Earl Grey Lavender

I had been saving this tea for a day off, and I’m excited to try it. First of all, I didn’t realize this was going to be an Earl Grey cream. But I knew after one sniff. It’s like they toned down the vanilla from their Earl Grey Moonlight. I was sort of expecting something like Revolution’s Earl Grey, but this seems promising, too.

Upon closer look of the leaf, I realized that this is a rather extravagant tea as far as Adagio’s flavored blends go. I see lots of pretty lavender buds with wispy blue cornflowers. It’s beautiful and promises to be more complex than what I’ve been sipping lately.

It brews up dark and the scent is mostly lemon and lavender. The flavor is just as complex as I had been hoping for. Lavender, bergamot, vanilla, Ceylon, lemon. It’s a refined harmony of “clean” flavors and strong enough to be bracing on a cold morning. I think I’ve found a new favorite.

One of my tea friends recently had a birthday. She’s an Earl Grey fiend, so I purchased a bunch of EG samplers for her, from Adagio and other places.

I decided to try EG Lavender by Adagio for myself. I’ve tried other EG Lavender varieties – such as Metro Teas – and enjoyed the cuppas. I call EG Lavender the EG Gateway. I’ll get there some day, folks.

But not with this variety. This doesn’t taste anything like lavender! It brews up syrupy sweet – meaning it smells like syrup. And not in the way that the awesome Pancake Breakfast from 52teas does (which is my latest obsession). It’s bizarre. I’m going to try to brew it w/less time, maybe that will help.

Honestly, I’m a little embarrassed that I trusted Adagio’s EGs for a b-day present.

See more on my quest for EG on my blog: keenteathyme.blogspot.com

Okay, so Earl Grey Lavender, now. It has a dark prune juice, sherry kind of liquor going on. The smell is almost all vanilla, lavender and bergamot(in that order). And…right off the bat I can tell this is going to be too sweet. I, of course, add no sugar or milk and am referring strictly to the flavor, in terms of sweetness.
I’m taking the first sip now…
…
So yeah, I do not like lavender teas, apparently. Or to be more precise, I do not like this one. It has a Granny-perfume thing going on, that will just not let my tongue enjoy the vanilla earl grey notes. The lavender does add something in that I’m thinking someone may have spilled liquid hand soap in my Earl Grey.

If you like Lavender teas, I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time reading this as it probably does not affect you. If you think you might like Lavender teas, hell, you actually might. Do I like Lavender teas? I don’t know. It actually is kind of growing on me with each sip, and I do actually love lavender lemonade(I have a bakery on a street in my town that makes it.)

But I still half-feel that lavender should remain mostly in the domain of scents and not flavors. I.e. if you have to make a Lavender EG, this is far too much damn lavender.

Earl Grey Lavender has always been one my favorite teas & this was just perfect. The bag upon opening had the most divinely sweet floral scent. It was full of little lavender buds and I couldn’t wait to make myself a cup.

It is sweet, smooth, creamy and delicious. While this variety of tea is something I always want to have on hand, Adagio’s version is definitely going to be my go-to from now on. Even my 3 year old loves when I brew this up- he always asks me to smell it and says “mmm that’s a really good smelling teak!” (can’t convince him that there’s no K at the end of the word tea :P)

I was expecting earl grey with a lavender flourish. What I got was a terrible cup of over-syrup’d coffee. I do not know why, but the ingredients here were more than lavender, black tea, and bergamot oil.

What was even worse was I bought this for my (at the time) girlfriend, who had previously mentioned she enjoyed a lavender earl grey from World Tea Company. I also accidentally overnight-ed it, doubling the cost of the tea.

Adagio has always been hit or miss. Some of their teas are excellent, and some are absolutely no good.

Any suggestions on a decent earl grey lavender?