English Earl Grey Black Tea

For the past nine years, I’ve become a huge fan and very accustomed to Teavivre’s fine Chinese black teas. When I was out on the Teavivre website a few weeks ago, something new and unusual caught my eye. Teavivre was offering an English Earl Grey black tea made with Sri Lanka tea. Since I love Earl Grey, and trust Teavivre to do something unique and special with this blend, I went ahead and ordered it.

The unbrewed long brown leaves had a fruity and slightly flowery aroma. I steeped them for five minutes at 195 degrees.

The brewed color was a bright amber. The aroma was pleasantly fruity and a tad flowery.

From the very first sip, the tea tasted fresh and fruity with the advertised chrysanthemum accent giving the flavor a slightly sweet attribute. No astringency existed and the experience was a pleasure from start to finish of my cup. A very light and fruity aftertaste appeared when I finished. This also was quite amiable.

As I expected, this tea was quite unique from the many other Earl Grey blends I have tried over the years. The bergamot citrus flavor was present, but with a new tasty dimension resulting from the chrysanthemum notes. Although different, I enjoyed it immensely. As the old commercial goes, “This is NOT your father’s Earl Grey!”

I encourage any English Earl Grey lover to give this unusual blend a try. It opens up new horizons for this type of tea.