Aged Earl Grey

I’m backtracking to Friday evening.
My birthday was almost a month ago, & Tony & I take each other out for dinner for our birthdays. His was in Dec (sag) & he chose Nobu’s, which is obviously a Japanese restaurant. Tony doesn’t really like sushi, but he’ll eat spider roll & calif roll. I DO like some sushi, & we both like tempura, miso soup, & of course, Matcha!

So for my Bday dinner (almost a month late, we’ve both been really busy!), we had a gift certificate from his 2 kids for $50 off at The Sidney Street Cafe, which is considered one of the top restaurants in St Louis. http://www.sidneystreetcafe.com
It’s not the kind of place we usually eat, but they use a lot of locally raised products & the pictures are awesome! Once I explained my food allergies/sensitivies (dairy, gluten, preservatives, etc) to the waiter we settled on filet béarnaise, except I got roasted root veggies instead of mashed potatoes (which contained cream). There was butter in the sauce, but I can get away with that once in awhile. Tony had the Steak Wasabi.

What irritates me about places like this is you pay high dollar for the food, you’re picturing a surf & turf plate, & then reality strikes: a large plate, with a steak that is 2" wide in each direction & 2" tall. It was split across the center & there was a thin layer of lobster sandwiched in there. There was 1/2 cup or so of roasted brussells & a tureen with about the same amount of roasted root veggies. The sauce was drizzled artfully. It was a beautiful plate, but I think my exact words to Tony were, “I’m gonna be hungrier when we leave than I was when I got here.” We both laughed :)

Needless to say, it was awesome! Every bite was pure heaven. That steak may have been small, but it was the tenderest, most perfectly cooked, most flavorful steak ever (well…I can think of 3 exceptions to that, actually). In spite of the fact that I would have liked to have doubled the amount on my plate, the food was wonderful!
When it came to dessert, the only dairy & gluten free offerings were sorbets. I had a choice of peach, or a scoop each of passion fruit & coconut. I had all 3 (little Terri insisted). They were wonderful, not too sweet, & contrasted with one another beautifully. I don’t eat sweets often, but it was a worthy exception. Tony had “snicker bar”.
With dessert we had tea: Numi Aged Earl Grey, which went nicely with the sorbets. The tea base is an Assam & the bergamot is there, but not too potent. A perfect ending to the meal.

I’m soooo sleepy but there’s still a couple hours left in the workday. I need a cuppa! I grabbed a free tea bag of this at work several months ago, and it’s sat in my office desk drawer ever since. Time to drink it down!

I let it steep for about 4 minutes, give or take a little. The resultant brew is a lovely reddish brown with a divine earl grey aroma! I’m actually looking forward to this now! (Earl Grey is not one of my all time favorites, but beggars can’t be choosers).

Hmm, not bad! This stuff actually tastes halfway decent. I can feel a bergamot-induced headache coming on though. Ugh. From sleepy to headache-y. Why don’t I just bring my good teas in to work? Oh yeah, ‘cause they’re a pain in the behind to brew. I just can’t win.

Oof, where did this pessimism come from? I need another cup of 52teas’ Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake to turn this day back around. Really, this tea is okay though. I think I’m just feeling overly sensitive to bergamot today.

My favourite Earl Grey, ever. The presence of bits of bergamot, versus ‘bergamot flavouring,’ with a decent black tea, makes an enormous difference.

Sadly, this tea is very hard to find in my part of Canada, and Numi doesn’t ship outside the US.

Not actually bad for a cafeteria bagged black. A little light on flavor, which I like in an EG. Tealuxe is one of my favorite local tea shops, and they have a ton of EG variations… but their “Extra Bergamot Earl Grey” always terrifies me. This one is solid!

Nice and smooth without being tasteless, this earl grey goes nicely either with or without milk and has enough kick to wake me up in the morning.

I really, really, really want to like Earl Grey because so many of you out there have such lovely EG experiences. (Hello, my name is __ and I am a people pleaser :) However, what happens most of the time is that I am enchanted by the lovely bergamot scent, then deeply disappointed that what I’m drinking tastes like floor cleaner.

So this is a landmark occasion—-I like this one! The bergamot tastes natural, not chemical, and isn’t so annoyingly cloying you can’t taste the black tea.

Nicely done, Numi.

It’s been an Earl Grey day!

I’ve had this a couple times now and it’s very tasty. I love that there isn’t any bergamot oils/flavorings, but just the bergamot itself. I can’t really remember what else I thought about this! I’ve been very bad at logging teas today, in any case it was tasty!

