Allyson Whipple

Tag: earl grey

  • The Earl Grey Year Part 17: Creams and Greens

    The Earl Grey Year Part 17: Creams and Greens

    I’m fantastic at starting projects, but terrible at finishing them. I always want to give up when I’m close to the end. This is true not just of writing projects, or of going through the process to get my Pilates studio up and running, but even short-term challenges with a tangible end point. For example, when John and I summited Guadalupe Peak, an out-and-back hike that required a back-country camping permit, I wanted to give up a mile before the very end. As in, we spent a day hiking a thin trail with no coverage to step off and pee, camped in claustrophobia-inducing backpacking tents, reached the summit of the mountain . . . and on the way down, a mile from the parking lot where our car was parked, I was just absolutely and totally done. Unfortunately, there is no rescue mission coming for an uninjured hiker a mile from the parking lot. As Frank O’Hara says, “the only thing left to do is simply continue.”

    That is a long-winded way of saying I’m in a slump with this project. I’ve tasted 76 teas; I’m more than three-quarters of the way done. And I find myself losing enthusiasm for this project. Which leads me to wonder whether this is simply the end-of-project blues I always encounter with everything I’ve ever done, or if I really need to drink 26 more Earl Grey blends in my quest to really understand it. Ultimately, I rely on the evidence: I’m historically a starter, but not a finisher. This slump is most likely my monkey mind doing what it always does, getting bored as the project draws to a close and wanting to start something new. So with that, I resolve to continue on.   

    Cream Earls

    Creamy Earl Grey, Simpson & Vail

    Simpson & Vail’s Creamy Earl Grey is straightforward: black tea, vanilla, and bergamot. I admit that I’ve grown somewhat accustomed to seeing dried cornflower petals in cream Earl Grey blends, but ultimately, they don’t contribute very much (some say they don’t contribute at all), and just because a cup of dry leaves looks pretty doesn’t mean the steeped brew is of high quality. While I do like to note pretty cups of tea when I see them, that’s never the most important part of the evaluation.

    The dry leaf aroma is vanilla-forward, followed by bergamot, and then tea. The flavorings are so strong that the scent of the tea is actually difficult to detect! With the steeped aroma, however, the tea and vanilla come through equally, with the bergamot being difficult to detect. I followed the instructors for a three-minute steep, and on taste, I got tea first, then vanilla, and then bergamot. The citrus really shines on the back end, though, resulting in a bright finish.

    I did enjoy this blend, though since Cream Earl Greys aren’t my first choice of beverage, I’m hard to impress. The folks at Simpson & Vail know their stuff, and I know there are plenty of tea drinkers out there who would like this blend. There are simply other Simpson & Vail teas in my cabinet that I prefer.

    Cream Earl Grey, Ohio Tea Company

    The Ohio Tea Company blend contains a mixture of orange pekoe grade Sri Lankan black tea (I love how specific the company is in their notes!), vanilla, cornflower petals, and bergamot. The scent of the dry cup is vanilla-forward, followed by tea and bergamot, and the steeped liquid has the same aroma profile. 

    Upon drinking this blend, I find that the tea flavor is actually the strongest, followed by vanilla, and then bergamot. While bergamot appears light on my palate, it’s certainly present; I never find myself searching for it. While it’s a little lighter than I personally prefer, you’re not going to miss it. Ultimately, this is a well-conceived and expertly-executed Cream Earl Grey. I think this will appeal to a number of tea drinkers who like bergamot but are put off when it’s the dominant flavor. 

    I don’t see this particular blend becoming part of my collection, because while it does illustrate masterful blending, it also didn’t change my life. I admit I feel a little bad saying that, as this is my first review of an Ohio Tea Company blend. However, I’ve actually already sampled three of the four Earl Grey teas that I ordered from them, and one in particular is going to get rave reviews in a future blog post. I genuinely think this is a perfect blend for some tea drinkers out there, and I encourage you to give it a shot. (Also, Ohio Tea Company allows you one free sample a month. All the more reason to shop there!)

    Green Earls

    Emerald Green Earl Grey, Simpson & Vail

    Simpson & Vail uses China Green Sencha and bergamot oil in this blend. (Yes, sencha is generally a Japanese tea, but according to the map on the tea’s information page, there are producers in the Sichuan province.)

    I was skeptical going into this blend, because when I smelled the dry leaf, the bergamot was overwhelming. Yes, I like a bergamot-heavy cup, but I want to be able to detect the tea as well! Fortunately, there was a better balance in the aroma of the steeped liquor. The liquid has a lovely green body and is clearly a sencha. 

