Earl Grey Melange

I made dinner, dessert and this tea iced to bring to my mom for Mother’s Day. I made the big 8 cup pitcher cold brewed with some simple syrup and half a lemon. Very refreshing! The cold brewed method makes the bergamot subtle enough to be delicious with food. I still prefer this with lime, but I used all my limes for the pie!

I also gave some tea to Mama Earth today. I compost all my used tea leaves, and my garden got a nice helping :) It’s so great to see my used tea leaves, vegetable scraps, the leaves the trees shed in the winter, etc. become food for my garden, then food for me, then food for my garden, then food for me… :)

This came my way in the Travelling Teabox and since my tea cupboard is sadly lacking in Earl Grey right now, I decided to try it.

Looking at the leaves I think there must be some of Adagio’s Earl Grey Bravo in there (I can see the pieces of citrus peel and the blue cornflower petals) so at first I was nervous that it would be horribly strong. As it turns out it wasn’t that at all – the bergamot flavouring was nice and mild. It’s nothing mind-blowing but it’s a good, solid tea – so kudos to whoever made it, they did a good job. :)

I am posting this under someone else’s melange, but they are similar. You may ask yourself, “Why is ashmanra drinking so much tea today?”

I am mortified at myself for placing THREE SEPARATE TEA ORDERS this weekend. I have to either make room or get one of the kids to move out, so I am making room. I am making a box for a friend who is new to loose leaf tea and I will be drinking a LOT this week. Also, I will be buying an extra storage box. Sigh.

This is the last bit of H&S Earl Grey and their Sally’s Secret with a couple of teaspoons of Organic Qu Hao from A Southern Season added. I made a big pitcher and sweetened it because it will mainly be used as iced tea, probably exclusively by me because I am the only Earl Grey Drinker in the house.

I decided to taste a cup hot before chilling it just to see if the strength was good. I think it is. It is very good hot and the bergamot is more pronounced than I thought it would be with the amount of plain black tea I added. I think I will enjoy this iced. Next time, though, there will be more plain black and less Earl, in hopes of getting others to drink it.

Funny…now that I’m far enough along in my tea journey to be at least a little discriminating in what I like and don’t like…standards go completely out the window when temps warm up and I need iced tea. My guideline for cold tea … aaah, that’ll do; whatever!

This bits and bops mixture from the lovely Jacquelinem fits the “whatever” category very nicely. I’m not much of an EG fan, though I try to be. But the bergamot, which annoys me hot, is cooling and refreshing after an afternoon in the fridge. Will be a nice fridge standard.

Got a sample of this in the traveling tea box (I assume it’s the same blend listed here), and am trying it today. I brewed for 5 min., as was noted on the bag, and was a little paranoid about it coming out bitter, but it’s really nice. It’s a lovely golden-brown colour and smells good as well. It doesn’t scream “earl grey” to me (maybe the bergamot isn’t very strong?), but it’s very pleasant. Not too heavy of a black tea blend, and very nice for morning tea.