Fortnum & Mason Tea Advent Calendar - Day 5 Earl Grey Classic

 


I'm not sure I can express how happy I was this morning to see that it was Earl Grey day!!



Earl Grey is one of my favorite standard blends, and I think you can tell a LOT about a blender and a tea company based on their Earl Grey offering.


Now, the directions say that it is best without milk and with a slice of lemon - but I UTTERLY disagree.  Partly because of the discourse about how lemon and I do not get along, but also because Earl Grey, for my palate, is tastiest with a touch of cream and sugar.  So, I ignored the suggestion on how to serve it and went with my gut.


Well, I tasted it straight off the steep first of course - because with a very few companies, their Earl Grey blends are just as I want them undoctored in any way.  This is not one of those rare cases.  I took a few sips and realized that while there is not as much bergamot as there is in my standard Earl Greyer from The Republic of Tea, there IS enough bergamot flavor for me to instantly want to creme the tea.

So, I added a teaspoon of sweet cream and was in heaven.  I enjoyed this so much that I rationed my sips to make it last longer.  Alas, because of my rationing (and because I didn't put it in my heating cup), when I got hyperfixated on a project I forgot about the cup at the half way point.  The upside of that is I can say that this tastes JUST as good cold as it does hot.  In fact, lots of Earl Grey blends lose their flavor once they cool and lose the heat to carry their fragrance.  Such is not the case here.  Even with cream and cold, the flavor remained - which means if you are looking for an Earl Grey to ice or even cold milk tea - THIS is a GREAT blend for those options.


Final thoughts:  A brilliant cuppa, worth adding to the collection once I've drunk through some of my other Earl Grey boxes/ tins.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fortnum & Mason Tea Advent Calendar - Day 2 Jade Oolong

Image
 Day Two of the advent calendar and what did we get? Jade Oolong!  As good as the assam blend was yesterday, I was excited to taste the quality of today's oolong.  I had high hopes. So, I made myself a cup according to the directions -trusting them on the temperature and the timing. All in all, it's not a BAD quality oolong, but I've had better and it didn't compare at all to yesterday's cuppa.  I think the thing that cut into my enjoyment of the oolong was that this one had a sort of grassy flavor on the end note which persisted a bit into the after taste.  Because of the grassy end note it took me longer to get through the cup - so by the time I was ending the cup it had cooled.  I have to say, I'd really enjoy this as an iced oolong with a bit of added sweetness.
Read more

Tea Review: Vanilla Almond Spiced Chai by Trader Joe's

Image
 This was in the refrigerated section of Trader Joe's, and well, I love me a good chai.  Loving a good chai means that I am eternally on the hunt for good chai blends, which means I pretty much have to try nearly every chai that I come across because you never know when it is that you're going to find THE chai blend that is perfect for YOUR palate.  As such, I picked this up for a taste test. Now, the large print advertises this as a chai - but if you keep reading the bottle, the smaller print bills this as a protein smoothie, and honestly that's far more accurate.  "Protein smoothie with chai tea, almond, coconut cream, and an exotic spice blend" is how the entire label reads.  Texture wise, this is DEFINITLY a protein smoothie.  It's thick in that nearly melted milk shake sort of way, and it has a coarseness to the texture that utterly betrays the presence of the chopped up almonds.  There is also the not quite dissolved powder sensation that you get...
Read more

Tea Review: Strawberry Rhubarb Oolong Tea

Image
 It's been a hot minute since I did a tea review that wasn't part of an advent calendar, but this morning I felt like trying something new, and so - a review is in order! A while back, Plum Deluxe sent me this Strawberry Rhubarb Oolong sample as a freebe with one of my orders and it has gotten lost in my tea cupboard for longer than it should have.  This morning, while digging for the right tea to satisfy my mood, I rediscovered this little dime bag hiding among the larger stashes and decided that her time had come! First off, I was surprised that while being a billed as an Oolong, that the package said it should be brewed at boiling temperatures since light Oolongs are usually brewed at 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit and dark oolongs at 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit. But then I noticed that the oolong was blended with some black tea, and so that made more sense. I felt like drinking out of a newly arrived witchy mug that happens to be a very dark burgundy, so I don't have a photo...
Read more