Review #57 - Ringtons Earl Grey Tea (bagged)

So now that we are back into the swing of things, wouldn't you know it, I run straight into a challenging review. When Michael of Finest English Tea contacted me I was, as always, looking forward to trying another tea I had never heard of. Then the shipment arrived, I read the box and found something I had never seen before. What was it? Read on to find out what the challenge was.

Aroma

The box I received looks like your typical tea box minus the display tab at the bottom. The expiration date is printed in easy to read letters right on the top and the back has some history and the steeping directions. On one of the sides you'll see that Ringtons is a member of the ethical tea partnership which is always a nice thing to see. Last thing you want to learn about your tea is how the people who grow and pick your tea are being taken advantage of.

Once you open the box you will find a foil bag that contains all the teabags. When you actually open that foil bag prepare yourself for a wave of tea aroma because contained within is not your average 20 bag count but 50. Seriously, there is alot of aroma to take in which really puts you in the mood to do some tasting. There is one small matter with that foil bag; sealing it back up. Since the bags are not individually wrapped, once you the consumer open that large bag you really should find a way to keep the bags fresh.

As for the aroma itself, more on the tea side and less on the citrus. It definitely wasn't perfume based but it lacked that fresh citrus smell some earl grey's present.  To be fair that bit of info is explained on the back of the box.

"We've chosen a milder Kenyan tea for this blend, rather than a traditional China tea which can sometimes be bitter." 

On one of the sides, you also get the ingredients list:

Black tea (99.3%)
Natural flavor (0.7%) 

As you have heard me drone on and on about, the words Natural flavor scare me. I have also said, more companies then I care to admit, abuse the true meaning of these two words leaving consumers wondering what is really in their food; or in this case tea.  So to end, we have a (to use their words) "delicate citrus note" Earl Grey from Kenyan with fairly paid workers.



Steeping Method

So now we come to the challenging part. The part where I reveal why this review took alot more time then my typical reviews would normally take.

"Water caught just before the boil" 

I will admit, those 6 little words really caught me out. To begin,  when I boil water in my pot I just set it to the highest mark. But what does that mean? Well as many of you know boiling means the water has obtained a temp of 212F or 100C degrees at sea level.  As an engineer I can test for this. But "water caught" is a bit more open for interpretation. So I did some searching and found a couple of different opinions on the matter. Without dragging you threw the internet opinion mud I found it to be somewhere between 200 to 210F.

Their box also stated a time range of 3-5 minutes. So for the first time in like forever I will not specifically set out to stress this tea by going over 5 minutes. My gut instinct told me that was going to happen naturally given the range of temps I had to test.

So 200, 205, 210 @ 3, 4 and 5 minutes. You might want to grab a cup of tea because this is going to take a while.

The Result

I started at the 210F temp because when you think about it, that really is just before boiling.  At 3

minutes it had a very deep but overwhelming flavor of tea but very little in the citrus area. I let it cool but the flavor did not blend well at all nor did it gain anything other then when I first tried it. At the 4 minute mark the color got darker and the flavor ended up being even more unbalanced. Cooling provided nothing. The final time of 5 minutes took all the bad parts and made them worse. To end this was clearly not the temperature the tea blenders had planned for.

I then moved onto the 205 range and at 3 minutes things improved. The color looks about the same but the flavor wasn't so overwhelmingly tea. You could now start to pick out the bergamot. It still wasn't balanced but now you could honestly label this tea as light. After a bit of cooling I wanted to say the tea gained a bit of citrus but it was still a small amount and the balance was still weighted towards the tea. At 4 minutes the color darkened and the bergamot was a bit more present. Meaning you could taste it a bit more. The two ingredients were now getting closer to being a more balanced light tea. Cooling provided a bit more, but like before, nothing changed a great deal. At the 5 minute mark it felt like the temp and steep time were still not right. Yes there was more color but the balance was still off and the citrus notes were still missing.

