Allyson Whipple

Category: tea

The Earl Grey Year Part 6: Classics and Florals

This week, I return to both Classic Earls and Floral Grey blends. I believe this is also the first post in which every tea is international (to me, at least). Two of the blends are from The Cove Tea Company in Canada, and the other two come from Emeyu Tea and Chaplon Tea, which are both Danish. The latter two teas were part of the lovely tea package that came from my Instagram friend @royal_teacups.

This post is also one where I unconsciously started incorporating the knowledge I was getting from my tea sommelier training into my tasting evaluations. The information is starting to really settle in my brain to the part where I can now apply it outside of structured assignments. While I am only on the second course of the program, I can see how consistent engagement with the course material is helping me as I continue with this project.

Two Classics

This week, I found myself wondering whether I could continue finding interesting things to say about classic blends. I feel like many of the standard Earl Grey teas I’ve tasted lately are good. However, it’s difficult to write about things that are simply good. Even when it comes to excellent blends, I was beginning to think I was reaching to find more to say about tea and bergamot oil.

Fortunately, my in-progress tea sommelier training came to the rescue! Now that I’m learning more about the components of tea and the experience of tea tasting, I’m developing a new vocabulary to augment these reviews.

Earl Grey, The Cove Tea Company

The Cove Tea Company uses Sri Lankan black tea and Italian bergamot in their Organic Earl Grey. This is an absolutely refreshing blend that is easy to sip on all day. The bergamot shines through, and there is just the right amount of astringency to make the tea brisk without becoming overwhelming.

I’ve been learning more about astringency in Tea 102, which I’m enrolled in right now as part of my Tea Sommelier training. While we won’t go more in-depth until future courses, even this brief overview has helped me understand this flavor component of the tea-drinking experience. The big revelation for me is that astringency and bitterness are not the same thing. I had always conflated the two. Rather, bitterness is a flavor, while astringency is a mouthfeel sensation. Think of the dryness you might feel in your mouth after eating underripe fruit. (For more detail, including some science, check out “What Does Astringency Mean for Green Tea Drinking?”)

Ultimately, I do enjoy a bit of astringency in my black tea. That’s even one of the things I enjoy about it. If my black tea isn’t a touch astringent, I’m actually a little disappointed. (Conversely, I would be annoyed by an astringent white tea.) But that dry mouthfeel can get overwhelming, which is why balance is so crucial. Since bergamot is citrus, it is also astringent, meaning that an Earl Grey can become overwhelming.

My belief at this point in the project is that the way to prevent overwhelming astringency is to single-source black tea from a consistent region, and blend accordingly. Since tea and bergamot are both crops, there are a number of variables that impact astringency from harvest to harvest, so not everything is in the blender’s control. But single-sourced black tea seems to be a defining feature. Earl Grey from The Cove Tea Company exemplifies that.

Tiny Kingdom, Emeyu

Emeyu Tea doesn’t specify what kind of black tea they use in their Tiny Kingdom blend, but Italian bergamot is listed as the next ingredient. On the very first sip, the bergamot came on quite strong and the tea seemed a little weak, but as my cup cooled, things evened out. By the end of my tasting, everything felt well-balanced.

One of the things I’m noticing as I continue with this project is that there are a number of blends out there that are nice, but don’t wow me. I don’t regret tasting them, and certainly wouldn’t object if someone served me them, but I also wouldn’t buy them if left to my own devices. For me, Tiny Kingdom is one of those. On the whole, I enjoyed my sample of it, but ultimately, I felt that while it was perfectly nice, it didn’t rock my world.

I’ve stated this before, but I’ll say again that every palate is different, so these tasting reviews are ultimately subjective. You might try Tiny Kingdom and think it’s exceptional rather than good. I do think this is a blend worth trying if you can easily get a hold of it. It’s a truly straightforward Earl Grey, and if you enjoy a tea that is no muss, no fuss, this might be just right for you.

Two Florals

This week, I tasted two different floral blends. One is the familiar Earl Grey with a lavender addition. Given what I’ve learned about astringency this week (which I detail even further below), it’s a little amazing to me that lavender is such a common addition, as I’ve learned one reason why this flower, while beautiful, can also throw off the entire tasting profile of a specific tea.

I also tried a blend that incorporates rose and jasmine. While I didn’t delve into astringency levels for these additions, one thing I did start thinking about is how each addition has the potential to introduce a new level of complexity to a tea. Of course, more is not always better. Any sort of addition beyond bergamot means the tea blender has an additional type of challenge: how to incorporate the new flavor in a way that truly enhances the tea tasting experience, rather than distrancing from it.

Provence, The Cove Tea Company

The Provence blend from The Cove Tea Company contains black tea, bergamot, and French lavender. I was impressed with the balance of lavender to bergamot. While the lavender outshines the bergamot just slightly, it doesn’t overwhelm it completely. I get a well-rounded cup of black tea, lavender, and bergamot flavors.

One of the things I learned in my reading about astringency this week is that lavender is even more astringent than black tea! That makes a lavender Earl Grey extra challenging for blenders. As mentioned above, black tea and bergamot are already astringent. When you add lavender, that’s yet another astringent layer, and it’s more potent than the tea base! No wonder it’s easy for the bergamot and/or the tea flavor to become overwhelmed in a Floral Grey.

As you might have surmised, I’m fascinated by everything I’ve learned about astringency over the past few weeks. I’m loving applying what I’m studying to this tea tasting project. My major takeaway with this blend is that the folks at The Cove Tea Company once again have a good sense of the different levels and types of astringency in each component of this tea. This is an excellent blend that I would add to my regular tea rotation.

