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Well, time for yet another Earl Grey!

This time, it’s the English Tea Store’s “Earl Grey Cream”. It’s important to note that this is the loose leaf, non-organic blend. Apparently there are three different types of Earl Grey Cream that ETS sells, and this is the one I have.

Examination of the loose leave I see plenty of those lovely blue strands I love so much. You can smell the bergamot, but that’s about it.
I brewed this western (of course) for the first steep of 2:30. I can’t give exact measurements because currently, my tea-spoon is missing, so I’ve been trying to eyeball it. (I tend not to use the scale for smaller leaf teas, it gets everywhere, including INSIDE the scale!) Also, one of these days I’m going to invest in a water thermometer and temp test my Keurig, but that day isn’t today. So, for a ballpark estimate, say 2:30/205F/2tsp/16oz.

Taste unaltered is nice enough. You get a lovely bit of zesty citrus, accompanied by the usual floral note, but it seems balanced. Surprisingly, I can’t taste any cream flavor specifically. I’m searching for it, but the only difference between this and my usual earl greys is that the bergamot isn’t as bitey. Let’s add a Splenda.

Ok, so adding a Splenda, and I can almost taste the cream. It’s very subtle. Mostly, the creaminess just serves to temper most of the bite from the bergamot. It makes for a lovely mellow cup. It isn’t the most mellow I’ve had yet, and certainly not the creamiest, but it’s really decent. Actually, considering some of the ones I’ve tried lately, I’d even call it a touch above decent. It’s good, but not great. Somewhere in the range of a B-Minus. It’s easily a passing grade, but it’s only a tick or two above average. It’s somewhat disappointing considering how awesome the Lavender Earl Grey was. That one was a home run for me, while this one is more like a double. But, I am determined to try as many of these Earl Grey teas as I can get my hands on, so this is just another one for the list.

Bottom line: It’s good, but not great. It’s a solid Earl Grey, but somewhat lacking for an Earl Grey Cream. If you’re looking for that quintessential EGC, look elsewhere. This one is only slightly above average; no Holy Grail here. Sorry.

Ok, so another new tea!

I’ve made my point very clear about wanting to try all the Earl Grey I can acquire, so when I saw this on ETS, I had to get some. I only got a sample, but I’m happy to say that English Tea Store samples are fairly decent sized! So yay!

Right off the bat, you can smell a heavy floral from this in the dry leaf. I mean SERIOUS floral! The brewing instructions on the bag are pretty vague, so I made it like a normal Earl Grey, 205F/2:30/2tsp/16oz

The aroma of tea is also floral. I’m eager to try this once it cools a bit, I love a floral tea. Taste without sweetener is… mmm, that’s good. The black tea base is present, but not powerful or overwhelming, and certainly not bitter. The bergamot is lovely, without being biting. And that lavender! The balance of flavors is nice here, and I really don’t want to add my usual sweetener to this, I’m loving it that much. It’s not sweet, mind you. Not by a long shot. But the lovely blend of florals is so delicious.

So what’s the final word? This is extremely floral. I know I keep using that word, but I cannot emphasize this enough. It’s not floral like the last one I tried (Kyoto Cherry Rose) which tasted like perfume. This is a balanced floral, strong, but not fake tasting. However, if you aren’t a fan of strong floral flavor, avoid this. You probably won’t like it. But if you are like me and have a need to ‘eat a bouquet’ now and then, go for it. It’s lovely and I think once the sample runs out, I will have to get a full-sized packet of this.

Good stuff.

Wow. Despite my parents simply buying this at the store, it wasn’t on here. Odd.

Anyway, I had a couple cups of this over the weekend as I was at the folks’ place and pickings are slim. I really need to get a couple boxes of decent bagged stuff over there for when I visit. Anyway, drank a mug of this, decided I didn’t like it, then tried a second mug to be sure.

This tea would be much better without the fennel. As many of you know, I am not a licorice person, so the addition of fennel you’d think would scare me off, but I decided to try it anyway. Nope, it had way too much of that pungent licorice flavor. The green tea was also present, which was nice, but the tumeric was sadly muted, drowned out by the fennel. Also, despite this being labled as Matcha, I got absolutely no matcha flavor from it. I’ve only had matcha one other time though, so I don’t have much to go by, other than the pure matcha I had was very grassy and this wasn’t grassy at ALL. There was just no grass there. But lots of fennel though!

