Earl Grey

This is another tea I bought, mainly because I like Earl Grey. It is really one of my favorite [fruit flavored] teas. Surprisingly, I haven’t had all that many different brands of it, nor do I have it as often as I would like. ://

One of the reasons I like it so much is because I find the aroma almost INTOXICATING! Nice aroma greeted me right away filling the air around me. :)) How I have missed this tea! Sometimes I think not having a tea too often [even a favorite tea], is a good thing. It makes me realize & appreciate how special the tea is! Sometimes I’m an odd egg.

The cup is a nice light brown color with a fantastic bergamot aroma. The tea base is probably Ceylon, which I like, but I think the tea base could be a little stronger. The bergamot seems to cover up the tea flavor more than I would like. :// Less bergamot flavoring would help accomplish this, giving more balance to the tea flavor itself. A longer steep & hotter temperature might also bring out the tea flavor. I’m not sure if the bergamot is all natual, which does make for a better cup of Earl Grey.

More tinkering and a review update may be necessary. Overall, this is a nice cup of Earl Grey, and worth the price-although not my favorite brand. A fine hot cup of tea, and I can’t wait to cold brew this soon. :))

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY EVERYONE!! :))

This song is by Brian Setzer. He’s an underrated guitarist and he’s a good singer. It is a bit different, but I like it!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpz9k5myno

Cupped & Reviewed: Wednesday, July 4, 2012.

I have a special story with this tea.

Few years ago I had the habit to drink Earl grey every morning at work.I liked tea especially because I was not a great coffee drinker.
I was buying any type of Earl Grey in tea bags and often very cheap ones (I was drinking a lot of cups !)

One day I had a cup of one of this cheap Earl Grey and just behind a cup of Twinning’s Earl Grey…it was a revelation ! The difference of taste was so evident.
I understood I had to taste and explore other teas and I began from this date to increase my interest for teas and began to use almost exclusively loose leaf tea.

Even if I know Twinning’s Earl grey is made of “dust in bags”, I should thank twinning for the electroshock. However it is a “regular” tea, classic, made to be appreciated by many publics.

This is a very comfortable tea and it is quite nice.

I continue drinking it some morning at the office when I am stuck with an empty tea tin and by the way need to buy tea at the local supermarket.

Also backlogged. This is what I had this afternoon with the boyfriend. You may regard the following post as a collaboration.

Apparently these bags are getting a wee bit on in age, most likely, and haven’t been stored all that strictly according to what is best for the tea.

I could definitely pick up a citrus-y flavour, although it reminded me a bit more of lemon than of anything else. Something acidic, definitely, thought the boyfriend. We settled on citric acid.

The tea itself was rather bland. After a short while when it had developed a bit, read: steeped a little bit longer, it developed a little more character although not very much.

It did bring on the question of ‘astringency’, though. WTF is that? I’ve searched high and low for a proper easily understandable explanation of what this is supposed to taste like. I know it’s one of them ‘official technical terms’, but it has just never ever been a word that I have associated with any sort of flavour.

On the contrary, I work in a hospital lab, and when we talk about ‘stringency’ it has something to do with the environtment in which a given test is conducted being EXACTLY identical each time. Temperature and reaction times and such things. ‘Astringency’ sounds like the opposite of this and in the lab it wouldn’t really be all that good. It’s just the first thought that pops into my head, and it’s really confusing when talking flavour.

Hence, it’s really difficult for me to wrap my head around it not only being a sort of flavour, but also something good. I know that it has something to do with how tannins affect the mucus membranes of the tongue and such. But still.

Anyway, to make a short story long, we decided that this particular sensation that we found in it must be what people meant when they talked about astringency. I described it as something that could be mistaken for bitterness and the boyfriend, apparently having more imagination than me, said slightly like soap but not. After some consideration the soap was the conclusion we went with.

And then the boyfriend said he would award it 3 out of 5 chainsaws, which I thought on a 1-100 scale would translate to 60. And then he haggled me up to 65 on the grounds that chainsaws are cooler.

(It may take a couple of tries to make the slider hit 65 exactly. Bear with me if I have to edit a few times.)

I edited this tea so that I could backlog it, specifically to warn. I don’t just like Earl Grey tea. Let me acquaint you with my impressions of Earl Grey tea. It was the first blend of tea that I had heard of and had exposure to, early in my life. To fully establish my geekness, lets say that I loved Star Trek the Next Generation. (fellow fans are already seeing where this is going.)