Earl Grey, Chaplon Tea

Because the ingredient list includes jasmine oil and rose petals in addition to bergamot oil, I decided to classify the Earl Grey from Chaplon Tea as a Floral Grey. In this blend, Chaplon blenders have used black tea from the Uva province of Sri Lanka.

All in all, this was a lovely tea to enjoy on a spring day. (St. Louis has since been plunged back into winter weather.) The black tea has a nice, bright quality to it. There’s some astringency, but it’s not overwhelming. I found it quite refreshing.

My one minor disappointment in this tea was that the jasmine got overshadowed by the bergamot and rose. I love the taste of jasmine, and when I saw the ingredient list on the tea bag wrapper, I got really excited. I certainly have no complaints about bergamot in general (it would not have been smart for me to take on this challenge if I did). As I’ve noted in previous posts, it can be easy for bergamot to get obscured by other flavor additions. Here was the first time I felt that the bergamot was the one doing the obscuring!

This was still a perfectly enjoyable tea. Honestly, if I hadn’t read the ingredient list on the wrapper, I wouldn’t have noticed the jasmine didn’t come through. This was an enjoyable tea that I could imagine drinking all day long. I also wonder how it would fare as a cold-brewed iced tea; it’s possible the jasmine might come through better.

By the Numbers

As of this writing, I’ve tasted 29 Earl Grey blends. I only needed to be at 27 for March (I mistakenly said 28 in my Part 5 post), so I’m a little bit ahead. I’m going to spend much of the remainder of the month tasting non-blended teas in order to pass my cupping exam for Tea 102 as part of my Tea Sommelier training. I feel like the cupping exam for this course is going to be much more challenging than the Tea 101 exam was, and I want to give myself ample opportunity to prepare.

With four more teas tasted since my last post, the proportions haven’t changed that much, but Floral Greys and Special Blends have taken a slightly larger share of the proverbial pie. One of the things that’s interesting for me to note is that outside of the Classic blend, teamakers tend to lean toward florals, followed by additions that don’t fit neatly into a single category. I thought I’d have ended up with more Creme Earls in my tasting list at this point (since that’s an established category), as well as more Tisanes, since not everyone wants caffeine. However, since I’m not even at the halfway point yet, there is still plenty of time for things to change.

While I haven’t entirely settled on the topic for the next post, I have a feeling it will be a mix of classics and special variations. While I’d initially planned on four of a single category per post, there are far more classics in my queue than there are other varieties. With that in mind, reviewing two categories per post seems like the best way to maintain a variety throughout the course of the project.

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

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

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

March 20, 2024
The Earl Grey Year: Cremes and Special Blends

As with last week’s post, this week I’m combining two categories: Creme Earl Greys and Specialty Blends. I describe each category in their respective sections. Since I simply have fewer of these tea categories in my Earl Grey lineup, combining them ensures they get written about in a timely manner.

A quick housekeeping note before I begin. Last week, you might have noticed that I started adding a reference list to the end of my posts. This list is a running inventory of all the reading I have done for this project, whether or not I have any citations in a particular post. I obtained many of these sources through my access to an academic library. If you want to access them and need help, let me know!

Two Creme Earls

Earl Grey Creme teas usually consist of black tea, bergamot, vanilla, and cornflowers. However, there is some variation within the theme. Blenders often omit the cornflowers, as they ostensibly only create pretty leaves and do not impart flavor (I disagree on the latter point; while the flavor is subtle, I find it easy to detect). A smaller number of blenders omit the vanilla. And, like bergamot, vanilla has a range of flavors depending on its country of origin.

Creme Earl Grey is not my favorite variation. It’s easy for the vanilla (if used) to overwhelm the bergamot, and often it tastes overly sweet or artificially creamy. Even when the blend is made by a skilled tea artisan, it’s simply not my preference. Still, the two teas featured in this week’s post were perfectly enjoyable, and if you like a creamy tea without the milk, these might be your new favorites.

Earl Grey Creme, The Steeping Room

While it’s no secret that I’m a huge Steeping Room fan, I have to admit that this is not my favorite of their offerings. A Creme Earl is already not my preferred tea, so it’s going to take a lot to wow me. This is a perfectly nice cup, and I’m glad I tried it, but when I make my next Steeping Room order, I’m going to be stocking up on extra Eastside Earl Grey instead.

The main thing that kept me from loving this blend is that the bergamot doesn’t quite shine through enough when stacked against the creme flavor. This particular blend does not use vanilla. I know some of the creaminess is coming from the cornflowers, but I’m wondering if the “compliant flavor” listed on the label contributes to that as well. The bergamot is there, but some of its vibrancy is dulled.

Despite the fact that this Earl Grey Creme doesn’t suit my particular preferences, it’s still a nice, easy cup to drink. Someone who is a big fan of Creme Earls would probably enjoy this.

Earl Grey Moonlight, Adagio

Adagio has a number of Earl Grey variations. Their Earl Grey Moonlight contains black tea, orange peel, blue cornflowers, vanilla flavor, bergamot flavor, and creme flavor. A sample pouch makes 10 cups, so I had ample opportunity to try this blend. The first time I tasted it, I was still recovering from bronchitis and had sinus congestion. However, the dry leaves were so fragrant that I could still smell everything! Between that and the prettiness of the dry leaves, it made a nice first impression.

As for the steeped tea, it was an enjoyable cup, though I felt that the vanilla overpowered the bergamot. The flavor was smooth and enjoyable, and everything was well-balanced enough that I could drink multiple cups in one day . . . but when push came to shove, I didn’t especially want to. I would have a cup of it and then be ready to move on to another tea.

