Earl Grey In Love

Advent Day 4

I wasn’t super excited to see an EG…but this one is really tasty! Didn’t look at the ingredients before steeping it, so was surprised to see it turn blue. Luckily it doesn’t taste like butterfly pea flowers. This is a surprisingly mild earl grey. More of a suggestion of bergamot, rather than an in-your-face bergamot flavor.

Advent Day 4.

This has got to be the most mellow non EG EG I’ve had. It’s like EG light. There is a grassy/has flavor behind the light ethereal berg. It’s blue, but I don’t know I can taste the pea flowers which is good because they might make an intriguing looking tea, but they taste like dried peas which is never a flavor I look for in my cup. The start is almost fruity, the finish gets a strange taste and feels dry with maybe a hint of honey. Actually, the dryness starts mid sip wish is such a weird things to wrap my mind around. This is interesting, but not one I’d choose again.

Mariage Frères Advent 2021 – Day 4

I like Earl Grey. I like green oolong. But together?! Also Blue Pea Flowers again. Hmm…

I once again freed the oolong from the satchet. Steeped up, “Earl Love” has a much more vivid aroma than Apollon . The flavours and notes, while smooth, are also fuller. One again MF finds the perfect level of sweet (possibly peppery) rose, as well as a finely balanced (light) floral-citrus bergamot. The base is a little tough to make out but it gives me the impression of more floral complexity, and even some butter/milk smoothness (yeah, this one deserves to be called velvety). There are bursts of tangy jam-like sweetness to the finish (along with soft bergamot), which could be from the oolong, ingredients, or both.

Because of it’s blueish hue, odd sweetness, and floral-citrus profile, I’m vividly reminded of Curaçao – particularly a creamy take on a Blue Hawaiian cocktail. There’s no coconut, but there is a hint of pineapple note.

So, surprise! “Against my better judgment,” I like this one a lot and would love to try it in loose leaf form, where the tea leaf would hopefully be better quality (unfortunately, they seem to only do satchets for this one). I guess I’ll try for a second steep later too.

Steep Count: 2 ( No.2 at 5min. Blue hue is gone but the flavour is still pleasantly floral, creamy, and mildly sweet while hot. It’s also a tad drying).

On a side note, Mariage Frères hasn’t had a black or herbal tea yet this advent cycle, so I think we are due for one. Total so far: 1 green, 2 oolong (wow, my life), 1 white.