Review #59 - Pique Tea Earl Grey Organic Black Tea

That sound you just heard was my review system going up in a mushroom cloud. That's right, the tea sent to me doesn't really fit into my system. For example, I normally stress test most bagged teas. Can't do that with this one. Re-Steeping is another thing I look into. Buzzed! Again, can't do that either. So why is everything so messed up? Lets get on with the review so you can understand why things are soooooo different.


Aroma

As you can see from the photo there is no bag per say. Meaning there is no tea bag in the typical sense of the word because this tea has already been brewed and then crystallized. I guess you could call it powdered tea (Dare I compare it to Matcha?) but we'll stick with crystallized since that's the name Pique uses. To give you a sense of how small this package is I measured it. 3 1/4" x 3/4" at about 1/8" thick. On the front is their company name and the words Earl Grey. On the back Organic information and brewing directions.

As for the actual aroma, not much of anything which I guess is normal for this type of tea.  Given how small the package size is, there is little room for many details. So I headed on over to their website and grabbed the following:

Our delicious Earl Grey is made from the finest Organic and Fair Trade certified leaves from the world-renowned Idulgashinna Estate in the Uva region in eastern Sri Lanka. A really special area, at 3,300-6,500 feet in elevation, the Uva region receives tons of rain in winter very strong, dry winds in late summer. 

As I already touched on it, this tea is organic and sourced from Fair Trade certified tea farms so good on both points. So how do you make...brew...create.... this new tea? Lets find out.


Steeping Method

I will now present the shortest write up for this section of any review. Ready... because if you are not ready you will miss it.

                   Pour package contents into glass, add boiling water, stir and drink.

That's it.


The Result


So lets start with the tea itself and then discuss other matters. The tea has a good color and the aroma appears the minute the water hits the crystals. I would describe it as mellow, meaning it doesn't have alot of citrus to it but it definitely doesn't give off any form of perfume. The tea itself is just like it's aroma, mellow. The flavor is closely balanced weighted more towards the tea then the bergamot. Again I prefer a bit more citrus but this tea is exactly as they describe it on their site.

I let the tea sit for a bit and it pretty much remained the same as when I first poured it. As for complexity this tea doesn't really change all that much in the mouth. The first sip is very much like the last leaving a touch of sweetness. With the tasting out of the way lets talk how this tea may or may not influence the tea market.

Normally I wouldn't talk about such matters but given how quickly I was able to review this tea, I felt like I had the time and space. To begin, one of its strengths is the repeat-ability of this tea, the other is speed. As for steeping, it has to be one of the easiest I have ever tried. You don't need a pot to brew it in, you don't need to worry about getting the brewing time just right, it all just works and fast. Another positive is the package size and type. With most bagged teas the bag comes in a wrapper of some sort but some of them are paper and don't really hold up. The Pique "bags" could easily be thrown, yes I said thrown, into a backpack on your way out the door for a day of hiking.

Ironically one of it's biggest positives is also one of it's biggest negatives. Because the work of brewing this tea has been taken out of the equation you cannot tailor this tea to your liking. I did mess around with the amount of water in an attempt to change the flavor but my efforts only made it weaker. Also, because you need a certain amount of water to give the crystals room to dissolve going the other way is just not possible. Maybe a bit but, beyond that must start messing with their recipe.

Before I finalized my opinion I talked to a number of fellow tea drinkers and got their opinion on this new idea. Like me they were fascinated by the idea, thought it great for people just getting into tea but then paused because we all shared the next opinion. Part of the whole tea experience is slowing down and going through the whole process especially when having others join you. That is clearly missing from this experience. As one person pointed out, it very much reminded them of the instant coffee days.

So where does that leave us? As it always does, up to the individual to decided.



Re-Steeping 

Again may just be the shortest entry I've put in this section. Ready?

Impossible. Nothing left to re-steep.


Final Thoughts

Wrapping this review up will be harder then most because Pique has created something rather unique. My engineering side likes to see people push the boundaries and try new things so this tea, as I said before, fascinates me. The results speak for themselves because it's a good tea that is beyond easy to make, and is very super convenient to handle.  But at the same time that convenience does take away from the experience and the ability to tailor the tea to your personal likes or dislikes. Either way, try it and see if it fits your requirements.