As with The Steeping Room’s version, if you like a tea that has a creamy flavor without having to add dairy, you would probably love this blend. People who enjoy vanilla would probably enjoy this as well. Certainly if I was given the choice between a straight vanilla flavored tea and Earl Grey Moonlight, I would choose the latter. I like vanilla, but it’s just not my favorite tea flavoring, so I enjoyed having some citrus to balance it out, even though it didn’t really shine.

Two Special Variations

Special variations are Earl Grey blends that do not fit easily into one of my other categories. For example, a blend that includes a mix of green, white, and oolong tea (as described below) is a special blend because it includes three types of tea rather than just the standard black. Special blends might also include unusual additives, such as coconut (you’ll see an example of that featured in a later post).

Special variations can be fantastic, or they can fall flat. When they’re done well, they provide an innovative approach to a common tea blend. They bring a sense of surprise and fun into the drinking experience. When done poorly, however, additives can overwhelm classic flavors, or the tea can feel like a novelty beverage.

Smoky Earl Grey, Fortnum & Mason

In my very first post of this series, I wrote about a disappointing tasting experience with Fortnum’s Earl Grey Classic. Their Smoky Earl Grey was the complete opposite experience; I adored it. According to the Fortnum & Mason website, this blend was the original Earl Grey the company created and sold. It was developed because a member of the royal family requested an Earl Grey blend with more oomph. They did not disappoint!

The smokiness of this blend comes from the inclusion of lapsang souchong and gunpowder green teas. Because the blend includes both green and black teas, and because lapsang souchong is not a standard Earl Grey base, I’ve classified this as a special variation.

The success of this brew is a testament to the skill of Fortnum’s blenders. It would be easy for the lapsang souchong in particular to completely overwhelm the bergamot. However, they have managed to create a cup in which the citrus and smokiness hold their own. It’s a unique tasting experience.

Earl Grey Supreme, Harney & Sons

The Harney & Sons Earl Grey Supreme combines black, oolong, and white tea, which is what places it in the Special Variations category. This is a visually stunning blend, with the brown oolong leaves creating a sense of texture, and the silver tips providing contrast. The dry leaves also smell stunning. You can sense all of the teas along with the citrus.

In terms of taste, the black tea dominates the oolong and white tea. I was hoping for something a little more dynamic, but it didn’t register with my palate. The bergamot is bright and vibrant, and shines even though there is plenty of flavor from the tea itself.

The Earl Grey Supreme is a popular blend among Harney fans, which illustrates that even a beloved blend isn’t right for every single tea drinker. Although the flavor was good on the whole, there is a tannic intensity that prevents me from truly enjoying it. I can have a single cup and then I’m done. As someone who prefers to pick one tea and drink it all day long, it’s disappointing that my stomach can’t handle much of this blend. I’m also not clear on what causes that issue for me, as this is the first time it’s happened on this project.

By the Numbers

As of this writing, I’m officially at the 25% mark! The yellow on the tracking chart is getting bigger, and I feel like I’ve hit a real project milestone. I also only have three more teas to taste in order to stay on track for March, and considering we’re barely a third of the way through the month, I’m in a comfortable position.

Since so little time has elapsed since my last project update, I’ve only sampled two new teas, meaning that the proportions haven’t changed very much. Posting this category breakdown right at the 25% mark did inspire me to go back to the first post in this series to see what has changed. On January 20th, I only had four categories; now I have six. Classic Earl Grey still dominates, with Floral Greys still in second place. Creme Earl Greys and Special Variations still are proportionately tied. While a few things have changed, much is still the same.

Now that I’m more caught up with the blogging portion of this project, I’m not sure what the topic will be for the sixth installment. It might be another round of classics, or it might be another mix of categories. Either way, expect at least one more update in March, if not two.

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

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

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
Twinings. (n.d.) “What is Bergamot?” https://twinings.co.uk/blogs/news/what-is-bergamot

March 11, 2024
The Earl Grey Year Part 4: Greens and Tisanes

Before diving into Part 4 of this series, I want to take a moment to thank Mark of seasonwords.com for making a contribution to my project wish list! The Winter White Earl Grey he funded has been ordered and should arrive by the end of the week!

While I had initially planned to only write a blog post when I had consumed four teas in each category, last month taught me how things like shipping issues could throw a wrench in those plans. In addition, looking at my current queue, it’s clear that certain types of Earl Grey are simply far more prevalent than others. In order to prevent the tasting rate and the blogging rate somewhat proportional, I decided to feature two smaller categories in this week’s update.

Two Green Earls

I classify a Green Earl Grey as any blend that consists of green tea and bergamot. (While there are some blends that combine green and black tea, I have placed those in a separate category.) Since green tea ranges from grassy to smoky, and has a flavor quite distinct from black tea, I think that Green Earl blends are worth exploring, even if you haven’t enjoyed standard Earl Grey in the past. Hopefully you’re inspired to try one of these!

Earl Grey Green, Adagio

This Adagio Teas blend contains green tea (variety unspecified, though I’m guessing sencha), orange peels, natural bergamot flavor,and cornflowers. The leaves, citrus, and flower petals look lovely in the infuser basket. The dry leaves and the wet leaves both have a nice scent, with the citrus coming forward.

The stepped tea itself is very bergamot- and citrus-forward. I actually don’t get much green tea flavor at all. However, the bergamot/citrus is not overwhelming, which suggests to me that the tea is doing some subtle work to keep everything in balance. This would probably be lovely as a cold-brew iced tea.

