Diamond Jubilee

Tea of the afternoon…..

Of course I could not resist this one. Part of the whole reason for my horrible experience trying to order online with a long standing English company over the holidays was for their Diamond Jubilee Tea. When Harney posted about their blend, I immediately ordered as I was getting painfully low on Paris. Of course, I am very pleased with this.

First of all, the tin is so elegant. I love the muted color tones they chose. Pale aqua, cream, gold, and a muted berry tone. Beautiful. I opened the tin and was immediately drawn to the scent of grapefruit paired with bergamot. The bergamot is light with the addition of sweet grapefruit. For those of you who are fans of Earl Grey Supreme, it is like EGS with a grapefruit kicker. Perfectly lovely. All I can think of that would make this tea more wonderful, is if it came in loose leaf. Please, Mr. Harney?

12 oz filtered water at boiling, 4 minutes, lightly sweetened.

Edit to add: I will no longer lament the loss of a refill of Countess Grey. This is so much better!

A friend came to tea at my house, got hooked on tea, and just had me order a huge box from Harney and Sons for her! Today it was my turn to be Invited to tea, as I delivered her new stash.
She mentioned that she is going out of town and is rather distressed because she needs her good tea but doesn’t have any teabags to take traveling.

Well, voila! I happened to bring this sample with me in case she wanted to try one more new thing.
This tea only comes in sachets right now, other than the loose leaf sample. If she liked it, we would simply order again and get her the tin of sachets!

This was absolutely delicious! I wonder if this is really just Earl Grey Supeme (my favorite Earl from Harney) with grapefruit flavor added? The bergamot is very light, as in VERY light. My friend and her daughters all loved it, and apparently so did her beagle, who kept trying to get the envelope out of my purse!

Is it too soon to start begging Michael Harney to make it available loose leaf? We will even accept it by the pound, right? And maybe people can order it by the ounce from the Millerton shop? Russel, can you make puppy dog eyes at him for us? Thanks!

Y-U-M! I am tasting a lemon drop Earl Grey Supreme. I know this is supposed to be grapefruit essence, but I taste a sweet, delightful lemony flavor plus all the flavors I know and love from EGS. I’m crazy for it! The extra bit of citrus definitely gives this tea pizazz, and the usual quality tea leaves from EGS are always a welcome treat. I love those silver tips!

I got the sachets for the beauteous tin, but if Harney starts offering this in the one pound bag size, that is the way I will purchase it. I have no complaints about the sachets, though.

I’m on my second steep, and it’s still flavorful and citrusy. I think I’ll make a third one and cool it for an afternoon iced tea.

I am neither a huge fan of Earl Grey nor of citrusy teas. However, despite both those things being present, this is hitting the spot today! The black tea predominates and the other stuff just attends the reception.

Another light and springy picker-upper for charter members of the I Hate January club.

Thank you to Em for sending this to me in my holiday swap package! This is one that I’ve had on my shopping list and I’ve wanted to try! So happy that I finally get to do just that!

I really like this … I love that the black tea base tastes very rich and flavorful, and the crisp, vibrant flavor of the citrus lightens this richness just enough. It’s a lovely marriage of flavors. I’m almost surprised that I like this as much as I do, because this is a bit more tart than I usually like a tea to be, but, it all just works together so well.

Thanks again, Em!

I received a bit of this from my swap with Josie Jade. Thanks a lot! This one is unexpectedly tasty! I’ve been having a lot of lackluster experiences with earl greys lately and I sort of thought of this tea as a fancied up earl. Not to mention that I’ve not been enjoying black teas so much lately in general. So I wasn’t expecting too much. I was totally surprised to like this one a lot.

First of all the dry tea is interesting. Black CTC leaves with a few long silver needle leaves scattered in. I didn’t know there would be white tea in this. The fresh citrusy scent is also super appealing. None of that fakey furniture polish smelling stuff that I had been drinking. It’s lighter than just bergamot, which I will attribute to the lemon and grapefruit. The tea itself is brisk and medium bodied. Just very enjoyable all around. I had wanted to try using coconut milk as a creamer in this tea, but it tastes so good plain that I didn’t want to add anything. But then I reasoned that I could add coconut milk to my first steep and have the second steep plain. And I have to say, coconut milk, while giving less of a thick texture, is perfectly tasty, if a bit distracting.

In conclusion, this is a blended black tea I would not mind having more of. Which is highly unusual for me as I prefer chinese blacks. British style teas tend to be interchangeable for me. I’m glad I’ve found the exception.

SimplyJenW spoils me, sending me so many tea samples. :) This was a surprise inclusion to my sample of the Dammann Fréres Earl Grey. Thanks for sending it along!

So despite the fact that I love a lot of Harney blends, and some of my favorite teas are Harney teas, I have never been too keen on their Earls. Way too light in the bergamot department, and at least the last time I had them I didn’t care for the bases. I’ve tried several different varieties to no avail, so we’ll see how this one fares! The dried leaf at least smells nice and citrusy.

Well I have to say that I definitely enjoy this one. It is definitely a lightly flavored tea, but the citrus is nice and fruity, and it seems to be a good blend of a faint bergamot with other citrus. I’m not sure if I just like this particular base, or if through my newfound appreciation of unflavored black teas I have come to enjoy the base they use for their Earls in general. Is it enough to make me revisit their other Earls? Perhaps, but like I said they’re all really delicately flavored and when I want an Earl, I want bergamot in a big way, so I doubt they’ll ever top my list in that department.

As SimplyJenW noted, the tin is beautiful! A keepsake for sure.

The floral notes when opening the tin are very powerful and the grapefruit smell is also very noticeable.

