The Jolly Earl

Yayyy! This came in the mail today and I had to immediately try it. Holiday Earl Grey! With Laoshan Black (and Zhu Rong) base! I always love Verdant’s Earl variants, and I’m glad they finally had one for the blends club. The dry leaf smells really good, like a super Christmas-y Earl. Lots of bergamot, lots of cinnamon and clove.

The steeped tea smells amazing too, this time helped by the awesome chocolate of Laoshan Black. Mmmmm. The bergamot is less prominent but the spices scream Christmas in a cup. Yup, this one is a winner in my book. The chocolatey Laoshan Black, the sweet festive spices, the bright citrusy bergamot and orange. As with Verdant’s Bergamot Rose Laoshan Black the bergamot is not strong here, and as with that one that doesn’t bother me here. I’m not looking for a straight Earl, but there is enough bergamot flirting through the flavor to remind me that I am drinking a nontraditional Earl.

I’d love to use the tea cash I earned on Black Friday to buy more of this one (nudgenudge)!

EG this is not. This is zhu wrong and LB….and maybe a couple spices thrown in. Again 1 min steeps is stupid. lol Pretty much feeling like i could just toss the two teas together and get mostly the same blend. Will try to play with this a bit more later. still like it..but feel more like this is like other teas than being an EG blend.

Ahh this tea is still quite tasty, citrusy and bright with chocolate notes from the excellent base teas. At first when I had it out of my travel mug today it seemed weak with a strange flavor, but as it cooled off and was exposed to air it seemed to get back to it’s original goodness. It’s still much better brewed in a mug, or as a hot toddy, but it’s still tasty from the Timolino. Now I want a hot toddy at work, haha, definitely not happening. At least it’s warmer in the office after the lighting contractors turned up the heat with an Allen key :D +19 rather than +12 in the office today. Let’s hope the rest of the day flies by, it’s already almost Friday! (/optimism) See previous notes on this tea which I am close to sipping down and will miss!

It’s nice enough I suppose, but I still don’t like Laoshan Black. Enter: honey. Honey makes (almost) every tea palatable.

My husband made me a mug of this for my commute to work this morning, and he usually follows any written directions pretty closely. I think I made a note on this tea’s bag for 1tsp/8oz, boiling water, and a 3-4 minute steep, but I don’t know for sure if that’s how it was prepared. However he made it, I’m getting some pretty similar results when compared to my notes from last time. The Laoshan Black is still front and center, with only hints of additional ingredients at the tail end of each sip.

On a side note, I apologize for going so long in between notes. Between my students’ upcoming graduation, preparing for the school’s move to another part of town, and the battle for and loss of our beloved kitty, things have been a bit hectic lately.

First of all, a big thanks to Naylynn for sharing some of this with me even though I see she really liked it. Always hard to let go of something you really like. :) Lovely tasty black tea base, bergamot nicely balanced with some clove and cinnamon spice. Very enjoyable. Definitely enjoyable tea. For me it works well to throw in a mug and go! Some teas need a more delicate approach.

I purchased this from BrewTEAlly. She had suggested this based of my love for Earl Grey. I decided to go for it even though I had previously looked it up and was not interested at all in trying this tea based off of the ingredients.

I’m having a hard time describing this tea and the best I can do is say It smells like a Christmas candle but taste like bread with cinnamon and a little orange.

It took me a while to figure out what it was about this tea that made it so unique from other teas with similar ingredients: orange peel, cinnamon and clove. It’s the tea base, Laoshan Black and Zhu Rong. This is one of the first black teas I have tried that was not a normal “candy” tea base. I had no idea I was missing out and I look forward to trying other teas with these teas as the base.

I’m in love with this tea and I hope they make it again or I can find a pouch to hide because I only have enough for about half a cup.

I just finished up the last of this.
So sad. I would never have thought to add clove to Earl Gray even though clove is my favorite holiday spice…lol…Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter… I have a pineapple and
orange marmalade glaze that I spice the ham with and added cloves :-)
Mmmm…..not a better glaze anywhere :-)
I love Earl Grey Tea, and Verdant’s spicy variants are the best ever…in my book

My first impression of the dry leaf is that it is extremely smelly. Smells like traditional Xmas but I don’t actually like traditional Xmas smells so there’s that. Very smelly. If I liked it I might say aromatic, but I don’t.

Well now that it has cooled down a bit, I don’t hate it. It finishes with cinnamon which I am not a fan of but it is not overwhelming. The bergamot is strong enough to turn my mother off when she took a sip. It kind of tastes like stale crackers with an aftertaste of spice to me. Not very appealing since my last experience with stale crackers involved a meal worm in it. Yesterday. So this is 0 for 3 for this Verdant box for me. Hopefully January will be better.

I am on my 3rd steep of this and I really like it. The bergamot is more in the aftertaste, while up front it tastes like cloves and cinnamon. I’m always happy to have a blend with Laoshan Black as its base. It really makes a difference, especially in resteepability. This is my favorite blend of the month.

I used 2 tsp and steeped for 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 6 minutes and still going!