Since green teas can usually be resteeped 2-3 times, I factored that into my analysis of this category as well. Unfortunately, most of the bergamot and citrus did not come through on a second infusion. The green tea is still nice, but if you’re looking for sustained bergamot across multiple infusions, you’re not likely to find that here.

Duke of Earl, Cove Tea Company

At last, the chance to sample my long-delayed Cove Tea Company package. I’m happy to say it was worth the wait. This blend contains green tea and specifies that it uses Italian bergamot. It’s a truly straightforward, no-fuss variation on this classic tea.

The dry leaves smell lovely; the bergamot comes through quite well. The taste has a nice progression: a hit of green tea at the front, with the bergamot blossoming at the back. It’s a light blend, but also complex. In my reading this week, I learned that “Bergamot essential oil produced in Italy is ranked as of the highest quality at the international trading market” (Avila-Sosa et. al, 2015, p. 247). In the course of this project, I had already started to notice that bergamot marked with its country of origin tends to contribute to a better-tasting tea. While I’m finding things to like about bergamot from all regions, the biggest takeaway so far is that when a blender uses bergamot with a named location, I am probably going to have a more pleasurable tasting experience.

In terms of resteeping the tea, the bergamot is still present on a second infusion, but considerably weaker, but still quite enjoyable. The bergamot doesn’t really survive a third infusion, but you’re still getting a nice cup of green with a whisper of citrus. This is a lovely blend perfect for the onset of spring.

Two Tisane Earls

A Tisane Earl is any blend that does not use actual tea, but rather an herb such as rooibos or honeybush as the base. Of course, bergamot is a nonnegotiable part of the mixture. Tisane Earls are generally a good option for people who love the taste of bergamot but can’t have caffeine. (However, be sure to check with your doctor to ensure that the herbs in question don’t interfere with any medications you may be on or worsen any medical conditions you might have.) So far, rooibos is the most common herb I’ve found as the base of an Earl Grey tisane.

Earl Grey Rooibos, Artful Tea

Rooibos seems to be the kind of herb that people either love or hate, with little in-between. For me, it was love at first sip, but even with my general enthusiasm, I know that some types of herbs, oils, and flowers work better with rooibos than others. While I’ve been a fan of rooibos as an Earl Grey base for most of my adult life, I also know it can be difficult to pull off well. Rooibos is assertive and strong; bergamot is much lighter.

Fortunately, the blenders at Artful Tea understand how to balance out bergamot oil with the rooibos to ensure a pleasurable drinking experience. What’s especially impressive is that they make this work while sticking to the basics. The blend consists only of rooibos and bergamot oil. There is no extra citrus, no flowers, no other herbs to balance things out. When you stick to just the two ingredients, they have to be just right. There’s no room to hide, and the team at Artful Tea pulls this off masterfully. A common refrain on internet memes is, “10/10, no notes,” and really, I can’t think of a better way to describe this tisane.

If you don’t like rooibos at all, you probably want to skip this one. I think bergamot is a delightful addition, but it certainly doesn’t make the rooibos disappear. But rooibos fans should give this a try, especially if you haven’t had any sort of rooibos-based Earl Grey yet.

Rooibos Earl Grey, Adagio

For many years, the only Earl Grey blend I would drink was the Rooibos Earl Grey. Adagio was the first brand I tried, but I’ve enjoyed plenty of others as well. Based on my earlier bad experience with regular Earl Grey (discussed in Part 3 of this series), I refused for the better part of a decade to drink any sort of real tea with bergamot.

For their Rooibos Earl Grey, Adagio combines rooibos orange, blue cornflowers, and natural bergamot flavor. Although I haven’t had this particular blend in quite some time, I’m happy to report that it’s as enjoyable as I remember.

Like most Adagio teas and tisanes, the dry blend is quite pretty. The rooibos smell dominates, but once the hot water is added, the bergamot and orange peel come through. Drinking the infused tea, I find a well-balanced cup where the rooibos and bergamot both come through. I think that’s impressive, because rooibos can be heavy-handed. I think the orange peel helps to keep things well-balanced and keep the rooibos from overpowering everything else.

If you don’t like rooibos, you should avoid this blend, because the bergamot and orange peel don’t make it go away. However, if you’re a rooibos fan, give this a try. It certainly has a special place on my tea shelf.

By the Numbers

As of this writing, I’ve tasted 23 different Earl Grey blends. It’s hard to believe that at the end of the month, I’ll be more than 25% of the way through the tasting portion of this challenge! I’m pretty sure I’ve already had more Earl Grey this year than I have in the rest of my adult life, which I find amusing. The good thing is that I’m not tired of it yet!

While classic versions of Earl Grey are still the best represented, other categories are beginning to stand out. I’m close to having enough of both Creme Earl Grey and Special Variations to give each of those a post of their own, though honestly, based on this post, maybe I should do another half and half in order to keep the blogging momentum going.

I have close to 50 teas in my tasting queue, which is exciting. It’s a good feeling to not feel like I have to hurry up and buy more tea. That being said, there are still 50 teas to add. If you have any suggestions, leave a comment! If it already happens to be on my list, I’ll consider that a sign to make it a priority tea.

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

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

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

Twinings. (n.d.) “What is Bergamot?” https://twinings.co.uk/blogs/news/what-is-bergamot

March 6, 2024
The Earl Grey Year Part 3: Four More Classics

Between winter weather and the foibles of the United States Postal Service, I was worried that I was going to completely lose momentum on this project in February. Although I had plenty of tea on hand to stay on track with the tasting schedule (I only need to sample 9 blends a month to stay on track), I didn’t have enough variety to get four teas in the same category, which meant I couldn’t keep up with blog posts.

