Author: Alex

Endeavour Earl Grey

I don’t remember where I got hold of this; it might have been at the tea festival some time ago. I like the packaging a lot – Impala and Peacock use similar cardboard tubes and I really like them. So, go Endeavour for that.

4 min steeping as recommended, 1/2tsp sugar. This is one of those earl greys with cornflowers so if that offends, definitely avoid it. Which would be a shame, because this is quite a nice tea. I found the 4 min steeping was a little bitter for me, so I made another cup and brewed it for 3 min, which was much 03-earl-grey-2_1024x1024.jpgmore to my tastes. When brewed that bit shorter, this became a tea that’s high up my list. Very nice indeed.

Fortnum and Mason Countess Grey

I had a feeling that where the Smokey and the Green were not my thing, this would be more up my alley, and I was exactly right. This is a variation on Lady Grey, which I have always loved.

It’s a lovely-looking tea, with flecks of colour. It smells wonderfully orange, with maybe a touch of lemon in there too (except not, according to the F&M notes).

3 min steeping, 1/2 tsp sugar. Smells as good when steeped as it does when dry. The citrus notes are strong but not overwhelming. In all this is truly a splendid tea and if I had easy access to it I would be buying more! I could easily drink this most days.

Fortnum and Mason: Green Tea Earl Grey Classic

Another Fortnum and Mason from Gill, which again we tried together, as a small pot of tea.

When dry, it smelled very bergamot. When steeped, it smelled much more green and the bergamot was quite reduced, although still just present.

In the end, this is a green tea, and I just don’t love green tea. I drank my cup but I didn’t love it. I imagine that for someone who likes both bergamot and green, this might be quite welcome as a brew.

Fortnum and Mason: Smokey Earl Grey

It’s fun when friends get into the act. When Gill sent to the UK, she went earl grey shopping. She discovered that Fortnum and Mason have a very wide range of loose leaf teas, and that you can get really quite small samples for very reasonable prices. So she got me a few, and we tried some of them together.

Firstly, we tried the Smokey. Gill and her husband don’t mind a smokey tea. Me, though: I would definitely rather not drink a bush fire. But I thought that trying it with bergamot would be worthwhile. So we made a small pot of tea – 2tsp; it was very smokey when dry, and very smokey when steeped. There was a bit of an orange scent but the smoke was overwhelming.

This was most certainly not my thing. I added 1/2tsp sugar which cut through the smokeimages.jpeg somewhat but it didn’t bring out any more of the bergamot. Interestingly, Gill also didn’t enjoy it.

The packets look a bit like this:

Ovvio French Earl Grey Organic

Ovvio Organics kindly sent me some samples of their tea – not just earl grey but some of their herbal tisanes, too. I don’t tend to go in for teas that are marketed with a medicinal bent, because that’s certainly not why I drink it and I’m suspicious when it comes to claims for anything food-related having massive impact on health and well-being. But anyway, someone had recommended their black teas, so I was keen to try them out.

The French Earl Grey is a very pretty tea to look at, and quite fragrant as a dry tea. What I initially thought was fennel, from appearance, is actually lavender which makes a lot more sense. I feel like there’s a higher proportion of flowers and so on to tea leaves in this concoction than one usually finds. This is not in itself a deal breaker for me.

3 min steeping, 1/2 tsp sugar. Quite fragrant when steeped, too. The lavender definitely comes through, which is something you need to be aware of – especially if you don’t like lavender! I didn’t feel like 1tsp of tea really got me enough flavour, when I made my first cup, so my next cup I used the old leaves with another tsp or so of fresh. It was certainly more flavourful that way. This is quite a nice tea, but won’t be on my shopping list.

Loose Leaf Tea House French Earl Grey

Another tea from the Loose Lea Tea House. How could I resist a French Earl Grey that looked like this?

fg.jpg3 min steeping, 1/2 tsp sugar.

There wasn’t nearly as much scent to the dry tea as I had expected, and – even sadder – not a whole lot when steeped either. It’s a nice enough tea but that’s not really a winning description, is it? Fair to say I was a bit disappointed.

Loose Leaf Tea House Premium Earl Grey

The Loose Leaf Tea House has a really lovely website, and this tea is also lovely.

3 minutes and 1/2 tsp sugar. Delightful citrus scent when dry: not overpowering, but almost floral despite there only being bergamot with the tea leaves.

When steeped, it’s somewhat less citrus-y. But nonetheless, this is a really excellent tea. I think it’s one of my favourites, actually. It is on the more delicate side, but the bergamot flavour is beautifully balanced. This is one of the teas that I may well be revisiting.

Elmstock: Long Leaf Earl Grey

This is another of the sample teas Elmstock sent me. This Long-Leaf is described as ‘classic’.

I steeped it for 4 minutes, as per recommendations, and added 1/2 tsp sugar. When dry, it’s slightly citrus-y – certainly not an overwhelming smell. Happily, it tastes more citrus-y than it smelled, because otherwise I was going to be quite disappointed. Despite misgivings when it was brewing, this was a very tasty drop. It’s not as delicate as the description had led me to fear (what a not-surprise, delicate is not really my thing…). Much more to my taste than the Madame Bergamot, somewhat to my surprise.

Elmstock: Madame Bergamot

Elmstock generously sent me several sample teas. Madame Bergamot is not, as I initially thought, a Lady Grey, but an Earl Grey with cornflowers. Elmstock uses a long-leaf tea for this, and describes it as “subtle and delicately flavoured.”

Scent when dry is certainly a delicate citrus, somewhat floral, although that’s not from the flowers. I steeped for four minutes, as per the recommendations, and added about 1/2tsp of sugar.

This is a fine tea, but not mind-blowing. I’d be happy enough drinking it but I wouldn’t choose to have it as my forever tea.

Adore Tea: Earl Grey Berries

Another sample picked up for me by Alisa, because she likes to encourage my projects.

Adore Tea’s Earl Grey Berries is Earl Grey with strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry added.

2-4 minutes steeping is recommended, so I was reckless and went with 3. I added 1/2 tsp of sugar because it’s automatic, but it may not have been needed here because the berries add quite a sweet note.

The berry notes are the most obvious part of this tea, both dry and steeped. Adore Tea’s website admits that “The berry flavour is quite strong, it is not a subtle berry” and that’s very true. In fact, I would say that this isn’t an Earl Grey tea; it’s a berry tea. It’s quite nice, but there was no discernible citrus to my tastebuds. I’m happy to drink it, but not when I want a citrus effect.