I gotta tell you, I was getting a bit nervous. So I started in with the 200 temperature in hopes of finding my preferred temp and right away this tea changed for the better. At 3 minutes this was now a decent light earl grey. The citrus still wasn't a large part of the flavor but the tea just tasted better. The lack of over powering black tea allowed the bergamot to provide some flavor. Cooling allowed alot more balance which made me look forward to the next time. At the 4 minute time I thought things were going to greatly improve but they didn't. The color was more suited to a lighter tea, the black tea added to the taste instead of overpowering it and the bergamot was more enjoyable. But it still lacked balance, so I let it cool a bit. Thankfully that was the final piece to this entire steeping puzzle. After about a minute and half the blend came together. The tea mellowed a bit, the light citrus was there and the color looked good. To end the 5 minute time went beyond where I like it and actually brought the black tea back to where the bergamot was no longer blended. Cooling definitely helped but not like the 4 minute time.


Re-Steeping

Given the sheer number of permeation's that all of the above steep times would give you I stuck with the 200 range. Keeping in mind this tea was designed to be on the light side (citrus) you must set expectations correctly. If you go with 200 @ 4 mins, then I would do the same 200 but at 5 mins for two light teas.


Final Thoughts

Like I said at the start, this was unlike any review I had done before, this one took time and now you can see why.  To be honest I still worry that I didn't compare different temperatures enough (Meaning 200 @ 4 vs 210 @ 4. )  but given the shear volume I had to draw the line somewhere. To summarize you have a tea that is sourced in a fair way but you are unsure of the actual ingredients. This tea must also be given extra time to prepare to insure the proper temps and allowed to cool before you can enjoy it. Not to mention this tea is by design a "delicate citrus" flavor so personal preferences abound.
To wrap this up, if you like to quickly throw on some "citrusy" Earl Grey using boiled water and ingredients matter to you,  I would skip it. But if you like a deeper flavor and are willing to spend some time making this tea your own by way of experimenting with steep times and temps, I would definitely suggest you try it.  

Review #56 - Twinings Earl Grey International Blend (loose)

So where do I begin? Lets start with, where have I been. In order to avoid all the details and just get right to it, here is the cliff note version. I spent some time in the hospital around Thanksgiving and then spent some time after that recovering. I'm nearly back to where I was but expect to be so in a few short weeks. Before you post well wishes do me a favor and say a prayer (send good thoughts, etc) to some of the people who I met while in the hospital who have much larger issues to deal with then me. Those are the people we should be praying for. After all of that the holidays occurred which meant no time for reviews. Now that you know everything, well nearly everything, lets begin the review.

Aroma

As you can see in the picture, the tea comes in a larger sized tin. or as they put it, a caddy.  It is

vacuumed seal so when you pull the plastic cover off the tin you are met with all the aroma at once. You would think the amount of aroma for this much tea would be overwhelming but it wasn't. A quick glance at their leaf symbols on the front of the tin explained why. Only 2 of the 5 leaves were colored in., indicating a mild flavor strength. The aroma itself is more tea then bergamot with a deeper smell rather then one based upon citrus. I wondered what was in the tea and headed off to the Twining's site.  Here is what I found:

Black Tea, Bergamot Flavouring  

For those of you long time readers, you know this sort of listing disappoints me. As I have said countless times I understand how business works. If you have some sort of secret sauce that makes you tons of money you want to protect it but the second part is where I shake my head. What is flavouring? Wondering if this was some English (US) to English (UK) wording I looked around the site and found it was used in three other offerings of Earl Grey.

I'm sorry but in this day an age of GMOs and all the rest, the word flavoring just doesn't cut it.


Steeping Method

This may sound nit picky but I can't read their brewing instructions because the font size on that tin has be around a 3 or 4pt. Seriously, there is a boat load of information on that tin but there is no way I can read it. Yes I'm getting to age where reading glasses are being considered but even my oldest son couldn't read most of the print. It's just that small.

So I decided to go with the typical 3, 4 and 5 minute steep times.

The Result

I started at the 3 minute time and got a light tea. The aroma improved from the tin but it still had that deep smell and not one of fruit. The color was very light but I guess that was expected especially given the number of leaves Twining's used to describe it. I let the tea cool a bit, but not much changed.

