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Mastress Alita drank French Earl Grey by T2

1264 tasting notes

May Flowers! This is actually the first earl grey tea I ever bought for my collection. I had never liked the taste of bergamot (which, considering the way I like citrus and strong tart, tangy flavors, I’m not sure why I never liked that taste, but it just was very offputting to me… perhaps because it was so perfumy? Despite how much like I like florals, I can’t handle a jasmine-scented tea because it is simply too strong in scent and sets my head off because I feel like I’m drinking perfume, so the aroma more than the taste could have had a lot to do with it). But I read a lot of reviews saying this was a good earl grey for “people that normally don’t like earl grey” and I thought I’d try to adapt my palate, starting with this blend (and I later added other blends as well, and now I’d say I’m pretty tolerant with all but the heaviest of bergamot teas).

This tea does have a noticable bergamot flavor that lingers on the tongue, but there is a fruitiness to the base. Most people say it tastes of peach, but for me, it tastes very much of lychee, and lychee black teas are one of my favorite things, so that actually was a good way to ween me into the bergamot. The tea is accented with rose, sunflower, hibiscus, and mallow petals, and while you can’t really taste any of those flowers individually, there is a very subtle floral sweetness right at the end of the sip.

I used to always take this with some milk, to cut the bergamot back just a bit, but now that I’m more used to it, I can drink a cup plain, and pick out the lychee fruit notes beneath the citrusy bergamot. I think I’d certainly prefer something like this over a plain earl grey in my cupboard.

Flavors: Bergamot, Citrus, Floral, Lychee

Preparation

Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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