March has been a great month for tastings and blogging. After a few fits and starts, the project has hit its stride. One of the things I’ve been doing behind the scenes is keeping a Best-Of list, which I’m using not just for my own recordkeeping/personal interest, but also as a fun way to wrap this project up.
The master list includes my favorite tea from each blog post. Ultimately, I’ll pare it down to my top 5 favorites, and run a giveaway where a lucky reader will win one of those teas! I’ve been wanting to host a tea giveaway this year, especially since I’ve had some good luck recently. I need to share the wealth! I was having trouble coming up with a concept, but I think that by waiting until the end of the project, sending my top 5 favorites will be a nice finishing touch.
Okay, onto the blends! This time I have two classics (both sent to me by @royal_teacups), and two special variations.
Two Classics
Earl Grey, Adventure Tea House
This tea is an example of the dry leaf presentation not matching the experience of the steeped liquor. The teabag smelled gorgeous when I pulled it out of the packaging, and the brewed liquid was dark and looked quite strong. However, I got almost no bergamot taste on the first sip. And even though the brew looked dark, the tea taste wasn’t especially strong, either.
Since I had a few teabags containing this blend, I deliberately experimented with oversteeping to see if I could coax more flavor out of it. Not all black teas are created equal, and some might actually require a longer than usual steep time. (While this has been rare in my experience, I’ve encountered it once or twice.) I found that steeping it for 7 minutes helped a little bit, but not much. Ultimately, the brew was just sort of bland.
Earl Grey, Cocoon Tea Artisans
I found this to be a perfectly enjoyable standard Earl Grey. While nothing about the blend was particularly awe-inspiring, it made for a pleasant cup. While I was starting to get concerned about how many middle-of-the-road reviews I was making in my notebooks, I ultimately realized that was bound to happen. I’m not likely to taste many truly bad teas. Likewise, just because something isn’t bad doesn’t mean it’s going to be fantastic. Those extra-special cups of tea simply can’t happen all the time. If they did, there wouldn’t be anything memorable about them. A nice, drinkable tea isn’t bad. Ideally, that should be the default!
The one aspect of this blend I found to be particularly notable was that it somehow managed to maintain a consistent flavor profile even as it cooled. Often, as the tea loses heat, a blend that was pitch-perfect when it was piping hot becomes unbalanced as it cools. Either the tea becomes overwhelming, the bergamot steals the show, or an add-in takes over. But in my tasting journal, I noted how impressive it was that this tea remained at a perfect flavor ratio through the entire drinking experience.
Two Special Variations
Earl Grey Bravo, Adagio
I admit that I was torn about how to categorize this blend. The ingredient list reads as follows: “black tea, orange peel, natural Earl Grey flavor” (I assume the final item is bergamot flavoring). On the one hand, the inclusion of orange peel makes it a Lady Grey, which is a special variation. Even though many tea blenders add orange peel, it’s not part of the true classic blend, so it should automatically fall under the special category. On the other hand, Adagio has a number of Earl Grey blends, but does not appear to have one that is straight black tea and bergamot. It seems like everything they do is a variation, and the Bravo blend is as close to a classic as they get. Ultimately, though, the categories aren’t useful if I don’t follow them, so even though this variation is simple, it nonetheless meets the requirement.
I do find myself quite fond of this blend. It’s very smooth, the kind of tea that you can drink all day. While I enjoyed it straight, I think it’s also strong enough to hold up to milk or sweetener if you prefer your tea that way. This would make an excellent tea latte!
Like many of the teas I’ve tasted during this project, while it’s enjoyable, it doesn’t necessarily stand out or have a particular wow factor. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it for yourself. Every palate and preference is different; what is simply an enjoyable tea for me might be truly special for you. While I’m not adding this blend to the Best-Of list I’ve been maintaining, I also have no complaints about it.
Mint Earl Grey, The Cove Tea Company
This is a truly fantastic blend that you will want to add to your tea cabinet. Blenders at The Cove Tea Company combine black tea, peppermint, spearmint, bergamot oil, and French vanilla extract to create a rich and complex tea. It is smooth, sippable, and is definitely the kind of thing you could drink all day.
