Earl Grey Cream

Trying this out today courtesy of SimplyJenW. Dry, this is a very appealing black tea with blue flowers mixed in. Steeped it delivers as promised. A fair balance of Bergamot and cream. I really like the combination. For me, the Bergamot is there at the beginning and end of the sip with the cream in the center, like an Oreo cookie. It is an interesting affect.
Thanks SimplyJenW, I am very glad to have tried this.

For technicalities, this came from EnglishTeaStore.com, and is called Earl Grey Cream – Metro (Metropolitan) Blend. Recommended by SimplyJenW (thank you!).

This is the 3rd or 4th testing of this tea, and this morning I decided to go back to the basics of only using a T. of honey to properly test. I find that most Earl Grey’s benefit from some cream/milk and will add that shortly : )

There is a slight (only slight) bitterness to this tea, when only sweetened. That should disappear with added cream. The bergamot is on the light side of my preferences, but I like a lot to give it a creamsicle effect. There is a creamy feeling to the tea, but not overly so. Overall a very good Earl Grey Cream (but still prefer Upton’s). I’m off to add some cream now : )

I got this tea from Angelina’s just to see if it was anything close to Teavana’s. I am fairly certain that it is from Metro, as the owner of Angelina’s did say on his website that Metro was one of his suppliers. I so appreciate the honesty in that! In my opinion, vendors should be upfront with the source of their tea unless they are adding something to it. Otherwise, they are essentially just a repackager, which there is not anything wrong with that if you let your customers know. And those who are avid drinkers in the tea world can usually figure out where something came from.

Onto the tea. Yep. Not that much different from the tea I got from Teavana. The surprising thing….the tea from Angelina’s looked fresher. The cornflowers in my Teavana tea were very faded compared to the sample I got from Angelina’s. Hmmmmm. I am finding fewer reasons to go to Teavana……

I’m an EG newbie, so I don’t feel right rating these just yet. This one from Metro Tea smelled delicious – citrusy and bright – but the taste! Lots of fruit loopy and manly. This next sentence will make me sound like a weirdo, I know, but the EG Cream smelled like a man – like cologne. And very much not in a good way. I don’t like heavy cologne on men; I call it “Pimp Diesel.” So while this one is tasty and hearty, it has a certain Pimp Diesel quality to it.

Maybe I oversteeped. Maybe I’m completely ignorant about EG. OK, actually I am. But I need to conquer this taste. Help me out, teasters!

Follow my EG adventures:
http://keenteathyme.blogspot.com/2011/04/earl-grey-part-deux.html

Excellent Earl Grey Cream. Definitely steep longer than recommended to get more bergamot and cream flavors.

Definitely not for purists of the Earl, this one gets the “Royal” pardon. A time-tested favorite mellowed to a creamy afternoon echo. While on the softer side, it still holds up pretty well. I would recommend brewing just a smidge longer, or using more than one heaping teaspoon per cup when brewing to punch up the strength. To me the cream guides this flavor more into the “dessert teas” even without any cream or sugar.