Trader Joe's Earl Grey

If you haven't heard of Trader Joe's, then you live under a rock and I don't understand how you are even reading this blog since the internet must not be something you're familiar with, but I digress. 

Trader Joe's is a store that sells a lot of organic items for a cheaper price. And while they may promote their organicness, it's really their snacks that keep you coming back for more. And in my case - the tea.

They don't have the largest selection of teas, only offering a variety of your very basics, but this has been my go-to every morning for the past two months. It's not only been a repurchase, but my very reason for wanting to go to the store. 

It is loaded with bergamot, which is something hard to find among off-brand teas. It reminds me of the Bigelow earl grey, but nearly half the price. If you have a Trader Joe's near you and you love tea, it's worth it just to get a few boxes of the good/cheap stuff.

The box is one of those handy ones very similar to Choice teas, where you remove a bottom part on the front of the box and have them readily available. This could be another reason why I have it for breakfast every morning, when whatever is easiest wins.

So get your cheap on as well as your organic, and check this out. 

And as always, enjoy a nice cuppa. Cheers!

Williamson Earl Grey

Sometimes the obvious needs to be stated.  Williamson tea caddies are undeniably the most intricately and beautifully designed.  All that beauty aside, I still felt the need to add my stupid little starbursts.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon not one, but two different teas in two different styled elephant caddies at a HomeGoods about a year ago.  I just couldn't pass up possessing them, having them add a little something of refinement to my tea cupboard.  

Let's just talk about the packaging a bit more.  You can't see in the picture, but all the golden accents are metallic.  The paint is designed to roughly patch along the elephants skin to give it more of a textured look of an elephant.  And the elephant itself has more meaning than just to look pretty.  The 'Wandering Elephant' is the symbol of the tea farms.  A time before machinery (Williamson Tea was established in 1869), elephants were trained to help pull the dead tea bushes from the ground with their trunks and rewarded with bananas according to their website.  My hatred of bananas means that I would be a very cantankerous tea elephant.   Williamson Tea used to be farmed in Assam in North-India, and the mascot was an Asian elephant.  When they closed down all those farms and only used farms in Kenya, they changed to a more appropriate African elephant.  

That is almost illegally cute.

Now onto the tea.  Twenty round bags of strong and heavenly blended bliss.  The tea that I have tried the largest variety of is Earl Grey.  A fun fact about me is that the first time I ever tried Earl Grey, I didn't really like it all that much.  Not wanting to waste the four other bags of it I had in my Twinings Black Tea Variety Pack, I drank them anyway.  By the time I finished my second cup, I was an addict.  So it wasn't the most fun of facts out there, but what were you expecting?

Back to Earl Grey.  Everybody makes one.  Most of them taste different.  Some are too heavy on the Bergamot.  Some you can't even taste Bergamot in.   This one in particular has a heavier Bergamot taste than some others, but it is absolutely divine.  It has such a unique flavor that it stands out among the other Earl Grey's in my tea cupboard.  I use this one sparingly since it is such a rare find, but I know that I can order it from their website when the sad day does come when I run out.  

It's one of those thicker teas.  The type of thickness that is palpable in your mouth and mainly accompanies teas that are derived from the northern parts of the UK and in Africa.  It's a sign that this tea will wake you up like a slap in the face, and some days you just know that that is exactly what it will take to make you human and functioning as such.

If you want to build up your tea collection, I fully recommend checking out a Home Goods store if you live in America.  I don't know how many countries have a variation of it, but I do know that there's a similar store called HomeSense in Canada and the United Kingdom.  These places get various shipments of random teas and you just need to check whenever you visit one of them.

Cheers!

Tea Nation Earl Grey

Yarrrr me mateys!  Okay, I may have taken the fact that there's a pirate ship on the canister a little too seriously.  Big whoop.

What do me likey more than tea?  Tea on sale!  What's better than tea on sale?  Tea as gifts!  Yep, people sometimes pay homage to me in the form of the earthy goodness of the tea leaf.  Can't complain.  I figured I earn it by being me.

This tea?  It's pretty good Earl Grey.  Cheap (if you have to buy it yourself), 50 in a canister, and better than your typical cheaper Earl Grey.

What is a "typical cheaper Earl Grey" you ask?  Why, that's when the bergamot is very faint.  Some Earl Greys, the cheaper ones, you can't even taste the Earl Grey.  So the fact that this one is still very pleasing to the bergamot fans is saying something.

It comes in a stringless tea bag, but I don't find that it gets too strong if you leave it in the entire time you're enjoying it, so no need to break out the tea tongs like in the my last blog post.

