Earl Grey

http://www.teaforte.com/store/gourmet-tea/black-tea/earl-grey/
I’m currently drinking Tea Forte’s LOOSE LEAF Earl Grey! YES, LOOSE LEAF.

I was first introduced to Tea Forte Teas last year when my mother saw their cute lil bags in the shape of a triangle and stood perfectly in your cup with their trademark ‘leaf’ sticking out of the top. She ended up buying me a gift set of 6 samples and I liked some and others were too tarty for me but was SO EXCITED to try them regardless.

Yesterday when I received my KATI via UPS there were three samples in it…one of the samples was their EARL GREY LOOSE LEAF. Yup! They have LOOSE LEAF, too!

Of course I am drinking this in my New KATI from Tea Forte!!!
http://www.teaforte.com/store/tea-accessories/other/kati-loose-tea-system/
Which I reviewed yesterday in more detail and will be testing a bit more and posting my personal tea blog which is located here…
http://teaequalsbliss.blogspot.com/
Later this week…

Anyhow…here is the review on their Loose Leaf Earl Grey…
I can smell your typical black tea, bergamot – but not too bergamot or fake bergamot smell which is a definite PLUS…since lately I have experienced some loose leaf teas that are mostly fake bergamot flavoring and it seems to linger for HOURS whether it be for scent or after taste…but like I said…this one is a happy medium with the bergamot. The actual black tea is very bold! This is a nice surprise…I wasn’t sure about the strength of the black tea taste based on the original scent of the tea…and then there is a hint of floral and a hint of something else that I am not sure I have smelled before in other Earl Grey’s. WHAT IS THAT hint of mysteriousness!? OH! It’s…almost a hint of rice scent!? It’s barely there but that is sort of what it smells like to me…freshly cooked rice…of course this isn’t a focus or a flavor that is even listed in the ingredients but I just thought I would mention that it is something that I picked up on…and I LIKE IT.

This Earl Grey doesn’t seem to have an aftertaste that bothers me either and that’s WONDERFUL!!! I think it’s one of the bolder teas – if not the boldest tea – I have tried so far – to date – from Tea Forte.

Now…as for the findings on this BLACK loose leaf in the KATI – since I did a GREEN yesterday – this is still perfect for Black Tea as well…as you know I have already drank several Black and Black Flavored Teas so far today and ALL of them have worked REALLY well in my KATI.

http://www.teaforte.com/store/tea-accessories/other/kati-loose-tea-system/

This link will tell you more about the KATI…which I have become more and more fond of and protective of in my office. I have non-tea drinkers EYE BALLING it! LOL

They are just jealous!
:)

By getting this KATI it just might encourage me to get into more accessory hunting (purchasing)…YAY!

Starting my day with Earl Grey! I really like Tea Forté’s Earl Grey, it has a very brisk and invigorating flavor. The orange with the bergamot softens the sharpness of the bergamot just a little, while enhancing it’s citrus qualities.

Delicious!

Wow — I get a bit inactive and all this craziness happens in the Steepsterverse! (Okay, so it was a lot inactive). Well, today I brought my newly purchased Kati cup-thingy and single-serving samples from Tea Forte to work (putting the packets in my newly purchased Tardis cookie jar!). Then I chose the Earl Grey to try my first cup in the Kati. Then I steeped. Then I had a small rush of patrons and got back to the cup several minutes later. Yeah. Undrinkable. I think that I may also need to rinse the leaves first since even when I went back and had a second much-shorter steep I was getting the “Pledge-furniture polish” sensation. But I did finish that cup. But I’m able to rate this fairly — so no rating for now.

All that said, I’m really loving this cup. It’s been crazy-cold in our library and the warmth of the cup was a bit of heaven on earth. I realized that with my other mugs I tended to turn the mug so that the handle was facing away from me. So this is the perfect mug to hold like that with no handle in the way.

I also started to get that feeling of “nom — tea is nummy” that I haven’t had for most of the summer. I’m hoping to get back to posting more often, at least between now and when I need to buckle down and focus on getting accepted into the Master’s Program.

Sipdown #38

Sadly, this tea is not that special. It tastes one dimensional and flat and sits thickly on my tongue. I’m sure it doesn’t help that my night has been pretty awful. I’m throwing in the towel. :(

Tea #2 from Another Traveling Tea Box?!?!?!

