Tea Earl Grey Hot

I awoke to my doorbell ringing this morning and here was my Think Geek tea order! It’s a wonderful tea sampler set created by Adagio exclusively for Think Geek. I unashamedly had to have this set just for the tins. So, I brewed up the Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. and revelled in the glory of being a nerd.

The smell of the tin was unmistakably Earl Grey. There were the little purple flower petals and orange pieces. Eh, it looks what I imagine a typical Earl Grey looks like.

Steep one: Furniture polish ahoy! It has to be the citrus/bergamot combo that registers as “furniture polish” to me. It’s pretty smooth – only the tiniest bit of dryness at the back of my throat. As it begins to cool the furniture polish (bergamot?) begins to fade into the background and the flavors start to compliment one another. I begin to see a glimmer of “oh – this could grow on me.”

Steep two: Oh – this really could grow on me. I added a minute and all the flavors seem to have balanced out and I’m really digging this tea. If this came in larger than sampler size, then I would seriously consider purchasing more. It also gets a few bonus points for the awesome name. NE

This is the last tea from the ThinkGeek sampler… I hadn’t tried it because I haven’t found a plain Earl Grey I’ve liked in a long time. But A and I had a tea tasting yesterday for our tea party (decided on a Darjeeling, Cream of Earl Grey, Gunpowder and Rooibos), and we did a comparison of this against DAVIDs Cream of Earl Grey.

This wins! I’m hoping it’s the same as Adagio’s Earl Grey Bravo (or at least exceedingly similar), because I really want more of this. It’s balanced well, without too much bergamot but with just enough to give it that coolness. Added milk and sugar as per.

….
- Now, the final tea in the set: Tea, Earl Grey, Hot. Mm.. takes me back to sitting around in Watson Hall, watching Star Trek: TNG with the Sci-Fi/Doctor Who club on Saturday nights. (And reminds me of Whoopi Goldberg’s character’s stupid hats for some reason.) The leaf of this tea smells VERY bergamot-y. Brewed up, it’s a fairly solid Earl Grey. Not too bergamot, not too strong. My guess is that the replicators of Starfleet do a generic blend of the various types of Earl Grey.

…..

from my review of all the Think Geek Sampler at It’s all About the Leaf – go read the rest of it!

http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2339/tea-review-think-geek-timmys-tea-sampler/

I purchased this tea for myself earlier this year because I wanted the tin to house my regular Earl Grey. To be clear, this is not the one depicted in the picture (although the tea inside is the same), but the one that came in the licensed tin. (See here: https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f07b/)

Having drunk some this morning, this is not my favorite Earl Grey. I enjoy Earl Grey in general, so it’s certainly not a loss, but this tastes very weak to me. After steeping it for three and a half minutes, there was a bit of bergamot and only a very weak tea flavor. I will attempt to steep it longer next time in the hopes it will bring out more flavor, but ultimately I am unimpressed. Luckily, it’s the tin that I was really excited for!

Actually a good tea! It has whole leaves and stuff!

A very nice, but standard, Earl Grey.

Not exceptional. Slightly better than Earl Grey I’ve had in the past.

It may be my newness to the world of loose leaf teas, but this tea tastes like… well… tea. It’s a nice aromatic black tea, but the citrus undertone is very subtle, more smelled than tasted. But for all that, it’s still enjoyable. Not bitter in the least.

It’s a fairly average ‘properly done’ loose leaf Earl Grey. With big bits of ingredient like the other adagio teas. It certainly makes a tastey cup, though I’m personally not disposed towards the strong citrus kick of proper earl greys like this.