Beatles' Blend

This one has been on my TO BUY List for a while and LiberTEAS was her usual AWESOME self and sent me a nice sampler tin of it! Thanks so much, Sista!!!!

This is the perfect dark brown color once infused. It reminds me of an English Breakfast meets Earl Grey minus the obnoxious Bergamot meets jasmine meets pine type smell.

This is a bold yet well-rounded black tea with a semi-sweet finish. I really like this…very flavorful!

I’ve had this a few times, but after checking, I see that I’ve never logged my tasting notes!

This is a very strong blend – very bold and invigorating. I like the blend – it is like Earl Grey but it isn’t as Earl Grey as a typical Earl Grey. That is to say that rather than the bergamot being the bold flavor in the cup, here the boldness comes from the tea, and the bergamot becomes an accompaniment rather than a feature player.

Lots of flavor, very brisk. I like it.

If memory serves me correctly…this is one of the first teas I reviewed on here, just under a year ago…I still love this tea, but it got buried in the avalanche that is my cabinet and on top of my counter tops, microwave and into baskets strewn throughout my kitchen. I have since found it and not stopped drinking it.

It’s base is Earl Grey, as we have discussed, I do not like the Earl so I tend to avoid him, but the issue I have with EG is the Burgamot. I do not like it, not at all, something about it, it is sour, it is sweet, it is slightly floral, but there is no depth of levels, it is one-dimensional and I do not enjoy it. Enough complaining. This tea, though Earl Grey based has little-to-no Burgamot, it instead swings right into a malty tea from China, then a crisp English Breakfast tea followed by a deeper rich flavor from Indian tea finished with a hint of Jasmine. The four flavors, though do not seem like they would meld, actually blend and compliment each other very nicely. They infuse into one complex mouth flavor that has levels of delicious depth with natural sweetness and crisp end feel free of any black tea twang.

I infuse tea hot, 3 minutes, no additives. The left over 2 ounces I let infuse about 3 more minutes then add cold water and pop it in the fridge to be iced for later.

This tea is excellent either way!

Ooh, this smells nice. It’s an Earl Grey, but there’s something distinctly floral in the aroma. Jasmine, I think. (The official description concurs – jasmine). It seems to go well with the bergamot though. It’s a bit strong to drink plain, but there’s also a lingering sweetness – from the jasmine and the Chinese black, I would guess. Adding milk made this taste more like a traditional EG to me; I can still smell the jasmine, and it dominates the aftertaste, but it tastes like bergamot and black tea.

I would drink this in the morning, when I want a slightly sweet kick to start the day.

Thank you to LiberTEAS and TeaEqualsBliss! This is from a prize I won over at their SororiTEA Sisters’ blog!

2.6g, 8oz, 2 steeps at 3:15, 5:15

This tea is like a punch in the face in the morning; it’s so strong. A little milk and honey helps to soften the blow, though :)

This is one of the teas I ordered in my big Mighty Leaf order a couple of months ago. I love the punchiness of Mighty Leaf black teas—the wake up and pay attention of their assertive bases.

This tea is very delicious. That said, I must have received the least flavoured batch of it. Though it is meant to be an Earl Grey with Chinese black and Indian teas with jasmine, I am not feeling the bergamot or jasmine. Yes, there is a vague sense of fruity sweetness, but to discern the bergamot and jasmine, you must first know it is there and then do the flavour equivalent of squinting to find it.

I never read tea descriptions or the reviews of others directly before I write a review of my own. If I hadn’t in this case, I never would have identified the Earl Grey-ness and jasmine here.