Tag: Black Tea

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The Secret Garden Tea Company’s Organic Creamy Earl Grey Tea

Organic Creamy Earl Grey Tea by The Secret Garden Tea Company
Black Tea / Flavoured
$16.00 for 100g

First Impressions

I bought Organic Creamy Earl Grey Tea when I was at The Secret Garden Tea Company for afternoon tea back in March. The retail side of their shop was full of tea paraphernalia (teacups and tea pots everywhere!) and I couldn’t help but make a little purchase since I was already there. This was one of the teas that was recommended by the server that my friend and I had, and while I didn’t end up getting it as my tea choice, my friend had and said it was “Really, really good!” so I had to give it at try at home. Organic Creamy Earl Grey Tea comes in a plastic-lined paper pouch that closes with a metal band. It’s not air-tight, but it makes for a nice presentation. If you’re like me, you have a lot of extra glass mason jars or tea tins on hand, so it’s an easy issue to fix.

The loose leaf black has some nice citrus notes, with a hint of vanilla in the background. The packaging only mentions the name of the tea with no information regarding the ingredients or steeping instructions. I was able to find the ingredients list on the product page on The Secret Garden Tea Company’s website. Organic Creamy Earl Grey Tea consists of: organic black tea, osmanthus flowers, and organic natural flavouring. I can definitely smell the bergamot and vanilla, which are two flavours mentioned on the product page.

Preparation

There were no steeping instructions for Organic Creamy Earl Grey Tea on either the packaging itself or on the product page online. I opted to do an initial steep with 100°C (212°F) water for 3 minutes.

If you’re ever stuck on a tea because there’s no instructions included, you can check out my Steeping Times for Different Teas guide for suggestions on how to steep your tea.

First Taste

Organic Creamy Earl Grey Tea steeps to a nice golden orange colour. There’s a nice citrus aroma from the tea, with a hint of the vanilla in the background. I found the flavour to be quite pleasant – the bergamot is strong, and there’s a creamy vanilla flavour to it. The black tea flavour is strong, and it has a nice boldness to it that has a slight malty note to it. I found that with an initial steep of 3 minutes there was no astringency or bitterness that I could detect.

I tried it both straight and with a bit of added cream, which I found helped amplify the creamy vanilla flavour and didn’t temper the bergamot too much so it was still quite tasty.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Organic Creamy Earl Grey Tea twice, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the first resteep was quite similar to the initial steep – with less bergamot and vanilla. For the second steep, I found very little bergamot and vanilla flavour. I would recommend Organic Creamy Earl Grey Tea for just one more steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved The Secret Garden Tea Company’s Organic Creamy Earl Grey Tea. I can see why the server had made a recommendation for this tea as it’s quite delicious. I normally don’t find creamy Earl Grey teas to be that good, since I like to add my own cream/milk to it, but this one had a great vanilla flavour to it that really added to the overall creaminess and smoothness to the tea. It had a great mouthfeel texture to it, and it did great for resteep which is always important in my opinion!

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Oteas’s Earl Grey

Earl Grey by Oteas
Black Tea / Flavoured
$6.95 for 30g (12 sachets)

Oteas has provided me with Earl Grey for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Earl Grey and I go way back.  It’s pretty much always been a tea stash staple for me. It’s a very approachable tea – easy to source out and find, easy to steep, and easy to muck around with when it comes to adding sweetener and cream. I was pleased to find Earl Grey in the package that Oteas sent me, primarily because I’m always looking forward to try new-to-me Earl Grey.

Like the other Oteas flavours that I’ve reviewed previously, this one contains teas in biodegradable sachets – which is great for the environment! The tea has the very classic Earl Grey aroma – I can smell both the black tea base and the bergamot. Earl Grey consists of: black tea, cornflower, and essence of bergamot.

Preparation

Oteas recommends steeping Earl Grey in 100°C (212°F) water for 3 to 4 minutes. My initial steep of Earl Grey was for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Earl Grey steeps to a lovely reddish brown. There’s a nice bergamot aroma to it, which is one of my favourite features of Earl Grey. The black tea base is tasty, although I note a touch of astringency at the tail end of each steep. The citrus notes from the bergamot are bright and add a sense of freshness to the tea itself. If you’re not a fan of the astringency, you can always opt to steep for a shorter period of time (e.g. 3 minutes) or add a touch of milk or cream to help temper the astringency. It is not off-putting though, and I find the tea to be quite tasty.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Earl Grey. I found that it wasn’t as delicious as the initial steep, primarily because most of the bergamot notes weren’t as strong as they were in the first steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Oteas’s Earl Grey. I really enjoy a well balanced Earl Grey, and I found that this one was quite pleasing to the taste buds. I drink Earl Grey quite often at home, but having the tea already preportioned into sachets makes it easier to drink tea on the go, or to steep a cup at work without having to deal with spoons and filter bags – just one less step to take before getting some tea! The bergamot flavour is delightful, and everything that I look for in a tasty Earl Grey.

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Field to Cup’s March Adventurer Box

March Adventurer Box by Field to Cup
$34.97USD for 1 Adventurer Box (per month)
$356.69USD for 12 Months ($29.72/mo)

Field to Cup has provided me with the March Adventurer Box for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Use coupon code Onemoresteep20 for 20% off your first order of teas or first month of subscription boxes from Field to Cup!