I moved on to what I typically call my favorite steep time, 4 minutes. At this time the color grew darker and the aroma increased with it's deep smell. The flavor was a bit more balanced but again that unique aftertaste was there. To be perfectly honest, I didn't like it at all. I decided to let the tea cool a bit and hoped some of the sweetness would tone down the aftertaste. It helped alittle with both the balance and the aftertaste but it was still there.

That left me only one path to take, try the 5 minute steep time. Thankfully this time provided some help. To begin, the flavor was much more balanced the minute I poured a cup. The aroma was still deep but the flavor had more sweetness to it which helped offset the deep aroma. But most importantly, at this steep time there was no aftertaste. What ever was causing that extra flavor was no longer there once you added that additional minute.

To end this section, none of the steep times provided any real additional flavors when cooled.


Re-Steeping

It really comes down to the after taste. If you try it and like that flavor, then you can resteep no problem especially if you like a light tea. Go 3 minutes then 4. You'll get the aftertaste in the first steep but not in the second. If you are like me, go 5 then 5 again. The first steep will be what I described above and the second will be on the light side. But at least you won't have any after taste.

Final Thoughts

I'm sorry but I can't help but wonder what type of flavoring is causing that after taste. I don't want to sound harsh but most aftertastes are caused by artificial ingredients either alone or mixed with natural. Adding to that, there are plenty of profitable tea houses that provide better information on their tea so I don't see why everyone can't do it. With that said I will end with a familiar statement. If you are like me and like to know what is in your food then I would not suggest this tea. But if you don't share my views, then I would go with the 5 minute steep time for a decent Earl Grey.

Review #55 - Tea Chest Classic Earl Grey (bagged)

I mentioned in my last review that I had tea coming from different people / companies. Well one of those shipments arrived which meant they were going to be the next. I'm also happy to mentioned that Tea Chest was cool enough to give my readers a little something special. It should be noted they offered up this deal before I even had their tea so I like their confidence.

"we'd also like to give you and your followers an exclusive offer to get two free Earl Grey teas with the first 20 orders of 10 teas from us."

So if after reading this review you feel like you would like to support this company, head on over and make sure to tell them you heard about their tea from the Earl Grey Addict. Onto the review.

Aroma 

The rectangular and somewhat flat box arrived with all of it's Royal Mail stickers in proper order on one side, along with a neat hologram sticker seal on the front. Contained within was a boat load of samples. Since I was able to pick the ones I wanted from their site I selected 2 Earl Greys to make sure my review was not based upon just one attempt.

The samples, as you can see in the picture, were silver coated on one side and clear on the other. The bags within were more of a triangle pouch then just your traditional flat bag. The bag ripped open very easily letting me get my first chance of an aroma test. After a few deep breaths it was clear this tea was very subdued. You could barely pick up on the tea but I didn't detect any perfume at all.  A quick trip to their website provided this:

"Our blend has no artificial flavours and has been created using only the finest Bergamot essential oil. "

I like seeing this information but at the same time I like to know what I am drinking. I would have liked to see which black tea they choose for their blend with maybe a location but as I have said before, I understand that trade secrets are just that. Yes, yes I know I sound like a broken record sometimes and to be fair they do have a "India" tag but I just like knowing.

Next stop, steeping info.

Steeping Method

I will let their site do the talking:

Temp: 100C
Steep: 3-5 mins

So with two sample bags in my possession I decided upon 4 and 5 minute times.

The Result

Starting where I always do, at 4 minutes, I found a very lite tea with a lite color to match. The aroma improved a bit but this is a very lite tea. So to make sure I wasn't missing anything I went back their site and did some additional research and sure enough this is what I found:

Taste: Crisp, Floral, Fresh, Fruity, Lite, Mellow, Mild.

So that made me feel better. I knew I only had two bags so I wanted to get it right. As I did all this the

tea cooled and the flavors blended a bit more and just like TeaChest had said, this mellow and mild tea arrived. With that knowledge in mind, it was off to the 5 minute steep time to see if letting it cool would bring more flavor as well.

