Silky (Classic) Earl Grey

I wanted to find something wonderful to break in my new teacup with, but I was not expecting how truly amazing this tea was. It’s joining the Battle of the Earl Greys and there are a couple I cannot wait to try it against!

The smell, the taste, and the story. They combine gorgeously in this tea and I am apparently incapable of showing any indifference to it. The name is perfect – it truly is a silky tea, with just layers after layers of nuances. This is going to be a cupboard staple, and it’s one of the few teas so far that I’ve actually used the “Poetry may be involved” section of my rating rubric for!

You can read the full review here:
http://wordsabouttea.blogspot.com/2013/08/silky-earl-grey-by-teajo-teas.html

Drank some of this earlier with breakfast. I either put too much milk or too few leaves because it was super weak and unsatisfying. Not that this is surprisingly lately. I am perpetually dissatisfied. With tea :(

I realize it must sound mental when I say stuff like that, the former 5 cup a day lady not being able to stomach even a cup a day half the time, or even one per week, so I will just come right out with it….
I’m about 14 weeks preggers and the baby is probably a demon that has turned me off my beloved tea. I kid, well about the demon part. Obviously!!

It’s an incredibly ironic forehead slapping twist of fate, though. I’ve stocked up on so much tea over the last few months (right up until about 2 months ago when I had the harsh realization that the smell of my flavoured teas was turning my stomach and totally repelling me)… Now I have zero urge to drink it.
Even now when I have a random cup it’s more out of a sense of obligation than an actual enjoyable experience. So sad!!! I hope it comes back six months from now!!!

I’m sticking to the unflavoured or mildly flavoured teas at this point, that’s for sure!!

Right now all I want to drink is chocolate milk and apple juice, two things I maybe had two-three times a year previously.

thank you so much Teajo for a sample of this one! There is enough here for many cups. The dry leaves are as black as they could be. I always thought cream was what made me love an earl grey. But this one is so smooth, it is almost like there is cream here (though there isn’t.) This is a very different earl grey somehow. It’s unique… I guess all earl greys are different. This one is citrusy and bright but very smooth. It kind of reminds me of Fruity Pebbles cereal (awesome, in my opinion!) The second steep reminded me of the lemon part of a firecracker popsicle (awesome again). The black tea base is an assam. I don’t think earl greys usually have an assam base.. I’m not sure. But the base here is perfect for an earl grey flavor. It doesn’t disappear behind the earl grey but it doesn’t overpower it either. I didn’t see how there was safflower or cacao in this though. But I do agree that it is silky! I really really like this one. This one tells me that earl grey creams aren’t the only earl greys I love! This is a straight earl grey I could easily buy a ton of!

To me, Earl Grey is the father figure of all tea. A solid dude that you can rely on at all times.

Always there to support you, loving you and hugging you when you need to. Keeping things simple and comforting cause you know exactly what to expect.

This Earl is a very good illustration of that. Not all Earl Greys are created equally, they often are unbalanced, bergamot kicking a little too strong.

The balance on this one is perfection! The bergamot is done just right in a non bitter way, leaving plenty of room for the excellent assam base to shine through. It’s creamy without any vanilla flavouring addition.

This is my go to tea of the morning when there’s no time for fuss, knowing I won’t have to compromise on the quality.

Thank you Teajo for giving me a good Papa Earl to rely on :-)

Made this one as a cold brew. Brewed for only about 4 hours because I forgot to put it in the fridge last night, and put it in this morning, then I couldn’t wait to try it.

This is BY FAR the most DELICIOUS cold brew earl grey I have tried. It is bold but smooth. The bergamot is strong but not overpowering, it has a natural sweetness. I am getting a sweet taste that I can’t quite place. I want to say it is like when you caramelize shredded coconut, like for a dessert, that sweet sticky stuff that sits on top of the coconut shavings, that is what I am tasting but without the coconut taste. There is definitely a citrous taste to it, like a spicey pink grapefruit, or the rind of a navel orange. It is all very subtle and blends well together.

This was the last of my free sample that came from Teajo but I think this one is going on the shopping list.

Thanks for the free sample from Teajo!

Not-Tea Notes

It was nice to see this in my mailbox today – such a good day!

In Shakespeare, we all had to prepare the same scene from Richard III. My professor announced today that we were having a surprise “callback” – he was going to pick scene partners out of a hat. We decided that the two best actors would get to pick monologues for our professor to perform for us. As far as I know, none of us have ever seen him act.

I was the last Elizabeth to go, and the universe was on my side – the Richard I was put with happened to be the girl I rehearsed with most often. I won out of all the Elizabeths (and I’m not even really an actor, I just love Shakespeare SO FREAKING MUCH) and so the Richard winner and I performed the whole scene – he was someone I’d worked with too, so we already had a sort of rhythm going, and it was surprisingly different from the first time I’d done it.

And now we get to see my professor do a Don Pedro monologue from Much Ado and a Hal monologue from Henry V… the latter of which he’s never performed in front of people before. Happy spring break, professor! :)

Tea Notes

I smelled this one, and thought “ooh, that’s strong.” I don’t have any straight Earl Greys because I’m not a huge fan of bergamot – I prefer EGCs. But I like to have one in my collection.

I put two heaping teaspoons in my 20oz Amsterdam pot, boiling water, 2 min.

The first cup was surprisingly light. It was a really beautiful Assam base, and it wasn’t overwhelmingly perfumey. The bergamot was supported because the tea itself is of a good quality.

Later cups got stronger, perhaps because it cooled. I thought it might have been due to broken pieces left in the bottom of the pot, but there’s hardly anything there.

It was smooth enough for me to drink straight. I might do milk/sugar next time, just because of personal preference, but it really is a great Earl Grey!

Got it yesterday and actually conducted an EGC tasting last night. Almost forgot this one coz I hadn’t logged it in my catalog yet so I rushed to steep it alongside the 5 EGCs but then i realized this was not an EGC!

No matter, it tastes just as good as one. Or rather, this trumps them all in my book! Many thanks to Piccolo for the very generous sample..but I’m afraid it will not be enough for me, haha. I gotta buy more of this!

Silky – perfectly describes the beautiful taste that coursed through my tastebuds and captivated me (sigh)

order it here:
http://www.teajo.com/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=47

Thank you for offering a beautiful EG, Teajo Teas!

update: 2nd steep was still ok. 3rd was not quite but then again, neither were the others. maybe it was because i left them sitting too long? i noticed that with EGs they dont taste so good when cooled and actually become bitter-ish. all of them except for one….which you shall read about in my next tasting note!

I almost forgot I had samples coming to me from Teajo! Thanks for the samples, folks!

This is a very good Earl Grey. Very smooth. Creamy, almost like it has vanilla, though there is no overt vanilla taste. Really strong bergamot but not acidic or bitter. If you are not a bergamot fan, this is not going to be for you.

Ingredients say cacao, but I taste only bergamot and cream.

A really high quality Earl Grey. I’d definitely keep this in my cupboard over other Earls. Maybe it’s the Indian base – I do love Indian black teas.

So this is the Earl Grey! And it’s a sipdown! (Much needed too, I gotta say. My samples from Courtney came in yesterday and now I’m over 230, with a Butiki order coming in the next few weeks, and some more samples from Sil! Haha. BEST problems to have).

This is a pretty decent Earl Grey. It’s really not that strong but there is a tangy astringency at the end of each sip. It’s enjoyable, but I think I prefer EGC over regular EG’s. And yes, I know I could just ADD cream, but… I’m lazy? Also I guess I’m just used to drinking it plain.