The Earl of Lemon

The dry tea smells like a regular earl grey to me. Heavy on the bergamot, which I’m not always fond of.

Didn’t note what it smelled like steeped, oops :)

This one tastes like a really lovely, light, creamy earl grey! I quite like it! I’m definitely getting creaminess, likely from the yogurt, and the bergamot would likely be the reason it tastes like earl grey… but it’s so light! And no astringency at all, not even a hint, which is probably another reason I like it. This might go on the re-purchase list before it’s gone :)

ETA: Second infusion of this is nearly as good as the first. I increased the time to 4 minutes, and got a lovely brew smelling lightly and sweetly of bergamot, and tasting much the same. I think I prefer this to regular earl grey…

This tea is weird. It’s super creamy and lemony – almost like lemon yogourt. I don’t think I really like it. I mean, it smells nice, and the idea of it is nice, I’d just rather be eating the yogourt!

I have to admit that while I was preparing this cold brew, I thought it was a totally different tea. I meant to make some iced Mandarin Silk, but apparently grabbed this instead. By the time I realized the leaves were already in there, but Kittena was nice enough to send me quite a bit so I’ll still be able to make it hot! This sounds like it would be interesting cold anyway, I mean anything lemon practically screams to be tried over ice.

It brewed up really pale, and I was wondering if maybe I didn’t give it enough time… but 14 hours should be more than enough! Indeed, it’s quite strong, I guess it’s just a light tea. The lemon is really front and center, bright and a bit assertive. It’s tempered by a nice creaminess, with backing floral notes from the white base. Honestly I’d never associate this with Earl Grey if I didn’t know there was bergamot in there, it’s very much a nice lemon white to me. Not that it’s a bad thing, I think lemon overpowers other citrus notes very easily so it masks the bergamot. It reminded me a bit of a lemon tart filling, not mouth-puckeringly sour but with a bit of a bite and a nice sweetness as well.

NOOOOOO!

My husband is trapped waiting for his parents at the airport so no brazilian jiujitsu workout tonight.

I just made a lovely batch of red bean buns – I ate 2, and 10 more are just sitting there, calling to me. EAT ALL THE CARBS! Sad is no jiujitsu, so no burning off all those tasty buns.

I’m having some iced earl of lemon with honey. Very light grassy base, yet nice tangy lemon. Please forget about the buns. Then when husband gets home, he’ll eat all the sweets. Curse his “eat everything in sight and lose weight” metabolism!

I wanted tea this morning before I left, so as I was making the tea to put into my two water bottles I decided to make myself a cup of this (and a water bottle full of it too). Last night when I was picking travel teas I realized I have a TON of this left, and I didn’t want to take any with because it’s really temperamental to brew. So, using some up today.

I realized something else today that, dare I say it, was “Earth Shattering”. Well, not really Earth shattering, but still a pretty freaking big deal. For those who don’t know (basically all of you), I’m TERRIBLE at math. Seriously – I BARELY passed the classes in highschool (passed with a 50), and I can’t divide anything larger than 20 to save my life. Something just doesn’t click.

So, when I moved up to Saskatoon I asked my mom how many ounces the tea cups and mugs I was taking with me held, as well as how much my water bottle holds. Around the time I was moving was when I was REALLY getting into tea and starting to actually pay attention to how much leaf I was using and water temperature and things like that. She told me that my water bottle was 12 oz., the smaller set of tea cups was 6 oz., and the larger was 8 oz. and I just accepted this as the truth.

Well, today I realized that she gave me incorrect information: I guess she’s just as bad at math as I am. How do I know this? Well, I recently bought a timolino from David’s (the 12 oz. one) thinking it’d hold the same amount as my water bottle. I didn’t notice yesterday because I steeped my tea straight into the timolino, but today I made the tea for my timolino separately to pour into my timolino. I expected it to half fill it because I was using my “6 oz.” cup – but instead it almost completely filled it. So, I did some actual research and some math (it took forever, because I wasn’t sure I was doing it correctly), and it turns out that my teacups/mugs actually hold the following amounts:

- Timolino: 12 oz. (obviously)
- Waterbottle: 20 oz.!!!
- Small Teacups: 8 oz.
- Larger Teacups: 10 oz.!!!

So, I’ve been steeping the incorrect amount of leaf for months… And times when I thought I was overleafing, turns out I was essentially just using the correct amount of leaf. I’m just… shocked. I feel like I was told the worst, nastiest lie. I mean, I’ve been enjoying the amounts I’ve been drinking, so I don’t think I’m going to change the way I’ve been drinking tea completely – but I’m sort of stunned? Here I was thinking I liked my teas extra strong, but really I like them how they’re supposed to be made?

