I received this tea from Angrboda. This was such a surprise! I have only had one other experience with Earl Grey and it wasn’t a pleasant one. The reason I haven’t put a lot of time or effort into sampling this kind of tea is that, although it smells wonderful, much of that is simply gone after you steep it. It may smell like fruit loops, but the stuff tastes like black tea.
With this tea the smell has an after aroma of something..tangy? bitter? I can’t exactly put my finger on it. I was actually lucky in that I checked here for some steeping parameters and mine didn’t turn out bitter or astringent at all. Again, this stuff tastes like the Ceylon base far more than the smell of the leaves should lead me to believe.
The taste is pretty good. If I had to say one black tea that I did like it would be Ceylon. It has that very bread-ish undertone that I’ve come to appreciate. The fruit loop taste is there, at the very very back end of the sip. It’s decent, but I guess maybe Earl Grey and me are just not meant for each other.
I guess the only thing I dislike about tasting this and some other black teas is its ability to make me a bit, hm, how to say this nicely, phlegmy? Something about them make my throat react strangely and really changes the flavor of the tea.
edit after letting this cool significantly the other flavors are starting to come out a bit more. I think that I somewhat enjoy this flavor. I think that next time I’ll try taking it with sugar or milk, something that I am not really used to doing.
