Earl Blue Darjeeling

See full review on Sororitea Sisters
http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/02/18/earl-blue-from-52teas/

This was saved for my best friend, but she is over every Tuesday and this one was pulled out today. The presentation was fantastic with the blueberries in the blend :)
This is a unique blend, but… it doesn’t actually deliver.

Unfortunately the smell went to the medicinal side at around 40 seconds in :/
The taste is much milder than desired as well.

Oh no! I just looked at my tealog and realized my last tasting note was nine days ago! How did that happen?! This sounded like an interesting blend. Blueberry, lemon, Darjeeling. The Darjeeling leaf looks super dark, almost like their usual black tea with slightly bigger leaves. The flavor is kind of like it too, if you mix that with the OLD Blueberry cream cheese Danish base (wish I knew what it was officially). It just doesn’t seem like a green leafed Darj to me… it’s all black leaves! There isn’t much bergamot or lemon in the flavor but there is plenty of blueberry, so much so that it’s filling up the room. Each steep seemed to taste the same even with the vastly different steeping parameters. With a better bergamot and a better Darjeeling base, I think this one would be BETTER.
Steep #1 // 15-20 minutes after boiling // 1-2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 2-3 min

Mmm the dry leaf smells amazing blueberries and bergamot.

Steeped, the bergamot and blueberries are quite well balanced. This tastes like blueberry soap, but in a really good way.

I love blueberries, Earl Grey, and Darjeeling teas, so I was really excited to try this blend. Unfortunately, the bergamot flavor taste very soapy to me, and it overrides all of the other flavors in the tea. Once the tea cools I can kind of taste the blueberry, but I just can’t get past the soapy note.

I’ll probably use the rest of my leaf in a cold brew to see if the tames the bergamot flavor some. I’d love to taste more of the blueberry and base tea!

I’ve had this quite a few times but have somehow managed to never write a tasting note it seems! This is really delicious! I find myself craving it often because it has such a nice balance of bergamot and blueberry. The darjeeling is really nice, too. Yum! Perfect in the morning hours!

Backlog:

I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as I hoped I would. I like Darjeeling tea. I like blueberry flavored teas. I love Earl Grey. So this should be a win, but it just wasn’t for me. I’m not fond of the bergamot flavoring that 52Teas uses. Too perfume-y, especially when the tea is hot.

This does taste better as it cools and that’s what I’ll use the rest of the pouch for is iced tea brewing. When it’s hot, the bergamot tastes too perfume-y. When it cools, this perfume-ish flavor begins to taper and I get more blueberry notes and these are nice. The Darjeeling is pleasant.

It’s alright. Not great. Not the best 52Teas has ever produced. But I guess they can’t all be wins.

My second darjeeling of today. First off, it pairs nicely with apple pie. There is a lovely scent of blueberries, and bergamot. The flavour is more on the earl grey side, but with nice blueberry taste as well. Having it with the pie was a bit like really good fruit salad.