 | "There was no discernable bergamot in the brew, and while the base tea itself was okay, this tea should not be labeled as Earl Grey when it doesn’t deliver on the expected taste."
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Harney and Sons is one of my favorite vendors of tea. They offer a wide variety of single estate, blended, and flavored teas, and they typically offer a high-quality product together with excellent and friendly service. My experience with their teas has thus far been limited to the many loose-leaf varieties they offer (since that is my preferred type when possible), so it was with great curiosity that I sampled a silk-pouched version of the Earl Grey Imperial. The aroma of the leaves promised a subtle but quality taste of bergamot oil. The taste, however, was a great disappointment. There was no discernable bergamot in the brew, and while the base tea itself was okay, this tea should not be labeled as Earl Grey when it doesn’t deliver on the expected taste. Believe me when I say that the sample of this tea which I tried (I actually brewed several one-cup tea bags at different times to be sure) had almost NO Earl Grey flavor, and I am not one to prefer teas with a heavy hand given to the flavorings—I tend to prefer subtler teas. But this sample, whether it be the intent of the blend or that the sample may not have been the freshest, did not taste as advertised. Having said this, you should know that I have sampled Harney’s Earl Grey Supreme, which combines a higher-quality base blend with bergamot (in the loose-leaf version), and I can vouch for the quality of this version (although it is a bit more expensive than the Imperial Earl Grey). While I cannot recommend this particular tea based on my experience, I would encourage you to order a sample from Harney and Sons of either the Imperial or Supreme versions—you are sure to like one of them if you are an Earl Grey fan, and hopefully the sample I tasted was just a stale or bad batch
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