earl Grey because I am out and I want some. I swear the decaf tastes different than the normal one, but that could just be me right now. My tastebuds have been being weird this morning. Even my honey nut cheerios didn’t taste right.

My mom got me some more almond milk as a surprise. Yay. It is the unsweetened kind though so I have to remember that it is a little harsh when I have it plain. But she tries so hard to remember what I like. I love her and I tell her this often.

It is after 11 pm and I just finished my first cup of the day :(
I needed an Earl Grey. I was so desperate tonight that I honestly could not have told you this was decaf if I didn’t know. I noticed the bergamot is on the orange end of the taste scale. Twinings EG is more lemon to me. This is a lot closer to Lady Grey. Hit the spot tonight.

When you are too busy for tea, you’re to busy. Hope to do better tomorrow.

Neither being a huge fan of Earl Grey nor decaf black tea, wasn’t expecting a great deal—-but the office air conditioner was set to “blizzard” this afternoon and I needed to warm up. Exceeded expectations! The bergamot didn’t taste like cheap cologne—couldn’t detect much personality in the base, but it wasn’t bitter or astringent. Good utility tea.

1/27/14 1st in an Earl Grey tasting 1 teabag/6oz/3min/212F 1tsp. sugar. Did not squeeze bag. 3min cool. Single sealed pack teabag of indeterminate age. Faint bergamot/malt aroma and taste. The brew was very pale, and tasted quite watery. I wonder if the base tea is water decaffinated? Basically faintly floral sugar water.

This was not a good Earl Grey. I’m starting to wonder if there is a good EG out there for me! Maybe it exists in loose leaf form, or maybe I’m just simply not the Earl Grey drinker. Bigelow’s bag is smells overwhelmingly of bergamot. Like, knock your halfway across the room. It’s a fairly pleasant scent, but I’m not gonna lie – it takes some time to get used to. It brews up fairly dark, darker than the Twinings blend I tried a few days back. And it still smells of bergamot.

This one tastes much more citrus-y than the Twinings blend. It’s not bitter, like the Tazo blend. The bergamot is pretty damn strong, with highlights of both a bracing citrus and floral notes. What I really didn’t like about this tea was its oiliness. If that’s how I can describe it. It coats your mouth, and leaves your lips feeling greasy. It’s not a very pleasant sensation at all. The black tea doesn’t taste like anything special; I think the low grade fannings are completely overwhelmed by the bergamot.

I’m not looking forward to finishing the other two bags that I have. It’s drinkable, but it’s not something that I’d anticipate a cup of on any given day.

At my parents house for lunch today with limited tea selection ;)

One last round of Bigelow torture for today?

Its brewed aroma smells fermented like the Bigelow decaf black. I wonder if it’s the same tea. Before today, I had zero experience with decaf teas. The bergamot is decent quality, though, and somewhat overrides that funky smell. A few sips — all good, I can endure this light lashing. Until the tea after a few more sips feels like chemical burn on my throat. Swollen and so, so dry, like I swallowed a spoon of drywall mud. Please! Please! My uvula can’t take anymore!

Is this the punishment for pocketing a handful of teas from the hotel?

This is a pretty good decaf iteration of a classic tea.

It’s not perfect, but for the genre there’s a good deal of citrus oil in the mix. The largest drawback tends to be in the black tea, again because of the decaffeinated leaves. For a decaf however it does hit its mark as a solid brew. Good thing, because my girlfriend purchased six boxes of it for the pantry.

Nighttime tea drinkers rejoice!

This earl grey tastes a little funky. I’m not sure if it’s the decaf or what, but there’s something off about it. Or maybe I’m coming down with a cold….great. I picked some of this up b/c I was missing my grandma and this was one of the teas she would give me when I asked for tea when I was little. Adding cream and sugar seemed to help it out a little bit, but not much. Boo.

I didn’t mean to buy the decaf :( Great tea otherwise!