Earl Grey

This is listed under Tazo and Tazo Tea. I just grabbed one.

A coworker went to a fancy smancy dinner party held by the company his wife works for, and Tazo is the tea they served. He grabbed some for me – I have a bit of a tea reputation at work :) I have tried this Earl Grey a half dozen times in the past, always to poor results. Apparently, our local Starbucks and The Wal-Mart (according to Larry the cable guy you must add the “The” to Wal-Mart)… look a squirrel… anyway our local stores don’t sell enough for it to be fresh as I have never, ever, and I mean never, smelled or tasted bergamot in this stuff. So, I open the envelope. It smells a bit peppery and of lavenderish bergamot. Hey, so far so good. I steep three minutes and added my sweetener (why put it off, I know I am going to do it eventually). Wait for it to cool. Waiting, Waiting. Take a sip and… flowery, lavender tasting bergamot! Hallelujah! Except, wait a minute… have I just crossed the line into tea snobbery? This tastes kind of like the paper bag. I mean it isn’t horrible, and its Earl Grey – with freakin’ bergamot flavor, but the tea base is paper flavored. It’s muffled like someone talking with their hand over their mouth. As the cup cools the bergamot pops even more but the base just never develops. This is the best cup of Tazo I have ever had, but sadly (or happily), I know this is just ok tea. I did like the bergamot. Glad I could finally taste it. Next.

I’m not minding teabags at the moment so I may as well take advantage and clear some of the sample bags I have. My kitten is semi interested in this tea, he likes the smell of it which is unusual considering it’s citrus and that is supposed to repel cats. There is something he likes about it though, maybe he is just curious?

Sampling this without milk or sugar.

The black tea is rich, dark and smoky with an element of malt. The bergamot is actually very subtle in comparison and is not noticeable at first. It’s just before the after taste that the sour and sweetness of the bergamot kicks in but as soon as you taste it it’s gone again. Much too mild an Earl Grey for my liking, also it’s rather unbalanced.

Sampling with one sugar and no milk.

The sugar has worked wonders and the black tea is less thick and full on. You also get a sense that the bergamot is present at the start now due to the extra sweetness that the sugar has given it. Still all in all it’s pretty mild.

To sum it up:
Would I drink this again? Yes
Would I buy this? No
Why? I personally prefer stronger Earl Grey in terms of bergamot and citrus

Hallelujah! I’m at the end of my bags of this! It wasn’t awful and at times was actually pretty enjoyable, but the bergamot was, in general, too heavy and perfumy for me. For a month I’ve been looking forward to better Earl Grey without the guilt of having unused bags lying around, and now I can sally forth guilt free. Hmmm. What should I start with? A&D? The Upton sampler? Samples from American Tea Room or Harney & Sons? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: so many teas, so little time!

Went to Boston Pizza with my mom after getting back into the city, and since they were out of chocolate milk I opted for some of this instead. Initially when asking what teas they had, she responded with “Green and Black”, but after a little prompting she was able to list this specifically.

Apparently I’ve had this before, and relatively enjoyed it – however today I was very disappointed in it: the water it was served with was definitely not boiling, however so that could be why.

Anyway I found it to be rather astringent and unpleasant despite a short steep time (2 minutes) in a large quantity (like 12 oz.) of water. I never ended up finishing the first glass I poured.

Lowering my rating.

On Sunday, I went to a hotel for breakfast to meet my great aunt, who I’ve actually never met before. Her husband’s son was getting married here and a week before they found out we lived here, so they invited us to come eat breakfast. It was pretty neat! She reminded me a lot of me, as I do a pretty crappy job of staying in contact with people…you wouldn’t believe how much grief I’ve been given for this being only the second time I’m visiting this year.

So because this is one of those very Starbucks integrated hotels, Tazo was the tea. It was a pain because the cups were so tiny so judging how long to even steep this was impossible and it got grossly bitter with the bergamot. I tried to salvage it with some honey, but it did not help entirely.

