Raspberry Earl

One of my favorites from the sample pack. The raspberry is actually pretty good against the bergamot and black tea, and the body is nice, full and sweet. I personally would not drink it every day, but something to indulge in every once in a while. That’s why it’s great with the sampler pack: it adds diversity with the Egyptian Mint, Ambrosia Plum, and Italian Chamomile. Personally, though, I prefer the Coconut Chai Black. Otherwise really good for raspberry lovers.

I bought this because I have a friend who really enjoys her earl teas. I actually found this tea to be quite present overall and ended up drinking the majority of it without her on accident in the mornings. This tea has a nice smell as well as a great taste for a morning tea.

I’m done with zhenas I think :( the tins are so pretty but the teas are always meh. The raspberry is really fragrant in the cup which is great, the Black tea doesn’t leave too bitter an aftertaste unless overbrewed. The bergamont almost undetectable. Overall pretty meh.

This is the one I was most looking forward to (in the Zhena sampler). Maybe since I had such great expectations for it is why I didn’t give it a high rating. I smells RICHLY RASPBERRY, it tastes… I don’t quite know how to describe it. That taste… it switches back from sweet, rich raspberry to watery raspberry to an aftertaste of earl grey very quickly. SO I went from YUUUMM to meh to MMMMM in every sip. Does that make sense? This is one that probably only be had hot and sweetened to keep the raspberry flavor going with the black tea richness.

Sipdown!

This one got better after I let it sit for a month. I still don’t taste a lot of bergamot, but the raspberry is tasty enough.

Zhena’s teas look better in the canisters than they actually taste, as a rule.

SSTTB #3.

This is the last bag, so I thought I would save it from loneliness.

Dry it smells really weak. Steeped it smells and tastes really weak. But I think that fresh, this might be pretty good. I have the faintest raspberry-lemon-orange taste coming through. The base is pretty mild, not overly bitter or astringent. It’s just too bad it’s so weak tasting.

SSTTB: Pick #1

So today the SSTTB made its way to me literally just as I was walking out the door for work. So of course I did the “only sensible thing” and I took it to work with me, because Lord knows I wasn’t going to be able to wait out an eight hour shift without peaking inside. Plus the fact that my shift today was just me babysitting the store for a few hours while we had the floor waxed meant I could pretty much just sit around and snoop through it anyway. I wouldn’t have anything else to do.

I would have texted Tyrell or something, but the big baby falls asleep around 9:30 every night which is half an hour before I finish work on a normal shift; tonight I was supposed to get off at 1AM (finished at midnight though, so an hour early). So that wasn’t an option.

I did end up making myself a cup of tea from the box though! Because I recently lent my “at work” infusers to Bobbi (the other Keyholder) so she could try some better quality straight blacks than the Red Rose she normally drinks I didn’t have any infusing equipment at my tea station, so bagged tea it was!

Up until today I’d only tried one other Zhena’s Gypsy blend: the Coconut Chai. It was pretty decent. To me, this one tasted much more like Raspberry than Earl Grey. Pretty much any Bergamot in this was lost to me; they must have been very light handed with it (or this could be rather old – who knows). Overall I thought the whole cup was rather thin/weak tasting but not so bad, especially for a bagged tea. At least it didn’t even come close to being a bitter, which I’ll give it points for.

There’s one more bag of this in the box, but unless Tre or Tyrell or anyone else who comes over expresses interest in it I think I’ll just leave it in there for someone else to try.

I love raspberry, and I love Earl Grey. Do they combine to form a harmonious marriage? My experience with Zhena’s Gypsy Tea Raspberry Earl suggests that this match was not meant to be; this union was ill-conceived.

My first observation was that the dried tea in the filter bag smelled very strongly of raspberry, as in: artificially flavored. However, the ingredients are all natural and even organic, so it must be that they really piled on the raspberry pieces, because it’s strong enough to serve as an Air Wick in a public restroom. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration.

I remained hopeful about the brew since I often find that dried teas smell much stronger than the final flavor and scent of the prepared liquor. In this case it is true that the raspberry is a bit lighter, but it is still strong and I’m afraid that I do not like the base—identified as certified organic Nilgiri black tea—very much. In fact, when I took a sip of the reddish amber tea without cream, I realized that I could not possibly drink it unadulterated.

The cream-sloshed tea was not much better, I regret to report, and I came close to tossing it. Only my dire need of late-afternoon caffeine motivated me to slug it down. Sorry, but I’m now 0/2 for Zhena’s Gypsy Tea. I’ll continue to work my way through the two stackable sampler tins…

This is one of my all-time favorite teas, and I have only ever been able to find a sample tin of it. T_T I weep forever that I cannot find more in stores. Its such a wonderful and delicious improvement on an already excellent classic.

I really wanted to like this tea… My sister bought me some. I’m a huge earl grey fan, but for my taste the raspberries were overpowering and it reminded me of the smell of a Bath & Body Works lotion. It could have been worse, for sure, but I wouldn’t buy another tin.