Dorian Grey Blend Loose Leaf Tea

This tea is the reason I ended up placing an order at English Tea Store, since I seem unable to resist teas with clever literature references in the name. Not that there’s a big market for that, but come on… Dorian Grey! A tea of fleeing beauty! Their “samples” are a full ounce so I ended up with quite a bit of a ton of different teas (I got 3 “sample packs”), but this is the one I’ve been wanting to try the most. It’s too hot for tea, really, but today that isn’t going to stop me!

I love earl grey and pretty much any variation of it (as long as it’s not, like, rooibos banana earl grey) but I have yet to have one with caramel. I was worried this would be a bit dessert-y instead of a nice afternoon tea, but the caramel is pretty light here. Sometimes caramel teas can get a little heavy, but the taste is quite soft and almost airy here. I found the same thing true of their chocolate mint—sweet teas, but not enough to push them into dessert territory. This looks like a very floral blend with tons of whole dried flowers (it’s so pretty!) but the floral tones are also quite soft and subtle. The bergamot is also there of course, since it is an earl grey after all! And the base is nice and malty, but not too overpowering and with no bitterness or astringency.

This strikes me as a very romantic cup, both because of the name and the wonderful melding of flavors. Soft, subtle, gentle, and warming. Definitely one of the best earl greys I’ve tried!

This is another that comes to me from my recent swap with Alphakitty. Thanks so much! Of course I love Earl Greys in many forms, so I was excited to try this one that is supposed to be Earl Grey and caramel.

This is rather delightful! Really nice, citrusy bergamot, definitely a nice Earl base to the tea, but then the addition of caramel is just lovely. Creamy and perfectly balanced. This reminds me of another tea but I can’t think of any other caramel Earl Grey that I’ve tried. There are enough flavors going on here that I didn’t notice the black tea base one way or another, which is a plus because at least I wasn’t bored with it. It supported, it contributed, but it wasn’t the star, and that’s ok, it still held up it’s end of the bargain. This is quite a delicious tea, thanks for sharing it with me Alphakitty!

This is kind of neat! A nice Earl Grey, not too heavy, the definite taste of caramel that doesn’t come off too sweet, and pretty flower petals mixed with the leaf.

I believe there is enough to make one more cup so I am going to try it with a 4 min steep too and see if that boosts the bergamot a bit more. It’s definitely tasty as is, but I think if it was just a tad bit stronger, I’d like it even more.

This was definitely a good afternoon tea as I have wanted to fall asleep all day for no reason.

Thanks so much for including this one in the traveling teabox, Alphakitty! I’m always ready to try any Earl Greys. There really should be more literary teas. What pairs better than books & tea? This one is interesting to look at with the purple bluish flowers. There is a nice sweet, creamy bergamot flavor. I didn’t think there was much caramel flavor, but maybe it was just this cup. The steep color looked like a deep caramel though. I love this one! It’s a great mix of things.

This has a smooth black base and really balanced blend of bergamot and caramel. It is a nice alternative to the straight bergamot Earl Greys. I think the name is clever as well. A quality tea overall. Thanks Alphakitty for this sample :-)

Thanks to Alphakitty for a ‘surprise’ sample of this blend in a recent swap we did. It was one that she snuck in there on my and I think I might be quite happy she did.

So I guess, Dorian Grey is Earl Grey’s second cousin twice removed from his mothers side or something like that!

Dry it has a very appealing and exotic fruity/floral smell with a touch of creaminess to it. I immediately liked the smell of it so I scooped out a portion to brew for after I had finished my cup of freshly brewed Citron Oolong. I was so happy about a totally new tea I almost wanted to pour my cup out and brew it immediately, but that would have been sacrilegious!

Steeped it takes on your classic Earl Gray aroma, but with a bit more…I still get a faint presence of that fruity/floral aroma and the creaminess seems a touch more pronounced. It brews into a nice clean and clear dark brown tea.

I really enjoy the flavor profile of this tea, but nowhere in the mix do I taste caramel which is a slight shame I was really looking forward to that, I naturally always add a tsp of sugar into my tea’s this one seems overly sweet now making me think it probably didn’t need any, which is honestly rare for me.

Overall this tea is awesome, only problem is now I have yet another company to look at for tea’s. I am going to have to liquidate some of the DAVIDsTEA I have in order to make room! This is certainly one of the best or possibly the best black tea based Earl Gray I have has so far, I will have to compare against Cream of Earl Gray from Davids which has been holding my #1 spot for Black Earl Gray’s.

This is a lovely tea. Good for any time of the day. Very mild