I consider the fact that this came out the week of my birthday to have been fate. Earl Grey, my favorite tea, combined with cheesecake, one of the more delicious desserts. Of course I grabbed it.
I was surprised when my order came today although I guess it has been 4 business days. Still, the post office has not exactly been inspiring confidence of late.
Leaving the strawberry matcha for tomorrow, but I HAVE to try this tonight. Handily enough, I made slow cooker bread pudding last night, so I even have a dessert to try it with – not something that happens very often due to lack of self control (which leads to obsessive sweet eating when I buy them, which leads to lack of buying sweets)
The tea looks quite nice with yellow petal looking things which are probably…something. The smell was a bit worrying – it had an air of the kind of papery Earl Grey that I don’t really like and I can’t say as I was getting cheesecake as such. Still, I had faith!
The tea brewed up pretty dark and the scent remained that of papery Earl Grey, BUT when I tried it, while it WAS a very solid Earl Grey it was not papery at all (score!) in fact, considering I don’t currently HAVE an Earl Grey, if that had been all, I would have been fine with it since it is a VERY nice balance of Earl and Grey (as it were :P). However, the cheesecake, while faint, is definitely there, right around the edges, as you finish the sip. It’s like Earl Grey, Earl Grey, Earl Grey, Earl Grey…cheesecake! A nice little surprise at the end. I would assume that, as with the cheesecake chai, the addition of milk will bring out this flavor more. I am usually very against adding milk to Earl Grey, but…for cheesecake, sacrifices must be made.
I added some (almond) milk once I got halfway through the cup. Can’t say that I really noticed the cheesecake more…well maybe a little more but still more with the aftertaste – and the milk unfortunately brought out the latent paperiness of the Earl Grey…think I’ll be drinking this straight.
This is one of the very few teas I think I couldn’t part with in a swap! It’s just SO good.
Its funny … but not… I went to order some but paypal was not working kept timing out during purchase. I guess it was a sign lol