There were some other spices and flavors involved with a noticeable floral note, and upon drinking the second cup decided it isn’t the worst thing ever. In fact, I can even tolerate it if it’s brewed weak and no sweetener added (the same combo I discovered with the other licorice tea I had recently). I probably wouldn’t drink this again, but if you like licorice flavor… you know what, skip it anyway. There’s much better offerings out there. From an objective standpoint, this isn’t sewage water, but it misses good by a long shot. Pass on this one.

Bath and Body Works

That is immediately what this tea makes me think of. There’s a good possibility I oversteeped AND overleafed (for some reason I didn’t really measure either, no idea why), but the bottom line is this tastes exactly like if Bath and Body Works made a green tea.

That said, I am a BnBW ADDICT, and oops, I’m loving this. I use their products on a daily basis from soaps to body wash to body spray etc, and I’d be lying if I said I never considered what they might taste like. Now I know. So I’m telling you now, this tea is definitely not for everyone, heck it’s probably not for most. It’s a mild sencha green flavor with the cherry and rose both turned up to 11. Y’all know how I love my Splenda, and I’m drinking this straight no problem. It’s that pleasing to me.

I feel as though this review will turn more people off this tea than not, but I wanted to be honest, so here you go. I recommend it, but only to weirdos like me.

SIPDOWN!

So apparently I never reviewed this before, and now I’m sipping it down, so I better do so now! In fact, if I had known I never wrote a review of this previously, I would have tasted it before I latted it. But I didn’t so this review is of a latte.

Ok, so I will say right off the bat that I’m getting a large note of peppercorn from this. I don’t mind it, actually, it’s refreshing. Not enough chais have a strong pepper flavor, and I’m a huge fan of pepper, sooo…

There is also a very clear white chocolate flavor to this. The milk only amplifies it, and it’s heavenly. Now I’m getting sad that this is a sipdown, because I feel like I’ve been sleeping on this. It’s delicious. I’m saying now that the rest of the chai flavors besides the peppercorn are muted, but that could be the latte doing that. You can tell it’s a chai, but it isn’t a particularly spicy one. That’s fine though, I can deal with a mild chai. However, that delicious white chocolate is so good that I could drink this all day. (You know, come to think of it, the mildness could be due to the slight underleaf. As this was a sipdown, I only had what was left in the bag, and it wasn’t quite enough for my 12oz mug, so that could be why it is so weak on the spice. I also probably could have steeped it longer. Just a thought.)

I’m saying this now if this ever gets reblended, I’m getting more. It’s good stuff. Love it. Great job as usual!

Ok! So I immediately latted this one up. I pretty much always latte anything gingerbread, so this was no exception. I am a bit concerned by the smell from the bag. It smells… odd. I can’t place that olfactory note for the life of me, but it doesn’t smell like gingerbread.

Latte is made with Fairlife milk and 2 Splendas. I know fairlife isn’t as nice to latte with as almond milk, but my sugar has been acting up, so I had to switch. Also, I realize now that I underleafed this a bit. I can’t find my measuring spoon, so I tried to weigh it out, but then forgot to account for the larger cup size.

Latte is… mmm that’s good. I’m really getting the gingerbread flavor here, along with the pancake, although the pancake is more as an aftersip. The gingerbread hits you right away but the pancake lingers. It’s odd, there’s also a decent amount of spice here besides the gingerbread. Am I tasting clove in there? I swear I am. Well, a quick look at the package confirms the addition of cloves, so I’m not wrong. Good to know. There is a lovely tongue tingle involved with this one. I’m loving it.

Good stuff. It’s not perfect; I would have liked to have seen a more “in your face” pancake flavor, but that could just be me. It isn’t that the pancake is missing, it’s just not as prominent on the initial taste as I would like. (As I said, it’s a lingering flavor.) I would recommend this tea to anyone who wants a good gingerbread tea. I know we’re a bit out of gingerbread season now, but I didn’t get the box, so this is my first time trying this. Just all around yum. I only bought one pack of this, which I now regret; I see this going quickly.

Another day, another brew!

So, I didn’t actually order this one (I don’t think), but the kind “Mad Tea Artist” was nice enough to send it to me as part of my order. Isn’t she wonderful??

