Earl Black

Day Four

Before steeping it smells like pomegranate and black current juice. After steeping it luckily mellows down a bit and I’m able to pick up more of that vegetal, buttery white tea. Instead of following the packet instructions, I steeped “a small spoonful”, in my Perfect Mug, in low temperature water for about 4 minutes.

I can pick up citrus qualities from my cup, although it’s nowhere near as extreme as my Silk Road Earl White- a tea with a real overload of citrus and bergamot. Earl Black is more like a tame, almost flat, juice that may have seen a squeeze of citrus; just enough to give it a sour note.

It has a similar body to Big Apple from David’s Tea. Buttery mellowness, a little bit of fruit pizzazz, and some other notes that indicate that all the ingredients at one time or another came from a plant. The texture is oily. Astringency is almost nonexistent. Somewhat pasty, flaky, doughy when it cools down.

Comforting buttery qualities make me really like this but it isn’t a Super Adventure 9000+ Tea. The oil may seem ill-fitting with the fruity flavours at times, too.

I’ve never had a blackcurrant tea so I am personally highly amused and won over by this, although bergamot and strong flavoured it is not. The tea was also pretty lackluster on second steep.

I did the unthinkable and steeped this white tea for over five minutes. It did not turn bitter at all, and I liked it a lot better ‘oversteeped’. The bergamot was more noticeable.

I will start off by saying that Oil of Bergamot is so hit or miss for me. Most Earl Grey’s I’m not a fan of (without milk/sugar). So, why did I order this tea? Good question. I was intrigued … and it was on sale. And as us Steepsters know, it’s hard to resist a good sale ;)

I couldn’t find any steeping parameters, so I just went with what the other 52teas White Teas use – 1-2 min, sorta boiling water.

This tea smells awesome. Smells fruity and very unique. Hard to put my finger on it, really. But it’s delicious.

As for the taste? It’s not bad. I can definitely taste the bergamot in there, but it’s masked but the fruitiness of the black currant. The flavors actually work well together. The white tea base also works nicely because it’s not overpowering.

As the tea cools off it’s actually very pleasant. Definitely drinkable without any addition for me, although I bet a little milk would make the taste pop too.

So, am I glad I tried this? Sure. Would I order again. Eh, probably not.

Sipdown! Another one from the 12 Days of Tea pack that I am just now trying. White teas aren’t really my favorite, so while this one looked nice, I wasn’t super excited to try it. The dry leaves were really big and pretty, but I didn’t see any dried black currants in my pack. The tea liquor is a really clear pale yellow color, it almost looks like water. The flavor is really fruity and perfumey. I can’t taste the bergamot, and the black currant seems different that other black currant flavors that I’ve had, and it ends on a slightly artificial note. Not terrible by any means, but probably one that I wouldn’t purchase again.

-Dry blend has large tea leaves and twigs.
-Dry leaves smell lightly of fruit. Tea liquor aroma smells of overly sweet black currants.
-Tea liquor is clear and almost colorless.
-Soft fruit perfumey flavor with an artificial sweet finish.
-Best with sweetener.
-Fair tea. Light and fruity.

Twelve Days of X-mas tea #4. Yes this is a day late and I missed #3 as well – work has left me too busy to do much tea drinking. This is the first of three days off though, so I intend to take full advantage and catch up on my tea-drinking. ;)

The dry teas smells like nothing so much as grape Kool-aid which must be from the black current flavouring. Thankfully, the tea doesn’t taste like Kool-aid, though the most dominant flavour is the fruity black currents. The bergamot is surprisingly subtle, but it gives the tea an interesting citrus tanginess.

I contemplated ordering this a while back, but the white base threw me off. Very happy to have the chance to try this though! I am in love with black currant flavoured things. Well, black currant candies in particular. Especially wine gums! And those little pastilles. I also recently had a black currant soda that was an absolutely perfect blend of sweet, tart and juicy.

Bergamot is also a favourite of mine, and sounded like it would compliment the currant nicely. But I’m always a little iffy about white teas. I’ve had them go bitter on me more than a few times, and when I’m drinking a flavoured tea I don’t want it to be fussy.

After a 2:30 min steep though, this wasn’t bitter at all. Yay! Tastes like sweet currants and almost like concord grape juice. Sweet and winey with a bit of that pucker-inducing tartness. I wasn’t expecting to taste grape, but it’s nice! I’m not picking up on much bergamot though, sadly.

This packs a nice punch of flavour, but I actually enjoy the base coming through, which is fairly unexpected. Glad I have a bit more left to play around with.

After reading the description of this tea, I thought for sure I would hate it. I couldn’t fathom how earl grey would blend with fruit. Beautiful blend of flavors. Now I have to decide if I should buy more. Tough decision.

maybe i’m just not in a white tea ‘place’ these days. i should probably put all of mine in the back of a drawer until i’m ready to enjoy their subtlety.
i’m a beginner, and i’m sure my appreciation of tea still has a lot of growing to do.

i steeped this one for a little tad under 2 minutes. and it’s lovely. but i’m not in love with it either.
eh.

I bought this tea on a whim one day during a sale……Glad I did.

The dry leaf smells really crisp bergamot with the fruity berry smell of currants. Wet leaf smells just the same but with the wet leaf of the tea coming threw as well. I had heard from other people on steepster that this blend was a bit strong, being white tea with bergamot and all. So I decided to brew three steeps together and combine them. It turned out perfect! The bergamot was at perfect level and gave a nice crisp menthol like citrus flavor which was backed up and broadened by the black current flavor. The tea was able to poke out through the flavors as well, adding to the crisp sweetness of the fruits. It doesn’t even need sweetener either. It taste pretty good iced too; flavors are a bit stronger and it leaves this cooling sensation in your mouth.

Overall it is a very good tea. I actually went a head and bought another pouch. I recommend this tea to anyone who likes strong bergamot tea, but wants something other then a black tea base.

Brewing Specifics

leaf: 2tsp
Pot: Glass
Water: 8oz
Temp: 185F
Steep: 1 minuets; 2 minuets; 2:20 minuets.

This stuff is, as the kids say, amazeballs. Really one of my favourite blends by Frank.

I’m super excited to say I’m slowly converting co-workers to the world of “snobby tea” (that’s what they all call it). Currently a trainmaster is browsing 52 Teas and asking me for recommendations. And last week another trainmaster put in his first Red Leaf matcha order. Verdant Tea is always a hot topic when people ask me about tea. I’ve got about a dozen people hooked on Davids Tea in the last year, too.

Man i’m on a roll!