Thé des Lords

Uggghhh… will to stay awake flagging… Although it’s totally that situation where I am exhausted and totally wiped because my body thinks it’s 2:30am, but I did sleep a lot last night and yesterday so I don’t know if I could even really fall asleep. And my contacts are doing that “it’s late and you should go to sleep so we’re going to dry out an make it impossible for you to see” thing that they like to do. Oh, 12hr jetlag is the worst.

I decided to delve into my Le Palais des Thes gift set, which arrived while I was away in China. I’ve wanted to try Le Palais des Thes for a while now because I love Dammann Freres and a lot of French blends, which tend to be relatively complex with lots of flavors going on. I’ve also enjoyed the Kusmi teas I’ve tried, though I’m not a big fan of Mariage Freres because I don’t like the black base blend they use, so where does this company fall? We shall see! I wanted a black tea, which narrows it down because there seem to be not as many blacks as greens in there, but most of the others didn’t really speak to me today. I decided to try this “powerful yet refined Earl Grey” as they put it on the insert. The dry leaf certainly smells bergamotty, so hopefully it will be powerful enough to keep me awake.

I steeped this at 205°F since that’s what they recommend, and if a company recommends a slightly lower temp for their blacks I know I should follow it since blacks can go too strong and bitter for me easily. The black tea base comes out to play a bit more in the aroma. It’s nice, though I can’t quite place it. Familiar but not familiar enough for me to be able to identify it. Definitely Chinese and not a Ceylon or Assam, though. The bergamot is there but it’s playing back up, bright and citrusy. The flavors are good, a nice balance of the base and the bergamot. This is pretty high on the bergameter, but the base doesn’t get lost in the process. First notes are definitely bright bergamot, and then the warm, slightly bready, slightly malty black tea base comes out. The bergamot in this one is a bit on the harsher side, almost getting that pithy bitterness as it cools, so if you’re not a bergamot fan I could see how this could come off poorly. A strong bergamot is very difficult to pull off perfectly, and this tea does a pretty good job of it, but it’s not going to replace my Todd & Holland any time soon. The really promising part of this tea is that the base is very well done, so I’m looking forward to trying their other blends.

Truthfully I’m not a big fan of Earl Grey type teas and this one is not an exception, but it came in my Palais de Thes gift set. You should probably take this review with a grain of salt because it comes from someone who is already biased. I found the bergamot to be very strong and makes the black tea base kind of bitter and soapy tasting. I added soymilk and that made it better but this is not something I would purchase. My boyfriend, who likes E.G., thought this was good.

This is an amazing Earl Grey. Perhaps not my favorite, I think that the Earl Grey Excelsior still holds that title, but this one deserves high marks. This one does have mixed reviews, and I think that is because there are many who just are not fond of Earl Grey (how could that possibly be? This tea drinker doesn’t get it. I know that every palate is as individual as the person who possesses it … but, still) and this is truly an Earl Grey. The bergamot is clear and focused, and tastes crisply citrus-y with its lovely tangy quality. The slight tongue-tingly sensation can come off as a bit perfume-ish, because that was my initial reaction, but now as I’m more than halfway through the cup, I realize that this is more of the tart-tangy taste of the bergamot, and not so much perfume.

A really, really good Earl Grey.

Delicious. A fragrant version of Earl Grey. I’ll be buying more of this.

A very tannic tea, but no bitterness. The bergamot and saffron go a long way in smoothing it out. A pleasant and strong breakfast tea, but it does leave a slight dry aftertaste.

This earl grey has probably spoiled me for most of the others I have tasted thanks to its intense Calabrian bergamot. I will take a fresh bag of this and just open it once in a while to sniff it. Meanwhile, the tea itself, is probably among the most heavily bergamot earl greys I have tried (the only stronger one’s I had use a gross synthetic flavoring). It is a great waker-upper, and nice with milk, and honey.

This is the second tea from Palais des Thes that I review, and again it’s the same perfume taste, just lighter. This time, I’m not a fan and don’t like that perfume taste anymore. If I taste more perfume from this producer, I will not buy from them again.

Furthermore… and I can’t believe I’m saying this:
This tea make my nose snotty. Yes, as in mucus.

No milk, no sugar. It still makes me snotty.

Delicious, fresh but full… hands down favorite earl grey ever tasted.