    In terms of taste, this blend is refreshing. It’s something you could drink all day, and would be excellent brewed both hot and cold. My one complaint is that the bergamot is noticeably weak on the second infusion. One of the great things about green tea is that most of them can handle multiple steepings, and I like to make the most of my leaves! The tea was still tasty, it just didn’t seem much like an Earl Grey anymore. I do recommend this tea, just know that you’re only going to get one cup where it really tastes like an Earl Grey.

    Earl Green, Tea Market

    Tea Market’s Earl Green blend contains Pouchong green tea from Taiwan; the leaves are big, bright, and gorgeous. Combined with triple bergamot, they dry scent is citrus-forward, but the floral tea aroma is still there. That scent profile repeats with the steeped liquor.

    Per the steeping instructions, I let this tea set for three minutes before drinking it. I was surprised by how light the bergamot was, considering that this tea is triple-scented. I found it light, refreshing, and easy to drink. This is another tea you could easily drink all day, enjoy hot, or serve cold at a summer picnic. Still, I was hoping for more bergamot flavor.

    Given how light the bergamot was on the first tasting, I assumed it would be entirely absent on a second infusion. Still, I always like to do at least one additional steeping round, so I gave it a try. I was surprised to find that this tea actually had a stronger bergamot flavor on the second infusion! Yes, it was better the second time around. So if this tea doesn’t suit your palate the first time around, give it another infusion. This is a complex tea that definitely unfolds on subsequent steepings!

    By the Numbers

    I’ve only got 24 teas left to taste, and I have all the teas in my queue I need to stay on track for September. The London Tea Room St. Louis sadly closed last week, and since all the teas were discounted, I got every Earl Grey option they had in stock. 

    Even with deliberately seeking out some green and tisane Earl Grey blends, ultimately, the proportions haven’t changed that much. I expect things to hold more or less in this pattern for the rest of the challenge. On some level, I wonder if I should have put the greens and tisanes into the Special Variation category, but when I started this project, I really thought I would encounter more of them. It wasn’t until much later in the challenge that I realized just how few of these particular blends were out there. I suppose I could just re-classify them, but at the same time, I think I want to stick with my initial categories since I’m so close to the end of the project.

    While the final stretch is always the most challenging part of a project to me, I’m excited to delve into the London Tea Room blends. With just 16 samples left to purchase, I can’t help but wonder what will come next!

    (Also, while I hate Christmas Creep, tea companies are starting to reveal their 2024 advent calendars, and I can’t resist looking. I’m bummed that I won’t be able to afford the Fortnum’s wooden calendar again this year, I’m still excited for the more economical options to choose from!)

    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

    The Earl Grey Year Part 10: Halfway Point

    The Earl Grey Year Part 11: Kusmi Tea

    The Earl Grey Year Part 12: Cremes and Classics

    The Earl Grey Year Part 13: Four More Special Variations

    The Earl Grey Year Part 14: Tisanes and Classics

    The Earl Grey Year Part 15: European Classics

    The Earl Grey Year Part 16: Even More Classics and Variations

    Enjoying this series? You can support my tea wishlist here, or contact me if you have samples you want to share!

    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.

    American Chemical Society. (1965). “Bergamot Joins Lineup Of Synthetic Oils: Glidden process breaks down ß-pinene, back-blends components.” Chemical & Engineering News Archive 43 (33), 24-25. DOI: 10.1021/cen-v043n033.p024a 

    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

    Galper, Amy. (December 14, 2022.) “Shelf Life of Essential Oils.” Cliganic. https://www.cliganic.com/blogs/the-essentials/essential-oils-shelf-life 

    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 

    Petite Histoire. (July 7, 2023).  “The [Complete & Complex] Guide to Natural vs. Synthetic Fragrance: What’s the Difference?” https://nyc.ph/blogs/inspiration/the-complete-guide-to-natural-vs-synthetic-fragrance

    Rosen, Diana. (November 3, 2020). “New – Coffee Leaf Arabica tea.” TeaSmart. https://www.teasmart.com/article_201106.html 
    Twinings. (n.d.) “What is Bergamot?” https://twinings.co.uk/blogs/news/what-is-bergamot

  • The Earl Grey Year Part 3: Four More Classics

    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. 

    A pie chart showing that my tea tasting project is 20% complete

    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). 

    A pie chart indicating the proportions of each type of tea I've consumed so far.

    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.