Scent in the bag is very sweet. Super sweet actually. I wonder if it will translate over?

Brewed with Keurig water for 3 mins, 2tsp/16 oz

Taste is…wow, that’s surprisingly good, especially for no sweetener! I’m not going to say it is sweet, so to speak (at least not by my sugar-loving standards) but it is very tasty. I really do get the maple flavor from it.

OK Edit: I don’t know if the metalic taste I’m getting is a water problem or my mouth problem, because, while I’m not using bottled water, I still taste it even when not drinking the water. I had some dental work done recently, so that may be part of the problem, I don’t know. I will try to review it objectively outside of this.

So, with sweetener, this is a strong maple flavored tea. I haven’t eaten a plum in ages, so I can’t compare it to that, but the maple flavor alone is delightful. There’s also the ever so slightest smoke flavor. I realize now this has Lapsang in it, which would have been a dealbreaker if I hadn’t tried it first. Now I’m starting to think that I could actually enjoy LS if it is GOOD LS. This is just a very pleasing tea. I’m enjoying it.

Good stuff.

Okay! So, another of the new teas!

Just a short writeup on this one. Unadulterated, you can get the pineapple flavor, but none of the “cheesecake”. It just tastes like a mildly juicy, unsweet pineapple. With just one Splenda, however, the sweetness of the pineapple not only appears but is amplified into a lovely juicy sweet/tart flavor. It’s the same pineapple goodness I remembered from the Grilled Pineapple tea I loved so much from 52teas.

That brings me to the second part. I’m a huge cheesecake fan. If you put cheesecake in front of me, I eat it. Screw the diabetes, cheesecake wins every time. That’s just the rules.

This… doesn’t taste like cheesecake. You know what it does taste like though? Cream.

That’s right. If there was some magically possible way to blend pineapple with cream, this is what I can imagine it would taste like. It’s lovely. I’m not even mad about it not tasting specifically like cheesecake. I just love the juxtaposition of cream/pineapple. I didn’t even know I would like creamy pineapple, but dangit if this doesn’t make it work!

Great stuff. I’m so grateful I bought a bunch of this. Wonderful tea.

EDIT: Fun fact. This is a pineapple tea. I currently am going HARD for a certain Broadway Musical involving a pineapple dwelling sponge. So there’s that bit of synergy going on.

Huzzah for new tea!

So, this is one of the new acquisitions for the month. It’s only the third one I’ve tried, but it smells heavenly in the bag. You can really smell the maple and pancakes!

So time to dive in!

Flavor without additions – Hmm… it’s ok. I can taste a bit of pancake, maybe if I squint? The maple is also there, but it isn’t as nice a maple as I like. If you gave this to me without any sugar and asked me to name the flavor, I wouldn’t be able to. So, time for Splenda.

Ok, so I used two splendas, and I think that’s too much. Now all I taste is sweet. There’s very little balance. The only flavor of pancake I get is on the after sip. It does smell like pancakes and syrup though. Hang on, let me try again.

Ok, full cup with one Splenda is much better. I’m getting the pancake flavor better now (although it’s really hot and burned my mouth- oops). I can really taste the maple goodness, which is lovely. With only one Splenda, it still isn’t overpoweringly-sweet, which is something I always associate with actual pancake syrup, but that could just be because I have been using Sugar-Free syrup for so long, and that stuff is a billion times sweeter than real maple syrup.

Other flavors I notice… hmm, Ok, so I don’t know how to describe this. I used to be a smoker, and Camels were my brand of choice. When I was quitting, I used “Turkish Tobacco” flavored vapes to stop… that flavor profile of the Camel vape? There is a strong note of that here. I can’t describe it any other way. It’s like a caramel-like, and mild bitterness, with a malt aftertaste? I’m pretty sure I’m describing this wrong. My palate isn’t very refined these days, and I have a hard time putting what I taste into words. It’s not bad, mind you. Honestly, despite being quit for a year and a half, I welcome the flavor back. I’ve missed that flavor.

All in all, please don’t let my review scare you. This is a wonderful tea, it really is. I’m trying to do a better job of describing the flavors, and it’s all coming out word salad. So forgive me guys. I love this. I just can’t fully describe the goodness of it for the life of me.