The canister has a whole bunch of words on it once you turn it around.  They call it a Ceylon tea.  Which is to say that this black tea is grown in Sri Lanka which was once called Ceylon.  Ceylon tea is usually bolder in taste than your average black tea.  You can definitely taste that in this one.  It's bolder than Twinings Earl Grey.

It also boasts a few things on the canister (what is it with tea in canisters that make the company have to brag about so much).  Blah, blah, eco friendly, blah, blah, zero carbs, blah, blah, gluten free, blah, blah, no trans fats, blah, blah, give me a break.

Now, I've have a LOT of teas and I don't remember seeing that any of them had carbs, gluten, or trans fat so it just seems like they're advertising to people that aren't huge tea buffs but are looking for healthier alternatives to sugary drinks.  Seems to be the only reason to showcase these tidbits.  But who knows, I'm not a dietitian or an advertiser, so what do I know.  I just like a good cuppa.

You can find this one as grocery stores like Winn-Dixie.  Cheers!

Teatulia Earl Grey

Welp, gotta do it.  Gotta bully the good guys.  Sometimes, the good guys just leave you know choice.  Just think of me as Khan or Loki.  You can't hate me because I'm not that bad.  My intentions are good, but just for me.  These good guys may not like it, but they had it coming to them.

They really brought it on themselves.

Look at this canister of tea.  They make sure to talk about the canister on the label that's on the canister.  Teatulia felt the need to explain themselves.  Like how Superman explained the "S" on his costume in Man of Steel.  "Due to the handcrafted nature of our packaging, no two eco-canisters are alike.  Please recycle."  Oh, you do-gooders.

They don't stop there, though.  No siree.  They delve much deeper in their do-gooder nature.

Here are some points they make sure to emphasize about themselves on said eco-canister:

Organic: "Grown naturally.  We partner with like-minded single gardens to ensure each cup is perfectly balanced."

Goody two shoes.

Eco:  "Compostable, from the canister to our stringless, tagless bags."

You already tooted your own horn about your canister, you saps.

Doing Good:  "The Teatulia Cooperative continues to improve the lives of thousands of women, men & children."

They then continue on to their superhero catchphrase.... "It's time to do things better."

This is the part that really grates my cheese:

Taste the Goodness:  "Smooth & rich with no bitterness.  We brag about the flavor of our teas."

You haven't earned those bragging rights.  Not.  One.  Bit.

So you're USDA certified organic.  And you're Rainforest Alliance certified.  And you cost about $6 for 30 tea bags because of all these certified, do-gooder, 'I'm better than you' claims.  Too bad you're the blandest Earl Grey I've ever had.  Is there even any bergamot oil in this!?

Your ingredients list, still not letting up on all the 'look at me and how much better I am than you' says it's made of "organic black tea and natural bergamot oil", but I can't taste the bergamot that much if at all.

I like my Earl Grey balanced, and this is yet another one of those companies that thinks organic teas shouldn't have the same bold flavors as the average joes.  

If you solely care about organics, then by all means, pick this up at Target where I found it.  However, if you don't want to punish your taste-buds, then pick up my favorite Earl Grey which is also at Target.  Harney & Sons Supreme Earl Grey.  You'll be thanking me later for bashing this cape-wearer.

Bentley's Oriental Treasure Green

Last Winter, I received a large variety of teas from the Holly King (aka my parents).  Among the bulk, was a sizable collection of Bentley's teas.  I know I'm always tooting Twinings horn, but this tea is a step above...usually.  They make my second favorite Earl Grey - my first being Harney & Sons Earl Grey Supreme which I could really go for about now.  Green teas are slightly harder to rank.  Every company  puts one out now but that doesn't necessarily mean that they should.  Most of the Britain based tea companies make very bland green teas, which is probably why they are so quick to flavor them with fruit.  My guess is that when everybody got on the "Green tea is healthier than having a beating heart" train they felt the need to jump on but didn't have the proper tea gardens and plantations to produce the same quality as their black teas that brought their names to the esteemed level they are at now.  This isn't a terrible green tea, but you'd think with a name like 'Oriental Treasure', they would attempt to up the ante a bit.  After trying a nice warm cup of this, I came to the conclusion that the name is meant to really sell you.  The other companies will call their green tea just that... green tea.  But not Bentley's.  They want to put into your mind that you are about to embark on the same cat-faced treasure cave as Aladdin.  They didn't really think this through though.  They forgot that you are actually going to be running it by your taste buds.  And those taste buds are going to be met by a treasure chest of disappointment.  The taste bud equivalent to a kid getting socks as a present instead of Hot Wheels.