First Impressions

I wrote a bit about how the Field to Cup subscription boxes work (multi-month options, different tea options) in my review of their February Adventurer Box. I’m so pleased to be sharing my review of the March Adventurer Box with you all. Again, the Adventurer Box is geared towards fans of primarily traditional tea types, and have at least four teas per box. The March box contains five teas – four of which are labelled as premium teas and one is the ‘extra’ bonus tea for the month. Each tea comes in a sealed, resealable foil pouch with a black and white label on the front that includes steeping instructions, resteeping instructions, ingredients, and flavour notes.

The first three are: Bergamot Bliss (green tea), Plus Belle (pouchong tea), and Organic Nilgiri Silk (black tea). I found Bergamot Bliss to be very rich in bergamot aroma, it’s very bright and inviting and reminds me a lot of an Earl Grey. Because of the strength of the bergamot, I can’t really make out the aroma of the green tea base. This green tea blend consists of green tea and bergamot oil. For Plus Belle, a pouchong tea (which – an internet search told me – is fairly close to an oolong tea), this is a Taiwanese tea from Nantou County. The leaves are bright and green with a mild grassy aroma to it. Organic Nilgiri Silk has some light malty notes, coupled with the dark wiry leaves. The tea itself is an organic black tea from the Nilgiris District in India.

From left to right: Bergamot Bliss, Plus Belle, Organic Nilgiri Silk.

The next two teas in the box are: Organic Green Jewel (green tea) and Formosa Bai Hao (oolong tea). Organic Green Jewel consists of a fine green leaves – they were quite small and coated my teaspoon due to the static electricity. There’s a light salty aroma to it. The tasting notes mentioned a lime zest, but I don’t really get that from the dry leaf. Formosa Bai Hao has a mix of dark brown, reddish brown, and pale brown wiry leaves. The aroma of the dry leaf is mostly that of a honeyed floral aroma.

From left to right: Organic Green Jewel, Formosa Bai Hao.

Preparation

Bergamot Bliss is recommended to steep in 180°F (82°C) water for 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 175°F (79°C) water for 3 minutes.

Plus Belle is recommended to steep in 180°F (82°C) water for 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 175°F (79°C) water for 3 minutes.

Organic Nilgiri Silk is recommended to steep in 205°F (96°C) water for 4 minutes. My initial steep was in 200°F (93°C) water for 4 minutes.

Organic Green Jewel is recommended to steep in 170°F (77°C) water for 2 minutes. My initial steep was in 175°F (79°C) water for 2 minutes.

Formosa Bai Hao is recommended to steep in 205°F (96°C) water for 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 200°F (93°C) water for 3 minutes.

First Taste

From left to right: Bergamot Bliss, Plus Belle, Organic Nilgiri Silk.

Bergamot Bliss steeps to a light green-yellow with a surprisingly not overpowering aroma of bergamot from the steeped tea. There’s something inviting about the citrus notes that make me think that this may be nice as an ice tea. I found that the bergamot flavour is nice and citrusy and balances well with the light grassy notes from the green tea.

Plus Belle steeps to a pale yellow. There is mix of floral and grassy flavours in the aroma of this tea. I found the taste to be sweet, with hints of floral and grassy flavour, as well as a light buttery cream in the background. Overall, I found this tea to be very smooth and easy to drink.

Organic Nilgiri Silk has a golden reddish orange colour, with a sweet aroma to it. The flavour is primarily sweet honeyed notes, with a malty flavour that almost has a bit of a yeasty quality to it – if you’re a baker, you may know what I mean. There’s a nice robustness to the flavour.

From left to right: Organic Green Jewel, Formosa Bai Hao.

Organic Green Jewel has a bright yellow colour. I found that the aroma is salty and grassy, while the flavour of this green tea has hints of salt, grassy/vegetal flavours, as well as a bit of lime in the steeped tea. The lime surprised me a bit since I didn’t really get that from the dry tea or even from the steeped tea, until I tasted it! It adds a burst of freshness to the flavour profile.

Formosa Bai Hao steeps to an orange brown. The darkness in the colour reflects the deep honeyed notes well, along with the floral sweetness and some dried apricot flavours. It’s quite pleasant, and I feel like it would pair well with a savoury dish.

A Second Cup?

Bergamot Bliss resteeped well, I did it twice and found that the bergamot was still very much present with each steep. Plus Belle was resteeped three times and I found it to be still light and almost delicate tasting throughout. It remained nicely sweet and floral with each steep. Organic Nilgiri Silk was resteeped twice, I found that the first resteep was much closer to the initial steep than the second steep – the deep malty notes weren’t as strong for the second resteep.

From left to right: Bergamot Bliss, Plus Belle, Organic Nilgiri Silk.

Organic Green Jewel was resteeped twice and I found the flavour weakened a little bit with each steep, but that little burst of lime freshness was still in the tea throughout each steep. Formosa Bai Hao was the real resteeping winner in this box – I did four resteeps and found that the flavour stayed pretty consistent throughout and was tasty through each steep of the same leaves.

From left to right: Organic Green Jewel, Formosa Bai Hao.

My Overall Impression

I loved Field to Cup’s March Adventurer Box. I really enjoyed the variety of teas, and learned a little something about pouchong tea. My favourites in this month’s box would have to be the Bergamot Bliss, Plus Belle, and Formosa Bai Hao. I really enjoyed trying each tea and tasting the flavours mentioned in the tasting notes.

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