KatBender Send Message

Story time! About a year ago, I was on vacation with my best friends at Disney World. We had afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian hotel, where one of my friends ordered this tea. She’s a big fan of Earl Grey—and from her first sip of this one, she was swooning. She had all of us sample it, and we even went so far as to ask our server about it. (We noticed the vanilla note was especially good, so we were curious where it came from.) Anyway, I finally ordered some a month ago. I was curious to see if it would live up to the memory.

Long story short, it does. This is the best Earl Grey with vanilla that I’ve tried so far. It’s also one of the few teas I own where I can see grains of vanilla bean mixed in with the dry leaf. (Golden Orchid from Whispering Pines is another.) This tea smells delicious in the bag, and when it’s steeped. The vanilla is soft and creamy, and the bergamot is sharp and bright; neither overpowers the other. It’s clearly a luxury tea (and expensive), so I feel pretty lucky to have it in my cupboard. Since this is a black tea, it’s a good idea to watch the steeping time to avoid dryness (I try to keep it to 3 minutes max). My friend visited a week ago, and I surprised her by making her a cup of this. It was just as delicious as she remembered.