Review #58 - Allegro Tea Earl Grey (bagged)

And you thought you had to wait long for the last review? 

There is no other way to put this, life just kept getting in the way of this review. As you can probably guess I rewrote this intro several times as I got closer and closer to finishing. But then something would come up and Wham...need to start over because I would lose my train of thought and need to have more of the tea and ... and ..... Well all of that is behind me. I got this tea from Whole Foods, I paid for it myself. It's organic and if I don't get this review done today I fear it will never happen. Lets begin.

Aroma

The box looks like every other tea box out there. Tiny display hole in the bottom all wrapped in sealed plastic wrap preventing aroma from breaking it's contained area. Once you get all the packaging off, you are met with individually wrapped bags. As should be the case with all bagged tea these days, no staples so that means the string is wrapped and fitted to the tag. As you open up the pouch you are greeted with a muted aroma. You definitely can tell this is Earl Grey but it's not going to knock your socks off. It's on the sweeter side but not artificial at all. It definitely has a more lemon-y smell which if you read their site is exactly what they describe:

Balanced and hearty, with natural bergamot and a hint of ripe lemon, it has a distinctive flavor and aroma that is enticing, yet not overpowering.

The tea is organic and if you spend some time at their site you will see this company is about making connections with the people who grew what they need. They also make coffee and they are part of many organizations where fair trade and everything that comes with being a responsible company is paramount.

On a personal note I was very happy to see the words balanced and hearty when I first picked up the box. I've made it very well know through my wine analogies that I like a stronger but balanced tea. Needless to say I went into this review with my interested peaked.


Steeping Method

As with many Earl Grey's the steep time of 3-5 minutes using boiling water is not a big surprise. I'll be trying all three times with my typical stress test at the end.

The Result

This tea is so linear its not even funny. With some teas you start at a lower steep time and then all of

a sudden, as you work your way into longer times, the flavor just sort of turns on. I know that's a very weird way to word it but that's how it feels and tastes to me. But not this tea, as I will now explain.

I started at 3 minutes and got decent color and good aroma. The flavor was good when first steeped but became nicely balanced as it cooled. You could pick up on the citrus but at the same time could still define this tea as being on the lighter side. Not as thin as some other teas but a little less then where I personally like them. Remembering Allegro's statement about this tea I moved on.

At 4 minutes everything increased. The tea grew alittle darker, the aroma increased and the flavor became bolder. But at the same time the flavor stayed the same. I doubted myself so I made another 3min cup and directly compared the two times. It was amazing how one tasted like a watered down (think positive not negative) version of the other. Even when I let both of the cups cooled the flavor remained just as balanced for both.

It was time to try 5 minutes and I hate to say this but again, more of everything. Darker tea, more aroma, more flavor. With some teas the balance is different from steep time to steep time. It's almost as if the tea or bergamot doesn't fully release it's flavor until a certain temp. But with this tea, that wasn't the case. Which meant it was time for some stress testing.

At 6 minutes this tea finally stopped acting like a dial where you adjust the amount of flavor you want via the steep time. No at 6 things really didn't change all that much except fot the lack of citrus. You could tell the balance was no longer there. But it was definitely an ok cup of tea at this point. That brings us to the 7 minute point where this tea raised the white flag. Yeah I pushed it too far and pretty much found nothing. Given how good the suggested times are, it was expected.

For those of you going, "come on, this tea can't be perfect" and you would be correct. This tea has very little complexity. Like a fine wine left in the mouth, you started to pick up different flavors. Not with this tea. Once you got to the point where the balance was just right, that was the flavor you would get.

Re-Steeping

For all of it's linear flavor, this tea did not fair well with re-steeping. Personally I wouldn't but if you must, 4 minutes 1st steep, and between 3-4 for the second. The second will obviously be alot lighter but if you don't mind that, go for it.

Final Thoughts

To put this quite simply, for the price, you can't go wrong with this tea. The tea is organic so you know what's in your cup. The flavor is pretty darn linear so you can control what kind of tea you are making and for a bagged tea that's pretty rare. On the down side the tea lacks complexity and I've only ever seen this tea sold at Whole Foods so availability may be an issue for you unless you are willing to order online. But overall I would definitely give this tea a try for yourself and let us know what you think.

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.