Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Bergamot’

I think that one of the best things that ever happened to Earl Grey tea was meeting the vanilla bean.  It must have been movie magic.  I can see it now…

INT: A Parisian Salon.

Various teas and flavorings lounge about, chatting, discussing worldly matters and current gossip.  VANILLA sits in the corner, alone, draped across a chaise longue.   She is long, lean and highly sweetly scented.

The camera pans to the door where EARL GREY, a dark, swarthy yet citrus scented tea enters.  He scans the room until his eyes fall on VANILLA.  He beelines to her, drops to one knee, grabs her hand, and looks deeply into her eyes while kissing her hand.

EARL GREY (huskily): ‘Allo.  I find myself inexplicibly drawn to you.  I feel we could make amazing brews together.

VANILLA: (swoons)

Music swells.

….and scene.  Only problem is that just like movie magic, there are frequent copycats that just don’t have the verve and je ne sais qua of the original.  I’ve had varied luck with the different Earl Grey de la Cremes out there on the market.

Luckily, Distinctly Tea has got a pretty good version of this classic couple.  The black tea base of ceylon and assam is sturdy and the flavoring agents blend beautifuly.  The vanilla is creamy, and the bergamot avoids the trap of tasting like perfume.  Highly scented, highly flavorful.  Lovely tea.  I reccomend it.

Yum.

You can purchase the Earl Grey de la Crème directly from the Distinctly Tea website.

Chocolate with tea in it…it is a delicious concept. Much better than most tea with chocolate in it, as my past experiences have told me. Before I started reviewing this chocolate by Tea and All Its Splendour, I “cleansed” my palate with a sip of some Fujian black tea. I then tasted each of the various chocolates, giving a bit of time in between each one to allow my taste buds to clear a bit.

The first chocolate was Milk Chocolate Passionfruit Green Tea. This chocolate was very fruity tasting. I did not noticed much tea flavour, but I do think that chocolate and passionfruit is an excellent combination.

Next up was the Milk Chocolate Earl Grey Tea. It certainly had more tea flavour than the Passionfruit chocolate. The typical Earl Grey bergamot flavour was not heavily present, nor overwhelming, for which I was grateful. I have tried other Earl Grey milk chocolates, and they all seemed to have far too much bergamot in them.

The third chocolate I tried was the Milk Chocolate Chai Tea. The flavour of this chocolate was very creamy, but not very chai-tasting. The tastes of cloves and peppers, especially, were fairly prominent.

Dark Chocolate Ginger Black Tea was next. Wow. I could taste the flavour of ginger before even biting into it. The flavours of ginger and dark chocolate combined to create a very sharp taste with a ginger-like lasting burn at the back of the throat. Surprisingly though, despite the description I just offered, this chocolate really was quite tasty.

The last chocolate included was Dark Chocolate Raspberry Black Tea. This one was very smooth and creamy in texture and in flavour. The fruit flavour was not as strong as the passionfruit chocolate. However, the subtle raspberry flavour complemented the dark chocolate quite well.

I would definitely recommend these chocolates to any chocolate or tea lover. These are delicious treats and the tea added to them complements them excellently.

You can purchase the Tea Infused Chocolates directly from the Tea and All Its Splendour website.

Smell in bag is of vanilla and cream-Whoa-I can’t get the water boiled fast enough!

A 3 minute infusion releases the cream notes. This tea is perfectly balanced, the bergamot is present but not over the top. No need for sweeteners, I did add a splash of milk to bring out the vanilla and crème more.

On an Earl Grey scale, this tea would be ranked as a mild one…a GREAT mild Earl Grey with a creaminess you will have to experience for yourself. For me, the search is over! I can now join with Picard…”Earl Grey (de la crème) Hot.”

You can purchase the Earl Grey de la Crème directly from the Distinctly Tea website.

I’ve had a long and pleasurable relationship with Earl Grey so I was excited to taste this tea.   I opened the package and was initially enchanted by the aroma.    As I waited for the tea to cool, I looked at Golden Moon’s very attractive web site and learned that their Tippy Earl Grey is a :  ”High-quality black tea with subtle essences of bergamot and lavender.”  What fun!  I knew that the  bergamot with its citrusy aroma was present and accounted for most nicely but the lavender was the delightful surprise here.  The floral, slightly spicy, aromatic scent of the lavender added a delightful supporting role to the bergamot which should always be the star of Earl Grey.