I would watch it non-stop when I was really little, instead of most cartoons. The great diplomat and my then-hero Jean Luc Picard drank this tea in times of severe emotional duress. It soon symbolized a refuge and an ultimate soother to any challenged hero.

I pleaded my parents to buy me some in the most heart-plucking manner. They did so. They bought me…Twinings. I hated it. Didn’t just hate it. Couldn’t stand it. And disillusionment spiraled in my poor head. THIS was what Jean Luc drank? How was the actor able to maintain composure for the camera not to mention to convey the general impression that his character liked such a horrible drink?!

Years later I understood when I tasted Adagio’s Earl Grey Bravo, that Picard wouldn’t wash his cup out with the watery slurry that Twinings tries to pass off as Earl Grey. He would gag at the horrible mildness. He would recoil in horror at the missing bergamot notes. He would shake his hands in fury at the now sullied name of Earl Grey and bitterly cry “KHAN!!”

I’ve geeked this post out beyond good judgment. I need to leave before people try and track this IP to my house.

My second real attempt with Earl Grey after a horrific Tazo cup a few months back.

Since my Tazo hot cup was so bitter and oversteeped when I followed the instructions on the packaging, I might have understeeped this cup. The teabag smelled very fragrant and quite delicious, with the bergamot a subtly sweetening the blend.

The bergamot in this isn’t the strongest, which is what I like. However, the taste was overwhelmingly floral, which was quite odd. Almost potpourri-like. There isn’t a real strong taste of bergamot; it’s more of an aftertaste that lingers on the tongue and in the back of the throat after each sip. A pleasant aftertaste that was altogether welcome. But the black tea itself didn’t have any real presence at all, which surprised me. I wanted it to be a better balance of the two, and I didn’t expect the bergamot to taste so cloying and floral.

I’m going to try to brew my second cup a bit stronger next time, in hopes that the black tea taste will rise to match the flavoring in this package. It was a very drinkable cup, with no bitterness whatsoever, but I’m not sure if this is going to be the perfect blend of Earl Grey for me yet. More tinkering needed!

I’ve had a couple of cups of this in the mornings while here in London because it’s pretty much what every cafe sells. And I find it interesting how far I’ve come! I feel like when I first started drinking tea I would have (and I believe I did) like this one a lot. It doesn’t get bitter very easily, has a nice strong bergamot flavor that’s not to astringent and that says “Earl Grey” pretty plainly, but there’s just not much else going on. It seems… flat. I think it has to be the black tea base. It just lacks a depth of flavor I’ve come to expect from my favorite teas. It’s perfectly serviceable, but when compared to the EG I had at teapod the other day for instance, they’re in completely different categories.

Incidentally, I’ve discovered that I’ve completely lost my taste for plain black generic tea bags (be they Twinnings or whatever)… I used to drink them on occasion when traveling, for instance, and now I can’t even finish a cup.

teet-da da da…tee da da da…

I think I am getting hooked on to Earl Grey!

My second review for this Earl Grey and I want to take the opportunity to speak up for it. Firstly, this size tea bag is meant for 6 oz of water. If you want more tea use more bags (or import the larger Brit version). Secondly, I’ve read some reviews that stated this is “weak”. Well, Earl Grey isn’t supposed to be a strong tea, though there are versions out there that play up the bergamot a bit more. Personally I think the balance of bergamot and tea taste is perfect in the Twinings blend.
Thirdly, there is a controversy concerning the US version of this tea was weakened in 2006 when the packaging changed (the Brit version was indeed reformulated in 2011, but that’s another pot of tea entirely!) and I want to address that.

I don’t think it was changed at all. The tea was always blended in England and prior to the 2006 package change had been packed in the US. After 2006 it was packed in England and was still blended there, hardly a need to worry there. The new packaging lists the strength of the tea as “light”, whereas before no such indicator was displayed. Perhaps the power of suggestion played into peoples perception of the taste, they were told it is a light tea and tasted it as such.

It is also possible that a bad batch of tea reached our shores in 2006/07. That combined with the new “light tea” description may account for some people detecting a taste difference. An entire blog was devoted to this “change” in 2006 – savetwinings.blogspot.com , but sadly has not been updated since 2009.