At the 5 minute time the color got darker, the aroma improved a slight bit but most importantly the flavor improved. We are still talking about a lite tea but at the 5 minute mark the flavors seem to blend more giving a more balanced tea. To complete this part of my testing I let this time cool a bit and again I got the same result. A bit more balance, still mellow and mild but now it had some fruity parts to it.

Re-Steeping

Given the already mild and lite flavor I really didn't expect much from this tea. At the 5 minute time there was very little flavor left so for me, re-steeping was not an option. At the 4 minute time, and if you let it cool a bit, AND if you like your Earl Grey on the very lite side, I guess you could re-steep.
So 4 on the 1st, 4 on the second.

Final Thoughts 

Going back to my tried and true wine analogy this tea is in the Chablis arena. I on the other hand prefer a Chianti or Cab Sav. I can appreciate that not everyone enjoys tea the way I do so I will say this. If you are like me, then I would probably suggest a bolder tea, but if you like your tea lighter, then I would have no problem suggesting this tea because it's exactly what they said it would be.

Review #54 - O Organics Earl Grey Organic Tea (bagged)

As you know I run this little part of the tea reviewing world in a fun relaxed "kinda" way. That means if someone/some company says they are going to send me tea I tend to modify the tea que if the next tea in line is something I bought. I just look at it this way, if someone is willing to provide a product for review free of charge, the least I could do is not make them wait...too long. Well this review kinda breaks that process because I may have 3 different people sending me tea. So as I wait, lets sneak one in.

Aroma

The entire "O" box is wrapped in plastic and once opened you will be greeted by 20 individually wrapped bags looking exactly like the box. If only I was better at photography I would have created one of those picture inside of a picture inside of the picture, etc, etc, photos using the 20 bags. But I'm not so I ripped one open and took a nice deep breath and got.... nothing. And when I say nothing I mean absolutely nothing. I honestly believe the bag itself provided more aroma then the tea or bergamot. I was very surprised so I tried another bag and got the same result. To be fair we've seen how sometimes the aroma test I do really doesn't provide any insight into the final flavor but absolutely no aroma is just a bit weird.

If at this point you are scratching your head because you've never heard of the O Organics brand don't worry. The brand is an exclusive thing only found at a supermarket called Shaw's located in many of the New England states in the US. I've done some research but couldn't find the actual "creator" of this brand. What I can find is what they have on their site:

this line of goods earned the official USDA Organic Certified stamp of approval – a rigorous, and rewarding process to say the least. It all starts with carefully selecting producers who meet our extremely high standards for organic farming, and only partnering with those who share our commitment to sustainable practices, while promising to never use synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and antibiotics.

Update: @teaprincess50 was nice enough to alert me that O Organics can also be found in California at Safeway. After some quick searching I found the merger announcement.  Score one for the internet/social media.

With respect to their tea here are the ingredients straight from the box:

Organic black tea leaves, natural bergamot flavor. 

I think we all understand corporate secretes and such but knowing what kind of black tea would have been a nice touch. But that should not overshadow how much EGA likes seeing the organic stamp. Next stop, steeping times.

Steeping Method

Directly from the box:

...rolling boil...let steep for 3-5 minutes...remove teabag and enjoy

This means 3, 4, 5 and of course, stress testing.

The Result

At the 3 minute mark the tea was very light in color and very light on taste. The aroma appeared but

again, not like most other teas. I let the tea cool but no additional flavors came through. Simply put, at 3 minutes, there is very little tea flavor.

At the 4 minute mark things improved a bit. The color improved and started to take on that darkened color us Earl Grey drinkers look forward too. The aroma also improved but only slightly. The flavor on the other hand took a good step forward but only produced a thin and shallow taste. At this time the bergamot came through a bit and given how light the tea was sorta blended and balanced out. I again let the tea cool but things stayed pretty much the same.

That brings us to the 5 minute steep time. The colored darkened a bit more and the aroma definitely improved. You could actually enjoy the aroma and know for sure you were holding a cup of Earl Grey. Sadly the flavor was still very thin and provided no depth. It should be said it was balanced but that was it. After letting the tea cool a bit the tea did sweeten up a bit which added a bit more flavor but just to repeat myself, still very thin.

