Earl Grey

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Bergamot, South Indian Flower Orange Pekoe Black Tea
Flavors
Bergamot, Citrus, Earl Grey, Bitter, Citrusy, Orange Zest
Sold in
Loose Leaf, Sachet
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Shae
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 g 8 oz / 243 ml

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6 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2024 Tea #6- A tea that energizes you I thought of this one for this prompt.  It’s supposed to have natural caffeine added making it “3x the caffeine of a...” Read full tasting note
    70
  • “drags broken body out of the abyss So. How about that 2021? Anyway, to give the most vague of updates, ish happened, ish is still happening, and I am trying to deal with ish. So, naturally, I have...” Read full tasting note
  • “I’m doing a few months of Sips by boxes to see if I like it, and this came in my second box. I love Earl Grey but have to be mindful of the caffeine so this may be a total disaster. I do want to...” Read full tasting note
  • “Sipdown but apparently this was not added to my steepster cupboard so no decrease in cupboard number. However, this is two years old so I am still happy to be sipping it down. I picked this one...” Read full tasting note
    69

From Zest Tea

Earl grey has been a popular blend since it was introduced to the British Earl, Charles Grey, in the 1830’s. Most Earl Greys are made with low-quality base teas, but not ours. Zest’s Earl is made with premium Nilgiri Indian black tea blended with a delicious bergamot essential oil.

Ingredients: South Indian Flower Orange Pekoe Black Tea, Bergamot Flavor, Natural Caffeine

Caffeine: 150mg per cup.

ENERGY
Up to 150mg caffeine = 3x regular tea
FOCUS
40mg L-Theanine = no jitters, no crash
HEALTH
Natural, Non-GMO certified ingredients

BREWING
Use boiling water and steep for 4-5 minutes

https://www.zesttea.com/products/loose-leaf

About Zest Tea View company

Company description not available.

6 Tasting Notes

70
4170 tasting notes

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2024 Tea #6- A tea that energizes you

I thought of this one for this prompt.  It’s supposed to have natural caffeine added making it “3x the caffeine of a regular tea”, whatever that means, so in theory, it should energize me…  not sure if it does.   Before steeping, I do notice on the leaf in the pyramid tea bag, that there is like a matte coating to some of the leaves… that must be the added caffeine.  The flavor is decent enough, yet unique for an earl, most reminds me of grapefruit with a hint of cream.  Next time is a sipdown, not quite yet!

I was also thinking of this tea because I was looking for Angry Tea Room’s Caramel Popcorn Movie Night blend and it looked like Tea Guys used to have it.  Tea Guys have since closed and apparently had legal issues?  And Zest Tea was previously involved with Tea Guys which brought them to court?   And I thought “hey, I have some of Zest tea around here.”  A shame Tea Guys didn’t make it. But it’s also a shame I won’t be able to find Caramel Popcorn Movie Night again…

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201 tasting notes

drags broken body out of the abyss

So. How about that 2021?

Anyway, to give the most vague of updates, ish happened, ish is still happening, and I am trying to deal with ish. So, naturally, I have been pounding espresso rather than tea to try and deal. But tonight, my silly butt thought consuming half a pack of cookies was smart and now I need tea to counteract the diabetic shakes.

So, here we are. This came from one of the tea boxes that I received AGES ago. Shae sent it so very long ago and I never really got a chance to review any of it. But, in my quest for a super strong black tea, I found this one at the bottom of the box. Lets see how it turns out.

Steeped boiling water 5 minutes.

Taste is… wow for something advertised as “High octane” that’s surprisingly un-bitter. Not completely un-bitter of course, plus the bitterness really lingers in the after sip. But it has a pretty decent flavor to it. I can taste the bergamot and the tea, although the flavors are rather muted. Probably due to how long it’s sat in the box in my drawer. But I can definitely say it’s pleasent to drink. A nice balance to it and a lovely earl grey flavor that has me constantly reaching back for another sip.

Also, as it’s cooling, I’m noticing more citrusy notes. Yep, for sure. That citrus is really coming through now. That’s pretty cool. I should probably mention I’m drinking this straight as, in my experience, the whole “anti-sugar shock” effect of black tea only works when you don’t add anything to it. You can’t even add splenda or any sugar substitute. You just make the tea and down it straight. Thankfully I have a huge selection of black tea for the frequent nights that I muk up my blood sugar (because, despite being a diabetic, I have the worlds biggest sweet tooth.)

