Last  week, I tasted my 50th tea of this project! (Meaning that this weekend I’ll probably hit my tasting minimum for the month of June.) This week, I’m reviewing two traditional blends and two special variations. 

I’ve had a big learning experience since my last post. I was exchanging some messages with The Tea Girl, and she explained to me that one of the reasons she does her Earl Grey blends in more limited quantities is that bergamot oil is so quick to lose potency and flavor, more so than other oils. This makes me wonder how many teas I have felt were just so-so, particularly the bagged teas, were due to the bergamot oil being past its prime. The good news is, I’d be willing to give almost all of these teas a second chance; so far, only one has been memorably bad. So if it wasn’t a perfect tasting experience this time around, there’s always the opportunity for another tasting.  

Traditional Blends

Earl Grey, Søstrene Grene

This tea had an incredible aroma when I poured the boiling water into the cup. The scent that wafted up in the steam felt like aromatherapy. The steeped liquid smelled lovely, too. Ultimately, though, the taste was a bit of a letdown. The bergamot just wasn’t as strong on my tongue as it was on my nose. The black tea felt a little thin as well. 

I always like to go to a company’s website and read their description of the blend to get a feel for what they were going for. However, while Søstrene Grene does have a few loose-leaf teas for sale on their website, none of them are Earl Grey. Since I did receive this tea in bagged form, I searched for bagged teas as well, but all that came up was Celestial Seasonings blends. So I wonder if this was discontinued, or perhaps a promotional item. (I even worked my way through the Danish website with the few tea-related words I’ve picked up, and couldn’t find any Earl Grey.) 

While Søstrene Grene is a company that clearly embodies hygge culture, in perusing the website, they’re clearly more of a general housewares company than a tea company. While an all-purpose shop (either brick-and-mortar or virtual) can offer excellent tea (and many do), I often feel that the lack of focus on tea itself means that tea from general stores is often a bit lacking. 

Earl Grey, Twinings

I admit that while Twinings is a powerhouse in the tea industry, I haven’t had a cup of their tea in years, in part because I’ve done so much of my tea-buying from specialty shops. I couldn’t tell you the last time I bought tea in a grocery store, which is usually where I see Twinings being offered. But when I was in New Orleans in April, my hotel room had an assortment of Twinings teas available, including some bags of Earl Grey. So I added those to my tasting queue! 

I admit that, just as with many huge businesses, I have a bias against huge tea producers. I also have a bias against tea bags that only contain fannings or dust. (Loose-leaf sachets are another story.) But my experience with the Twinings Earl Grey reminded me to check my snobbery once in a while. Because yes, while many big-name tea companies don’t always produce quality tea, some of them (like Twinings) are huge names because they produce such a quality product. And fanning- and dust- grade teas put in bags, while different from loose leaf, aren’t necessarily bad. A company focused on high-quality tea is likely to produce a nice tea bag.

I honestly enjoyed my cup of Twinings Earl Grey so much that I have added it to my list of teas to buy again! It was a nice-refreshing cup. In addition, I followed their instructions for a 3-minute steep (as a reminder, if there are brewing instructions, I always follow them for the first taste), and found it to be perfect, which is rare for me. Usually I steep for 3 minutes, but on subsequent cups go for 4 or 5. Twinings really has their blend nailed down if they can get a tea bag that only steeps 3 minutes and yet I, who prefers my tea extra-strong, found it perfect. 

(I also appreciate that their instructions say “do not microwave.” I am generally live-and-let-live about brewing techniques, because taste really is subjective, but microwaving tea is one thing that I will always be a snob about, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.)

Special Variations

Sir William Smoky Earl Grey, Sibyllan’s

On the Sibyllan’s website, the Sir William blend is described as containing, “Seven different Chinese tea varieties, mostly black and green.” I understand them wanting to be vague about the specifics of the blend, because this is truly a special tea, and it makes sense that they want to protect their recipe. 

The level of smokiness tells me that at least one of the seven teas is lapsang souchong; I haven’t yet seen or tasted a smoky Earl Grey that didn’t contain it. With the inclusion of six other teas, though, the lapsang is not overwhelming. Lapsang souchong is such an intense tea that in the tasting samples for my tea sommelier course, this tea is placed in a vacuum-sealed bag, and we’re instructed to keep it away from the other samples in our tasting box after opening. But in the Sir William blend, all of the different teas work together well.

However, the number of teas creates such a complex base that I feel the bergamot is fighting to shine. There is already so much going on with the different teas that the bergamot never gets a chance to stand out. It’s not absent, but it is competing with everything else. While I do love a complex tea, this one might be a little too complex for my taste.

Mélange Ladurée, Ladurée Paris

This Earl Grey blend came to me in a giveaway package I won on travel_withmycup’s Instagram page. In addition to bergamot, the Ladurée Paris signature blend contains vanilla, cinnamon, rose, and clove. While this isn’t billed as an Earl Grey blend on their website, because of the addition of bergamot, I’m considering it a special variation. 

Mélange Ladurée is a complex blend that encourages you to slow down, concentrate, and savor it. When I tasted it, I got the vanilla and rose first, followed by clove and cinnamon, with bergamot finishing off the tasting experience. 

I have to say that my personal preference is for simpler blends with fewer add-ins, but I still respect the composition of Mélange Ladurée. I appreciated the progression of the tasting experience, with flavors unfolding over the course of each sip. If you love a tea blend full of different flavors, you will love this Earl Grey.

By the Numbers

While my blogging pace hasn’t quite kept up with my tasting pace, I’m nonetheless proud to have reached the halfway point of Earl Grey sampling! That’s the most important part to me. After all, if I’m not drinking tea, then I don’t have anything to write about!

Since I’m officially at the halfway point of tasting, I thought it would be fun to compare my very first category pie chart with the current one. When I made my first blog post, I’d only sampled eight teas, and only had four categories. In fact, one of the categories no longer exists! (If you need a refresher about what happened to the Lady Grey category, you’ll find it in Part 2.) 

 At the halfway point, two other categories make a small but mighty appearance: Tisane Earl Grey (bergamot blended with rooibos or other herbs), and Green Earl Grey (bergamot with green tea). I have not ended up creating a category for White Earls because so far, I’ve only tasted one Earl Grey that had a white tea base. I created the Green Earl category because I thought that would end up taking a larger percentage than it has so far. Given how few Green Earls I’ve found, and how many fewer White Earls there are, white tea doesn’t get a separate category. 

While classic Earl Grey blends still make up the bulk of what I’ve tasted, the Special Variations aren’t far behind. At this point, my categories are fixed; I don’t plan on adding more. It’s interesting which versions of Earl Grey are easy to find, and which aren’t; I had honestly expected more Creme Earls to show up in my queue. We’ll see where the next 50 cups of tea take me!

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

The Earl Grey Year Part 7: Classics and Special Variations

The Earl Grey Year Part 8: Cremes and Variations Part 2

The Earl Grey Year Part 9 : Four More 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