English Tea Store

My second cup of Earl Grey from ETS today. Had it with a little sugar, maybe a little more sugar than I usually have with my tea.

The bergamot was not as strong as the lavender taste, I love lavender but it almost seemed like too much lavender (I guess there is such a thing) and there seemed to be something else other than tea, bergamot and lavender in this tea, I can’t put my finger on it.

Next time I have this tea I think I will mix it with either regular or double bergamot Earl Grey to balance out the lavender that dominates this tea.

Tried this tea again, I like it a little better than I did last time. I don’t know why, I prepared it the same way, brewed almost 5 minutes. Maybe because I added less cream?

Not sure. This is still the bagged ETS Earl Grey cream, but I wonder if I’d like it better in looseleaf form and possible from a different company.

I gave this tea a try today. Added some sugar and a little milk.

It was ok. I don’t not like it but I prefer my Earl Grey with more bergamot taste, (The ETS double bergamot has spoiled me) I prefer my Earl Grey a little more bitter I guess. This tea was smooth, no question about that. When I’m in the mood for a tea with milk/creamy taste I might try this again.

Also I’ve been drinking looseleaf teas but this one was bagged- I’m betting this tea in looseleaf form probably would’ve been stronger and more bergamot.

I steeped the leaves again, added milk and sugar like the first time… The barest hint of chocolate but it mostly tasted of orange. Still tasted good and was less bitter the second time.

I first tried a sip of this tea without any sugar or milk- BITTER! So I tried a teaspoon of sugar, followed by another teaspoon (More sugar than I usually have in tea), so much better. I also added a little milk.

I could taste a hint of chocolate, not as chocolatey as ETS Chocolate Mint but it’s there. The orange flavor is the strongest in this tea. It’s good but drinking this tea will probably give me a sugar high.

I got the chocolate lovers sampler from ETS today, a little annoyed that they decided to substitute Night of the Iguana with an extra pouch of Chocolate Mint… But onto this tea’s tasting notes.

When I opened the pouch I was greeted by a noseful of mint and slight hint of chocolate. When I smelled all that mint I was worried that it would wind up being like the Chocolate Cream mint overpowering disappointment from TeaSource. I first tried brewing for 2 minutes, thought it too weak and steeped for another 3 minutes. Added about a teaspoon of sugar, no milk or cream.

It’s not cocoa but so far it has been the best chocolate tea I have tried yet. The mint is there but is not overpowering, it is a good compliment to the chocolate I can taste on the sides of my tongue. The tea seems to grow sweeter and more delicately chocolate as it cools. I can barely taste the black tea.

Next time I make this I think I’ll try adding a little milk.

Got my order from the English Tea Store and in it were loose leaf Earl Grey samples. I decided the double bergamot Earl Grey would be good for breakfast.

It was really good Earl Grey, bitter (because of the double bergamot) but not overly so. Great flavor. I will be drinking this again.

I had added a little sugar, no cream, and thought it perfect. My mother on the other hand thought it was too bitter and added at least 2 teaspoons of sugar :o So if you’re sensitive to bitter teas you might want to stick to regular Earl Grey.

Later on I re-steeped the leaves for a little longer and it was a little weak but still a good cup of tea. The bergamot was not as strong either, making it taste like regular Earl Grey.

This one intrigued me with the promise of berries, citrus, and florals, so I asked for some in my last swap with Alphakitty and she was kind enough to send me some!

To me, the leaf looked suspisciously like a black green blend, but no one has mentioned this at all, so I thought I was probably just hallucinating something. I went ahead and brewed it boiling, and most of the leaves in the infuser appear black, though I will say there are a few greenish-tinged ones that are intriguing.

Nontheless, the resulting tea isn’t bitter or scorched like a green might be when steeped at that temp, so I guess everything is ok. This tea is super duper berry-licious. It is berry to the max. I can’t really pick out a specific berry, necessarily, but it’s definitely berry. Maybe some black currant, yeah. It’s honestly perhaps a bit too much berry for me, and I would like it if the berry might step back a bit and let someone else have a bit of the spotlight. Because there are other flavors, playing in the background. A bit of bright citrus, for sure, and a hint of florals. Not really that floral, just a bit of orchid somewhere in there. Anyway, it’s a pretty tasty tea but it’s a little too in-my-face with the flavoring and I’m not quite feeling that this morning.

I think my wrist may never heal because I refuse to allow my injury to restrict my activities. Just today I had to heave one of those 5 gallon jugs of water into the water cooler so that I could get hot water for my tea. I guess I could have asked someone to help but I have this weird thing about being independent. Anyway, it was a bit painful. Not smart. But tea!

There are tons of teas with this name and they seem to look the same too. I’d wager it’s all from the same source. That’s good in a way since widely available teas would need to be competitively priced. I’m all for not spending all my monies. It’s not a bad tea, but I find the rooibos taste to be prominent and it’s not as smooth as it could be. Vanilla is bordering on artificial, but that might be the funky rooibos. I wonder if my non-caffeine only colleague would like this… I have a lot since it was cheap and came at a minimum of 4 ounces.

Edit: I just noticed that there is supposed to be cinnamon in this…. What? I don’t taste it at all! And what’s with the random almond flakes? Can’t taste almond either. This just excludes people with allergies for no good reason. Blah

Hoping today goes better than yesterday. Please no bad news (maybe even good news? but I’ll settle for a lack of bad news) and no computers suddenly dying and taking hours worth of work with it.

