Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Whittard of Chelsea 1886
Tea Description:
Earl Grey has become a defining flavor of Britain, distinguished by its fragrant taste. Traditionally an afternoon tea, our customers wanted a version strong enough for breakfast. So we created a fine blend of black tea with malty Assam, crisp Ceylon and mellow Kenyan. It is a vigorous blend with a beautiful, delicate bergamot taste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
There is just something about Earl Grey that … when I encounter a new-to-me Earl Grey (one that I’ve not yet tried), I get all giddy, quite unlike any other flavor of tea. There’s just something about that bergamot that makes me happy.
Occasionally, I’ve been disappointed. Occasionally, I’ll come across one that just doesn’t do the name “Earl Grey” justice. But it is a rare occasion, indeed, and fortunately, today is not such a rare occasion. This Breakfast Earl Grey from Whittard of Chelsea 1886 is lovely!
The aroma is beautiful – although, I must admit that it did scare me just a bit. It is a strong bergamot fragrance, but there is just a hint of … something … there that made it smell a bit more like perfume than like tea. It scared me momentarily, but once the tea was brewed, that worry was over. The aroma of the dry leaf is a tad perfume-y, but the brewed tea smells much more like a proper Earl Grey. Sweet, bergamot-y (which is much now much lighter here in the brewed tea), and possessing a pleasing earthiness from the black tea base.
The black tea base of this Earl Grey is a blend of Assam, Ceylon and Kenyan tea. I know I’ve tasted a lot of Earl Grey teas, and I can’t possibly be expected to remember all the Earl Grey bases I’ve tried up until now (can I? … hope not, because I can’t!) but I don’t remember a blend of these three particular teas used as a base for an Earl Grey. The result is a robust background with malty intonations and a really rich, solid, well-rounded flavor.
The bergamot is rather soft in the presence of this powerful black tea base, but I still find it rather pleasant. Usually, I like my bergamot bold and in-your-face, but, I have also quite enjoyed the softer side of bergamot on occasion. I find that with these particular teas, the citrus-y tones are much more bright and sweet … it’s almost juicy!
There is much more of a fruit note than an “exotic” note, if that makes sense. Yes, I’m aware that bergamot IS a fruit, so indeed it should not be unusual that it actually tastes like fruit, but, bergamot is quite unlike any other fruit that flavors teas that I’ve encountered. Here, it is mellowed somewhat, allowing the distinct fruit tones to express themselves in a different way. As I continue to sip, I notice some floral notes begin to reveal themselves … a taste that becomes more dominate as I reach mid-cup.
What a lovely bergamot experience I’m having with this Breakfast Earl Grey. This is one that all Earl Grey lovers out there should try!
Indian Meghalaya Cloud Tea from Rare Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Rare Tea Co.
Tea Description:
From high in the cloudy hills between Assam and Darjeeling this unique tea really holds the best of both regions – light and floral with deep malty notes.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh. My. Goodness! This tea is really amazing.
I have had this tea for a little while now, receiving it at the same time that I received the Royal Air Force tea from Rare Tea Co. But I wanted to save trying it for a day when I was ready to experience something really exceptional, because I was confident that this would be just as exquisite as the RAF tea. I tend to do that with tea companies when I try the first tea from them, if it really impresses me, I mean REALLY impresses me, I tend to place very high expectations on them for future tastings. Sometimes this leaves me vulnerable to disappointment, fortunately, that is not the case with this tea. This is indeed EXCEPTIONAL.
The website did not tell me whether this was a black tea or something else, but on Steepster, this tea was added to the website by “Rare Tea Lady” so I figured that someone from the company added it and they categorized it as black, so I went with it. But that doesn’t mean that I brewed this the same way I would brew a black tea … because something about the name immediately made me think “Darjeeling” so I chose to brew this the way I’d brew a Darjeeling, using a lower temperature – in this case 195°F – and steeping it for 2 1/2 minutes. And I’m really glad that I did, because I can’t imagine this tea tasting any better than it does.
This has such a pleasing sweetness to it, and it is remarkably smooth from start to finish. It does have a lot of Darjeeling-esque qualities to it, it has a strong fruit taste to it, with hints of muscatel. But it doesn’t have that sharp astringency that so many other Darjeelings tend to have. There is some astringency to this, but it is very slight. More like it’s “trying” to be astringent like the other Darjeeling teas, and it almost gets there but, it doesn’t quite make it … does that make sense? Instead it is slightly tangy toward the finish and that tangy note morphs into a clear citrus-y tone in the aftertaste.
I really love this tea. It is so smooth and delicious. This is the kind of tea that you’d serve to very special guests that you’d want to impress. I find that this is best served hot – but not too hot. Allow it to cool a few moments (maybe 2 minutes) before you take your first sip, and then prepare to be taken on a beautiful journey in the Clouds!
Campfire Blend Tea from Whispering Pines Tea Company
Tea Type:
Black Tea/Rooibos Blend
Where To Buy:
Whispering Pines Tea Company
Product Description:
This is an amazing wake-up tea — A dark fiery blend that smells and tastes like it was pulled straight out of the rockies, Campfire Blend uses 11 different black teas as the base and mixes that with rooibos, orange peel and spices to create a taste and aroma unlike anything you could ever imagine…except for maybe the whisper of an ancient campfire and the cry of a lone wolf on a cool autumn night.
Tasters Review:
The Product Description states this has 11 different black teas? My attention was grabbed! Plus Rooibos? I was even MORE interested! AND Spices and Orange Peel? Let’s just say THIS blend had me at “Hello!”