The brew was an excellent Earl Grey and the select leaves and the flavoring made it a distinctive cup.  I realized how many Earl Grey teas I have sampled that only hinted slightly at the flavor.  Golden Moon always makes an effort to provide a much higher than standard experience and they did not fail here.   The lavender does not overwhelm the taste and aroma but does seem to make the bergamot a stronger, more distinctive presence than occurs in many other Earl Greys.  If you are shopping for a special Earl Grey treat, I recommend this.  I don’t know if this would be everyone’s choice for a daily Earl Grey to keep in stock always, but if you love the bergamot and want it strong and sturdy, then this might be the very best choice for you.

Congratulations to Golden Moon for getting the right assemblage of leaves and flavors together to make a delightful tea worthy of its title:  Tippy Earl Grey.

You can purchase the Tippy Earl Grey directly from the Golden Moon Tea website.

Canton Tea was nice enough to send a box of tea infused chocolates as a thank you, and wow, what a thank you it is!

It seems almost daily that there are more and more tea infused chocolates, chocolate bars and other treats available. To date, I have only tried a couple of tea infused chocolate bars, and what they are lacking is the purity of taste. To me, if you are going to mix chocolate and tea, you need to highlight the best of both, and not overwhelm with one or the other. This is where the chocolates that Canton Tea sent me really excel.

These chocolates are made by hand, by Katie Christoffers in the UK. The name of her company is Matcha Chocolat. Her chocolates are made with only high quality chocolate from France, and fresh, high quality teas and other ingredients. Canton Tea has partnered with Katie, and is offering a box of her chocolates in their Tea and Chocolate Gift Pack – and now is the time to get it! Matcha Chocolat does not ship outside of the UK – but Canton Tea does

On to the chocolates. The box contained 3 Mint & Green Tea, 3 Jasmine Pearl, 3 Earl Grey, 3 Matcha and 4 Masala Chai Caramel hearts. I will go through each of the briefly.

Mint and Green Tea: I am a big fan of mint, and this does not disappoint. There is a nice minty freshness, with a bit of background Green Tea, there but not there, with a wonderfully smooth chocolate flavour. Think After Eight with a touch of seaweed (in a nice way, not nasty

Jasmine Pearls: This combines my two favorite comfort flavours – Jasmine and White Chocolate. Not at all flowery, it is just perfect. As the chocolate melts I can feel the tension flowing out of my body. No sharing this one!

Earl Grey: EG is not my favorite tea (something about the bergamot), however, blended with a nice dark chocolate shell and chocolate ganash, these work together to create a creamy taste with a hint of astringency, both from the Earl Grey and Dark Chocolate – pleasant, if a bit heavy in the mouth for my tastes.

Masala Chai Caramels: Milk chocolate, and Masala Chai infused Caramel – uhh, yum? So far, every spicy tea infused chocolate I have enjoyed, it is not jump out at you O M G I cannot believe it, but rather a more curious, “hmm, I like this, I just don’t know why” kind of feeling. Tasty!

Matcha: I have mixed feelings on this. First of all, the chocolate is divine. I am however, having a very hard time picking up much in the way of Matcha. Matcha is generally bitter, with the edge taken off by sweets. I am “feeling” the Matcha, but not really “tasting” it. It is not bad, just not, well, what I expected. Not my favorite, would pass on this one personally.

Overall, this box of sweets is a must not miss! Thus far it is my favorite box of tea infused chocolates. You can taste the tea in the chocolate, but are not overwhelmed by either – they blend smoothly and leave you with pleasant afterglow.

Lets not forget, that when you purchase this Tea and Chocolate Gift Pack, you also get a sample set of teas! Canton Tea includes their Dragon Well Green Tea, Green Tea with Mint, Superior Earl Grey, Jasmine Pearls, and Bai Lin Gong Fu Black Tea. This is a deal that you juat cannot pass up!

Oh, and if you are not a fan of Jasmine, my address is available for you to send me your Jasmine Pearls Chocolate – I promise it will be WELL enjoyed! Thanks Canton Tea for providing me with the opportunity to taste these chocolates!

You can purchase the Tea and Chocolate Gift Pack directly from the Canton Tea Co. website.