Governor Gray

Today is a very, very Earl Grey day for me :) I decided that I simply must have more tea today, and remembered I had the Governor Gray that Jaime sent me here at work!

It’s delightful! Really light and – I don’t know – the word refreshing comes to mind. The tea and the bergamot flavoring combine for a very lemony taste. A perfect afternoon tea. This is another one that I think people with “bergamot problems” would like. :)

I also think it’s REALLY neat to try an American grown tea!! I have to put the Charleston Tea Plantation on the little radar in my head as a place to go for a really cool road trip. Look! http://www.charlestonteaplantation.com/About-Us.aspx

Thank you once again Jaime! Not only a good tea but an interesting tidbit of Americana!

A co-worker (not the cheesecake guy) came back from vacation having taken the South Carolina tea plantation tour. He didn’t want to go – his wife pushed him into it. He said it actually turned out to be the most interesting thing they did on vacation. He wanted to share what he had learned. It was a bit of a refresher course but I pretended it was all new so as not to squash his excitement. He bought a book, and a video, with me in mind, but forgot them this morning :( but did remember a tin of this tea :)

On to the tea. There are no brewing instructions on the tin. Ingredients are tea and oil of bergamot. It smells great in the tin. The leaf is very small pieces of CTC. I am going to reserve rating this until I get control of the steep. Today I was handed a press with the leaf already brewed once. It did not appear there was enough leaf. This may also prove to be a tea that cannot be steeped twice. It has been so long since I have had a black that could only be steeped once that I almost forgot that is normal. The tea is dark enough but the taste isn’t there. The coworker who drank the first steep compared it to bagged Twinnings Earl Grey. I took a scoop of leaf out of the tin and put it in a plastic bag to try later.

Quoting a tasting note from JacquelineM directly:

“This is another one that I think people with “bergamot problems” would like. :)”

Bingo. I am often bergamot-avoidant (bergamotley challenged?), though I stand by my statement that all good tea drinkers need to have an Earl Grey variety in their repertoire. Had this pyramid sample from ashmanra handy at work, had my little liquid creamer pack at the ready to tone down the flavor, and surprise! I didn’t need it. This is good black tea foremost; bergamot hindmost. I’d drink more, and that’s saying something for an EG.

I haven’t been writing as many tasting notes lately.. but I’m still drinking the same amount of tea.. they have just been the old favorites!

Thanks so much Erin, for sending some of this one to try. This is definitely a better black tea base than most teabags (not that I’m strictly teabags at this point!) The leaves really fill up the teabag. I’m not in love with the bergamot though. There is an off flavor that tastes like something I can’t quite place. Maybe a tangy asparagus or brussel sprout? I have no idea why. I think it reminds me of the earl gray that almost scared me away for good.. but now I know there are plenty of better ones out there. Luckily I only have the one bag! I appreciate being able to try it anyway.

I tend to like my black teas on the light side; Earl Greys included. This American-spun, bergamot-scented pekoe was not only light but “first flush” light. Makes sense since it is a pekoe after all. Taste-wise, it had more in common with a Ceylon in its floral and clean characteristics. The bergamot provided a slight sour tap but nothing overly discernible. Someone used to stronger Earl variants would have a hard time finding it at all. That said, I liked it. It makes me want to kiss a Governor in gratitude.

Er…after election season, of course.

PS – Thanks to Jaime for the blend.

I was extremely psyched this weekend when I discovered that the mom and pop peach stand down the road sells Charleston Tea Plantation teas! Now I know how Columbus felt in 1492! I had just learned about these teas during my trip to Charleston last week and I figured I’d have to wait until my next trek to that great city before I could buy more. What made my discovery even sweeter was when I found that I can buy the teas locally for about 25% less than what they cost me in Charleston! So, needless to say, I picked up an additional variety of this wonderful tea.

The Governor Gray tea, like the other selections from this company that I’ve tried so far, has a very smooth and full flavor. The bergamot presence is light, but you know it is there by the citrus undertones that exist in every sip. Perhaps it only seems light to me because I am accustomed to the supercharged double bergamot tea blend produced by Stash. In any case, this is a very nice and tasty tea. I steeped it for four minutes at 212 degrees. This seemed to result in a hint of bitterness, but nothing to detract from my pleasure in drinking this tea. Next time I will lighten up and cut a minute off of the steeping time.

UPDATE: I did diminish the steeping time to three minutes to see if the slight bitterness that I experienced at four minutes would disappear. The results are in. To quote Goldilocks, “This one is just right!”

This is probably one of the lightest Earl Grey-type teas that I’ve had. Not a bad thing, since some can be quite overpowering. It’s my favorite, no-frills Earl Grey. This is another purchase from my visit to the Charleston Tea Plantation.

I think I’ve said it before, but there is definitely a distinct taste to these Charleston-grown teas. I can almost taste that it was grown in the South; it’s got some quality that makes it perfect for sipping on the porch and letting the day drift by. I would love to be at the tea plantation today, curled up in one of their rocking chairs on their front porch, simply staring out onto the tea fields.

Tea bag sipdown day tea number 2! Like most of the other teas I still have in bagged form, this one was also a gift. I suspect after sipping this one, that I have become a true Earl Grey fan. Between this and the ones I’ve tried at David’s Tea, I’ve yet to find one I didn’t like. This one, however, is definitely a favourite. Smooth, light, and a lovely blend of tea and bergamot, I am definitely enjoying this cup. If all bagged teas were like this, I wouldn’t have abandoned them for my looseleaf.

I forgot how much I loved and hated this tea. I love it because it tastes really good. I hate it because the end of the cup tastes really bitter and bad. Bad enough for me to drop the rating by a few points, but not much since it is still really good tea. I just found a smoother cup.

I found this in the cabinet from who knows when, I made it and…… I like it! I have to put some milk and sugar in there because I find it a little bitter plain (I am kinda a newbie tea drinker, so I an trying to sweeten my drinks less and less as I get used to the tea taste) but overall it is pretty light and citrusy.