A review of Aged Earl Grey (Assam aged with real bergamot) by Numi Organic Tea

Company: Numi Organic Tea
Tea Name: Aged Earl Grey
Tea Type/Varietal: Black
Region: India
Steeping Vessel/Amt. Leaf: cup/ tea bag
Plucking Season:
Liquor Color: bright orange/amber
Leaf Characteristics:

1. Steepings

1st Steeping:
Water temperature: 200 Fahrenheit
Time: 5 minutes

I fixed a cup of this Assam black tea this morning to continue with my Numi samples. I steeped this tea for five minutes resulting with a bright orange/amber coloring. This is another tea having that dryness feel to it on the tongue, not quite lip smacking like tart apples but closely. It is a malt tea with fine character and not heavy and the bergamot is most mild. I must say it is not prevalent in the flavoring of this tea.

2nd Steeping:
Water temperature: 200 Fahrenheit
Time: 5 minutes

The second steep of this tea, the color is not as bright and there seems to be a bit more of the bergamot flavoring in the cup. Tea is smooth and malty as fine Assam teas tend to be. I must say that I prefer those Earl Grey Tea by Bigelow Tea as I seem to have enjoyed much more so than this one.

I think that organic teas and the processing of organic tea makes them so very mild that one cannot always discern the taste hence deriving at pleasure while drinking a cup of anything organic. Yet left alone, like the Bigelow’s Earl Grey, the flavor is fully, adding quite a kick to one palette and enjoyment.

It is all opinion and seemingly mines alone. This Assam is similarly to that of Kopili Assam Black Tea that I had from Stash Teas of India and that Pure Assam Tea by Madura.

Used a tea bag for convenience. Bagged tea is great for mornings when you can’t decide which loose leaf to dig out. I downed the cup without really making note of tea (Assam) or bergamot strength and quality (bergamot orange peel sits with tea to impart its oils gradually rather than using oil extracts). Doesn’t mean a bad cuppa – I would have made note if it wasn’t good – rather, this tells me this can be a convenient go-to tea, especially on-the-go when I can’t be precise with all my tea accoutrements.

Although I am not a fan of earl grey or bergamot, I found this tea to be very pleasant. The malty Assam base was complemented nicely by the natural bergamot pieces. The bergamot flavoring was perfectly balanced and citrusy, not overpowering, not understated. Of course, it helped that the tea was a bold and strong Assam.

This is SO good and so smooth and subtly flavored! I had it this morning with half and half. I had planned to try it again plain or with a little sweetener because I used up the last of my work stash of half and half. Maybe later today, plain.

I think this will have to be in my regular stock.

I am down to the last bag of this… so sad.

In my search for the perfect Earl Grey, I would have to say that this is by far the best. Since the tea is aged with bergamot the flavour is so much more complex than teas that use merely the oil or flavourings. This is the perfect tea for a London Fog and I will even go so far as to bring my own teabag to cafes, order an extra hot vanilla steamer, then make my own London Fog with the Numi teabag. Sneaky? Yes, but worth it for the fullness of the Numi Earl Grey.

Iced earl grey with some splenda to sweeten it up is a happy way to escape from the heat. Got this cuppa from my local coffee joint and really like it. For some reason I never thought to drink ice tea before I had it here but now I’m a huge fan.

The tried-and-true go-to tea for me. I love the body on this Earl Grey, the other ones that I have come across have either been too drying on the palette or too full. It’s a wonderful medium bodied black tea with just a slight hint of bergamont. As a consequence, I usually drink it sans sugar and cream. Perfectly balanced, and I’m never disappointed with the brew. It’s a good pick me up and always satisfies… sort of like the same way a PB&J will tide you over when you’re sick of grilled cheese.

Writing this tasting note on my phone while sitting at the bar of a Cheesecake Factory restaurant.

Perhaps I did not steep this long enough but it is coming across as pretty weak to me. I’ll have to do the resteep for a longer time. But even in this state I can clearly taste the bergamot in it, just not the Assam so much. A bit disappointing.

Meh

So I saw this as one of Men’s health 125 best foods for men. I also had coupons for 2 dollars off. So right there it was a win already. I had this iced in August at wedding I was DJing the bride and groom were serving four different Numi teas iced for the guests. Love this tea! I definitely like this one more than the chocolate Pu-Erh….very nice!

Not bad, Numi! I’d been down on the bags I’ve tried lately (can you tell I have a bit sampler? I got it for the holidays)… and I suspect that’s partially because I’ve had so much Really Good Tea lately.

This one, though, is not half bad! It’s a bright color, nearly red, and the taste is actually quite good. I don’t have a favorite Earl Grey, so I don’t have something to compare this too, but it’s not one I would pass up!

This is my wake up cup, every morning. In my opinion this is one of the best EG’s in a bag, it neither coats my mouth with an oily film, nor does it dry my palette.

After drinking too many “bland” Earl Greys (you know, the ones without a distinct Bergamot flavour) I found this Earl Grey by Numi to be quite a refreshing taste. The Bergamot taste is quite distinct, as it should be. The aftertaste is quite good as well, as others have remarked there is no aftereffect that leaves your mouth dry.