Earl Grey Supreme

I had the bagged version of this tea which I know full-well isn’t the same as drinking it loose-leaf, but all the same I think I got a good idea of what this tea is about.

Right away I can smell the pungent, citrusy scent of bergamot and it’s quite prominent in the flavour – crisp, but not too bitter. I tried drinking the tea plain at first but I found that the astringency of the tea base along with the bergamot wasn’t the best combination. So I added some skim milk and found that I enjoyed it more that way. It brought out a little hint of sweetness in the blend which I liked and smoothed out the bergamot.

It’s a decent earl grey. but nothing overly special in my opinion. I’m not about to swear off all other earl greys just because I’ve tried this one. :D

Absolutely elegant & relaxing.
I love you, Earl…
My reliable Valentine ♡

Courtesy of Au Bon Pain this evening.

Got this one as a free sample with the order that arrived today. It was in sachet form.

Nice and medium in body and bergamot, tending to slide toward the lighter side of Earl. It’s good but there are other EGs that I prefer. Not sure though. Maybe having it loose where I can increase the leaf amount as I want would help since I err on the side of more leaf usually.

I think I’m done getting teas for awhile. My Butiki order arrived today as well. Yet… my aunt emailed today and said she had a BOGO coupon for Harney’s Royal Palace tins at Barnes & Noble… I suspect there is more tea to come my way. But if it’s a gift it doesn’t count, right?

I honestly don’t know what happened, but my experience with this tea does not read like any of the other reviews on here. It was actually a bit of a nightmare to try to dial in a cup that was neither watery nor bitter, and I finally threw in the towel. During this whole project, I have never been this frustrated with an Earl Grey.

Does anyone have suggestions?

Here’s the link to my blog entry about it:
http://wordsabouttea.blogspot.com/2013/07/earl-grey-supreme-by-harney-sons.html

additional notes: Trying Harney’s Earl again years after originally trying it, because Tiffany sent over a ton of Earls a while ago, including some of these sachets!  Thank you again, Tiffany :)!  Not my favorite Earl, not my least favorite.  I do enjoy the strength of the black tea here.  I see my original rating is TEN YEARS ago and also I gave it a 51 rating!  I definitely don’t think it’s THAT low.  The note mentions I steeped for four minutes and it was astringent and I think I have learned to tame the parameters by now. There seems to be enough leaf in the sachet for me, compared to the jasmine pearl I had the other day from Harney.  The bergamot is strong but it also isn’t the best bergamot, in my opinion but oh there has been much worse bergamot in my life.  That bergamot bar is quite low.    But I can drink these if someone needs a new home for them, as Tiffany did. :D    Raising the rating from 51.
Steep #1 // at least 11 minutes after boiling // 1-2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

One of my faves. I visited Harney in NYC for my birthday last year and brought home 7 oz. of this one, and it’s my second earl grey next to Carytown’s Russian Earl Grey, which is maybe the best tea ever so. It’s just always good, simple, nice with milk and sugar or alone.

My cup of the morning. This arrived with my latest order, and while I dont actively seek out Earl Greys, I wont say no if I get it for free!
Harney, to me, is a very quiet and dignified company, and their blends are quiet and dignified as well.
This is a very good Earl. Smooth, and fragrant. My boyfriend thought it smelled floral, which I can sorta see.
I don’t think I’ll get a tin of this, but it’s nice to have every once in a while.

I received a sample of this with my most recent order in bag (sorry, “silken sachet”) form. Out of the package, it was very fragrant of bergamot but it also had a strong, clean classic tea fragrance with a subtle underlying sweetness.

After brewing, I had an orange-gold liquid and the bergamot fragrance had subsided substantially. The taste was a sour-citrus, not the same as other Earl Grays I’ve had, this was distinctly more sour. The tea flavor was extremely weak. This also lacked the classic “snap,” almost effervescence, that I’ve come to expect from good Earl Grays.

As a few others have noted, my poor experience may be because this was in a “sachet” but I didn’t think this was very good in the broad spectrum Earl Gray teas.

backlog- At a bridal shower yesterday, bagged tea.

A nice, fragrant, tannic base. No oily bergamot residue and the bergamot flavor was not as strong as I have experienced in some other earl greys.

I need to experience many more Earl Grey variants before I can discuss this tea intelligently, but as of now, I am a big fan. The base tea is of definite quality, and the dry tea leaves smell sublime. The only qualm I have with it is that I would like a tad bit more bergamont oomph in the brewed tea. Don’t get me wrong, the bergamont is definitely there and tasteable, but I’m a sucker for that orange smell and taste.