Essence of old socks (Waitrose tea bags Earl Grey)

Member Name: Mauri

Product:	Waitrose tea bags Earl Grey
Date:	15/04/04 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Foil wrapped bags

Disadvantages: Musty taste, unpleasant aftertaste

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a great tea drinker? by that I don't mean that I don't drink a lot of tea infact I now drink more tea than coffee but the types of tea I like is fairly limited.

Not having been brought up drinking tea I've never got used to the strong taste of Breakfast tea or the ordinary 'builders' tea but I do like the more flavoured and fragrant teas such as Assam and Earl Grey.

I've always bought Twining's Earl Grey and I still prefer it to the others I have tasted. The Sainsbury's home brand Earl Grey is also good but when I ran out recently and found myself near a Waitrose supermarket I decided to try the Waitrose homebrand?

EARL GREY

I always thought that Earl Grey tea was Indian tea and in fact many producers of Earl Grey now do use a blend of Indian and Sri Lankan black tea but traditionally Earl Grey was made from unsteamed China black tea. The distinctive flavour of the tea comes from the addition of essence of bergamot derived as oil from the peel of the bergamot orange which itself is quite sour in taste.

The name of the tea is supposed to derive from the fact that Charles Grey an Earl of the realm and to be a future prime minister of Britain was given the recipe by a Chinese Mandarin friend of his and when the tea was introduced to England by Twinings it was named after him.

WAITROSE'& #83; EARL GREY

The tea I'm describing here is a Waitrose home brand of Earl Grey tea bags. Waitrose's Earl Grey variety is made with traditional pure China tea. The pack I bought contained 50 bags 2
5 in each of the two foil bags included in the box.

Now before I get rated down for daring to describe the packaging let me explain that the Waitrose packaging is quite different form the other types of Earl Grey tea bag I've tried. The inclusion of the sealed foil inner bags will help to keep the tea bags fresher for longer after the box has been opened and half way through the box you will get 25 freshly opened tea bags, This is worth mentioning.

THE BREW

The other thing worth mentioning about this confection of the tea is that Waitrose use the traditional square flat teas bags as opposed to the newer round tea bags of Sainsbury's home brand for instance or the pyramid bags of some other manufacturers. As I've already mentioned I drink the Sainsbury's version of Earl grey with it's round bags regularly so does the shape really make a difference?

Well yes it does, the round bags fit well in the bottom of a mug and when the water is poured on top it seems to filter through the tea quicker than with the Waitrose squarer bags. The square bags don't lie flat, they slouch in the cup and reduce the surface area of the tea that is in contact with the hot water. More stirring and pressing of the bag with a spoon is required with these square bags to get a good strong brew although if this makes a difference to the final taste is doubtful.

THE TASTE

Now we come to the taste. I do drink tea with milk and I usually use semi skimmed so bear that in mind when I describe the taste. I certainly don't like tea on it's own and with lemon the taste of a lightly scented tea like Earl Grey is swamped.

I must admit that I was surprised when I tasted this tea. Although not usually a Waitrose shopper &#
73; had a idea that their product were of good quality and I expected their version of Earl Grey to be similar to Twinings, which is the accepted brand leader. The alarm bell started ringing when I lifted the cup to my lips and tea's aroma hit my nostrils. With Earl Grey you normally expect a strong smell quite fragrant and sweet with a hint of citrus obviously from the bergamot. The smell that I experienced from this tea was all wrong. It wasn't fragrant it didn't taste fresh and it didn't have that citrus crispiness to it, it did in fact smell quite musty!

On taking a sip normal service was restored?to an extent.. the usual fruitiness of the bergamot was there but it was almost completely buried by the smokiness and mustiness of the tea. This was a million miles away from the Earl Grey I was used to.

There were more surprises in store! Usually I drink tea because it is a refreshing, thirst quenching drink but this tea left a distinct metallic aftertaste in my mouth and the feeling that your palate had been coated with something not too pleasant.

OVERALL

By now you get the idea that this version of Earl Grey was not my favourite but having said that I didn't hate it enough not to finish the box that I had bought, I suppose I did get used to it to some extent.

Earl grey is one of those varieties of tea that does vary a lot between producers and I'm not going to say that this version was a 'bad' version of Earl Grey only that it did not match up to what I would have expected. Go and try it by all means but if you like Twinings Earl Grey then this is will probably not be for you!

Waitrose Earl Grey tea bags can be bought in boxes of 50 bags (125g total) for £1.19/box or a box of 100 bags for £2.09
/box.

Thanks for reading and rating this review.

© Mauri 2004

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