MegWesley

This one tastes similar to Twinings, but it is much more astringent. While it cools it gets more bitter. I can see why they stopped making this one and started making their Aged Earl Grey. And I used my last tea bag for this one.

I am using an actual tea cup, so it is no wonder that one glass of the Earl just wasn’t enough for me. And I have six different Earl Greys to compare to each other. So why not make this an Earl Grey day?

I still haven’t gotten rid of these tea bags, so I thought I would try it again. The liquor is very dark and the tea smells soapy. I only brewed it for four minutes and the tea is harsh. It also tastes slightly soapy.

But this is also the tea that the Earl Grey lattes are made out of, so let’s try a splash of milk with it and see how that goes. gets milk Now it kinda looks like iced coffee. The milk made it drinkable, but it isn’t really mind-boggling. I taste the bergamot now, but it still has a very harsh flavor to it. It tastes rather flat.

I could see this being a good tea to make a milk tea with. Or even to put some sugar and boba in it and make an Earl Grey bubble tea. But I still wouldn’t reach for it on my own. I might keep it around and use it to experiment with some Earl Grey baking that I want to do. I’ll have to see how it compares to Biglow Earl Grey.

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.

This has been a “share the last of my tea with my fiance” day apparently. He wants to try all of my teas that he hasn’t tried yet, so I have been saving this until I was able to drink it with him. It is nice to be able to share a tea with somebody you love. Especially a romantic rose tea.

The only thing that I don’t like about this tea is that there wasn’t a consistent amount of rose petals in the tea. This last cup is light on the rose, but it is still there. I need to get more rosy teas because I adored this one.

I am having the very last of my dragonwell tea with my fiance today. I did figure out how to brew it correctly and it is nice and buttery. I am going to miss this tea. I didn’t realize how good it was when I randomly picked it up on a whim in the folk festival.

Going off of the Earl Grey Lemonade, I decided to try a different flavor of tea. I decided to try Constant Comment for the tea because of the orange and I thought the spices would give it an interesting kick. If you choose something with orange, you would want an extra teaspoon of sugar to go in it or else it is a little too tart (for my liking at least). The spices give a very interesting flavor that is like a little kick in the mouth.

The lemonade paired with the tea makes it a little mouth-drying, but I think that would go really well with a summer meal. Refreshing and cleansing. And my fiance loves it too. I had him taste it and almost lost my glass.

I found a recipe for Earl Grey lemonade and it made me curious. It has been very hot here recently and I have been drinking a fair amount of half-tea, half-lemonade that my fiance’s mother has started to buy. The recipe was basically the half-tea and half-lemonade with the tea part being Earl Grey.

I made a strong cup (1 bag steeped for 10 minutes) and poured in some lemonade I made yesterday for Memorial Day. It was about 3/4 Earl Grey and 1/4 lemonade. At first it was a yummy mix with a splash of bergamot mixing with the lemons. Then it kept getting tarter and tarter.

So I drank it down and put in enough lemonade to bring the mix to 1/2 Earl Grey and 1/2 lemonade. Then I put in a spoonful of sugar and mixed it well. The color now looks closer to the half-and-half store-bought mix. Now it is yummy with a splash of that bergamot at the end. The sugar made it sweeter, but I think it toned down the tartness too much. But I think that you would want an equal 1/2 and 1/2 mix for this Earl Grey Lemonade.

I might have to make a bigger bottle of this the next time we make lemonade. I really like it, but I don’t think my family will enjoy it as much. So I will have to make two bottles of lemonade. I think this is a very nice way to enjoy Earl Grey on a hot summer day.

I wonder if it would work well with different tea blends? It is a good thing that I might have to experiment because it is supposed to be very hot this summer. I just have to make sure that we have a fresh supply of lemons to keep the house stocked with lemonade because I don’t like using the lemon juice in the bottle. That makes the lemonade taste chemically and fake.

Edit: I think I was jumping to conclusions about the sugar. It has been sitting for a while and now the bergamot is jumping up and down again playing with that sugar. Balance has never tasted so yummy!

I saved the last of this sample so that my fiance could try it too. I learned the importance of eventually getting a “fair pitcher” so that we get even flavors out of my press. My first cup was a little bitter while his was light and sweet. The flavors went back to normal for the second cup.

I am sad that this sample is gone, but I am happy that I was introduced to such a yummy type of tea. I will have to try some more Fujian blacks in the future.

More Earl Grey with milk!

After reading some more tips on steeping oolong, I tried brewing it western style to see if I could get the right flavor. This time I got the right water temperature and it tastes awesome! Delicate and fruity! It also tastes sweet. I can’t wait to steep it again for supper. I am pretty sure I have at least two more good steeps like this. Maybe more. I’ll be drinking it all night long!

Another morning that began with some earl grey with milk. I found a lot of recipies for cooking with the Earl and I might try them out. It feels like a cookie or a cupcake day today.

I have missed drinking this. My mom was eyeballing me as I made it so I offered her a sip. She took it and she said that she liked it better than the Gongfu black, but she would still prefer it with some sugar. She used to drink loose leaf but said that “it was prehistoric” and “not like this”. I think I might be getting her interested in it again because of my press.

When I was making my second steep (which I am drinking now), my brother was eyeballing my tea press. I offered him some and he took it. He just came down to tell me that it was really good and that he “didn’t know how to describe it”. I told him that we could have some tea together tomorrow.