The short version of the story is that January’s winter storms meant that my samples from Cove Tea Company went out about two weeks later than planned. Obviously that couldn’t be helped. But the parcel got shipped as soon as the weather cleared, and was supposed to be delivered by February 6th. After it cleared customs on the West Coast, it was at a distribution center in St. Louis . . . and then for some reason sent to Chicago to go through customs again. After that, it bypassed St. Louis and ended up in Dallas, then Louisiana, and then went through another round of customs in Miami before finally making it to my house on February 26th. And at no point was anyone at USPS able to offer me an explanation for what happened. But I have to say, nothing creates a business/customer bond like the shared experience of constantly tracking the adventures of a tea package that seems to be having a great road trip.

Fortunately, my friend @royal_teacups on Instagram sent me an abundance of Earl Grey samples. Although the package had to make its way across the ocean, somehow it arrived in just over a week, while my Canada package was meandering all over the place! I really appreciate Inessa’s generosity because a number of the samples she sent me would be difficult to get in the United States. Plus I get to try some brands I might have never encountered otherwise! This bumper crop of tea samples meant I finally had enough classic blends to do another post on that category.

Four More Classics

As a reminder, I define a classic Earl Grey as containing black tea and bergamot. No more, no less. The tea can be single-source or it can be a blend, and the bergamot could be from any of the various regions, but a standard Earl Grey should only contain these two things.
In this post, I cover some Earl Grey teas from companies large and small, including a revisit of the first Earl Grey I ever tried. The final two teas are part of the package that @royal_teacups sent me.

Earl Grey, Bigelow

Back in my first post for this project, I alluded to the fact that a certain Earl Grey tea making me ill caused me to avoid the blend for years. For the sake of being polite, I chose not to reveal the name of that brand. After all, I was still new to tea; perhaps an error in my preparation had made it that unpalatable. But since I ended up drinking the Bigelow Earl Grey for this project, I think the context is important.

I didn’t set out to revisit the Bigelow Earl Grey. I have not consumed a cup of it since that day in my dorm 18 years ago, when I could make it only halfway through the cup. However, one day I was eating lunch at work and noticed that, among the assortment of bagged teas in the breakroom, were several boxes of Bigelow Earl Grey. And I figured it would be foolish to not make a cup of it for this project, especially when it was freely available and only required a walk across the office to acquire. Acquiring 100 different Earl Grey teas requires a bit of effort, so once in a while, it’s worth going for the low-hanging fruit.
I’m happy to report that this time around, the Bigelow Earl Grey did not produce any ill effects! In fact, I was surprised to find myself loving the first sip! The bergamot was more toward the lemon end of the spectrum (as opposed to orange), and the blend was smooth. Unfortunately, as the tea cooled the bergamot flavor seemed to weaken. I suspect that this tea being in a standard commercial tea bag (as opposed to a sachet or loose leaf) is part of the problem. The leaves in commercial tea bags tend to be fannings (or sometimes dust, but I imagine a company like Bigelow uses fannings), and while those can produce a highly concentrated tea flavor, sometimes that can overwhelm other aspects of a blend. (For more information on fanning and other tea grading terms, check out this great blog post from Herbs & Kettles: “A Guide to the Tea Grading System.”)

Earl Grey Français, Artful Tea

Although the name might suggest otherwise, this blend from Artful Tea is a straight-up classic. The tea base is a blend of Ceylon and Yunnan teas, and the Français in the name refers to the French bergamot that is used for flavoring.

In my quest to understand the differences between Italian, Turkish, and now French bergamot (which so far have been largely unsuccessful), I did learn that bergamot became fashionable in France in the 16th century, when aristocrats wore it in perfume. (For more information on the history of bergamot, check out “What is Bergamot?” from the Twinings blog.)

This is an absolutely beautiful blend, and is my favorite of the teas I tried for this post. I think there’s something about French bergamot that really resonates with my palate, because I tried this tea on January 26th (over a month before I was able to write this post), and I am still thinking about what an excellent tea it is. This blend uses Yunnan tea as the base, and something about that particular tea with the right amount of French bergamot is magical.

It’s on par with my known favorite, the Eastside Earl Grey (EEG) from The Steeping Room. Once I’m done collecting samples of Earl Grey from far and wide, this is a tea that I can see living alongside the EEG as a permanent part of my tea stash.

Earl Grey, Magasin du Nord

Magasin du Nord is a famous department store in Copenhagen, so I’m grateful to @royal_teacups for the teamail, since I don’t imagine I’d have had a chance to try this otherwise! I did have to run the website description of the tea through Google Translate, but thanks to translation software, I was able to find out that this Earl Grey uses a blend of black teas, though it doesn’t specify which ones.

Whatever teas they use, the black tea flavor is delightful. The bergamot tends toward the subtle side. As I sampled it, the main word that came to mind was “refreshing.” Even though I was drinking this tea hot on an unseasonably warm day (80 degrees Fahrenheit in February!), I truly felt refreshed after drinking it. There’s no bitterness to the tea; everything is bright and delicious. This is an easy tea to drink. Between the smoothness of the tea and the lightness of the bergamot, I don’t think this particular tea would be enhanced by milk or cream. If you like sweetener, though, I think honey would be a marvelous addition to this blend.

Decaf Earl Grey, Lupicia

This tea really fell flat for me. The leaves looked nice; this tea was packaged in a pyramid sachet so the leaves had room to expand. However, after steeping this tea from Lupicia, the best adjective I could come up with was bland. It wasn’t a terrible tea; the Keemun they used had a strong, earthy flavor. But I could barely detect any bergamot. I tasted the black tea almost exclusively, and had to really seek out traces of citrus.

