Violin in C Sharp

  Oh I was so happy to open the calendar to be greeted by this blend. Earl Grey is one of my favorite tea blends.  When done right, the Assam + the bergamot makes for a heavenly cup. Of course, when the balance is off, it can also be one of the most disappointing cups of tea to deal with.  However, all of the Assam blends in this calendar so far have been most enjoyable, so my hopes were high. I forgot to take a picture of the brewed cup, but the color was dark, yet not dark enough to be mistaken for coffee.  The color made me think the brew would be suitably strong, yet still having an overall mildness.  The fragrance was lovely, but not overly heavy on the bergamot.  There was no oily residue on the top of the cup either, which let me know that they hadn't overly oiled the leaves to get the bergamot blend.  I appreciate this. The first few sips were.... nice.  But it tasted - closed.  To be honest, most good Earl Greys do this to my palate ...

  By the time I got to a place in my day when I had the ability or energy to brew a cup of tea, it was far too late to do a black tea, so this had to roll over to the morning of the next day.  It was a good choice to do so, because this was a WONDERFUL way to start my day. I admit to being excited by just the name of the tea blend.  I do love me a good Earl Grey, and I love a nice citrus note to my tea as well. The appearance has a lovely twist to the leaves, and the aroma on the dry leaf is simply.... bliss.  The bergamot is SO strong on the nose - but in that tasty way that makes me want to dive into the tea. As you can see, it steeps to a lovely dark color.  The aroma of the tea liquor kept that lovely sweet lemony bouquet from the bergamot and whatever type of black tea they use in the blend gave the brew a nice woody note to the fragrance. The flavor.... was divine.  I like my Earl Greys bergamot heavy and this certainly was.  Often, bergamot in a...

  As already established in a previous post, I love, love, LOVE Earl Grey variations.  As such, I was terribly excited to see what I assumed from the name was another Earl Grey variation.  So, I read the description and YEP another variation. I made a pot instead of a cup. I regret NOTHING. This is so damn good.  I usually prefer cream in my Earl Grey and derivatives, but this one is good either way.  The sweetness from the honey and the extra floral from the lavender softens the tea enough that I don't NEED cream.  Still, it's luxurious and tasty with the addition of cream as well.  I felt posh and fancy through the entire pot. Final thoughts:  OMG I may need to order a tin of this.  So good.

  Hooooo boy did I get excited when I opened the door and saw the name of this tea!  Earl Grey is black tea with bergamot, Lady Grey is Earl Grey with added cornflower, so I was super excited to see what sort of variation Countess Grey would be.  Turns out, Countess Grey is Earl Grey with added orange.  ORANGE!!!  *squee!* I love black tea with orange.  So, I imagined that Earl Grey with added orange would be the epitome of delightful on my palate.  I was so certain from the write up alone that I would like the blend, that I gambled and made not a cup, but an entire POT off of the tea bag. ....... I have NO REGRETS. It was delicious straight off the steep.  A lovely amount of bergamot with the added hint of citrusy orange.  On one of the cups, I added some cream and with the milk there is an added slight floral note that I'm not familiar with which I can only assume is the taste of the marigold flowers on the ingredient list.  It's not a...

  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 ...

 This is the second blend from a variety three pack that I'm trying.  The first was African Chai - which I really enjoyed.  This Earl Grey variation uses the same Kenyan black tea as the base as was used in the Chai, so I had high hopes. When I opened the tin, the bergamot hit me in the face like a wall - and it made me smile with how delicious it smelled.  A surprising twist from the tin was that, even though it is a black tea, the tin suggests only a three minute steep in boiling water instead of the more traditional 5 minute.  I wasn't sure I would get enough flavour from a black tea with only a three minute steep.  Hence, the first time I brewed it, I did a 5 minute steep. After the 5 minute steep, the tea DID exhibit a few tells flavour wise of an oversteep.  Thankfully, it wasn't a full oversteep disaster that ruined my cuppa - but it did make me try the tin directions for a three minute steep on my second brew.  Also thankfully, the 5 min o...

 The next flavor in my Twinings gift box that I decided to try this morning was this Earl Grey with Jasmine. Now, from the front of the package, I thought it was Earl Grey black tea with added Jasmine essence, flavoring, or flowers.  Oh-ho, NOT SO says the back of the package - this is an Earl Grey mixed with a Jasmine scented Green Tea.  Boy am I glad I read the ingredients these days because that shifted my entire expectation for the flavor profile. Now, here's the thing I became worried about - black tea and green tea brew at VERY different temperatures, so I had to figure out where I thought I should brew the water on the temperature scale.  I wavered a bit for a while - but finally decided to go with the packaging and use the boiled water for black tea.   The reason I wavered and worried over this was because I do not like the harsh taste of green tea when it has been brewed with too hot water.  It loses its sweetness and dries out my mouth - and ...

 This is such a lovely variation on Earl Grey.  Steepers is a local tea shop in Campbell, California and I often enjoy the blends from their shop.  Thankfully, for those of us who do not live near their brick and mortar shop, they do have an online store where I can get my refills. I am not often a big fan of the taste of lemongrass in my western tea blends as lemongrass for me evokes sense memories of Chinese and Thai food.  In this blend, the bergamot and orange changes that lemongrass flavor enough that my Asian food sense memory is not triggered. So many Ear Grey variations turn to other florals to balance the bergamot - and while I like a good Lady Grey with the cornflower addition, other variations with rose or lavender become too floral for me.  Of course, those that add florals usually use bergamot oil instead of bergamot flower and you can see from the wet leaf blend above that there are bergamot flowers and very little oil residue.  I will also lo...

In case you hadn't figured it out - NEWS FLASH - I love tea.      Like several other tea aficionados in my extended friend group, I have managed to make my love of tea more than a simple appreciation of a beverage - I've developed my love of tea into a full blown hobby.  I collect different blends, I follow different tea companies and their blend collections the way some hobbyists follow card sets.  I have multiple drawers and shelves full of tea related paraphernalia, I have an electric water kettle that has multiple temperature settings specifically for different types of tea.... tea is a part of my daily life.  When I take a vacation someplace special, I try to find a tea cup to bring home for my collection.  For Mother's Day last year, I took my mother out to a fancy tea house to treat her to a Mother Daughter afternoon tea as a way to mark the celebration of the day. I LOVE tea.      With this in mind, it should come as no surprise ...