Which brings us to the stress testing phase of this review which this tea passed. Yup, I just left the tea bag in an kept drinking. To be honest, this is what produces the most, and I use that term loosely, flavor. It didn't taste burnt at all so I performed this test twice just to make sure and I hadn't messed up. No burnt flavor.

Re-Steeping

Given how you gain the most flavor by leaving the bag in, I cannot suggest re-steeping this tea.

 Final Thoughts

Initially I was pretty excited to have a local supermarket carrying an organic Earl Grey at a price matching the main stream companies. But as you can tell from the review, you really need to be a fan of very light tea for me to suggest this Earl Grey. I'm hoping this is their first step into the tea market and maybe they can improve the flavor as the brand grows.



 

Review #53 - Celestial Seasonings Earl Grey Black Tea (bagged)

With school back in, or very close to being back in, I thought it a perfect time to review this particular tea. To be honest most people don't associate Celestial Seasonings with anything but herbal tea. I personally drank Lemon and Raspberry Zinger teas during my college years. I would use one bag a day and keep refilling until all I had left was hot water. As a financially restricted (cough) college student it was a cheap way to drink something warm during the cold winter months as you went from building to building attending classes. So when I learned of, and then found their Earl Grey I knew the back to school time frame would be perfect for this review.


Aroma

As with every CS box I have ever seen, the entire box is plastic wrapped. Once past that, you will meet a familiar tea bag holder. Meaning the bag that holds all 20 of their bags in a resealable "wax" bag. So when I got this far I was ready for a nose filled with tea and bergamot and all the rest. Sadly, I got very little. I couldn't pick up on any bergamot, and the tea was rather subdued as well. That got me wondering what was (or was not) in this tea.

From their site:

Our Earl Grey Black Tea features rich and malty Assam tea from India’s Sewpur Estate and lively Rukeri tea from Cyohoha Estate in central Africa, plus a light citrusy note from bergamot.  

 According to their site this tea is part of their Organic, Fair Trade Certified, Estate Teas. Adding to that point was this bit of info:

product contains only natural ingredients with no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. Certified Organic and Fair Trade Certified.

Needless to say everyone here at EGA enjoys seeing those words. To end this section, we have a organic tea, that has everyone being paid a fair wage but has very little aroma. Lets see how it fairs for the rest of the review.

Steeping Method 

Straight from their site:

Hot Tea by the CupPour freshly boiled water over one tea bag. Steep 4 minutes and remove tea bag. If desired, add milk and sweetener to taste.

That means we will be hitting 3 - 5 minutes and then stress testing.

The Results

For this review, and given all the times I would need to test, I went in numerical order with 3 minutes

being my starting point. Boring but it works. At this time frame the newly steeped tea almost tasted burnt. I was getting no bergamot and the tea, like I said, wasn't giving me a nice black tea taste. So I waited a bit and things improved. A bit more bergamot came through and the black tea flavor improved but not my type of Earl Grey at all.

Which bring us to 4 minutes. The color improved by getting darker along with a bit more aroma being released. When I first tried it after removing the bag, I wasn't impressed at all. The flavor was not blending or allowing each ingredient to shine. So I let it cool a bit and what a difference. As the tea cooled the flavors blended and the entire tea came alive. What an improvement over the 3 min time and what a difference when let to cool. I repeated this step to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong and sure enough, same result. The only thing this tea missed is complexity. Yes it was good, yes it was balanced but it just missed that finish to make it a great tea.

At the 5 minute time frame you could actually drink the tea right away but again, the bergamot wasn't ready to join the party. Even though the color was darker I decided just to let it sit and cool and see if 5 would beat 4. In this case two things happened. 1. The flavor did improve with the cooling but 2. I picked up some burnt flavoring. So there would be no stress testing. CS said this tea was best at 4 minutes and in this case, they were right. Sadly there will be no stress testing today.

Re-Steeping

Gonna admit going into this phase of the review I had my doubts as to whether this tea coulc produce a second cup from the original bag. I'm happy to admit, I was wrong and you'll never doubt the times that ended up being the best. 4 minutes for the 1st and 4 minutes for the second. You know I like the first steep time and the second isn't bad at all.

