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In 1833, Earl Grey, the Earl of Howick Hall, at that time British Prime Minister, suspended the price monopoly which the East India Company had over the tea trade with China. The originally pure Chinese tea was lightly flavored with bergamot oil. This additional fragrance, which was provided by the Chinese, was intended to protect the tea from the taste of mold and tar which could arise from the long voyage at sea to royal England. Thus, this tea received its name!
Earl Grey’s usually don’t excite me because EVERYONE and their brother has one…BUT…this is one quite good! Here is what I found notable about this specific EG!!!
It’s a STRONG Black Tea…I love that about it!
The floral is stronger than the bergamot/citrus type flavors which I am ‘ok’ with.
BUT…my favorite part is the STRONG Black Tea! Thumbs up for that! Nice tea, Joy!!!
Yay! I love Earl Grey! I was so excited to open the enormous box sent to me from TeaEqualsBliss and to find this Earl Grey amongst its contents. This is a delightful Earl Grey, very flavorful, brisk, with a nice tangy bergamot flavor that lingers nicely in the aftertaste.
Delicious! It’s the first tea that I’ve tried from Joy’s Teaspoon, and I’m very happy with this one – an AWESOME Earl Grey! I hope that the rest of my Joy’s Teaspoon experiences are as wonderful as this one.
I got a package of free samples from Joy’s Teaspoon, which is totally awesome! And as I am on my quest for the perfect Earl Grey, I of course had to request theirs to try. I feel like I’ve been getting all kinds of fancy Earl Greys lately, and this one is just a pure, simple, straight up Earl Grey.
It certainly has a strong bergamot smell in the dry leaves, and the brewed tea is quite nice! At first I was concerned about bitterness, which I am so sensative to, and thought maybe I’d have to brew at a slightly lower temperature next time, but as I am drinking the flavors have sorted themselves out into the astringent, strong, but not bitter bergamot, and a bold black tea with a lot of body and depth of flavor. This is quite a nice Earl Grey!
Earl Greys are like…well…opinions. (And I’m not gonna say what opinions are like.) Point is, everyone has one, but not everyone has one that works. Some are too malty, some are too sour, and some just don’t work on either front. This is the most balanced Earl I have tried to date. It’s more citrus than sour, the black tea base never embitters and rarely feels dry, and the key word here is “balance”. On the tightrope of taste, this nails the bottle with a well-placed lightning bolt. I’ve had a LOT of Earl Greys, and I thought I was Earl Grey’d out ’til I had this. Glad to be proven palate-ly wrong.
Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/01/14/review-joy%E2%80%99s-teaspoon-earl-grey/
Backlog from this morning!!
Thanks to Naomi at Joy’s Teaspoon for this sample, and the great personality! :-) Another perfect Earl Grey!! YAY!!! First off, let me say this now that I have had two loose leaf Earl Greys: I WILL NEVER DRINK BAGGED EARL GREY AGAIN. EVER. IF I DO, I’LL HAVE A SUPER GREAT REASON, OTHER THAN THAT, I’VE GONE CRAZY! Ok, that’s out.
Smell: Dry, in the bag. YUMMY EARL GREY CITRUSY WONDERFULNESS! I love Earl Grey! I love it! Steeping it’s about the same, just muted slightly. Nice dark color.
Taste: Ahh, nice and smooth, the wonderful flavor is just there and good and I love it! It’s a bit sharper than the other Earl Grey I had, but it’s not a bad bitter, it’s a light one, and it is that bitter I find in Earl Grey anyway, but it’s well done. Both this EG and Fusion Tea Room’s EG I LOVE, and I just can’t pick one. Yummy yummy yummy YUMMY!
Doing a comparison between this and Harney and Sons Earl Grey Supreme. Dry, I think I like the smell of this one better; it’s gentler and sweeter. The H&S dry hits you over the head with bergamot.
Brewed, they look identical, a lovely ruby hue. The Joy’s continues to smell mellower, though the aroma of the H&S has backed off a bit now. The flavors match the smell impressions; Joy’s is gentler, softer, but still full of flavor. The H&S isn’t bad at all, but in the context of such immediate comparison it comes off as far more bitter, though still full of nuance. The Joy’s is easy and enjoyable to take straight whereas the H&S can handle a healthy splash of milk. This leaves me conflicted because I tend to add milk to my afternoon Earl Grey just out of habit, so while I like the Joy’s more here the H&S might be more appropriate for how I tend to use EGs. Hm…
ok