This was the first time I had a chance to checkout one of this company’s pyramid-shaped tea bags, with the wire leaf at the top. It’s adorable, and did a nice job twining around the lip of my cup for easy removal later. The tea itself was brisk and tasty – my brain wasn’t quite up to par on Friday morning, so the intense jolt of caffeine was exactly what I needed!

My friend gave me this tea to try because she knows that I love Earl Grey. I decided to look up the steeping guide for this tea and was surprised by the low temperature to brew it with. I usually use boiling or near boiling water for my Earl Greys, but I was willing to try the lower temperature. I steeped it for four minutes.

The liquor was a nice light amber and smelled lightly of bergamot. The taste was light. Very light. I was getting a hint of spice at the end too. I think if I ever have this again I think I might try a slightly hotter temperature.

I received a sample of this from Dinosara. My first offering from Teaforte. I was expecting it to be in the pyramid bags that I’ve seen online but to my suprise a loose leaf sample. I noticed that this has a very strong aroma to it almost peppery. Subtle flavor need not apply here. Which is not a bad thing but if you are not ready for it might knock you over. Put a little milk in it that seems to subdue this monster a little bit. Not bad but a strong earl grey.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 loose tea single steeps packet
Water: Hot spigot water, 12 oz
Tool: kati loose tea system
Steep Time: a little over 6 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: Very strong bergamot, citrus scent with a hint of floral
Steeped Tea Smell: Black tea, hint of bergamot and citrus
Flavor: Citrus, bergamot, followed by black tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: Very astringent and slightly bitter after taste
Liquor: deep dark reddish-brown

Leaves expanded impressively.

Too much bergamot, and I am coming to believe Assam teas are not my cup of tea.

The kati mug is an excellent temperature on the hands when using hot spigot water, as opposed to being a bit too hot to handle when I used my electric kettle at home. Again, this is an excellent loose tea brewer for work, or beginners.

I think this little pre-measured packet is a great first step for converting bagged tea drinkers to loose.

Post-Steep Additives: +2 sugar a bit better, sweeter. It could have used milk as well.

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/tea-forte-loose-leaf-black-tea-earl.html

I’ve owned this tea for quite a while without any impressions of it logged.

I don’t really have much experience with orange or citrus tea, but with the limited amount I have acquired, my impressions have been fairly great. I do recall a fabulous experience with a dark Darjeeling orange pekoe, as most of my experiences before that with orange pekoe weren’t favorable.

Opening the tin presented quite a strong and distinguishing Bergamot citrus aroma, so strong that the scent lingers, faintly. I would have thought the Bergamot overpowering, but it is more an initial and bold scent, with a citrus freshness that follows.

Steeping gives a nicely deep amber tone. The aroma of the brew is significantly less bold than the leaves, leaving a pale, almost flat, scent.

The initial sips show me why the cornflowers needed to be there, as they settle down the extremely bold flavor of the Bergamot. There is a dull astringency, which I could probably credit the black tea that is barely present, but it seems more the citrus as it is also a refreshing closer.

All around, this is quite a bold and delicious tea. I can see this working better with milk, as the Bergamot does call for it. Straight or sweetened with milk, this is a very full and rich cup of tea.

I’m backlogging this tea right now. It’s been a while since I’ve had a cup of this. It is a little tricky to brew this using certain filters, as some of the CTC tea mixed in can fall through.

Leaf Quality:
Some of the leaves are CTC, and others are whole. There is a pretty even mix of both. Cornflowers are also present. It smells amazing. The leaves have a very refreshing Bergamot scent, along with a very aromatic floral quality already present in the base teas. The brewed leaves smelled malty, floral, and still of Bergamot.

Brewed Tea:
The brewed tea smelled rather different than the leaves. The cornflowers had more of a presence. The Bergamot wasn’t as prevalent, but the Assam qualities were. It tasted somewhat brisk at first. The color was a nice red-brown. It’s difficult to discern some of the characteristics of the base tea, as the Bergamot has been added.

The briskness of this tea surprised me. I don’t remember it being as strong. For this reason, I shortened by steeping time considerably from 4 minutes to less than three. Beforehand, the brew was a little bitter. Afterwards, it was much better. I could taste every element of the tea. I also noticed it was naturally sweet.

This was a very good tea to have this Saturday morning, despite the fringe steep times. I’ll be drinking this, when reading the rest of The Man in the Iron Mask.