Earl Grey Creme

this was my ‘sidekick’ tea this morning.

i have a small 6oz teacup and saucer at my desk plus a large 24oz mug. (they are both beautiful beautiful things.) so on the special days, the days when i really really need the help, i will basically brew a whole 30oz of tea at one time.
and delicate teas, nuanced teas, and cherished or small samples usually get the tiny sidekick treatment.

and this EG Creme was a darling. warm and smooth and soothing.

it’s supposed to super snow tonight …well, i’m sure MANY of you would laugh at our version of ‘mega snow’, but southerners do have a tendency to enjoy the drama when they can, plus southern Virginia doesn’t usually get much snow in general, in fact i hear that some years ago we used to get no snow. so everyone is still in that mind-frame and thus generally ill-prepared.
the city gov isn’t even really good at consistently plowing the streets because they don’t budget enough for what used to be a very rare occurrence.
you get the idea. DRAMA-RAMA!

since i might not have work tomorrow, i’m gonna bring all my swaps and samples home with me tonight. Wishful Thinking!!

thank you Eva for this warm and tasty bonus!

I received a sample of this tea from Eva in a “Mystery Swap”. Thank you!

I have been sampling EGC’s lately, I have had a few leading up to this one. This was meh for me. It was a pretty weak base with a really low level of bergamot. I was busy cooking so the cup cooled and I took a sip of it cold. Despite it not being my favorite hot, the cold version was pretty tasty. The creaminess shone through and covered up the weakness of the base.

I was looking for something black and orange/bergamot this morning… surprised myself! Never thought I would go for citrus, but here I am.

TeaTiff sent this to me quite awhile back, Thanks!, and I wasn’t crazy about it then.. it was ok but not a favorite, but thought I would give it another try since I still had a bit of a sample left.

I am sooo sooooo terrible about finishing any sample bag, whether I like the tea or not… just terrible! I’m going to have to learn to do it or I will have a whole bunch of little baggies with one lonely little serving left in them. If I like a tea it’s even harder if I know it will be awhile before I would consider an order w/it’s company or if it’s difficult to get. When I see all of your sipdowns I get jealous that I have such a hard time with that. I do think Hubby would welcome more purchased teas in the cupboard if I could manage to get myself to do a better job of it though. Must work on it!

This one is much like I remembered it, maybe a bit better now that I’ve come to enjoy citrus in my tea more. I steeped this a little cooler this time to try and avoid the pepper flavor I got last time I tried it. Although it was less present, it was still there.. although more tolerable. I don’t know if pepper is a flavor I would come to crave in tea, but I have already surprised myself w/citrus. I do love pepper in some of my foods! so who knows?

my first EG creme, im not sure if this is how it normally tastes but got used to it by the end of the tiny cup. resteeps have a more gentle flavor.

may double the water for the first steep to lessen the strength of the cream flavor :)

This Earl Grey is touchy-touchy, in that if you look at it the wrong way it could turn bitter. I made this three times and the first time at 205° for 5 min = very bitter, the second time at 200° for 5 min = slightly bitter but not bad, lastly 190° for 5 min= perfect. My cup was roughly 12oz and I used 3 tsp of Earl Grey Creme. I added a La Perruche sugar cube and a splash of cream which made it even more delicious!

I received a sample of the from Eva, so thank you very much!

Honestly, I wouldn’t have known this was supposed to be an EGC if it wasn’t for the label. There’s very little bergamot in here, and what’s there is almost fruity. Not citrus fruity, but a little bit like a semi-sweet berry. The cream element, though, is very nice. It’s rich and milky and covers up the weak base.

This tea definitely tastes pretty good, but I’m still not sure about the EG element (or lack thereof).

Without sugar, the Creme of this still is enough to take away the acidity that can ruin Earl Grey on a bad day. Mmmmm.