Earl Grey De La Creme

After my initial “meh” experience, I’ve come to enjoy this tea immensely. I blend it with a straight black – in about a 1.5-to-1 ratio – add a pinch of sugar and frothed milk to make the perfect London Fog latte. It’s pretty potent so a little goes a long way. Blending it with another black tea helps balance the tea and lets the lavender, vanilla, and bergamot shine through gently without hitting me in the face. Makes for a nice dessert tea or afternoon pick me up. I don’t normally add milk to tea (that’s for coffee and matcha) but this is one tea that’s totally made for it.

While at the local Trader Joe’s store in Charlotte yesterday, I stumbled on this little item for the first time. I recently purchased a few pounds of tea online and said I wasn’t going to buy any more for a while but you know how we teaholics are. Plus, the price was reasonable and it didn’t break the bank.

When I opened the sealed plastic package, I was struck by the very strong aroma. Olfactory fireworks were going off inside and I struggled to pinpoint their components. I could definitely identify the bergamot and vanilla. The others were up for grabs. The leaves were short and black with blue cornflower petals and yellow sunflower petals sprinkled generously within the blend.

I steeped the leaves for five minutes at 195 degrees as instructed. The brewed liquor was bright orange and the aroma was very vanilla with a whisper of bergamot.

The flavor of this tea took a few sips to settle down on my palate. I think my taste buds experienced flavor overload at first. They seemed to be bombarded with several strong flavors all at once.

Eventually, I was able to discern the vanilla, bergamot, and cornflower tastes. I don’t know if I would recognize the flavor of sunflower even if I only had a mouthful of its petals. Ironically, the one advertised flavor I didn’t find was black tea.

My ultimate taste analysis recorded a sweet mixture of vanilla in the forefront with bergamot and cornflower accents tip-toeing in the background. This combination was pleasant with maybe just a twinge of astringency. The twinge was not too annoying but also present in the aftertaste.