I’m not sure what happened with this one today but it has a hint of bitterness to it unfortunately. But it’s not too bad, and I still get the nice bergamot and caramel as well. I guess it’s one of those risky things with blends that have lower quality bases… they can be quite finicky!

This is another that comes to me from my recent swap with Alphakitty. Thanks so much! Of course I love Earl Greys in many forms, so I was excited to try this one that is supposed to be Earl Grey and caramel.

This is rather delightful! Really nice, citrusy bergamot, definitely a nice Earl base to the tea, but then the addition of caramel is just lovely. Creamy and perfectly balanced. This reminds me of another tea but I can’t think of any other caramel Earl Grey that I’ve tried. There are enough flavors going on here that I didn’t notice the black tea base one way or another, which is a plus because at least I wasn’t bored with it. It supported, it contributed, but it wasn’t the star, and that’s ok, it still held up it’s end of the bargain. This is quite a delicious tea, thanks for sharing it with me Alphakitty!

Oh, I didn’t tealog this one?

I need to work on NaNoWriMo – it’s day 15, the halfway mark of 25,000 words.

Arctic Raspberry has a good raspberry taste, very simple, with a ceylon finish with a mild berry tart. My tea got cold while I was chipping away at my writing, and it’s pretty good cold.

Next time, fully iced and sweetened!

When I first discovered I could get tea off teh intertubes, I found English Tea Store. This was one of the first teas I ordered, and I loved it. Before that, all I had for mint tea was Stash’s mint leaf tea. I enjoyed the substantial body and mouth feel to this blend, as opposed to the thin pale water of regular mint herbal.

The next time I needed to buy mint tea, I bought ‘Moroccan Mint’ elsewhere, I don’t remember exactly where, I think it was Taylors of Harrogate. But I distinctly remember being annoyed to find it was made with green tea! And further annoyed to find that everyone who sells ‘Moroccan Mint’ uses green tea! So I had to rack my memory of where I found this blend with black tea, and I am right back to my ‘Moroccan Madness’ from English Tea Store. I really do prefer it.

I believe this tea came from Rachel Sincere, TY!

Still in PU’REH MODE! GO GO GO PU’REH!

While I was doing a rinse on this tea my roommate ran out of the room saying it was smelling fishy. Pfffft!

First steeping: super bold earthy – very harsh on the first sip, so I might of oversteeped it. There’s a a hum of another flavor making me think back to drinking tea in Vancouver Canada Chinatown as a little girl in a noodle house. I recall they had the best shrimp wonton soup, and the chefs worked in a teeny glass booth tossing noodles around with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth. The dark tea was served in regular water glasses and would burn my hands but was very good. The flavor hum I can’t explain, like sweet woodsy and smells of chinatown.

Second steeping. Much better and mellower. That sweet woodsy flavor is still there! Soft and delicious as the tea cools! Best steeping!

Third steeping. Interestingly this tea got a rosy pink each pour, but sits in my cup a dark brown. Second best steeping! Very close to the second steeping but milder.

And I ran out of time for more steepings. Maybe later.

Azzrian thanks so much for this!

It smells like Toffee prior to infusing. Afterwards with smells like pu-erh and caramel.

It tastes like butterscotch. The pu-erh base is certainly in the back ground. The end sip is where I can pick up on the almond flavors. There is a creamy-smooth texture to it, too, much like toffee or creme brulee.

This is pretty impressive. It surprised me. It’s a goodie!

I hope my sense of taste has mostly returned. Thanks to Rachel Sincere for this sampling!

STEEPED: Very fruity sweet smell. I think is pomegranate or grenadine. Dark brown colour.

TASTE: Spike of fruityness and slight bitterness over a base of black tea.
Sweetened (and cooled off) I can taste the vanilla and fruityness. Not as bitter.

COMMENTS: Maybe I’m still sick and tasting bitterness? But I could of oversteeped. Taste some good potential if I can get it brewed right!

Wow…. This is another one from Traveling Teabox B From Amanda and MAN this is GOOOD!!! i Saw Scottish and Caramel and was set on having it and im So glad i did Fav tea From the box!! the caramel just Sings in this tea!! What a Wonderful tea!! this is my desert tea!!

I had mixed feelings about this tea. Mostly, however, I did not particularly enjoy it. When drinking this tea, be prepared for it to be intensely floral (almost perfume-y). As they mention in the official description, the flavour does seem to fluctuate a wee bit – more jasmine some moments, more Earl Grey in other, with an interesting aftertaste – so it is certainly an adventure to drink. It’s not a particularly strong tea, but even so the flavours can be a bit much if you’re not expecting such a flowery, fragrant tea.

This tea is wonderful. The lavender is very strong in this one. It complements the citrus tones from the earl grey very well. I like to drink this tea in the morning as a relaxing wake-up!

EDIT:
So I realized that the last time I logged this tea it was mainly a description of my steeping process. The flavors in this tea are wonderful! The green tea is not especially strong or noticeable, but it serves as a good foil for the lavender. This tea contains just the right amount of lavender. It completely relaxes me, and it definitely got me through finals! But back to the flavors…this is a tea that I can taste through my entire mouth. It feels warm and homey and I love it! I would definitely recommend this tea!

This is one of my favorite teas. It is very calming. I like to add just a little bit of honey to make it perfect. You cannot steep this tea for very long though. I believe it is because of the lavender. Whenever I steep the tea for over two minutes and thirty seconds, it tastes very strange. If you only steep it for that amount of time, it comes out perfectly!