Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Upton Tea Imports
Tea Description:
A recent addition to our Earl Grey Blends. The base for this tea is an elegant long-leaf Ceylon BOP1. The fresh, full bergamot flavor is married with lemon notes to produce a rich and full bodied tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’m always interested (and excited!) to try a new-to-me Earl Grey blend, so when my SororiTea Sister, TeaEqualsBliss, sent me a sampling of this Devonshire Earl Grey Black Tea from Upton Tea Imports, I was thrilled!
The aroma of the dry leaf is captivating – with that distinctive bergamot fragrance mingling with a lemon-y note … it’s very citrusy … very aromatic! The brewed tea has more of a lemon note than bergamot … the bergamot is still there, but the lemon definitely stands out as the stronger scent. It almost smells like a lemon scented furniture polish … let’s hope it doesn’t taste like it!
Fortunately, it doesn’t taste like furniture polish! It has a strong citrus-y flavor, with the bergamot notes playing a balancing act with the lemon notes. Together, the two taste more like a homogeneous citrus flavor rather than a distinguished bergamot and/or lemon flavor.
The black tea takes a backseat to the strong citrus tones – that is not to say that the Ceylon BOP1 is overwhelmed completely by the citrus flavors, but, the Ceylon is not quite strong enough to hold it’s own here. It is tasted, but it doesn’t offer a bold presentation. I do like it’s smooth character though, and the moderate astringency of the tea does accentuate the citrus flavors quite nicely.
Overall, this is a pleasant Earl Grey offering. Not my favorite, but, not a bad Earl Grey tea. It would be a good Earl Grey for those who like the focus to be on the citrus-y qualities of the bergamot fruit. As for me, I found myself wanting a little more black tea flavor in the background, and I wished there were more obvious bergamot notes to the cup. Not bad though!
