TeaHaus’s Victorian Earl Grey

Victorian Earl Grey by TeaHaus
Black Tea / Flavoured
$6.30USD for 50g

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TeaHaus has provided me with Victorian Earl Grey for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

I make it no secret that one of my favourite teas is Earl Grey, so I was really excited with TeaHaus sent me a sample of their Earl Grey blend, Victorian Earl Grey. The dry tea is lovely, I love being able to see the lavender buds and rosemary in the tea. The bergamot oil in this tea isn’t overpowering the black tea base, but there is a nice brightness with the bergamot. I can also smell the lavender and the rosemary, which is nice, although I can’t smell the rose blossoms in the dry leaf.

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Victorian Earl Grey consists of: black tea, first-rate bergamot oil, lavender, rosemary, and rose blossoms. All of the ingredients are visible, aside from the bergamot oil.

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Preparation

TeaHaus recommends steeping Victorian Earl Grey in boiling water for 2.5 minutes. As my usual, I used the black tea setting on my variable temperature kettle and used water that was 100C (212F) and I steeped the tea for 2.5 minutes.

First Taste

Victorian Earl Grey steeps to a lovely deep orange colour. There’s a subtle mix of bergamot and floral aromas that waft up from the tea as I poured it into my tea cup and it’s quite inviting. When sipping the tea, there’s a lovely balance in the flavour profile of this Earl Grey. I can’t really make out the rosemary in the steeped tea, which is a bit disappointing since it was noticeable in the dry leaf. However, the lavender/floral notes are quite strong in the steeped tea and it balances very well with the bright citrus notes from the bergamot oil. I found that the black tea base played a good supporting role to this tea blend – there was no bitterness or astringency noted in the steeped tea.

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I often doctor up my Earl Grey and I made no exception for this tea. I tried it with honey, which helped to really brighten up the bergamot and lavender flavours. I also made it into a tea latte (London Fog) and it made a great base for a London Fog. The lavender was significantly toned down compared to the bergamot oil after the addition of milk, which was very nice and I do tend to prefer my London Fogs without lavender. I make my tea lattes at home without any fancy frothers or equipment, check out my post about making lattes at home.

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A Second Cup?

I did resteep Victorian Earl Grey three times (four steeps overall). I found for the subsequent steeps that the flavours were very similar to the initial steep for the first two resteeps, although the second resteep was a bit weaker. I found the third resteep to be weakest overall and would recommend two resteeps for this Earl Grey blend.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved TeaHaus’s Victorian Earl Grey. I am very fond for Earl Grey, so I am a little bit picky about it. I generally don’t like lavender in my Earl Grey, but I did find this one to be quite palatable. The floral notes were not over powering the bergamot, which is one of my favourite qualities of a cup of Earl Grey, so it was quite good. The balance of floral and citrus notes make it a tasty cup of tea. I love that the tea holds well with being modified a little bit, what with honey and milk. I do think this tea benefits from a sweetener as it helps brighten up the flavours added into this tea blend.

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