Not everyone can be an Old Spice man. <whistles>
I fear the OP has already eaten of That Sandwich Spread Which Must Not Be Named, and been driven mad, and then far beyond madness, by the cursed eldritch stuff. That’s the only way he could be so badly mistaken about Earl Gray, which is the tea of the comforting (though sadly nonexistent) human gods.
Ia! Ia! Cthulhu ftaghn! Ia! Ia! Cthulhu ftaghn!
Earl Grey is the only tea I buy (though I’ll drink other teas if they are what’s available), and I usually get weird looks from people because I like to over-steep it and I don’t add either milk or sugar.
Ew, lapsang souchong tastes and smells like a burning tire. But I looooove Earl Grey. Can’t imagine putting milk in, though. Twinings sells Lady Grey tea, which is less bergamot-y and has a little lemon and orange as well. I’m going to buy some as soon as this horrendous hot summer is over. A nice cup of Lady Grey at sunset in the fall is one of life’s tiny pleasures.
Mr. Looey with his English and Irish roots, likes PG Tips, Ty-Phoo, and now Tazo Awake the best. He despises Earl Grey as well as any “flavored” tea, and laughs out loud at the mention of anything herbal (except chamomile late at night). He’s quite fussy about it:
filtered water, boiling, not just hot
steep 3-6 minutes
Splenda, not Sweet-n-Low (Sweet-n-Low for ice tea though)
generous shot of half-n-half (gave up sugar but not the fat-boy-juice)
No matter what brand or what you do to it, it all tastes like potting soil to me.
I love Earl Grey. It’s one of my favorite teas.
My wife calls it Elixir of Oil Field. Conversely, I find the smoky pine flavour to be perfection.
Earl Grey is barely tolerable and often leaves me with a sore throat. For straightforward tea in the English style I much prefer Yorkshire Gold http://www.englishteastore.com/yogo40teaba.html
slow clap
Bravo! I may not share your horror in the tea but I enjoyed reading it. I especially like the part about prefering the shrieking to the Country music.
Eh… I like it.
Maybe you got a bad batch or something, or maybe you’re just a heathen with no appreciation for the finer things in life.
Joking! (Not about liking it, just the rest.)
When I drink tea, which is usually at home, it’s Earl Grey or nothin’. However, I have
found that not all teas labelled “Earl Grey” are similar - other than the oil of bergamot
flavouring. In my experience, for example, the Earl Grey tea bag which appears (beside a cup of warm, not boiled, water) in most restaurants, snug in it’s foil packet, is just nasty.
I can take Bigelow’s Earl Grey when offered. What I buy for home consumption is Twinings, and I will never, ever, change my brand unless it gets adulterated some time in the future.
No, I don’t drink it straight. I add milk and a smidge of sugar to a cup or mug of tea, and
usually I drain the pot.
I did try to make iced tea from Earl Grey, once. That was a mistake.
an seanchai
For heaven’s sake don’t steep it longer than two minutes. (You did, didn’t you?) After that point the tannins in the tea begin to leach out (especially in tea bag tea, with its fine particles) and turn it bitter and gross.
First, let me get this off my chest - GREY! You don’t have the US American spelling option on a proper name.
Second, mmmm, bergamot. One of my favourite smells, and I love Earl Grey tea, too. It’s a lovely, light, citrus flavour - I really don’t know where you’re getting evil from that.
I love earl grey tea. Salt licorice, however, is nasty. How the two could be confused can only be the result of PTSD of the lovecraftian nature.
Another vote for Earl Grey is good stuff. That said, the OP was well played.
Eh? Standard tea (English breakfast or whatever) is black tea. If you just order “tea”, you’ll get black tea - usually English breakfast, Assam or similar. You’ll only get Earl Grey if you specifically ask for Earl Grey - it can in no way be described as “the most popular variety” of black tea.
Me too. Twinings. And yes, over steeping makes it yucky. I actually purchased a small timer for my desk at work because I kept ruining my tea because I’d forget about it.
And yet as a sign of universal balance in the universe, just as it has no doubt disappeared from the OP’s list, I now yearn to try Moxie Soda. I’ve never heard of it before so I looked it up. How delightfully retro it looks! It looks like something the Little Rascals would sit round drinking.
I also didn’t know that the adjective ‘moxie’ came from the drink, and not as I first assumed on reading your post, the other way around.
YES! That’s exactly it!
:: shudders ::
I like Earl Grey, so there.
I also like oversteeping one bag of Earl Grey and one of Irish Breakfast and then adding honey, but I’ll admit to being willing to take anything that’s got honey in it.
Maybe if the OP added Grecian Formula to get the grey out…