Plummy Earl Grey

I spend yesterday at a “playdate” with my friend Helen and her son. I’m really working hard at being the cool, favourite fun Aunt. I always bring a new tea to try when I see her, and this time around I brought this EG that I snagged in person at the Twinings shop in London earlier this year. I’ve literally only ever seen it at the Twinings store, so I needed to try it even if I’m not a hugggeeeee EG person.

Honestly? I think it gets a check yes from me. The bergamot is surprisingly pretty mild and while I think that would probably be a turn off for most people, for me it’s actually a selling point. The “plum” could be stronger, but there’s definitely a bit of a deeper and more dense/jammy fruit note that comes across that I quite like with this rich and more brisk and citrusy black tea base. It’s pretty decent, and with a spot of milk and sugar I could see it being really good.

I didn’t realise this one had such bad ratings until today, which strikes me as odd because while it’s brewing it smells really nice. Fruity, sweet, plummy. I used 1 bag for my cup, and gave it 2.5 minutes in boiling water, no additions.

To taste, it’s pretty okay. The plum is very apparent, but it’s not artificial tasting in the way I expected it to be. It’s actually quite juicy and natural, as if actual plum juice had been squeezed into a cup of earl grey. The bergamot isn’t too strong, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. It’s a floral/citrus tang in the background, and there it stays. The black tea base is smooth, with no bitterness or astringency. On the whole, I’d say it’s a successful cup.

I’m not the greatest fan of Twinings, or of bagged tea generally, but this one is better than average. It lives up to its name, and the flavouring is pretty true-to-life. I’d happily drink this one again, which is good because I have another 11…

The aroma is quite promising – balanced combination of plum, bergamot and star anise. Almost no tea, though…

And the taste is extremely watery. The plum is dominant, the bergamot is subtle, the anise is surprisingly in the background. Moreover, quite important component is missing – tea itself!

Fot the plum-flavoured water it’s quite nice. For tea – extremely dissapointing.

One word: Disgusting. The fact that this is artificial bergamot is glaringly obvious as it so it so overpowering, and horribly strong, it could put someone off bergamot for life, and this coming someone who absolutely adores bergamot in their tea. I must admit that do enjoy a lighter tea, so I might be a bit biased but this is absolutely ridiculous. You might as well call it Plum and Bergamot water as the disgusting pungency of these two fake flavours absolutely destroys any nuances of the actual tea whatsoever. I am normally a fan of drinking really good tea without milk, to taste every nuance of the tea and every single note, but this is so ridiculously strong in plum and bergamot, that it was impossible to drink this without milk. I when looking inside the ‘tea temple’ I saw that the quality of tea in the ‘temple’ is no where near the quality of loose leaf. Extremely disappointed.