Final Thoughts

As you can probably guess I have a like / no like attitude toward this tea. At 4 minutes I could drink this tea everyday especially given it's organic source. But if you change the steeping times on me, I no longer like this tea. But given how Celestial Seasonings said 4 minutes, I would suggest you try it as well because CS is more then just Zinger.

Review #52 - Wize Monkey - Coffee Leaf Earl Grey Tea (bagged)

(theme to Mission Impossible in the background)
Earl Grey Addict, your mission if you so choose, is to review a tea that is not tea in the regular sense of the word AND doesn't yet exist on the market. This review will test all your tasting abilities, steeping tests and your ability to properly form a coherant, cohearant, corhearant, an easy to read review. If you accept this challenge you will be one of the first 50 people in the world to ever sample this tea. Good Luck EGA, the tea world is counting on you. This post will never self destruct.
(end theme)

Aroma 

I'm sorry but when Wize Monkey first contacted me for a review, I really didn't think anything of it. Then I found out they were trying to create a whole new genre of tea by using coffee leaves.  The whole story is on their site and worth the time it takes to come up to speed on this new concept. Then they dropped the real bomb on me by saying the Earl Grey they wanted to send me had not even hit the market yet. Seriously, it's not even listed on their website.  So I jumped at the chance and before I knew it, I had two bags of Earl Grey coffee leaf tea in my hands. I'm not going to lie to you, this is cool.

The rather large sized tea bags arrived in heat sealed plastic bags. As I have stated before, if a company is willing to send me tea for review I don't review the vessel it comes in. In this case the company is still in its infancy so that's all I'm going to say on the packaging. By the way, when I say "a rather large sized bag" I mean almost the length of my hand (wrist to nearly covering the pinky) and about the same width. When I opened the plastic bag I was met with an aroma I have never met before. Which makes perfect sense since I've never had coffee leaf tea before.

So I spent a bit more time then usual taking in the aroma because I didn't want to miss anything. To be honest I could barely pick up on the bergamot. I had to really hang in there and concentrate before I picked it up because the tea was just so strong. The reason for this as I have alluded too, is the leaves are made from coffee beans. If you have checked out their website you'll know all about the huge benefit this type of tea would bring to people who's financial stake hang on just one crop. Being able to pick the coffee beans and then the leaves from the same plant would provide some much needed financial support to those who may be supplying your morning coffee fix.

Steeping Method

Because of the communication I've had with the "founders" of this company I received a hand written note stating the following:

"We would recommend a steeping of 5min on this one to fully get the aromas." 

It was signed by non other then the CEO and COO, Max and Arnaud. (Ha I get to name drop)

So with two bags in hand I carefully considered what steeping time I would use for the second. I decided upon 6 minutes.


The Results

At the 5 minute time the coffee leaf overwhelmed the bergamot while still very hot. The flavor of the

tea itself is like a mix of black and green tea with some very fresh honey. I'm talking the kind of honey you get from a local farm and not some brand name jar that has been filtered and all the rest. The flavor is very unique and I liked it. As the tea cooled the bergamot gained a bit of ground but for me the balance was off. The coffee leaves were just so strong. As regular readers of this blog know I like a nice balanced tea and so far the leaves were winning this one.

So I tried the 6 minute time and this steep brought out more of the bergamot while also at the just brewed state. The balance was still missing so I let the tea cool a bit and that's when this tea came to life. The tea and the bergamot instead of being two distinct flavors joined as a good Earl Grey does. Knowing this would be my only attempt at this tea, I tried to make it last as long as possible. For me, this showed the potential of both this type of tea and it's ability to help create a good Earl Grey.

Re-Steeping

Could this tea be re-steeped? Being the diligent reviewer I did not shrug my testing requirements. I re-steeped both bags and sampled tea at the 5 and 6 minute mark. The answer to the question on my mind was, sorta yes. If you go 6 minutes on the first time and then 5 minutes on the second you will get a very light Earl Grey but again don't drink it right away. Allow it too cool.

