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Cheryl drank Monk's Blend Tea Scented Ceylon / China (TE21S) by Upton Tea Imports

136 tasting notes

This is described as a ceylon-based Earl Grey, blended with green tea. I am getting a green tea base with a tiny bit of orange (bergamot) and a background of vanilla, making it a “green” Earl Grey? Hmmm, I’m not sure what to think of this. I love Upton’s Earl Grey Vanilla, which has a black tea base that is more prominent. This is similar in flavor, put lacking of the same depth. If you are looking for a green tea based EG, this might be it? At least the sample only costs a $1 : )

Preparation

180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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3 comments

gmathis
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Interesting … I thought the Monk’s Blend moniker was attributed to black tea with grenadine (at least the couple varieties I’ve tried). I’ve never heard of a green/EG Monk’s Blend. Learning new stuff is good for my winter-weary brain.

Dinosara
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Monk’s Blend as a grenadine tea seems popular in the states, but Upton’s seems more similar to the Monk’s Blend teas I encountered in France and Poland: Earl Grey, vanilla, and typically jasmine.

Cheryl
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I’m the newbie to all of this, but the Europe connection could be the key here. Upton imports this from Germany.

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gmathis
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Dinosara
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Cheryl
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I’m the newbie to all of this, but the Europe connection could be the key here. Upton imports this from Germany.

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Bio

Originally started testing teas, to replace a lifelong Coke (Coca-Cola) habit. Now I’m just amazed at all the choices. Still in beginner stage of tea education. Until I get really good at iced/cold tea, the Coke habit remains, but is down to a minimum.

My cupboard here on Steepster was ridiculous, containing each and every sample size that I have been accumulating. It now only contains non-sample size teas. Loose leaf outweighs the bagged teas, but it doesn’t look that way by the list (over 100 samples).

I started my tea journey testing flavored teas. My favorites are chai and mint flavored teas, along with Earl Grey. Also like chocolate, caramel, coconut, almond, vanilla, cinnamon, clove and some others. Most flavors are better with a nice black tea base. The mint ones seem best paired with greens. I’m branching out now to unflavored teas and it is way more overwhelming then the flavored category. Phew.

My (grown) son has decided that he wants to try to find tea that he likes too, so I’ll be passing along the ones I don’t care for to him (with instructions to then pass them on to his sister…evil plot? yes!). So I’ve removed my shopping list from Steepster and moved it to a spreadsheet (swaps are out for now). My shopping list had grown to 197! By going through each one, I was able to split that in half (since many were added in beginning, before I knew what I like/don’t like).

While not swapping, if there’s something in my cupboard that you’d like a sample of, please feel free to ask : )

Ratings (for now):
90s: Must have in personal rotation. Crave it.
80s: Makes me a happy tea drinker. Very good. Unsure of long term relationship.
70s: Like this. Will drink what I have (sample/tin/box), but unsure of whether I’d buy again.
60s: Probably a good tea for what it is. Just not to my personal liking.
50s and below: Do not like…at all. Either poor quality, yuck flavor or … (see tealog).

Old (and still current) obsessions: books, music and fragrances. Hopefully my tea collection stays much more “normal” then those. (too late)