TE01: Season's Pick Earl Grey Creme Vanilla

Tea of the morning. I had to get up and be somewhere for work (8 AM is for the birds, says this night shifter) and I needed something STRONG. So, 2 tsp leaf and 8 oz of water + creamer was the answer.

Today’s cup was heavy on the vanilla and not as heavy on the bergamot, which was fine by me- it’s my preferred flavor balance, actually. And I have a lot more of this left than I thought so I better start drinking!

This tea confuses my brain. I didn’t enjoy the intial sip because there was a weirdly strange aftertaste. However, as I’ve continued to drink this it’s turned into a really nice lemon custard type tea. Which is still weird to me since this is supposed to be vanilla? This really isn’t vanilla at all to me except as maybe a hint of it in the background mellowing out the lemon flavour. Not sure how i feel about this overall as a staple in the cupboard but not a bad early grey as far as not tasting the bergamot AND being a dessert type lemon tea.

Had this when I woke up, with a T. of honey and a T. of the new Coffeemate “Natural Bliss” Vanilla (which is very good btw, but has a wee bit more sugar than I’m comfortable with…will use sparingly). This is becoming a morning routine, as I love Earl Grey Creme Vanilla.

On a side note: I have allergies, bordering on being ashtmatic at times. One of the reasons for switching from Coke to tea is to be able to incorporate honey into my daily routine (and for calorie reduction overall). It really was helping me avoid medications. This morning was validation for this practice. When I woke up, it was one of those mornings with breathing difficulties (out of breath walking anywhere). Thinking I was doing something wrong (by reading comments here about honey), for the past few days I’ve been trying to switch away from honey to raw sugar, or no sweetener. I have to remember why I’m using it, because after 2 cups of this tea with honey, I’m breathing MUCH better. So there! A tea purist I will probably never be, but time will tell.

Dear Steepy:

Today I received my Upton Tea order. What joy! What excitement! I have to say, I think the amount of tea I ordered multiplied in the box. I surely couldn’t have ordered 18 different samples, plus a pound of tea? Something must have happened that I am completely free of blame from. Packing gnomes, or possibly a gemino curse.

So naturally, in order to combat the effects of the evil packing gnomes, I had to immediately begin drinking the tea. If I let it sit too long, who knows how many times the curse could multiply. I would quite literally be buried in tea. Obviously, I had to start with the biggest package, the 250g bag of the Season’s Pick Earl Grey Creme Vanilla.

Upon opening the bag, I get a powerful smell of lime. Now, my only other previous Earl Grey Creme expereince also reminded me of lime. I’m not sure if it’s just me, or maybe this is truly what the combination of Bergamot and Creme smells like. I’m not sure. I suppose the only real way to tell would be to take a standard EG, or possibly even a double bergamot EG, and add some cream. I may have to try this. For science, of course, not for my own personal enjoyment, heavens forbid!

Brewed, the SPEGCV gives off a delightful smell. All at once it is sweet, and vanilla, but also tart smelling. It really is a very, very lovely aroma. I think that’s part of my love with EGs in general; as polarizing as the aroma may be, it is very distinct.

The taste has a very similar profile to the smell. At first, the creamy, vanilla flavor sort of smoothly glides over your tongue, with the tangy citrus flavor in tow. The flavors are really smoothly mingled over a fairly subtle tea base. The tea is lost a little bit at first, but once the up front vanilla flavor fades a bit, the flavor finishes off as a fairly straightforward EG. The tea and bergamot just lolligagging at the end of the sip to remind you where this tea comes from.

This is sweet and dreamy. It reminds me of what I’ve always wanted key lime pie to taste like, but it’s never really lived up to. But in a tea. It’s really quite good. I am definitely going to enjoy drinking my way through this tea. And at the absurdly low price of $7 for 8 oz, it’s both supremely good and supremely cheap. Who could ask for more?

Sincerely Yours,

Buried in Tea

This smells really nice! A combo of EG but with more of a lemon than a bergamot and a nice creme but not a vanilla type cream either. It’s more lemon and creme than that punchy Earl flavor but I do like it! It’s pretty darned good!

Morning tea once again! The bergamot and cream are perfectly balanced today.

I’m mildly lactose intolerant so I try to drink only one cup of tea with milk today. I already had chai this afternoon, so why am I having earl grey? Well I got my Upton order today, and when I opened the bag for this it was like, “sweet baby jesus this smells JUST like sugar cookies!” Naturally I had to drink it immediately—I’m kind of surprise didn’t try to chow down on the leaves. Yes, it smells that amazing!

I love earl grey and have far too many variations of it, but this is definitely one of the best I’ve tried (which is good, since the smallest option is for 250 grams!). It’s sweet and creamy, with the vanilla and cream tastes front and center. The bergamont is also definitely there, and the citrus/cream combo makes me think I’m drinking ice cream. I know this isn’t a dessert tea, but it really might as well be. The actual tea flavor is there in the background, a soft and mellow black without any real astringency, though the other flavors definitely outshine it. I’d still put my beloved White Cream Earl Grey from Culinary a bit ahead of this due to how very prominent the vanilla is here, but only by a nose—this is a divine cup of tea for sure!

So we’ve found an earl grey I can share with Dylan. This one is pretty yummy. Vanilla goodness meets sweet, creamy tea and bergamot. Again this time there seems to be lime and possibly lemon in this tea, underneath the bergamot. I think the tea base is stronger with this one than the mad hat tea. I really like this one better. Maybe it’s just the creamy taste along with the vanilla that does it for me. It really seems to make the bergamot much more manageable. Yay we found the bergamot that belongs in our cupboard!

Thanks to Alphakitty for this tea!

The aroma is absolutely delicious. Like a creamy, sweetened earl grey, even though I know it’s not. The bergamot isn’t coming out too strongly, which is nice. Oh man… it tastes absolutely delicious too! I have a soft spot for earl grey creams, and this is hitting it very well. I’d definitely drink this one again. The bergamot is quite mild, there’s a lovely creaminess, and not really any astringency. If anything, I’m almost getting a bit of a berry flavour. This is really quite good :)

Sadly, I’m going to leave this one behind in the hopes that my uncle may enjoy it (if he doesn’t want it, I may regain it at Christmas), because he likes earl greys and I failed to bring anything other than this one. Hopefully he enjoys it too!

Tomorrow I go to the doctor and get retested to see if the liquid restriction helped.
If it did not, then I have something else, perhaps something bigger going on with me.
If it did help, then I am going to have to keep my liquid levels down still.
(sigh) Between and rock and a hard spot for sure.
Anyway, I am trying this tea for the first time, and when I opened up the little sample tin, I said. “Ohhhhh”
It smelled like a orange cream dessert.
But, at the same time I was drooling over the scent, I was also frightened.
I mean, I am a bit of a Earl Grey devotee.
Once brewed, the sugary orangey custardy odor toned down some, and I could smell my good ol’ bergamot shining through.
Taste still reminds me of cake or custard.
This tea is good, very tasty indeed.
But, in some sense, I am having a hard time thinking it a Earl Grey at all.
It taste more like a good quality flavored dessert tea.
But, I do like it, and will happily finish the rest of the sample.
Have a great Tuesday, you all!