I admit to having a bias against decaffeinated tea, but I did my level best to go into this tasting with an open mind. When I was really having trouble picking up the bergamot flavor, I even took a break and drank some sparkling water to cleanse my palate and try again. Ultimately, though, I didn’t particularly enjoy this as an Earl Grey.

By the Numbers

I’m closing out February slightly ahead of schedule, with a total of 20 teas sampled since the start of the year. With all the tea mail I got at the end of the month, I don’t need to worry about acquiring more samples for a while, which is a good feeling. The volume of Earl Grey in my tea collection also means that I’m going to be able to write these blog posts more frequently.

Traditional Earl Grey blends still dominate the tasting list (no surprise, considering this is the second post devoted to them). However, in February I also drank more special variations, and also added some Earl Greys made with green tea, as well as some Earl Grey tisanes (herbal teas).

With the new samples that have come in, I expect to be able to write about special variations and tisane Earl Greys in the near future. I’m also excited to finally be able to delve into the variety of samples I got from Cove Tea Company!

Support the Project

Read previous installments here:
The Earl Grey Year Part 1: Four Classics
The Earl Grey Year Part 2: Four 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.

February 29, 2024
The Earl Grey Year Part 2: Four Florals
This was supposed to be a blog post about four Lady Grey teas. Because until this past Tuesday, I was living under the belief that Lady Grey tea was Earl Grey with lavender. I was living under this impression because the only tea named Lady Grey that I drink regularly is from The Steeping Room, and that contains lavender. But after seeing a number of Earl Grey and lavender teas that weren’t called Lady Grey, and also noticing that the Edith Grey from Big Heart Tea Company contained rose, I began to question whether or not I actually knew what the Lady Grey blend was supposed to include.

I ended up creating polls on Threads and my Instagram Stories soliciting input on what Lady Grey tea actually is. Some people shared helpful articles or left comments and voice notes. I learned two things from my polls:
1. Lady Grey tea was in fact developed by Twinings in the 1990s. It’s a trademarked blend that includes lemon and orange peel in addition to bergamot.
2. I’m not the only one who was confused about Lady Grey tea.
My Threads poll showed the greatest Lady Grey literacy; most people identified the blend as Earl Grey plus citrus, but over a third of respondents thought that Lady Grey contained lavender. (One commenter said they thought that Lady Grey simply contained less bergamot than regular Earl Grey, which is also a thing I have heard, but can’t remember seeing.)

On my Instagram stories, on the other hand, 75% of respondents said they believed that Lady Grey contained lavender, while only 25% correctly identified it as Earl Grey with citrus peel.

I had initially been tracking every floral Earl Grey as a Lady Grey tea, but now that I know otherwise, I have changed the category to Floral Grey. Rather than just have a category for Earl Grey with lavender, I created a more expansive title to focus on any sort of floral inclusion. I think Earl Grey is a fantastic base for any number of flowers, and I don’t want to pigeonhole too many blends in a miscellaneous category, so Floral Grey is the new category from here on out.

Four Floral Grey Teas

This week’s entry doesn’t just introduce the category of Floral Greys. I also get to write about two local companies! All of these companies have online ordering, allowing you to sample their teas even if you live far away.

Organic Lady Grey Black Tea, The Steeping Room, Austin, TX

Although billed as a Lady Grey, this is a lavender-based blend. The ingredient list includes black tea, lavender flowers, bergamot oil, and lavender extract. The dry leaves look absolutely gorgeous with a fragrance to match.

This blend has a mellow sweetness to it, almost like honey. I’m not sure what specific black tea is used in the blend, but it’s a nice, well-rolled full leaf, and I’m guessing it’s the characteristics of the tea bringing out that particular flavor. The ratios of bergamot and lavender also work well together. I find bergamot to be a little delicate, and because of that it can be overpowered by other flavors. But the folks at The Steeping Room have struck a solid balance. While their Eastside Earl Grey remains my favorite, this is an excellent tea for lavender-lovers.

Edith Grey, Big Heart Tea Co., St. Louis, MO

This is the only blend in this week’s update that does not include lavender. Per the Big Heart Tea Company website, Edith Grey tea contains single-origin Malawi tea, bergamot oil, and rose. I got this blend as part of the 12 Days of Cozy Tea calendar I bought back in December. (Since I was already doing a standard advent calendar, I saved the 12 days for the actual Christmas period, though I actually ended up saving this blend so I could drink it as part of the project.)

I really wanted to love this tea. Rose is an iffy flavor for me, but I always want to be able to champion my local businesses. While many of the teas in the Cozy Tea Calendar were fantastic, I’m sorry to say that the Edith Grey blend wasn’t one of them. Neither the bergamot nor the rose came through enough for me, and considering I often find rose overwhelming, that’s really saying something. The black tea base was excellent, but unfortunately, it dominated the rest of the inclusions.

I will say that among existing Big Heart customers, the Edith Grey is a popular blend, with 4.7 stars (out of a possible 5); the blend is also often sold out. Perhaps the amount that ended up in my Cozy Calendar teabag was not a representative sample; perhaps the physical proportions were unbalanced.

(Because I just can’t bring myself to be totally negative about a small, local business, I will say that there were other teas in the Cozy Calendar that I loved. The Winter Chai and Royal Treatmint were my favorites.)

