Earl Grey Supreme

Wow. Haven’t found an earl grey that I really like until now. This is excellent. Received a few sample bags with my Harney orders over time and finally tried this one.

Work – 11:00 AM

I received a single wrapped sachet of this as a sample with my last Harney & Sons order.

Wow, this is much better than I expected. The black tea blend is light but malty and flavorful with notes of raisin and brown sugar. And there’s a hint of hay from the white tea as well. I wish companies would give more details on which black teas are in a blend, or at least which origins. Generally I associate raisin with Assam teas, so I would guess the blend is at least partially Indian. But I am no expert, so who knows? ;)

Overall, this is a nice refined Earl Grey that’s still fairly traditional.

After reading some reviews I decided to try this tea. It is very good, but I’m not blown away. I like a strong bergamot hit and this one is rather mild to medium. It has a cedar wood aroma that is interesting, but doesn’t come through in the cup.

After drinking more of it, I realize it has very little bergamot. Far to little for me. There are other Earls I would rather drink.

Now my favorite Earl Grey, and I have tried many since it is my favorite blend of tea. I can always drink a cup of earl grey. My husband likes an occasional cup of tea as well, if he isn’t drinking a craft beer, then tea is a possibility. He asked me what this one was since it tasted distinctly better than any earl grey he had previously had. I must say, I agree. It is the best of all the ones I have tried. I will put this on my list for the next Harney & Sons, thankfully, I bought a pound bag, so I have enough for all the comings mornings :). I made two teapots of it this morning, sharing is hard :).

I am on quest…to find the best earl grey. A lovely combo of black tea and white silver tips. Mmmm….bergamot. Very smooth & comforting. This one is kept both at home & at my office.
This one is delicious but it still makes me wonder if there is yet a better one out there still. Teople, if you think you have found the best, please share!

Quite acceptable, Earl Grey Supreme. It does have some noticeable bergamot, but nothing compared to the Earl Grey Imperial.

Thanks to Harney and Sons for the sample bag. Not a bad tea but not one I fell in love with. You get a hint of citrus and it is not a weak blend but nothing I would replace my Irish Breakfast with. Not a bitter blend…I have yet to find a Harney tea that was bitter…but just your standard black IMO.

My favourite earl grey ever. I initially got the tea sachet version, but that led to over-caffeination on my part. After I found my perfect steeper (from David’s Tea), I bought a tin of loose leaf and never looked back.

Distinct notes of bergamot, this black tea literally warms the soul. It’s my go-to cheer up drink for those dreary mornings. I usually have it with some full cream milk.

So, I cleaned out a couple of my tea cabinets over the weekend and I made a pile of samples that I had either purchased or received free with various orders over the last 5-6 months. Yeah, I worked on finally cleaning out the hoard. Right now, I’m trying to work through 3-4 samples a day. I worked through two this morning prior to going to work. This was the second of the two and the one I liked best.

To prepare this tea, I steeped approximately 1 teaspoon of tea leaves in 8 ounces of 212 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt additional infusions. Again, I normally do not do so with flavored, small leaf, and/or non-Chinese black teas unless specifically recommended by the vendor or I just get curious and want to experiment a bit.

The infused liquor showed a dark amber in the cup. The nose was heavy on the bergamot, though I could also pick up traces of caramel, toast, and malt. In the mouth, the tea veered between delicate notes of cream, malt, honey, toast, caramel, and cocoa and heavy, tart notes of bergamot. The finish really emphasized the bergamot flavor.

Bought this tea at Indigo the other day because I have been eyeing it for a while now, and I am searching for a suitable replacement earl grey for my current stash of Teavana’s Earl Grey, which is way too astringent for me.

One thing I like about this tea is that it is very smooth: it has no astringency whatsoever, and even has a subtly sweet, vanilla-like texture to it. However, the bergamont flavouring is very subtle. It may be that I am used to more abrasive earl greys, but it’s actually a bit hard for me to pick out the bergamont in the flavour of the tea. The dry leaf aroma has more bergamont notes than the tea itself, I would say. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad aspect of the tea itself, but I myself prefer a much stronger in-your-face type earl grey blend that I can really enjoy the full range of flavours. However, I can see how this tea would appeal to some people who prefer a more toned-down and balanced blend.

Overall, it’s a very smooth and easy-going tea. I am really glad that the black tea base has no astringency, because that is one of my biggest issues with some of my other earl grey blends. I won’t mind drinking this until it’s finished, but I likely will no be re-purchasing. I will grab more of Paris instead!

Also, I am wondering if anyone has tried Citron Green from H&S? What are your thoughts about buying a tin of this tea as well?