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Here is yet another sample sipdown. I finished this one yesterday evening. As an aside, I love Earl Grey blends from Harney & Sons. I have long felt that they do Earl Grey better than most other vendors. This one did not let me down.

I prepared this tea using a one step Western infusion. I steeped approximately 1 teaspoon of loose leaf material in 8 ounces of 212 F water for 5 minutes. Obviously, I did not attempt any additional infusions.

After infusion, the dark copper tea liquor produced a heady aroma of bergamot underscored by scents of toast, cream, malt, and caramel. In the mouth, the flavor of bergamot was clean, clear, and strong, while supporting notes of toast, cream, malt, caramel, and cocoa were distinctive and well-defined.

As far as I am concerned, this Earl Grey was another winner from Harney & Sons. I enjoyed its powerful bergamot aroma and flavor, as well as the vigor of its tea base. I often find that so many contemporary Earl Grey blends overemphasize the bergamot in order to cover up tea bases that are weak and flavorless. That was certainly not the case here. Though this was very heavy on the bergamot, the tea base still provided enough support in terms of aroma and flavor to keep this blend from coming off as totally one-dimensional and unbalanced. There was a lot to appreciate about it. I think fans of robust Earl Grey blends would be very satisfied with this one.