Akbar Earl Grey

Another delightful example of friends getting into the swing of my Year of the Earl. This time, Liz of Squiddishly heard about it and offered to send me some of her beloved Akbar Earl Grey. She did warn me that the reactions of some people have been along the lines of “… are you really putting that liquid in your mouth?!” Thus, I was intrigued. And she sent the tea in a tin, too! So awesome! … even when she admitted it was more about placating her housemate…

Anyway. On opening the tin, I had to agree that yes, this has a VERY strong scent. It is super bergamot-y and anyone who was already suspicious of Earl Grey would be running away. In its defence, though, I think it’s still not as overpowering as the T2 version.

The tin itself recommends 4-6 minutes steeping, which I thought was a bit much, so I started with 3 minutes and a touch of sugar. The taste is, well, very Earl Grey. It’s not sweet – definitely more on the savoury side – and it’s actually not an overwhelming citrus taste either. The scent is more powerful than the taste, I think. It’s wonderfully drinkable and I’m super pleased to have some of this.

Given the recommendation on the tin, I thought I would see how the tea was with a longer steep. So next time, I went 4 minutes. Who knew that one minute could make such a difference? Oh, now I do: at 4 minutes I found this basically undrinkable because it was way too strong. Even for me.