Earl Grey with Lavender, Cornucopia Kitchen, Kirkwood, MO

I received a sample of Cornucopia’s Earl Grey with Lavender blend from a coworker when she saw me drinking a cup of Earl Grey at the office. She didn’t even know I was doing this project, just gave me a bit of her purchase in order to share the joy of tea! I can’t speak much to the specifics of this blend, because Cornucopia has a minimalist website, but on the whole, I enjoyed it.

In this cup, I found the lavender to outshine the bergamot in both the smell and the initial taste. That being said, as the tea cooled, the bergamot flavor was able to come through a bit more. Of the lavender Earl’s I’ve tasted so far, this one had perhaps the weakest bergamot taste, but it was nonetheless enjoyable. (It’s also worth remembering that everyone’s palate is different, and while I crave a hearty bergamot taste, that’s not everyone’s preference.)I think someone who is iffy about the taste of bergamot but wants to explore more Earl Grey teas would enjoy this very much.

While I don’t get out to Kirkwood very often, the next time I find myself in the neighborhood, I will make sure to pay Cornucopia a visit, and I would probably purchase this blend again.

Earl Grey Lavender, Artful Tea, Santa Fe, NM

Artful Tea’s take on a floral Earl Grey is my favorite of this category so far. While the aesthetics of the dry leaf aren’t everything (a dry tea can be visually stunning but taste terrible . . . we’ve all been there), the addition of cornflower petals alongside the lavender creates a blend that is gorgeous to look at both before and after steeping.

While the lavender is the star of the show, it manages to shine without overwhelming the bergamot. I think that the addition of the cornflower petals helps balance things out. While cornflowers are often considered to have a neutral flavor, I know many people (myself included) detect a faint sweetness from them. I’m not a supertaster, but whenever I taste cornflower in a blend, it brings with it a sort of light, creamy sweetness.

This is a tea I will definitely add to my Earl Grey rotation. The only reason I wouldn’t recommend this to someone is if they didn’t like lavender, because that particular flavor is unmistakable. Other than that, though, I think this is an excellent blend.

By the Numbers

As of this writing, I’ve tasted 11 different Earl Grey teas, putting me slightly ahead for February. I have 8 more untasted teas in my spreadsheet, plus my Instagram friend royal_teacups is going to mail me some Earl Grey from Denmark! When February starts I’ll finish my Artful Tea samples, as well as dive into the Cove Tea Company samples that got delayed two weeks due to the wild winter weather.

Classic Earl Grey teas are still the dominant style I’ve had, with Floral Greys in a close second. While I haven’t tasted an Earl Grey tisanes yet, I have a few in the queue, as well as some more special blends. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll return to Classic Earls in the next post, or branch out. We’ll see where the tasting menu takes me!

Support the Project

Read previous installments here:
The Earl Grey Year Part 1: Four Classics

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.
January 29, 2024
The Earl Grey Year Part 1: Four Classics

Welcome to a 25-part blog series in which I review (kind of) 100 different Earl Grey teas over the course of 2024. I wanted to do a big tea-based project, and ultimately, drinking a range of Earl Greys seemed like the best bet. 100 different Earl Grey teas is a lot, but really, I have to drink less than 10 a month, and if you knew how much tea I drank on the regular, you would realize that’s a perfectly reasonable challenge. Earl Grey is also a tea that doesn’t necessarily need milk or sweetener. It’s versatile, bright, and honestly, was a tea that took me a while to like. So challenging myself to really go deep into this style of tea seems like a fun way to develop my palate.

Each post will consist of four sections: a discussion of four teas I’ve tried, grouped by category, and then a breakdown of my progress on the tasting journey, including charts that show what I’ve drank across categories. I hope you enjoy this tea journey as much as I do!

Four Classics Earl Grey Teas

I define Classic Earl Grey as containing only two things: black tea and bergamot. Of course, there are a number of Earl Grey variations, and I have set up categories for those. For this initial post, though, I want to focus on four versions of the standard blend.

Eastside Earl Grey – The Steeping Room, Austin, TX

Eastside Earl Grey is at a distinct advantage, as it’s a long-established favorite. In fact, when I first tried Earl Grey back in 2006, I hated it. It actually made me throw up! It wasn’t until 2022, when I made an Earl Grey ice cream pie, that I tried the tea again. I went to The Steeping Room to buy their Eastside Earl Grey because I wanted to use quality tea as part of my pie. The pie was delicious, but with all the cream and sugar in the pie, I wasn’t sure I really loved the tea, or if the parts I disliked were mitigated. Of course, there was plenty left over, so rather than waste it, I started brewing it. To my surprise, I couldn’t get enough. I was finally an Earl Grey convert.

The Eastside Earl Grey uses real Italian bergamot, and I think both the real and the Italian make a difference. I understand why some tea companies make the decision to use artificial bergamot. But the way mashed potatoes from scratch are more satisfying than mashed potatoes from a box, real bergamot makes a better impression than artificial. Sure, there is a time and place for boxed mashed potatoes; in fact, they might scratch a sentimental itch. And there is a time and place to use artificial bergamot. But tasting an Earl Grey that uses a real bergamot was a game–changer.

Ultimately, this tea holds such a special place in my heart that it will be tough for any other Earl Grey to compare. This was the first tea I drank in 2024, and though it’s a familiar cup for my palate, it always tastes fresh.

Earl Grey Classic – Fortnum & Mason, London

It feels sacreligious to say that I didn’t like this blend. Fortnum & Mason is a legend. The bergamot smell was strong on the dry leaves, but I wrote in my tea journal, “It feels like as soon as the water hits the leaves, the bergamot washes away.” Of course, that’s not literally true. Otherwise there would be at least one cup with an overwhelming hit of bergamot. Certainly, though, that was how it felt over the course of drinking six cups of it, hoping that I would find something to like. But infusion after infusion, I couldn’t taste the bergamot once it was steeped.

