75

Shared a pot of this with my roommate tonight, in another advent calendar tea sipdown! There was enough leaf leaf (4.5 tsp or thereabouts) for two large mugs each, which we both thoroughly enjoyed.

To me, this tea smells primarily like a light earl grey, but the flavour is oh so delicious. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that the tea contained creamer and sweetener, just like in the good old days when my best friend and I used to go through pot after pot of heavily sugared/creamed earl grey, spending the night playing games and laughing. Clearly this is a less sinful version! Unlike straight earl greys, the creaminess of this tea softens the bergamot and eliminates any bitterness/astringency coming from the black tea base. A perfect cup (although, perhaps not the best thing to drink immediately prior to sleeping!)

ETA: Re-steeped the infuser in a single mug of tea for ~3.5 minutes, and ended up with a really delicious, surprisingly not too strong cup of tea. Yum! I think I no longer have any more earl grey creams in my stash :‘( (Unless… there’s one in my box from LiberTEAS?! I will have to check ASAP!)

ETA again: Third infusion is as far as this one went. At this point, it’s less like an earl grey, and more like a weak black tea. Still ok, but I’m drinking this because it’s an earl grey cream, and now it is much less so. Oh well, felt bad about throwing so many leaves away without at least attempting some additional infusions!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
CHAroma

You make every tea sound amazing!

Sassenach

Thanks for adding additional infusion notes! Very helpful!

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Comments

CHAroma

You make every tea sound amazing!

Sassenach

Thanks for adding additional infusion notes! Very helpful!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

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Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

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