I feel like I am slowly introducing tea to my family. My mom and brother both drink tea on occasion, but it is normally either Sleepytime (my brother’s favorite) or something like Lipton. I think I might try to find a loose leaf orange pekoe for my mom because Constant Comment is her favorite.

I think I am in a rut with my Earl Grey tea right now. Hot with a splash of milk. It is just so yummy though. It smooths out the tea and makes the bergamot brighter and just pop. It makes it a nice summery drink.

Finally, I am brewing this right again! My mom’s kettle is easier to use because it is louder. Of course, it is also nicer when I am brewing in a spot that doesn’t have a drink machine running in a small kitchen. I used a little bit more leaf at three minutes with water that just started to make the kettle make a noise. When I poured the tea, I could smell butter wafting out of the cup. And it tastes nice and buttery smooth too. This is why I fell in love with this tea. So tasty!

I got one of these blooming teas as a gift and I saved it to share with my fiance. Watching the tea bloom was very entertaining and the flowers are beautiful. While it was blooming the scent coming from my press was strawberry. When I was pouring it he even said to “be careful so you don’t crush the flowers”. That made me grin and I re-assured him that I wasn’t even pressing the filter down on my press and that it was just there to preent any loose leaves that came off from floating into our tea.

It didn’t taste much like strawberry. It was very light and relaxing. The smell was awesome. I’m not normally big on white tea, but it was nice. My fiance loved it. I am beginning to think that he loves the lighter teas and he even asked how much these were. We are going to have to get a glass pot and some more of these blooming teas for when we want some nice time together to enjoy tea.

This makes a very nice early morning tea when you put a dash of milk in it. And I don’t normally drink the Earl in the morning either! It makes me feel all lovely when I drink it that early and makes my morning better.

Mom was watching me very closely when I made my first cup of this tea. She was fascinated by the loose leaf brewing process and she said the tea looked really dark. I offered her a sip and she took it and made a face. It was too strong for her. Which I find really funny because I only brew this at 3 minutes.

She did say she would like to try more of my teas, but she is afraid of my black teas now. This will be an interesting expirament. Maybe I will try her with the last little bit of my rose black tea.

I tried another cup of this tea. This time I put milk in it right away. I think the taste that they are describing as “malty” is having my brain translate it to “hay”. This isn’t my favorite tea by a long shot, but it still tastes pretty good. I think unflavored pu-erh might be an acquired taste and my fiance agrees (as he eyes his stash of the emporeror and hopes I don’t drink it all).

I think I might want to find and try the chocolate one of this for myself and some other flavored ones for my fiance. He will like them even if I end up not liking them. But this is a very good introduction to pu-erh and I still want to try more.

I normally drink my Earl Grey plain, but after fantasizing about buying a Starbucks Earl Grey Latte, I decided to try it with milk before deciding to treat myself. It is pretty good with a little milk. I normally find this Earl Grey to have a little bite to it, but the milk mellows it out and boosts up the bergamont flavor a bit. I like it.

I graduated from college this weekend. Yay! Now to find a job.

I stole a bag of this from my fiance when I was over at his house for a little bit last night. It is very dark. It looks like coffee it is so dark. I am a little stuffed up from switching climates again, but it smells like earth. Damp earth with a slight horse-barn smell. Not enough to be off-putting, but enough to make me think of the stables at my college.

I am trying to let it cool down a bit before I taste it because it is hot! All I can think of is this taste being weird. It is smooth. Almost watery like I didn’t steep it enough. I brewed this for four minutes since I’ve never had it before. At first I kept thinking sushi, but that has passed now. Now it is just smooth and dark. There is a little bit of a bitter taste at the back of my throat.

I keep thinking latte, so I’m going to add a splash of milk because I can. And because I am at home and don’t have to be restricted by when I can drink my tea with milk. Mmm, I like it with milk. The milk adds a little more body so I’m not getting that watery taste. It is still smooth and dark. Now it tastes a little bit more like earth. Damp earth. A good taste. It does remind me slightly of coffee the more I drink it, but you can still tell a flavor difference.

I don’t think I would reach for this a lot, but I would definelty have to try it again.

Now that my finals are over I have been relaxing a little bit. Then I got relaxed enough that I realized that I wanted tea! I had one last rosette of this left, so I brewed it up. It still tastes wonderful, but it is more drying than the one I have from Teavivre. I still get a heavier chocolate note from this one, but it is more like a dark chocolate note. I am learning! I will always love this one for introducing me to Yunnan Teas, but I am not sad to see it leave my stash. This means I can get more Yunnans!

Backlog #9 (and last one): I had a craving for this tea for several days before I gave in and made some. I don’t know what I did to this the first time I brewed it, but I can’t seem to get the rich buttery-taste back. I got the water temperature right this time though and it was smooth and tasted a little slick to my tongue. I have had this for going almost on a year now. Maybe it is just getting old. Either way, I am going to finish up these leaves (because they are tasty) and then look for another dragonwell to try.

Backlog #8: I was drinking this and all of the sudden it hit me! This tea tastes almost like the bubble tea I was drinking obsessively when the Chinese Club was selling it. The base is a medium body with just a touch of a caramel. Not much, but enough that I can tell it is sweeter than my Yunnan. I need to try this in a latte now and find out if my hunch is right.

Backlog #7: I am liking this more the more times I drink it. I can see how it can be an everyday cup of tea that goes well with meals. The flavor isn’t heavy enough to interfere with any food flavors, but it is enough to make it pleasant. The green tea also dries out my mouth just a little bit between bites so that my palate doesn’t get overwhelmed by flavors. This would go fantastic with sushi!