The tea is very much like a Lady Grey but with more citrus and a stronger floral component. If you don’t care for Lady Grey, chances are good that you won’t like this much. Lucky for me, I love Lady Grey. :)

My regret, also like SimplyJenW, is that this is only in sachets. Loose leaf would be great to try so I can portion my own and experiment. I guess I can do that anyway, just have to open the sachets, hm? :)

I didn’t sweeten but it would handle it well, I think.

I am still undecided if I will be adding this to my “always restock when low” list but I would not hesitate to recommend to friends.

My favorite Earl Grey thus far has been Harney’s Earl Grey Supreme so I was very interested in trying Diamond Jubilee which is a skillfully blended Earl Grey with a twist. This selection has a hint of grapefruit essence, which is a wonderful addition to the black teas and citrusy Bergamot. I initially steeped it for 4 minutes, but preferred it at 3 1/2 minutes. I liked it a lot warm, but also think it would be very nice cold, and I recommend it to Earl Grey lovers.

Thank you, Dinosara for this sample!

This is a lovely Earl Grey. The addition of grapefruit adds a brightness to the tea that I enjoy. All of the flavors are present but subtle. None of the flavors jump out at me. Instead, they all kind of quietly mingle together in a really delightful way. This one could certainly find a space on my pantry shelf.

I had to try this tea because it is an Earl Grey. But I was also interested because it is a tea that was created for Queen Elizabeth II. Made me wonder, what kind of tea does she drink?

The smell of the tea is much like a fruity Earl Grey. The dry tea seems to be quite strong on the bergamot. The dry tea is black tea, but there seems to be white tea leaves in there too (very light green tea leaves), its not listed as an ingredient though.

The brewed tea smells like a fruity (berry) Earl Grey. Very mild black base. Now I laughed for a bit after the first sip. Because to me, it tastes almost like fruit loops. And all I could think of was the Queen sitting at her breakfast table eating fruit loops. He he. The beginning of the sip truely does taste like fruit loops to me, its the berry flavour. There is also a bit of a lemon flavour, then at the end of the sip you can taste the Earl Grey bergamot. The bergamot is not too strong, but also not too weak. A very smooth tea.

Fruit loops! Ha ha!

I’m rather late to celebrate the Queen’s jubilee, but better late than never, right? Tasting one small cup of this and then passing the rest of the sample pack on to Mercuryhime for our book club swap. :) Even though I like Earl Greys, I think that I tend to not pick them as often because I feel like a lot of them taste the same, or are way too overdone on the bergamot. I can already tell that this Diamond Jubilee tea is different – the bergamot is very soft and it smells sweeter than a normal Earl Grey. I know there is grapefruit in this blend, so maybe that’s what causing the sweetness in the aroma. The flavor is a lot less intense than I expected, but in a good way. There is a light, sweet citrus flavor and finish. At the end it’s malty with a little bergamot. I’m not tasting any of the grapefruit, just an overall sweet citrusy flavor that is wonderful. I sure do hope Her Majesty drank some of this wonderful tea to celebrate her anniversary!

-Dry blend has medium black and brown tea leaves and twigs with fuzzy long green tea leaves.
-Dry leaves smell like sweet bergamot. Tea liquor aroma is of malty black tea and fresh lemony bergamot.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy medium orange brown color.
-Light sweet citrus flavor and finish. Malty bergamot aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. A delicate cup. Muted bergamot flavor with a hint of sweet citrus.

I do not often like to stray from ‘pure’ teas into the realm cross-bred or sweetened teas, but my reward circuit lights up when I read the word grapefruit – such a satisfying flavor in teas.

This is simply a majestic tea. I find it wholly unbelievable that any Earl Grey aficionado would not applaud this blend – the grapefruit addition makes it delectable. Steep it as any EG and you are all set to enjoy a good to the last drop treat.

Fortunately, this is available now in loose leaf, and I picked up 1/4 pound at H&S Soho location. Since this is a great tea to share, I wonder how much of that amount I’ll actually consume…

Thank you to JacquelineM for this lovely tea. It lived up to my expectations and is so delicious. I recently attended a quilting retreat and took along some teas to brew during the day. This was the favorite of everyone. We all loved the gentle bergamot with the grapefruit note. It’s a very aromatic tea and has a delightful smoothness. It is one of my favorites.

Bagged

Aroma when Dry: Dessert Sweet, fruity
After water is first poured: bergamot and grapefruit are noticeable
At end of steep:
Tea liquor:
first color: light tan
At end of steep: Same

Staple? No.
Time of day preferred: undecided, first tasting
Taste:
first notes: Light floral, followed by citrus.
As it cools? Notes blend, floral aftertaste heightens.
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No.
Lingers? Yes, the bergamot stays, the citrus blends and lingers as well.

Wow, dry the grapefruit is very upfront, along with some sort of…feminine floral scent. Very unlike other bergamot-y blends I’ve had, and quite welcome.

I knew when I began my EG-a-thon I’d have a hard time picking tops or dismissing many because it’s pretty much my go-to, favorite blend and always has been (bergamot is probably my favorite fragrance; I used to use it in all of my toiletries and whatnot). And well, it’s true. I’ve enjoyed all the variations I’ve tried, and this is no exception. I love grapefruit, so this is kind of a no brainer despite my usual unease around astringent teas. This is lovely, and would make a good springtime EG. That said, like a few stragglers around Steepster I’m one of those weirdos who isn’t nuts for the H&S tea base they seem to use for the EG and EGish blends. It’s not a dealbreaker here, because there’s other good stuff going on, but I wouldn’t opt for a standard version EG with this base. Also, Tower of London is still my favorite Harney daytime blend. But this is nice, especially the fragrance.