Earl Grey Cheesecake

Okay, I think 52teas is officially my favorite tea company ever. Not only do they make delicious, addictive teas, but I placed an order on Friday night and it arrived TODAY!!!

Alright, on to this tea. I love Earl Grey, in fact, the Earl is possibly THE tea that got me into the tea habit. This is a very strongly flavored Earl, but not off-putting at all. I am pleasantly surprised that the cheesecake is so noticeable and complimentary to the bergamot. I also like the addition of the Darjeeling which seems to add a bit extra. Wow, this stuff is good.

And the best part is that I have 2 other pouches to dig into tonight!

I drove to class just to find out it had been canceled, so I’ve got some extra time this morning in which to drink tea!

By now you are probably all aware of my love affair with cheesecake (if not, just look at a picture of my stomach and/or thighs and you’ll see just how much I enjoy the stuff) so I had to buy this. The smell of the dry leaf was very lemony and tangy. The steeped tea smells almost exactly the same as the leaf only slightly less strong. This seems promising!

I’d say there’s about a 3:1 ratio here of Earl Grey to cheesecake. The earl grey seems to be of a high quality, and it is delicious and full of great citrus (bergamot, actually) taste. The cheesecake is more of a lingering taste on the back of your tongue, but it is there. I don’t know how much of an actual cheesecake taste this is. It’s more of an Earl Grey Creme. However, this is still great. My mouth is quite happy.

OK… so you know I had to order this one – I mean, Earl Grey? Cheesecake? YUM!

The aroma reminds me a bit of an Earl Grey creme.

Nice! The flavor has a nice bergamot taste and I like how it pairs with the cheesecake. Of the several cheesecake flavors that I’ve tried from 52Teas/Zoomdweebies, I think that this is the strongest distinct cheesecake flavor.

The tea base is also quite nice… I like the touch of Darjeeling in there, it adds some interest in the flavor – it seems a little lighter and a little more complex. I like it… and really glad I ordered it so that I can spend a little more time with it!

I consider the fact that this came out the week of my birthday to have been fate. Earl Grey, my favorite tea, combined with cheesecake, one of the more delicious desserts. Of course I grabbed it.

I was surprised when my order came today although I guess it has been 4 business days. Still, the post office has not exactly been inspiring confidence of late.

Leaving the strawberry matcha for tomorrow, but I HAVE to try this tonight. Handily enough, I made slow cooker bread pudding last night, so I even have a dessert to try it with – not something that happens very often due to lack of self control (which leads to obsessive sweet eating when I buy them, which leads to lack of buying sweets)

The tea looks quite nice with yellow petal looking things which are probably…something. The smell was a bit worrying – it had an air of the kind of papery Earl Grey that I don’t really like and I can’t say as I was getting cheesecake as such. Still, I had faith!

The tea brewed up pretty dark and the scent remained that of papery Earl Grey, BUT when I tried it, while it WAS a very solid Earl Grey it was not papery at all (score!) in fact, considering I don’t currently HAVE an Earl Grey, if that had been all, I would have been fine with it since it is a VERY nice balance of Earl and Grey (as it were :P). However, the cheesecake, while faint, is definitely there, right around the edges, as you finish the sip. It’s like Earl Grey, Earl Grey, Earl Grey, Earl Grey…cheesecake! A nice little surprise at the end. I would assume that, as with the cheesecake chai, the addition of milk will bring out this flavor more. I am usually very against adding milk to Earl Grey, but…for cheesecake, sacrifices must be made.

I added some (almond) milk once I got halfway through the cup. Can’t say that I really noticed the cheesecake more…well maybe a little more but still more with the aftertaste – and the milk unfortunately brought out the latent paperiness of the Earl Grey…think I’ll be drinking this straight.

Rachel sent me a pot’s worth of this. Thanks, darling! I’ve been wanting to try it for a while now. I’m always looking for new Earl blends to try, and cheesecake? Anything with cheesecake is better (just found a recipe for red velvet cheesecake…that’s definitely going to be made soon!).

This is definitely a great Earl blend. Smooth, creamy, strong on the bergamot. Yum!!

I knew going in with this one that it would be an offshot for me to like it. It was almost a tea-dare for me to try it.

And yeah, I got burnt lemon ass. No, I don’t mean lemongrass. Dry and brewed the smell almost turned my stomach and now . . . not so much.

A lonely pouch of Earl Grey Cheesecake had been chilling in my tea cupboard for quite some time. Frank’s post earlier this week on how to make a pitcher of iced tea brought this little pouch out of hiding. I rarely make freshly brewed iced tea, what can I say, just love it hot generally. And the idea of brewing a whole ounce of one of my favorites just freaks me out. But, its humid here in Kansas this week. And sadly I didn’t love the Earl Grey Cheesecake hot, so I thought, what the heck, live a little. ;) So glad that I did! It’s creamy and kinda smoky, and somehow I am tasting the “cheesecake” more in this version. Wow, you might just make an iced tea convert out of me yet, Frank! I actually think I prefer this tea iced. I suppose this makes sense, after all, who eats cheesecake hot?

Although I am sure this would be good to someone that just loves Earl grey and it isn’t that I don’t like it I just like Earl grey that is less bold. This one is way too strong for me and I don’t taste cheesecake of anything creamy like that. It did however, taste better with pizza which is why I gave it more points than normally.

To finish off Day 1 of my 52teas/mysweethoneybush/manteas week-end I chose an obvious dessert tea that I’ve enjoyed a number of times before ..

This is an incredibly strong perfumed tea, so much so that it can actually turn a lot of people I’ve offered it to off .. And I’m not talking just your regular Earl Grey Bergamot either, this is full on floral, plus Bergamot, plus Lemon, plus …. ?? I’m really struggling to put my finger on what else I can smell, but I’d say it’s easily the strongest scented tea I have in my cupboard .. And I love it!

The flavour is smoooooooth, rich, complex, creamy, and very much enhanced by the addition of just a little milk & sugar .. The second brew is even more delightful as it has less of the over-powering fragrance that detracts from the flavour, so I tend to quickly drink the first cup and linger on the second .. As I am right now :D

This might sound strange but I think I can detect some Rose just as I swallow ?! Or at least I’m getting a hint of some flavour profile that’s also in my favourite Rose Tea, and it’s most obvious when the cup is lukewarm to coolish – also just like it is in my fav China Rose blend!

So that’s how I like this best; 2nd brew, a little bit milky, a little bit sweet, and a fraction past the lukewarm stage (cool but not chilled) .. This is the perfect tea to finish off my lazy rainy Saturday, and I will indeed be sad when I finish my pouch of it :(

Hm. I think I may have made this too strong.

I was so excited to try the Earl Grey Cheesecake. It’s the tea that convinced me to place my first 52 Teas order.

I thought I liked lots of emphasis on bergamot in Earl Greys. But, either I’m wrong or did something questionable with this. It came out pretty bitter and the bergamot was harsh. I didn’t even finish it!

I think I might need to completely disregard the suggested paramaters and play around with it. I will leave the rating till next time.

. . . ew.

Burnt, bitter, no hint of creaminess or cheesecake. Just a very poor, very fake-tasting Earl experience.