Earl Grey Supreme

I got a tin of this for my Mom for Christmas and we’re having a cup of it after opening presents. I also received some as a gift from a friend in teabag form. Both are excellent versions of an earl grey tea. I like that the black tea is very robust and mouth-filling and that the bergamot is balanced just right, not too overwhelming. It has a great strong earl grey flavor and is perfect with a little milk and sugar. Merry Christmas indeed!

-Standard teabag.
-Teabag smells strongly of bergamot. Tea liquor aroma is of malty bergamot.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy medium brown color.
-Bold malty flavor with a nicely balanced bergamot finish. Lingering lemony bergamot aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Excellent tea. Strong black tea base with a perfect bergamot flavor.

Spa room at the trump and for once, there’s a kettle in the room! and tea bags! So because KS was giving me grief on the blerg, i figured i should open this one up and try it at the very least.

Still not a fan of the blerg but this isn’t awful….but it’s not delicious either. I can handle drinking this because i’m cold in the room, but i may need to see if they’ll bring me up more english breakfast instead haha. This is smooth…and i like the base, but the blerg needs to go! :)

I received some of this tea from Jaime – thanks Jaime!

Because I am currently drinking this in bagged form, I don’t want to give it a rating. It has been my experience with Harney & Sons tea that their bagged teas are just not as good as their loose leaf.

That being said, tasting this HAS inspired me to order a sample of the loose leaf tea. Because for a bagged Earl Grey, this is good.

I am so tired today. I’m not sure this really counts for Sample Week. Oh, it does live up to all the criteria. It’s only the one cup and I haven’t tried it before. However, it was chosen specifically so that I wouldn’t get a sample that I’d end up writing whole little novels about, which I’m not sure whether or not disqualifies it. So I’ve decided that it counts if I don’t do another sample later tonight, and if I do, it didn’t count.

Being an Earl Grey and all, you know?

So what we’re expecting here is a strong black tea and a grey and dusty taste of bergamot. And hopefully not just some random lemon-y citrus, which ironically I would actually prefer tastewise, but would take off points for if it was being passed off as Earl Grey. Authenticity and whatnot, you know?

The aroma is somewhat creamy and smooth and kind of vanilla-y sweet. Still grey but leaning into a more silvery colour. (Synesthesia. I has it.) Okay, that’s a good sign, then.

Flavour, not so much. Here we have the dustyness, and something kind of lime-y as well. I’m not getting much out of the base at all here, so it feels a bit like I’m just having a week generic black with citrus juice in it. I find it disappointing that something with such a promising aroma can be so absolutely uninteresting in flavour.

Nope, this is not a winner.

And now on to other things.

The dry leaf smells promising as the bergamot isn’t too strong, oily or perfumey. Once steeped, the bergamot’s aroma takes a back seat to the malty, sweet black tea. The liquor color is a light brown-orange.

The flavor is quite nice. It’s like the GM Tippy Earl Grey would be without that bakey weird thing that bothered me about the GM.

I never thought I’d say this about an Earl Grey, but if anything, the bergamot could be a little stronger. Still, it’s quite enjoyable because the underlying tea is very tastey. It’s medium-to-light bodied, no bitterness, a little astringency. There’s a citrus and sugary tea aftertaste.

I have a lot more Earl Greys to try, but this is a strong contender.

In a word, this tea is superb. I adore this tea. I ordered it loose, and the fact that it comes in a beautiful 4 oz tin is icing on the cake. Everyone has a different opinion on the ideal Earl Grey, but I’ve been testing a lot of them lately, and this is my favorite so far. I made it exactly as recommended, 5 min. steeping with boiling water. I used 1 tsp in 8 oz. Not the least bit bitter-just the right amount of bergamot. Excellent hot or cold. Perfection. I can’t wait to try the other 7 selections from Harney & Sons, my first experience with this company.