Anyway, I can’t tell how potent the caffeine this is yet, other than knowing I don’t feel as groggy and awful as I did twenty minutes ago. How much of that is the black tea effect and how much is the caffeine, I have no idea. But just know that this tea is pretty dang good and now I’m going to have to try and find more.

Flavors: Bergamot, Citrus, Earl Grey

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Roswell Strange

Hello from the abyss!

ashmanra

Welcome back! Climb on out and stay a while!

Martin Bednář

It seems this year was hard for everyone. I am much less active here too, so don’t worry about a few days without writing anything. Honestly, only full month of notes is so far only December… because Advent teas :D

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2170 tasting notes

I’m doing a few months of Sips by boxes to see if I like it, and this came in my second box. I love Earl Grey but have to be mindful of the caffeine so this may be a total disaster. I do want to give it a shot though, and since today I have a ton of house cleaning to do I thought the extra energy boost might help.

I first have to say that I love the flavor of this EG. It’s bright and citrusy and uncomplicated. There is just a touch of bitterness that feels well-placed. I’ve been a little bored with the Earl lately – either it’s dull or it’s been doctored up with a bunch of lavender. Sometimes I guess I just want a simple yet flavorful EG and this delivers.

Still too soon to say about the caffeine, but I’ll check back in.

Update – I ended up sipping on this all day. The flavor is good and it did give me a boost of energy, but the caffeine spinnies weren’t worth it.

Flavors: Bitter, Citrusy

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec 8 OZ / 236 ML

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69
6444 tasting notes

Sipdown but apparently this was not added to my steepster cupboard so no decrease in cupboard number. However, this is two years old so I am still happy to be sipping it down.

I picked this one specifically because of the caffeine boasted by Zest Tea. Exams started today and I was extremely worried about the one I had this morning (despite only needing to pass) so I tossed and turned all night. That includes giving up on the attempting to actually sleep at around 3 am when I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe. That’s when I turned on the movie Ocean’s 8 and watched that before finally falling asleep around 5 am and waking up again at 7 am. Then I wrote a 3-hr exam from 9-12. While I debated napping, I have another exam tomorrow that I need to do some prep for so instead I turned to caffeine for my midday slump.

I brewed this up and meant to add a splash of milk but the bag folded while I was pouring and a bit more milk came out than intended. Frankly I was okay with that because it drowned out the bergamot that much more. This was ok as far as earl greys go. It wasn’t too bitter or sharp, thanks to the milk but also due to this being a touch weak overall. It wasn’t anything special but it did its job of perking me up a bit.

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71
87 tasting notes

When there’s a ton of work to get through, you need a ton of caffeine. That’s the main reason I picked Zest’s earl grey to review today. Mondays always need a pick-me-up.

I got carried away while the kettle was brewing so the water was approx. 90C or a bit less by the time the tea sachet hit the cup – a happy accident. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before it seems so obvious. Brewing this tea at a slightly lower temperature stops some of the bitterness from the tea extract they add to get the caffeine in there. Brew it like a green tea and it’s actually a lot better tasting… although still more bitter than any other earl grey I’ve ever drank. I might try rinsing it next time to see if that has a similar effect.

I noticed fresh orange zest aroma with the classic bergamot flavour notes. Not too overpowering. The tea base is flowery orange pekoe, which has a nice body. I’m tired of trying new earl grey blends that use darjeeling. It’s too light for my tastes and the bergamot just overpowers it and ruins the tea flavour. Zest got the body right in this blend though, it’s almost like drinking an English Breakfast tea with bergamot oils added.

As always, full review with pics is up on my blog, if you want to read a bit more about my experience with this tea https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/zest-tea-earl-grey-review/

Flavors: Bergamot, Bitter, Orange Zest

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec 2 g 8 OZ / 250 ML
Martin Bednář

Yup, I started brewing black tea in tea bags for shorter time as well than they usually suggest. I can not imagine brewing some tea in small cup (ca. 200 ml) for 5 or more minutes as they sometimes suggest.

Izzy

Exactly :) Even with a 500ml+ mug I almost never brew black tea for more than 3 minutes or it’s too strong and undrinkable. I don’t understand why tea companies make the brew time suggestions so crazily long

Mastress Alita

Right? I have never understood that either. Three minutes is usually my sweet spot too, and I tend to drop it even further if it is a CTC tea and not whole leaf.

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