Organic Earl Grey

Sipdown, 242. I randomly picked up a sachet of this at a hotel or conference once, and I have had it in my stash since. I brought it home with me this weekend because my parents don’t have a good tea set up so I brought sachets.

This also means that the water is less than optimal, but I don’t think that it is the reason that this tea is both mostly tasteless and also bitter. Not just tannic black tea bitter, but the taste of poorly deployed, bitter bergamot. No wonder so many people dislike Earl Greys, when they are always exposed to examples like this. With sugar and a splash of half and half it is ok drinkable, but I’m glad I never bought a box of these a the grocery.

We finally made it – this is the last face/off of the first elimination round of the Battle of the Earl Greys. The second round will start on Wednesday!

Jake made some lovely scones this morning, and we got to enjoy them as we sat down and sipped some of this tea. It has some surprising floral notes, but noticeably less briskness than its competitor. A very enjoyable way to start the day!

You can read the recap here:
http://wordsabouttea.blogspot.com/2013/10/earl-grey-organic-by-mighty-leaf-vs.html

Was pleasantly surprised to find whole leaf in the silken sachet Mighty Leaf tea in the diner I was eating in this evening (why was I in a diner on Thanksgiving? Long story short, we had our dinner at the place my mom lives, a care facility for wheelchair bound people (my mom has MS), at noon, and we were starving again by the evening!) ANYWAY! I was presented a tea chest and could pick which tea I would like, and I chose the Organic Earl Grey.

Maybe I was just desperate for a cup of tea, but I thought it was really quite good! At the diner, they give you a little metal teapot full of hot water – enough for 2 cups – and then your cup and the sachet. This is great because you can time your steep :)

I had my first cup with a little milk and sugar, and my second sans additions. Both steeps were flavorful, not heavy on the bergamot, and to my taste, slightly smoky! Sort of like an English Breakfast type smoky. The leaves handled the two steeps admirably. I wanted to pinch myself because I couldn’t believe I was getting such a good cup of tea in a diner!! Sure, I have much better loose Earls at home, but I would choose this diner over any other in my area not only because the food is good, but because I can get a really nice cup of tea there. Ponzio’s, if you are ever in South Jersey and hungry!

P.S. I finally saw the latest Harry Potter. I loved it. I cried and cried and cried.

The graduate advisor emailed me a while ago, asking that I give her my CV in less than two days so she can send it off so I could be considered for some fellowship. Seeing that I haven’t had the particular outlay of CV the committee would like, and I just moved here so my stuff still isn’t organized, I started ripping through my suitcases to find transcripts and what not, and in the process, came across this teabag I got from a hotel. Sweet! Something to drink while I try to come up with a relatively decent CV.

I added milk to this, because actually, I had this while I was staying at the hotel, and I remember it tasted really burnt. It tastes a little better this time. The bergamot isn’t overwhelming but it’s distinctly bergamot. It’s not as burnt as before too. It’s not all that well-rounded though. A little astringent but it’s full-bodied. Eh, I’ve had better Earl Greys, but I’ve had worse too.

So, my man works for Leon’s Full Service, and this is one of the teas they carry. He snuck me into the little server station and opened a case that had all kinds of Mighty Leaf sachets. I picked this and a darjeeling while no one was looking.

Sadly, I have to agree with what a lot of you guys have already said. While this is actually pretty good, it’s just not great. I gave it longer than the brand recommends by 45 seconds, and that did make the black tea pretty strong and bitter. (But I like that.) Anyway, I prefer my Earl Greys to have a stronger bergamot flavor, and this one is on the mild side. You can smell it before you sip, like an exotic perfume, but it doesn’t translate much into the tea. And the black tea base they use is really, really standard. Boring, even.

What I’m trying to say is that Harney & Son’s Earl Grey Supreme has ruined me forever.

Have this as part of a Mighty Leaf sampler I picked up. Their tea sachets are hand sewn around the edges and very pretty.

I grabbed this one in celebration of my Mighty Leaf order shipping (I had to get some Spring Jasmine, I was so impressed by this one in loose leaf). Also, in celebration of my Damn Fine Tea order shipping. Squeal…I love that I can track the ML order and am excited to get the awesome teas and even awesomer tins from DFT.

Back to this tea, it has the right flavor of bergamot for me. More citrusy orange than floral perfume. The black tea base is bright and a pleasant sip along with the bergamot. I could enjoy more of this, but will wait before ordering anymore. I would still like to pick up more of Lupicia’s Earl to see if it is still my favorite.

Keep moving, folks. Nothing to see here. Just a standard Earl Grey with nothing to set it apart from the herd. Let’s keep the flow of traffic going. Life’s too short to drink boring tea. Nothing to see here. ::waves with a little traffic baton:: Let’s keep it moving.

Doulton’s Shakespeare: A Tasting Note in 5 Acts
Act IV scene 7

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
Sonnet 130

As Act IV closes on the Shakespeare box I hate to admit it, but what I have remaining are the teas that I kept shuffling out of the way of the other teas that caught my eye. There are only a few more teabags and chais left (sorry chai lovers! I’m rather wary of chai as a loose leaf tea since I’m too lazy to do anything with it beyond steep it. Hopefully this box changes my mind in this area). The upside is that because I’m less excited about the final teas it means that my pace of writing notes will slow, thus I can stretch out the joy of writing these notes a while longer.

It was mainly for this reason that I dubbed Mighty Leaf’s Organic Earl Grey one of Shakespeare’s great sonnets. I had lower expectations, but my first Mighty Leaf experience was a pleasant surprise. The tea itself was a nice Earl Grey, but nothing remarkable. It was smooth, didn’t taste “Pledgey” to me, and was one of the better bagged teas that I’ve experienced thus far. This tea gave me pause to think about trying to experience more bagged teas on my tea journey. Even though I don’t “look down on” teabags I realized that I have almost exclusively focused on loose leaf teas.

I may not wax poetic about this or other bagged teas, but they definitely have a place in my cupboard. NE

Yup! Everyone else pretty much said it…it’s typical Earl Grey…I’m grateful for Earl Grey Tea, indeed, and also grateful for finding some Might Leaf in a store somewhat nearby FINALLY.