Fortnum & Mason doesn’t specify on their website what kind of bergamot. The ingredients for this blend are “Tea, Flavouring.” (I admit that I love the simplicity.) Since it’s not specific, it’s tough for me to point to a specific reason why this tea didn’t work for me. I did also note how small the leaves were. Compared to the Eastside Earl Grey, which has big, full leaves (see, I told you this was the standard), these were tiny, and just didn’t look visually appealing either dry or wet. Again, there are no specifics about the tea, so it’s tough for me to make a definitive statement, but it certainly didn’t help things.

(Don’t worry, I had a much better experience with Fortnum’s Smoky Earl Grey, but that’s a topic for another post.)

Earl Grey Organic – Tea Market, Kansas City, MO

I appreciate that Tea Market includes the specific teas included in this blend. There are three black teas in this Earl Grey: Assam, Ceylon, and Nilgiri. In addition, they use Turkish bergamot instead of Italian. I tried to do some research on the differences between Turkish and Italian bergamot. Reading some scientific abstracts online, there are definitely some differences in the various chemical compounds. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get access to the full articles, so all I could discern is that Turkish and Italian bergamot are not exactly the same. But this is only the first post of the year, and I am confident that eventually, I can probably get access to some quality scientific information.

Like the Eastside Earl Grey, I found this blend to be incredibly well-balanced. I felt that the bergamot was more subtle than the Eastside Earl Grey. I’m not sure if that’s because of the specific chemical components of Turkish bergamot, or something specific to my palate. While I prefer a bolder level of bergamot, ultimately, this was still an enjoyable Earl Grey that I would drink again.

I find that there are two types of people who are resistant to traditional Earl Grey: those who do not like black tea, and those who do not like bergamot. For someone who is skeptical of Earl Grey and knows they don’t love bergamot, this might be a good one for them to try. It’s a great example of a bergamot that is flavorful without being aggressive. This could easily be a tea that converts someone to Earl Grey.

Earl Grey – Artful Tea, Santa Fe, NM

The kind folks at Artful Tea sent me samples of all four of their Earl Grey blends. Thanks to Karen and the team for supporting this project!

The classic Earl Grey from Artful Tea is similar in balance to the version from Tea Market, in that the bergamot is subtle, but the black tea is not overpowering. This is another version of Earl Grey that would be great for a skeptic who doesn’t love bergamot. I certainly understand that skepticism. When I first tried an Earl Grey in 2006 and got sick, it was because of the bergamot flavor. (Side note: since I began writing this blog post, I decided to give that brand another try . . . but that’s a post for another day!) In both this blend and the Tea Market blend, you can taste the black tea and bergamot easily; neither overpowers the other.

The Artful Tea approach to Earl Grey involves straight Yunnan tea rather than a blend of teas. In addition, like most blenders, it uses Italian bergamot. One of the things I noticed in my tasting was that sometimes bergamot tastes more toward the lemon end of the spectrum, and sometimes it tastes more orange. As someone who is more partial to lemon and less partial to orange, this is a blend that will have a regular place on my shelf. One of the things I should consider in future study is whether Italian bergamot has more lemon-related compounds than orange.

That being said, there are a number of factors that can influence the molecular structure of bergamot. Soil quality and climate conditions can have an effect on the fruits from year to year. We can’t just say Italian bergamot always tastes one way, Turkish always tastes another, and Greek a third way. There are no absolutes, and honestly, I think that’s lovely.

By the Numbers

As of this writing, I’ve tasted 8/100 Earl Grey teas. I need to taste 9 a month to stay on track, and with 10 days left to go in the month, that’s reasonable. I’m taking a little tasting break through the weekend to avoid boredom, and also to focus on the tasting homework for my tea sommelier training. (Yesterday I started sampling the delights from the Lunar New Year box from The Steeping Room, and today I am enjoying some samples from the My New Favorite Tea box.)

As far as categories go, I’ve sampled four classic Earl Greys, two Lady Greys, one Creme Earl Grey, and one special variation. I will elaborate more on those categories in future posts. My plan is to sample two more Lady Grey teas and have that be the focus of my next post. I’ll do my best to do four of the same category in each write-up, but I might not be able to do that if I want to stay consistent. We’ll see! If you have any recommendations for Earl Grey teas for me to sample, please leave a comment!

Support the Project

Enjoying this series? You can support my tea wish list here, or send me a DM on Instagram if you have samples you want to share! (I’m now realizing I don’t have a proper contact page on this site, but I’ll remedy that for the next post.)

For more tea content, check out my tea pairings playlist on YouTube.

January 20, 2024
The Best of It: Teatime Edition
I love it when my tea matches my teaware
1. A cup of chocolate chipotle chai from The Steeping Room
2. Milk oolong
3. Ti Kwan Yin
4. Jasmine Green Princess Tea from Teapunk Teas
5. Congou
May 6, 2021
The Best of It: Tea Edition
My favorite cup and a French press of fog tea
1. The Merit Occupied Japan teacup I found in a thrift store in rural Illinois over the holidays.
2. I’m glad I decided to sign up for the Tea Embassy monthly subscription; I got the cheapest plan, and wow, I got my money’s worth.
3. The sweet hand-written notes that came with my first monthly shipment.
4. The fog tea in this month’s shipment. Wow, I have a new favorite.
5. Receiving Easter tea as a gift from my mom.
April 6, 2020