When I asked Brenden which 11 black teas he used he told me he was sworn to secrecy – which I can totally understand and appreciate! BUT…then he told me (and let me pass it along to our readers) that Campfire Blend uses Glen Arbor Breakfast as the base tea. Glen Arbor Breakfast is made with 2 keemun teas, 7 ceylon teas, one lapsang souchong, and one assam. YUP! I’m totally excited about this blend!
It smells smoky and orange-E. The color of the liquor is that of a rooibos but also a medium-dark brown combined.
It’s smoky but not overly-so…not like a straight-up Lapsang Souchung but still very nice and fitting to the name. The mesh of 11 black teas in the base are interesting…something I have never tasted before! That I like and appreciate all of the thought that went into it.
I can taste the orange and it’s lovely. Again, not overpowering but I’m happy it’s present. The spices seem to mesh really well with each other as well as the black tea base. I can’t pick out one spice over the other(s)…it’s a nice combo – that’s for sure!
It’s earthy and woodsy…true to it’s name, too! It’s slightly sweet which is a nice surprise. It has a sweeter-maltiness to it, too! I REALLY like that!
It also has a very subtle taste of mineral/rock type taste…reminiscent of Wuyi Rock Oolong, perhaps.
I really like this because it is so different. Also because you can tell a lot of thought and work went into it. It certainly lives up to it’s name…CAMPFIRE BLEND.
I’ve had some really nice email conversations with Brenden at Whispering Pines and think Brenden is great! Whispering Pines has some wonderful offerings with creative combos and nifty names but the quality is top-notch as is the customer service! The email correspondence is great and I can’t wait to write another review for one of their teas! Stay Tuned!
Cotton Candy Black Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
This week’s tea of the week is a real gem. I am enjoying a big icy stein of it as I write this. I’m sure it’s good hot too, but as an iced tea, it’s amazing. A friend of the family is over visiting and he insists it’s “like a carnival in your mouth.”
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is the first tea blended with 52Teas new black tea base. As some of my more frequent readers may be aware, the previous black tea base used in 52Teas’ blends has sometimes come across as somewhat harsh with astringency and even sometimes bitter, depending upon the flavors with which it was blended. Some flavors worked very well with the previous base, others did not.
I even had to come up with my own set of steeping parameters for that base: 200°F for 2 minutes in my Breville. Now, you might think that 12 degrees hotter water shouldn’t make all that much difference, but in the case of the previous black tea base used by 52Teas, it certainly did.
Anyway, all of that matters not. This review is about the NEW black tea base that 52Teas has crafted, as well as the first tea of the week that it was used to create: Cotton Candy flavored Black Tea! YUM!
I love cotton candy. It is definitely one of my favorite amusement park treats, and one of those things that stirs up happy memories from my childhood. It’s one of those treats that really needs to be made fresh, because the packaged stuff that is readily available now in grocery stores and such just doesn’t taste the same. So I was THRILLED about the idea of cotton candy flavored tea. And if anyone could pull off this flavor in just the right way, Frank from 52Teas could.
And he did! This tastes like cotton candy. Or rather, it tastes like someone dropped some cotton candy into my cup of delicious, fine-quality black tea and allowed the goodness of the cotton candy to become one with the tea. Because, although I do taste cotton candy, what really stands out to me with this blend is not the flavoring, but how well the flavoring has become assimilated into the black tea base.
This tea offers such a seamless taste. And I think that the new black tea base has as much to do with that as the flavor does. The black tea base here is good and strong, providing a very solid background of flavor that is rich and robust. It has a malty tone, as well as a freshly-baked-goods kind of taste to it, and together with the flavors of cotton candy, it is very pleasantly sweet with a hint of caramel-y goodness to it.
But more than that, this tea is not aggressively astringent or harsh the way that 52Teas previous base sometimes was. It doesn’t have the bitterness of the previous base, which was also present occasionally and was especially noticeable if I had brewed it at boiling water instead of the aforementioned 200°F. This does have a slight drying astringency toward the tail, but it is nothing compared to what was previously experienced with the previous blend, and anyone who has tried the previously released flavors probably knows just what I’m talking about.
Now, I’m not saying that the previous blend was bad … I quite enjoyed it in many different blends. I just happen to think that this one is so much better. That one was good, this one is really good! And this particular blend – Cotton Candy – is amazingly delicious. A must try from the 52Teas collection!
Fredericksburg Peach from Zhi Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zhi Tea
Tea Description:
Great hot or cold, this Assam FOP based tea is thirst quenching and satisfying. Rich Single Estate, Fair Trade, organic tea leaves from India along with organic domestic peach pieces (dried in slices then cut by hand by us) and USDA organic peach flavor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
For my next pitcher of iced tea, I decided I’d try this tea, and while I was making it for the iced tea pitcher, I decided to pour myself a cup of it so that I could try it hot.
This is really quite tasty. The peach flavor starts out soft but after a couple of sips it begins to really pop. It is sweet and luscious! And I love the combination of Assam tea and peach. I’m used to peach flavored black teas with a Ceylon base, and I really like that Zhi chose an Assam base for this tea – because the malty tones of the Assam seem to pair perfectly with the sweet, juicy taste of the stone fruit.
It’s a delicious cup of hot tea, but it’s amazing iced. The Assam becomes very smooth, and supports the peach tones in a very pleasing way. Sweet and fruity, but, what I like is that the tea is bold enough to taste like a TEA and not a fruity soft drink. Very nice!