Smelling the loose tea was confusing. It looks exactly like the earl grey bravo, but the smell is a bit off — not bad, just vanilla and cream I suppose. I haven’t really been exposed to cream tea until last night, and I don’t know if I like it much.
The first infusion had this strange smoothness to the taste that contrasted with the bitter citrus of the bergamot and made it POP. I couldn’t really taste vanilla or cream, but I could smell the vanilla. At first, I just thought the tea was more astringent than the earl grey bravo, but realized that it was the bergamot when my mouth didn’t get that funny dryness that astringent tea causes.
The second infusion wasn’t very flavorful. I only steeped it for four minutes, so I’ll have to try a longer steeping time. All in all, the second infusion was okay by the end. As it cooled I got a hint of citrus and vanilla.
All in all, it was okay. I wasn’t prepared for how big the bergamot was going to be in the first infusion, but I like bergamot, so it wasn’t a big deal. If I can find a proper steeping time for a second infusion, I could see this becoming a “sometime in the morning” tea to replace my usual earl grey if I need something different.