Twinings denied any change in their US Earl Grey formula at the time and never have admitted to any changes to the US blend since. I believe them because you can ask any Brit who loves Twinings Earl Grey…the company isn’t exactly shy about tampering with the blend and admitting to it when they do. www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8728913/Twinings-is-changing-Earl-Grey-man-the-barricades.html

Sorry for the rambling nature of this review but I felt this good, solid tea needed a sympathetic defense witness. lol

Monday, you’ve come entirely too early this week.

Hopefully the Earl will keep you at bay.

I’ll admit, although I’m pretty sure I’ve had this in the past, it’s probably only ever been with lots of milk and honey, and never without.

At any rate, yuck. I’m reminded of Sinister’s tealog concerning it, and Captain Picard (I am a Trekkie myself, although I did tend towards Voyager—I was a fan of the Doctor), and specifically the quote “watery slurry” which is Twining’s Earl Grey.

I didn’t make it particularly hot—I need to replace my kettle, I really do—but before that, the bags smelt deliciously of Earl Grey. Sniffing the wet bag, and the tea, all I could smell was overpowering bergamot. When I sipped it, that’s really all I could taste. Water and strong bergamot. Now, bergamot is bitter, like grapefruit, but the bitter that I tasted seemed more like the kind you get when you go to take the zest of something and cut too deep into the pith.

I don’t know, just my thought.

The tea taste was watery and way in the background. I tried to add some honey, and it helped somewhat—the tea is slightly more noticeable, but overall still very… I don’t want to say yuck again, because it wasn’t horrible.

However, it did give me a thought. Earl Grey scented cologne. Anyone? Interesting, eh? I remember seeing a how-to for green tea perfume somewhere. I’m sure it could be adapted. It’d give me something to do with the rest of the teabags. Although I’ll try drinking this again when I can get the water hotter.

Earl Grey. This is strongly associated with high tea for me, for historical reasons. But here I am, drinking it for lunch, with cheese and bread. Heresy.

Still, it’s a nice cup drunk black, and the astringency (heh) tackles the rather cloying cheese I’m eating quite nicely. 3/5 chainsaws indeed. :-)

I just needed something easy and mild this morning to go with a chocolate chip cookie. This did the trick. There is really nothing of merit to say about this tea, but if all you’re looking for is something that will not overpower or distract whatever it is that you are having with it yet is still relatively pleasant, this is not a bad option. It served its purpose today.

Delicious! Dee-lish!

Not at good as Lupicia’s Earl Grey (which surprised me because this is Twinings!), but still a good substitute when I’m craving that bergamot flavor.

It’s not overly strong bergamot, which I guess a lot of users dislike this blend for. But nevertheless, I still like it!

I don’t want my bergamot eating a hole through my stomach. This tea contains just enough to let me know what I’m drinking without making me woozy.

With just a little bit of sugar, this tea has me ready to tackle anything!

Really, there are so many mediocre earl grey blends out there… and this is one of them. I generally like Twinings, but I am definitely not impressed with this tea. Really, it seems like a cardinal sin to make a bad earl grey blend. It’s just that much more disappointing.

For Christmas my sister got me a Tea For One set that came wit ha couple bags of Twinings Earl Grey. I thought the bags looked a little old and beat up but decided to try one anyway, I’ve been meaning to do a comparison of Twinings and Bigelow bagged Earl Grey.

I can taste the bergamot… But I can also taste the cardboard box the Tea For One set was in. It would be unfair to give this tea a rating when it has gotten old and the packaging damaged. So far Bigelow is winning in the bagged EG comparison but I’m pretty sure Twining can do better than this.

Currently my default earl grey. Grew up making this for adults so acquired the taste slowly throughout my childhood.

Tasted better before I added sugar, next time I will have plain which is nice and easy! Good for when I feel like something stronger in flavor than Lady Grey.

With milk and sugar and PIE. Steeped it forever.

This is the tea I drank last week-end for breakfast in a hotel. I had already had it before in the same conditions but did not remember what I had thought or not paid enough attention. This time I did.
The taste was ok, stronger on the bergamot than on the tea side, which is to be expected considering the fact there are not tea leaves in the bag but only small pieces, that leaks black powder at the bottom of the teapot.
For a widely available throughout supermarkets at a reasonable price, I found it reasonably pleasant. Not a tea I would buy, but one I would really prefer to a classic yellow lipton for instance !

Twinings is my favourite bagged tea, hands down, and I always keep some Earl Grey on hand. It’s a good, solid rendition of this famous tea and it is wonderfully relaxing right before bed (I stick the the decaf version).