And someone else there just left their tea bag in the cup while they drank it? blech.

This was the only black tea option, pretty much the ONLY thing there with caffeine too…who wants a tisane or decaf green in the morning? No thanks.

Backlog from last night – sample sipdown from kittylovestea I had a couple bagged teas to try last night. early grey and i? we don’t get along because of that bergamot stuff :P While it wasn’t anything delicious, there was a small part of me that can see how this might be pretty tasty as a latte. still though? not a winner simply because it’s not my kinda tea :) nice to cross it off my list though!

The steep time is more or less correct. I didn’t actually time it as I was at work, but I think 5 minutes is a safe bet. Also, this is the bagged version.

I thought I had tried this before, but I can’t seem to locate a tasting note on it. The dry leaf aroma was very strong and heavily laced with bergamot. It definitley conjured up an image of Paris, which I always reminisce about when drinking Earl Greys.

The taste is okay. As others have mentioned, it’s definitely not the best Earl Grey I’ve ever had. But it’s probably not the worst either. Or come to think of it, maybe it is the worst simply because I haven’t had much to complain about in prior Earl Grey experiences. (EDIT: I take that back. Samovar’s Earl Grey was disgusting and definitely the worst by far!)

Nonetheless, this is still very drinkable. I added a little bit of sweetener to try and cut the bitterness. It helped a bit, but the bitterness is still there. It’s an interesting bitterness because it’s clearly not coming from the tea, but from the bergamot itself. How strange.

Anyway, I probably wouldn’t be inclined to stock up on this stuff. The bergamot flavoring is a little flaky and bitter, but overall it’s not a bad tea. I’d rather have this than no tea at all. :)

I was at a meeting today where they offered this tea at the coffee/tea station. The last time I tried it, there seemed to be some scent/flavor contamination from a Pu’erh (yeah, fishy Earl Grey!) but before I receive some of the full leaf from a swap, I wanted to try a Pu’erh-free teabag to compare.

This was actually close to par with the fishy one, if you can believe that! I didn’t have a way to time my steep or control the temperature of the water, so I just had to guess. It was a short break, so the steep only lasted something like three minutes. I was pretty surprised at its bitterness, and the savage bite of its astringency. The bergamot overwhelmed the black tea base, and the three packets of raw sugar I added didn’t make a dent.

I finished it, but mostly because I was thirsty and didn’t want to interrupt the meeting by getting up. So much for the second try!

Backlogging from last night:
This came in an assortment box that I purchased a while back, when I first began exploring teas. Not realizing I liked Earl Greys back then, it went untested. Having tested Stash’s Earl Grey and Double Bergamot Earl Grey recently, I found Tazo’s to be more “substantial” … meaning, I could taste the tea over the bergamot, and it was a strong cup of Earl Grey. No bitterness, nice balance.

I am only drinking teas that I am very low on at the moment, in an effort to declutter my physical cupboard (or rather, “shelf”).

I can’t remember the last time I tasted this in front of Steepster (although I remember having a few bags of this on campus with me), and the teabags themselves are obscenely old.

The smell of the dry teabag reminded me very strongly of the earl grey shortbread cookies I purchased one time. A sort of gritty bergamot and cookie smell. Those things were delicious. The steep loses that smell a bit, the bergamot becoming much brighter and citrusy, although pleasant and light.

Aaaaaug it tastes gross. I think these teabags are TOO old. Or at the very least, I seriously oversteeped it. The tea is very bitter, and the bitterness of the bergomat is reaching out too. I also keep thinking I either taste or smell lavender somewhere in there. I think I’m just going to dump this. It was the very last teabag anyways, which is sad because I remember having a good reaction to it when I made it to bring to class with me.

It doesn’t look like I ever gave it a rating previously, and I don’t think I will now. Not until I get a proper cup of this to try.