Final Thoughts

Given how this tea tasted, I really think Wize Monkey has got something special. Would l like a bit more bergamot? Yes but that's just me. But as for the flavor, the ideas behind this tea, and the potential, I really hope Max and Arnaud continue what they have set out to do. Because if their website one day finally has an Earl Grey listed, I'd buy some.






 

Review #51 - Taylors of Harrogate - Earl Grey Leaf Tea (loose)

Before we begin, I mentioned in the previous review that I was adding a suggestion page that would also show what is in my review que. I'm happy to report that it is up and running which means you can now be part of the process. So if you have a tea you would like to see reviewed, let me know. Since I am but one man with limited resources, and you are the internet, don't be afraid to get out there and find new teas.

By the way I shouldn't have to say this because it should just be automatic, but if you find it/suggest it, you will be given attribution in the review. Now off to the review.

Aroma

It's probably some form of M.C. Esher illusion thing going on but the Taylors container looks huge. So being the typical engineer I compared it to some of my other boxes. Funny thing though, it's actually shorter then some of the tea boxes I have in house and it's width isn't that much bigger either. Like I said, it's an illusion. As for the box well it's not, it's actually a tin that is sealed with a plastic wrapper around the cover. Once removed, and you take the cover off,  you will find a sealed bag matching the color of the cover; lets call it gold. Upon opening this bag I was met with tons of aroma. Then again with a 125grams of tea in the bag aroma is something there should be plenty of, and there was. As to its smell, it was not the typical citrus filled aroma I look for. This was a restrained smell like someone took the high notes off the smell and left only the low notes. Almost like it had already been brewed and cooled a bit all while retaining it's freshness.

So what is in this tea? From the bottom of the container:

Ingredients: Black China tea, natural oil of bergamot.

 Two remaining points.

The first, the bag which holds the tea can be re-used. It comes with a plastic tab covered with adhesive. If careful, after taking some tea, you could roll the bag down and use the tab to hold it together. I've see this before and it works pretty well. I like to see this added feature because it allows people who have yet made the full jump to loose tea the chance to keep their tea fresh. Too many of the teas I've reviewed have a bag that once opened, will need to be transfered to an appropriate container or have your tea go stale.

Second, I could be drinking the same tea the Queen of England drinks.

we are loyal suppliers to the royal household and are proud to bear the Royal Warrant, the ultimate stamp of quality.

Steeping Method

Directly from the box:

Use a warmed teapot and add one teaspoon of tea per person and an extra "one for the pot". Add freshly boiled water and infuse for 4-5 minutes. 

That means we'll be testing 4 and 5 minute steep times.



The Results

Starting with my normal 4 minute time I found alot of flavor right after it was

brewed. The color wasn't the darkest I've seen and to be perfectly honest I thought I had messed up on the brew time. I repeated the whole process and got the same result. The flavors were balanced and really worked together. But the thing I wasn't expecting was how it changed as it cooled. With some teas I let them sit to allow things to mix and create complexities, but this tea was reversed. This tea was made to drink right after brewing. When it cooled it actually mellowed a bit.

I then tried the 5 minute steep time. The color darkened a bit but remained on the lighter side. Again as it cooled it mellowed losing some of it's complexity.  The balance in flavor remained even though there was more of it to be enjoyed. Now before you accuse me of forcing you to drink piping hot tea, let me state, I'm not. What I am saying is, you can start enjoying this tea right from the beginning. While some teas take time to balance out, this tea is ready to go the minute it is poured from the pot. Not to mention the mellow flavor is not bad just a touch less in overall flavor.

 Re-Steeping?

I'm happy to report you have two options. If you like the 4 minute time for your first steep, then go with the 5 minutes on the second. Now this may sound strange but if you like a first steep of 5minutes then go 4 minutes on the second to avoid any bitterness. Either way the quality of  this tea really shines through with it's ability to re-steep.

Final Thougths

If what their site says is true, this is Royal level Earl Grey tea. The flavor is balanced independent of which steep time you choose. The aroma is deeper then most but still very fresh. Overall, I'd say you really should try it yourself because I'm guessing you will probably like it.