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Urgh. My head hurts… The tea is a lie!

So, starting “fresh”: Today I steeped 1 tsp. of this for 8 oz. of tea. It was actually pretty good, but I’m finding myself falling out of love with it. I think that’s because since initially trying it I’ve discovered better lemon flavoured teas. It was pretty creamy though – and I really love that in an Earl Grey. I have more of it for the trip back home to Regina (spending the night there and then leaving for Winnipeg for Comic Con way early in the morning of the 1st), but I prepared it pretty much the same way as this cup so I’m not going to create a separate note for it since I’m sure it’ll taste essentially the same.

This was a sample from Sandy. Thanks! What a lovely tea. I’m surprised because I’m not that big a fan of bergamot, but this is blended rather well.

I only pick up hints of bergamot in here just past the creamy lemon flavor. It’s reminiscent of baked good. The lemon is sweeter rather than tart. The bergamot definitely hangs out in the background, just serving as support for the lemon. Bai mu dan makes a good showing and adds a pepper like note to wrap things up.

I am particular about Earl Grey. I like it with other flavors in there too more than I like it straight. Sometimes it reminds me too much of cleaning, and I should be cleaning most of the time so…yeah.

I got this as a sample, I named off two things I wanted to try and decided the third sample should be a surprise, so this is what I got.

It’s very lemony, but still tastes a bit like Earl Grey. I’ve only had black tea based ones, so this is different. It’s a lot lighter, and I just love the way the lemon has really given it a fresh, citrusy taste.

The yogurt chips gave it a bit of creaminess, and it almost adds tartness. The tart definitely tastes yogurt based rather than lemon. Kind of weird, but I’ll still take it.

And, in what surprises me most coming from the other white DavidsTea blends I’ve had, I can actually taste white tea!

I probably won’t get this again due to having so much tea but I really like it. I was expecting to have to give it away but it has surprised me!

Received this one from Roswell Strange.

I initially was having a hard time describing this one. On first look of the dried leaves I was surprised as I there were quite large bits and this is something that I do not associate with Davids Tea. I often find their teas a bit crumbly. On first smell of the dried tea all I got was lemon, like sweet lemon drop candies. Not much bergamot and certainly did not make me think Earl Grey.

On first sip, I am confused. I am not getting much taste. Maybe I underleafed. I am getting a light, sort of sweet lemon flavour. A bit artificial. No bergamot at all.

I am thinking I must be off today. So I took the cheating way out and I read the description of the tea. I really shouldn’t call this cheating. It would have been smart to read this before making the tea, instead of just assuming.

This is a white tea! Totally didn’t expect that at all. The dry leaf did not anywhere near resemble bai mu dan in my opinion. I just assumed it was a black tea and steeped in just under boiling water. I also did not realize there were yogurt pieces in the mix.

So after reading the description and going back to the tea, I am getting some light, sweet lemon flavours. Still a bit artificial. I am definitely getting a creaminess from the yogurt. Still doesn’t taste like bai mu dan to me, but that could be in how I steeped it. Not getting a whole lot of bergamot. The taste is getting stronger as it cools.

Still a decent tasting tea. I think I need to use a bit more leaf and lower water temp next time to bring out more flavour and see if it becomes a bit more of an Earl. Although, the ingredient list does not even list bergamot oil or flavouring or orange rind at all. So I am thinking it is not a real Earl, but they are substituting with lemon (which is not the same but I understand what Davids is trying to achieve with it).

Thanks Ros. I would have probably never picked this one up on my own, so thanks for the sample.

Edit: made this one again, but this time doubled up on the leaf. Overall it tastes the same, the lemon taste is a bit stronger. I am finding the yogurt pieces a bit astringent this time around but that maybe due to the amount that I steeped. I closely inspected the brewed leaf and noted there did seem to be a lot of green tea leaves that must have unfurled during brewing and I didn’t notice in the dry tea.

So I felt like having this tea last night while tutoring. It was like having tea and a treat together, I mean tea itself is a treat, but this tea is like the ultimate treat for me.

This was a very surprising tea. I was prepared not to like it because instinctively, I am not crazy about the smell of bergamot. However, this tea is a very mild version of bergamot. The citrus in the lemon really does wonders to temper it. This will likely never be my favourite white tea, but I am glad I have some of it to try!