Cream Earl Grey

I’ve been drinking a lot of stovetop Chai recently, and I started wondering if you could make other teas the same way to achieve a latte effect without the steaming. I didn’t bring a whole lot of teas to my parents’ house but thankfully my mom has this in her cupboard—though I could have sworn I logged it before, I apparently didn’t so I suppose this is the first time!

1/2 a cup water, 1 1/2 cups 2% milk, a generous spoonful of sugar, 1 heaping tablespoon Cream Earl Grey, simmered in a saucepan for 10 minutes. I always worry about black bases getting bitter this way but they never do! Maybe because the heat is so low? The resulting concoction is divine, like the best London Fog in the world only, well, better! Rich, thick, creamy and totally blissful.

This tea non-latte style is one of my favorite EGCs, creamier than many but also with a particularly strong bergamot kick so it is still definitely an earl grey.

Back to the stovetop latte part: I don’t think I’m ever going to prepare EG in any other way than this! It’s just… so good. Though usually I use whole milk so I’d change the water to milk ratio to 1/1. But for 2% I find I need to use a heavy hand or it’s just… watery.

I like this one! My order from NMTC came in today – three cream teas. This one, their Vanilla Cream, and a sample of their Black Jasmine Cream. That one interests me the most, but the EGC just smelled so good!

Nice black base, not astringent. A bit of agave, a bit of milk. Not quite enough bergamot for my taste, but it’s still good. Ended up adding /too/ much agave, made it too sweet, but still finished the pot. I don’t regret buying 2oz of this!

I must admit that earl grey teas are not my favorite. My experience with them is that they’ve been a little bit too bitter, drying and sharp. My friend did give me a nice earl grey from The Tea Spot and I enjoyed that whole tin. I also have sipped Teavana’s earl grey cream, but I found myself wanting a bit more cream.

I know that some love earl grey cream teas so much.. and after seeing the potential of Teavana’s blend, I thought it was time to try more! This tea smells very much like a typical earl grey, but with the addition of something else… milk perhaps?

Sipping… ah.. that signature bergamot taste. This one is very smooth, though and has somewhat of a creamy finish. The cream doesn’t overwhelm the blend, but adds just a hint of softness. It’s delicious even though I would like more soft, lovely cream! I will definitely finish the rest of my bag, but I’m still on the hunt for the creamiest earl grey out there!

I love Earl Grey and this is my first cream. I like the addition of vanilla in the flavors. It’s very smooth and bergamot-y.

I like the suggestion of making a London Fog. I may have to try that next. It is crazy foggy here, so it would be fitting.

I usually have this tea with milk but today I made a cup before finding out we were out of milk so I had it was just a little sugar. It’s still a good cup of tea, creamy and the bergamot is more noticeable without the milk so I might keep drinking it without milk because I love bergamot.

Beginning to feel like I need to do an earl grey plot map or something, with creaminess as one axis and bergamot/floral character as another maybe. If I could do it in 3D that’d be even better, ‘cause there’s so many other possible dimensions…smokiness, briskness, fruitiness. My goodness.

But anyway, if I were to do that, Della Terra’s would be much further to the creamy side than this one. This has more of the classic earl grey character—the taste of smooth black tea and floral notes. There is some vanilla, but it’s with a much lighter hand. It’s not as like-eating-ice-cream dessert-rich as Della Terra’s. And it’s not as harsh as Harney and Son’s. It smells fantastic both dry and in the cup. It’s very…smack dab in the middle of everything, relative to all of the others I’ve tried. No one element is way far out there with everything else receding. Balanced, I guess. The floral aroma is particularly vivid and lovely, I must say. There’s some tannin and astringency build-up as I finish the cup (but I think I might’ve used slightly too much tea leaf, granted). I could definitely drink this again with pleasure. It’s a good afternoon earl grey.