Earl Grey Supreme TE14

Yet another EG sample in my massive Find-the-Husband-an-Earl-Grey-that-He-Loves Quest! Taken with a little bit of sugar and a tiny bit of milk, this tea is quite tasty. The bergamot is bright and noticeable but not perfume-ish or overpowering. It feels kind of cheerful and energetic but not rough or edgy. I have enough of the sample to try it one or two more times, so I’m curious to see how it is without additives. Hopefully it will have a nice smooth tea base like the other Upton EGs have had – I think it will since I didn’t notice any bitterness or roughness while sipping on this one.

I’m quite liking this. Honestly though, I was listening to the audiobook “Mindless Eating” by Brian Wansink (really interesting, by the way) while making my morning commute and ended up getting a bit distracted listening to the book before I could figure out why exactly I liked this tea so. But I did. Like it, that is. I’m kind of hoping that this one wins the EG taste-off (at least compared to the other EGs we’ve tried during this quest). Two enthusiastic thumbs up (which will hopefully stay that way when I get a chance to pay more attention to this when I’m drinking it)!

Since I love and can crave Upton’s Earl Grey Vanilla, the natural next step is to test their other Earls. Chocolate Earl Grey is crave-worthy too, and “Natural” Earl Grey was pleasant…so is this one (pleasant). Having gotten into a (bad) habit of adding Coffeemate Sweet Cream or Vanilla Cream to the EGV, I was a little worried about testing this with only a T. of honey. But there is absolutely nothing bitter here and the bergamot is noticeable but not overpowering. The honey is even making this a bit “too sweet”, but people look at me weird everytime I say something is too sweet (hmmm). Still have one Earl sample to go, so might have to do side-by-sides to find my favorite “straight” Earl from Upton.

Upton Tea Sampler Buying Spree Tea #9:
Accidentally oversteeped this because I was distracted by reheating pizza. (That’s right! Pizza and tea! Tea goes with everything! EVERYTHING.) It came out a little more bitter than I think it’s necessarily meant to.
This is definitely another one of those subtle teas. There is only a very light hint of bergamot, a slight tease of citrus, an am I even there of flavor. I’ve already mentioned my preferences regarding Earl Grey flavors, so I won’t go into it again, but honestly, at this point wouldn’t you be better off just drinking tea flavored tea? If this is the level of Earl Grey that you like, why are you bothering to drink Earl Grey at all? Just drink unflavored black tea, then you never have to worry about the Earl Grey you’re drinking having too much flavor.
Besides that, it is, naturally, quite tasty.

Light and pleasant – it doesn’t beat you over the head with “the Earl”. This is really very nice and well balanced.

Not very supreme. The Bergamot is very light, and the tea base is quite subtle as well. It’s fairly pleasant on the first go, but if I try to steep it again – something I can always pull off at least once with high quality teas – it becomes dull and wooden all the way through. I’ll probably use this for blending down harsh stuff, or the occasional single pot.