The simple pleasure of having your expectations exceeded is one of the joys I get from drinking a wide variety of teas.  I’m not the biggest Earl Grey fan in the world, but I’ll drink it and usually think it’s ok.  Like most flavored teas, the quality of the tea leaf and the balance of the flavoring is key.  If you are new to Earl Grey here’s some background from a previous blog of mine:

My name is Earl, Earl Grey: Earl Grey is a popular black tea blend often referred to as an afternoon tea. I like it anytime of the day (as long as it’s a good one), especially in the morning. There’s one catch to liking Earl Grey, you have to like the flavoring of the Bergamot oil. Bergamot is a citrus fruit described as a cross between the pear lemon and a grapefruit. Whenever I hear someone say they don’t like Earl Grey, they are usually trying an Earl Grey from a supplier that might have overpowered the tea with Bergamot oil.

I’ve had several cups of Teavana’s Earl Grey Creme over the past two weeks.  First of all the scent of the tea is incredible.  It reminds me of Lemon Meringue Pie - unreal. As the tea was steeping the scent rising from the cup had my mouth watering. After the first sip, I was floored. The cream flavor made this tea perfect for my taste preference. It was like a lemon filled cookie and milk balanced with black tea. The vanilla and cornflowers made for an excellent accent of flavors. This is a dairy free product - it’s just flavoring. If you want to take your Earl Grey to another level, I highly recommend this tea. It has a great dry leaf presentation, excellent aroma, and mouth-pleasing flavor.

Visit Teavana

marTEA

At the World Tea Expo, I found a brand of tea that I’ve never tried before called Stassen.  The Stassen Group is a premier corporate conglomerate in Sri Lanka that offers a wide variety of products and services.  Obviously, tea is one of their main areas of expertise.  I’m trying their organic earl grey today.  It’s a very traditionally packed tea bag.  The tea bag was wrapped with a paper wrapper and the tea is finely cut in the bag.

Stassen defines their quality as: Organic teas by Stassen carry the Bio-Suisse, JAS and Transfair seals, which indeed shows that our organic teas are premium. Stassen also has an ISO 9000:2000 certified tea-bag factory to cater for all tea-bag requirements, HACCP and is currently working towards ISO 14000 international standard. Its two tea factories are also certified to ISO 9001:2000 global standards.

The Ceylon tea was very smooth and full bodied.  The bergamot flavoring was on par with similar bagged teas from other brands.  The one surprise I had from this tea was its fresh and full flavor coming from the Ceylon tea.  This tea will appeal to the traditional bagged tea consumer.  It is an organic product; which will add to its overall value.  If you like simple, traditional, bagged teas, and you see the Stassen brand name you will not be disappointed.

• Learn more about Stassen

marTEA

Choice Organic’s Earl Grey is made from Fair Trade Certified black tea, organic orange peel, organic oil of bergamot, and organic safflowers. This tea is another example of Choice Organic’s commitment to social responsibility and customer satisfaction.  Their Whole Leaf organic products contain loose leaf tea in a pyramid tea bag; which gives the tea consumer a quality tea in an easy to use tea infuser.

Earl Grey is a popular black tea blend often referred to as an afternoon tea. I like it anytime of the day, especially in the morning. There’s one catch to liking Earl Grey, you have to like the flavoring of the Bergamot oil. Bergamot is a citrus fruit described as a cross between a pear lemon and a grapefruit.  The flavor combines to create a flavorful black tea that is a favorite of many.  With the Choice Organic Earl Grey, I didn’t find the flavors to be overpowering.  I typically do not add milk, sugar, and honey to tea, but this one needed something extra to bring it to its full flavor potential.  I think most people that enjoy Early Gray in a tea bag will enjoy this tea.  If it had just a bit more flavor from the start, I would have been more satisfied with my cup.  Keep in mind this product is organic and fair trade.

Visit Choice Organic Teas

marTEA

I’m not sure why, but I’m not a huge Earl Grey fan. I do like iced tea made from an Earl Grey blend. I guess it’s just not my first choice as a hot tea. I do enjoy it from time-to-time, it’s just like…what are my other options? When I tried Revolution’s Earl Grey Lavender I was concerned for two reasons. One, it was Earl Grey. Two, it was infused with Lavender. Lavender reminds me of the “soap” aisle of a grocery store. Anyway, I’ve had nothing but pleasant experiences with Revolution’s products - so I had no fear trying this one.

First off, the dried tea had a very pleasing aroma. The Earl Grey Lavender is listed as containing Ceylon, Oolong, and Darjeeling estate tea leaves - sounds good. Now, I steeped the tea for a few minutes in water around 210 degrees. I’m trying Revolution’s single serving infusers. You can see the loose leaf tea through the infuser. The scent rising from the dark liquor was very sweet and pleasant. The citrusy scent of bergamot wrapped with a light dash of lavender lingered around the cup. The scent was slightly sweeter than the flavor in a positive way. Revolution has lightly flavored the trio of teas with bergamot oil and lavender. The keyword is “lightly” flavored. Therefore, you get to enjoy the tea that supports the flavors. I highly recommend this tea to Early Grey lovers.  I’m certain this tea would be great if served as an iced tea.

• Visit Revolution Tea

marTEA