This is the last of the individually packaged tea bags I picked up on my mini-moon from the Cliffside Inn. Awww. :( I guess the mini-moon is officially over. Well, in reality it’s been over for weeks. LOL! The dry leaf aroma is strong oil of bergamot. That’s not my favorite way to flavor an earl grey, but I’m holding out hope. I saw a couple silver needle leaves in the sachet. What’s that about? Well, one way to find out!

Mmm, this is a smooth cuppa! I could probably drink it straight and enjoy it just fine. But with skim milk and Truvia, this is a really yummy tea! I’m unsure I can taste the soft flavor of the white tea amongst all this black tea and bergamot oil. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s still very delicious! I just don’t know if the white tea is really contributing much in the blend. Overall, I’d rate this tea a success, seeing as my cup is empty. :P

LOL. Total Brain fart! I went to a Biggby’s Coffee shop with my sweetie after our late lunch/early dinner (Noodles and Co.) and ordered this as a Latte. Mmm it was pretty good. I never have had a tea latte before. It was very similar to drinking EG Cream, but significantly different….if that makes any sense;)
Drat…for whatever reason I started fiddling with the rating bar, so now I got to give a rating because now I can’t not do it….Grrrrrrrr. My only complaint about the tea latte, was that the medium I gotten was to much. I should of went with a small. Oh, they also sell H&S teas though not my current favorite, Tower of London, I wonder how that would turn out as a latte?

The Earl Grey tea that I measure all other Earl Greys against is my favorite (so far) from Rishi: http://steepster.com/teas/rishi-tea/5258-ancient-tree-earl-grey-organic-fair-trade. To me, that selection is the mother of all Earl Greys. It is strong, bursting with bergamot, and a complete, full-bodied, black tea blend. I was curious to see if this Harney & Sons offering could go the distance with Rishi.

When I opened the double-sealed sample packet, so kindly provided by ashmanra, the bergamot aroma immediately drew my attention. It was strong but not overwhelming.

I steeped the black leaves at 212 degrees for five minutes. I’m experimenting with five minutes for all black teas now. I like my tea to be potent in the morning as I need all the help I can get to shock myself out of the previous night’s slumber.

When my tea maker beeped completion, the bergamot aroma was much more subtle than I expected, particularly with five minutes of brewing at a boiling temperature. The smell was still pleasant. The color was a golden red.

With my first sip, the dominant taste was black tea. The flavor was nice, smooth, and malty, without bitterness, but I had difficulty sorting out the bergamot from the black tea attributes.

As the number of sips quickly multiplied, my tastebuds began to pinpoint the bergamot beneath the commanding black tea taste. It then occurred to me that the bergamot was not hidden behind the black tea flavors. The bergamot was so perfectly balanced with the black tea taste that it was actually fused into the overall tea flavor. Once I figured that out, my sleepy brain was able to separate the bergamot from the black tea when desired.

To sum this tea up, it did not dethrone my Rishi favorite, but it is tasty, smooth, and malty, without astringency. It would still be a great breakfast tea minus the bergamot.

If you like bergamot to slap you silly in your morning Earl Grey (like the aforementioned Rishi product), this tea may be a little too mild for you. However, if you can only tolerate bergamot when it is a quiet aspect of your cup, this selection will be a great choice. This Harney & Sons product will also be a winner if you prefer your bergamot intensity to fall somewhere between those extremes.

My daughter brought this sample to me saying “I think you will like this EG”
I have tried it this morning and have decided that this must be what Picard was drinking on Enterprise. This is smooth, not perfumey(I am so glad, I hate drinking perfumed teas and I can’t imagine Picard liked perfume either:), the citrus notes are light and flavorful. This is like a cross between a mild EG and Blood orange Black: the base contains Ceylon(I am a huge fan of Ceylons) and the citrus notes are present(not as strong in this tea as the Blood Orange) but I do like it. My search may just be over for an EG. I have found a few others that I liked, but they were out of my price range due to shipping to the US.
I think if you really liked a traditional EG, you may not like this too much. But for me, it is the perfect ratio of everything. Now I can say “EG hot” and get a tea that is very much drinkable!
Thank you Mrawlins2 for the sample:)