Earl Grey Decaf

This Twinings tea is my absolute go to in my tea cupboard.  I drink a lot of tea so I try to have a variety of decaffeinated teas just so I don't have a crazy amount of caffeine everyday.  I especially try to stay away from caffeinated teas when it starts getting too late in the afternoon since I already have issues with going to sleep.  And I'd rather not be bouncing around the house like a crack head at 4 in the morning because I over did it in the caffeine department the day before.  I probably have this tea every single day if not more than once.  My husband and I have tea time together at least once a day, usually before dinner or shortly after dinner, to just relax us after everything that the day brings.  And this is the tea that usually fills my mug.  

While it does lack caffeine, it does not lack the flavor of my favorite tea type.  You really can't tell the difference between this and the caffeinated one by Twinings.  It just tastes like the ever so lovely Earl Grey that I admire so much.  If you haven't tried a decaffeinated tea yet, I'd recommend looking for a version of one of your favorite teas, just so that you can see that there really isn't much difference.  Most Publix grocery stores offer a good selection of decaffeinated teas sitting on the shelf next to their caffeinated counterparts - at least where Twinings is concerned.  If you're on a mission to build up a proper tea collection, try to have a good amount of decaffeinated/caffeine free teas in your collection to give yourself more nighttime options.  If you drink as much tea as me, it's also very wise to have a these options available for your tea times.  Now go brew up a cuppa, grab a good book, and enjoy!  Cheers!

Prince Vlad

It’s not a secret that I love tea.  I’m really not too picky either.  I have yet to meet a tea that I didn't like.  To quote the nice gentleman that owns the British shop with a Tea Room in the back, “it doesn't matter the type, I just like a good cuppa.”  I don’t add sugar or milk.  I take it “black”.  I’m a member of Steepster.com where I update my cupboard regularly and add tasting notes to some of the teas I have tried. 

Kusmi’s ‘Prince Wladimir’ (pronounced like Vladimir). 

 
I wish I could say that I read some amazing reviews for this one which compelled me to try it myself. While it did have many great reviews, that’s not what did it for me. As superficial and odd it may sound… it was the name. Make a tea and give it a name that instantly brings Vlad the Impaler to mind, and you won yourself a customer in me. The official description of it states that it is a “Russian blend of China teas with scents of bergamot, lemon, grapefruit, vanilla and spices”. The bergamot REALLY comes through, as do the citrus tastes. That flavor variety really only means one thing…it tastes like Earl Grey. I don’t think these French people know what Earl Grey tastes like or else they would have named this one Earl Grey. I’ve tried their version Earl Grey. It doesn’t taste like Earl Grey. This is still one of my favorite teas, but I’m an Earl Grey fan and that’s what my tasted buds think they’re drinking. This company gets a lot of points in presentation, though. Their tea bags have the label sewn on with thread connecting it to the gauze-like pouch. It’s a pricey tea to buy a whole box of it just to try, so it’s best to request this as a gift – just as I did. Thanks dear husband! Or should I thank Santa? o_O

Earl Grey Supreme

My go-to tea is Earl Grey.  Most places that serve hot tea have it and it is my favorite type.  Captain Picard isn't a fool for loving this so much.  I've been told by my husband that this tea is gross because of the "citrus" taste (which is actually the bergamont) but he doesn't captain the USS Enterprise so I just ignore his insults of this beautiful drink.  The first time I ever had this particular tea was at a movie theater called iPic.  You sit in reclining seats and press a button to order food and drinks.  When I ordered an Earl Grey tea, this is what they brought me.  I order it every time I go to that theater.  When I stumbled upon it at the local Fresh Market I was extremely excited.  I have it every day now in one of my huge mugs that hold 3 cups of water.

So far, this is my favorite Earl Grey I have ever tried.  The bergamot is really well balanced.  I've come across some Earl Grey teas that have a very over powering bergamot taste and others that barely have any.  You should be able to taste both the black tea and the bergamot equally in my opinion.  I know there are some bergamot lovers out there which is why there's a tea out there with double bergamot added.  You wild tea drinkers.  If you want to sample different black teas including Earl Grey, Twinings makes a great little sampler box for cheap that they sell at most grocery stores like Publix.  It includes English breakfast, Irish breakfast, Earl Grey, and Lady Grey (which is like a more subtle Earl Grey).

 Star Trek even made a tea to pay homage to Captain Picard always ordering it.  You can purchase it on their website.  I haven't tried it yet, but I plan on putting it on my list for Santa. :)