When I taste this tea, the vanilla hits my palate first, then the mint, then bergamot, then black tea. There’s a great deal of depth, and these strong flavors are combined in a way that allows them to harmonize rather than dominate each other.
If you’re okay drinking your tea straight, I do recommend omitting milk or sweetener from this blend. There is a great deal of nuance here that could potentially be lost with add-ons. While the flavors in here are probably all strong enough to handle milk or sweetener, I think you’ll have the richest, most robust experience if you take this straight up.
By the Numbers
As of today, I’ve tasted 31 teas, which puts me comfortably ahead of schedule. That’s a nice buffer to have, as the first week of April will be devoted to passing my Tea 102 coursework, and I’ll be traveling the second week of the month. That should give me the opportunity to buy some new blends to add to my tasting roster! However, for this project, I prefer to taste at home, where I know I have the proper setup to ensure that I’m getting the best possible experience with the tea. So I’ll be on a mini-break until life settles down a bit.
Once again, not much has changed since my last post, as I’ve only tasted two additional teas. Now that I’m picking up speed, I’m wondering if this graphic is still useful in every single post. I might switch things up, and start including it only when I hit a milestone, such as meeting my monthly quota or hitting a certain completion percentage. (If you have specific feelings one way or the other, please let me know in the comments!
I’m well caught up on blogging at this point, so I have no clue what the focus of my next post will be. Certainly I’ll discuss a few classics; I have 21 untasted teas in the queue right now, and most of them are traditional. But I’m sure with my upcoming travels as well as some planned tea orders, there will be exciting new additions as well!
Support the Project
Read previous installments here:
The Earl Grey Year Part 1: Four Classics
The Earl Grey Year Part 2: Four Florals
The Earl Grey Year Part 3: Four More Classics
The Earl Grey Year Part 4: Greens and Tisanes
The Earl Grey Year Part 5: Cremes and Special Variations
The Earl Grey Year Part 6: Classics and Florals
Enjoying this series? You can support my tea wishlist here, or contact me if you have samples you want to share!
For more tea content, check out my tea pairings playlist on YouTube.
Project References
Note: This is an ongoing list of all the reading I have done so far for this project. The bibliographic entries here are not necessarily cited in this specific post.
Avila-Sosa, Raúl et. al. “Bergamot (Citrus bergamia) Oils.” Essential Oils in Food Preservation, Flavor and Safety. Ed. Preedy, V.R. (2015). Elsevier Science & Technology. pp. 247-252. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-416641-7.00027-4
Di Giacomi, Angelo and Giovanni Dugo. “Origin, History, and Diffusion.” Citrus bergamia: Bergamot and Its Derivatives. Ed. Dugo, Giovanni and Ivana Bonaccorsi. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2013. pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1201/b15375
Dugo, Giovanni and Ivana Bonaccorsi. “Composition of Leaf Oils.” Citrus bergamia: Bergamot and Its Derivatives. Ed. Dugo, Giovanni and Ivana Bonaccorsi. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2013. pp. 227-236. https://doi.org/10.1201/b15375
Heale, Christopher. (n.d.) “A Guide to the Tea Grading System.” Herbs & Kettles. https://www.herbsandkettles.com/blogs/blog/a-guide-to-the-tea-grading-system
Lo Curto, Rosario. “Uses of Juice and By-Products.” Citrus bergamia: Bergamot and Its Derivatives. Ed. Dugo, Giovanni and Ivana Bonaccorsi. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2013. pp. 531-542. https://doi.org/10.1201/b15375
Nishida, Kei. “What Does Astringency Mean for Tea Drinking?” (n.d.) Japanese GreenTea Co. https://www.japanesegreentea.in/blogs/japanese-green-tea-lovers-in-india/what-does-astringency-mean-for-tea-drinking
Twinings. (n.d.) “What is Bergamot?” https://twinings.co.uk/blogs/news/what-is-bergamot