Earl Grey

On the heels of the Mariage Freres Earl Grey Imperial, which I’m pretty close now to drinking my way through, the Kusmi seemed at first a welcome respite. In the sample tin, the fragrance is of bergamot, but also of a strong spicey smell I can’t identify. Pepper maybe. Yeah, I think that’s it. The spicy smell is more prominent than the bergamot in the smell of the dry leaves.

Steeping brings out the aroma of the tea more than the spice or the bergamot. The pepperiness would suggest Yunnan, but apart from that it smells quite like the aroma I associate with Keemuns (no smoke, but there’s a baked goods quality to it). Liquor is a dark amber, sort of a brandy color. I had high hopes that this would be a nice, mildly bergamot flavored, Earl Grey.

But alas. The flavor is pretty interesting. But it’s not what I’d expect from an Earl Grey, even one that is relatively easy on the bergamot. To my tastebuds it has a stronger flavor of pepper than of bergamot. I do get a shadow of citrus, but it’s not readily identifiable as bergamot.

It’s not bad, it’s just not what I am looking for in an Earl Grey. If I stand back and judge it without the Earl Grey label, it’s still not something I could see myself picking to drink over other blends. In the end, I’m having to rate it lower than the Mariage Freres because at least the Mariage Freres, as much as it is not a favorite, is definitely an Earl Grey.

When you open the tin it smells great, on the cup the story is very different. It doesn’t smell or taste like Earl Grey. A very light and pale Bergamot flavour at the end of a sip (if you are attentive and looking for it). Not an awful tea, but for those who enjoy a strong Earl Grey full of aroma and flavour this is not the tea.

If you look at the ingredients on the side of the cannister of many of the Kusmi flavored black tea blends you may be surprised to note that a large number of them read as “Earl Grey” + some additional ingredients. I’m no expert, but I take this to mean that Kusmi likes to use their Earl Grey as a base for many of their blends. Given that I love Earl Grey and I also love Kusmi teas I ordered this with high expectations. I’m sad to say this was a big letdown. Its not a bad Earl Grey, its just that the bergamot is so mild you can barely taste it. In fact to my palate this tea came across as almost bland! I suppose this is to be expected of Kusmi, because they seldom make tea with overpowering flavors, I just found it disappointing. Because of its mediocrity (but non-badness) I have to rate this one right down the middle.

Earl Grey…light on the bergamot! It’s kind of tasty but not really memorable.

Oh no I didn’t….But I did. I poured some of that widely hated, and widely loved, Earl Grey tea into my cup.

I always have some Earl Grey in my cupborad in case someone would ask for it. Today I felt like trying something “new”. And since I havn’t had Earl Grey for ages, I took this out.
Like many others, I don’t cherish Earl Grey as much as I should. I blame my mother, she forced this tea into me whenever I was sick. But this blend of tea is the reason that tea became so popular, so I can’t hate it. You have to be a little gratefull in life.

The smell isn’t impressive. Maybe the tea itself is too old?
Good thing noone ever asked for it then. I would hate to serve a bad tea.
Can’t comment this tea, sorry. I will return, when I have bought some new ;)

While it’s true that this Earl Grey is light on bergamot, it certainly doesn’t make it a bad blend. It’s my favourite Earl Grey, as it is a good easy to drink and light blend for tea time (with biscuits or cakes), but it retains the typical flavour of an Earl Grey. Other Earl Grey blends that I have tried tend to have too much bergamot oil, which tastes soapy or artificial.

My last sample teabag from the Kusmi order. Given the indignity of the office breakroom treatment – a packet of splenda and a tub of liquid Coffeemate. It tolerates that with a quiet dignity. There’s not a lot of bergamot, but for this treatment, it’s ok – strong earl greys don’t really taste that good to me when I don’t have actual half & half and real sugar or honey. I think I might have to put this on my shopping list and get a tin when I finally run out of all the other earl greys I have. That might take awhile though. Possibly decades. I have a lot of earl grey.