Coffee Bean DirectEnglish Breakfast Loose Leaf Tea, 2 Pound Bag

I discovered Earl Grey tea a few months ago and it has become a daily day starter for me. I became quite fond of the Tazo whole leaf earl grey from Starbucks but that can be a bit costly. So I decided to search for an alternative whole leaf earl grey to see if I could find something comparable to the Tazo earl grey with which I had become so fond....checked my usual bulk tea source (Starwest Botanicals...[...] and found they do have a bulk earl grey but it isn't whole leaf...it is cut...SO...those who drink a lot of tea will understand the benefit of using whole leaf as compared to cut leaf tea...the flavor difference is big and it doesn't seem to get bitter if I OVER STEEP the tea....I was glad to find the Coffee Bean Direct tea at such a great price @ Amazon...was a bit hesitant to purchase two pounds but it is about the same price as purchasing 45 of the tazo tea bags...a much better price....so...thought I would give it a try.... So this is what I found....I received and opened the bag...as many have mentioned in their reviews...nice bergamont scent when initially opening the bag but the bergamont flavor is a bit lacking in the flavor of the tea after brewing. I thought I would try adding a few drops of bergamont essential oil to the tea while brewing...that seemed to help a bit....then we thought it might be worth just placing a few drops of bergamont essential oil in the tea tins we are using to store the tea, shaking the tin up to mix it and letting the bergamont essential oil do its stuff...this helped a bit as well...since the Tazo tea also has lavender leaves/essence in it I thought I would also add some lavender essential oil to the tins...this too seems to help but it is still not QUITE the same as the Tazo...perhaps this is a good alternative for daily drinking and the Tazo would be a special TREAT a few times a month...I use Young Living essential oils for adding to the tea. I've found Young Living to be the highest quality available. I get them from kimmland.com. Bottom line, this IS a good buy and decent tea...I just have to doctor it up a bit to make it work for me....perhaps it is just perfect for some other purchasers who aren't as particular as I am but for me...it is just a little above OK at his point.UPDATE: So we've had the tea for a couple of weeks now and I've been drinking it every day. Adding the essential oil and letting it age a bit in the tea tins in which we placed the tea has helped a lot. I now feel it is a great alternative to the Tazo tea with which I had grown familiar...You really can't beat the price of this tea and it is good. I now highly recommend this earl grey even though I have to add the oils to get it where I want it to be. It is STILL a great buy!...Enjoy.

Greetings!I am new to the tea thing but was looking for a good tasting potent highest caffeine tea so I don't waste my time with some no kick tea, whole reason they called it Breakfast tea. Coffee Bean Direct is the way to go tea wise. Just seal it up in a good container. Here is what I do that works for for me with less waste in a hybrid brew: I use a Cuisinart glass cold brew unit with a tap and stainless container that you put the loose tea in. I use 2 oz measured of this tea and dump it in the stainless container with 30 oz of filtered water and let it soak for 12 hours or more in that square container after using a small hand held battery operated drink mixer to stir it up. I take the cold brewed tea and add 24 oz of filtered water medium dark, and add it to one of my empty Simply Lemon plastic containers. *** I then take that 2 oz soaked used tea and put it in my Cuisinart coffee maker on the 1-4 cup setting and do a hot brew with my dual wall Starbucks coffee mug, guessing 20oz then add another 32oz water in a separate Simply Lemon 52oz container . Once done it is stronger and darker so add another 12 oz water, then I mix the stronger hot brewed tea with the cold brew pouring them back and forth between containers until both are same consistency and put both containers in the frig. I then add small amount of ice to glass, and add about .5 inch of lemon aide first and then add the black breakfast tea with nothing else. The little bit of lemon aide adds a very slight sweetness and lemon flavor, then pour cold tea to fill. Again I am new at this but decided to be an out of the box thinker on brewing this 2 oz of tea which fills up my Cuisinart stainless grinder hot coffee thermos brewer bean container to the top, which I changed out to a stainless brew holder versus the plastic one that it came with, that holds the typical coffee grounds in the morning :-) It's different from conventional but works for me and doesn't waste the tea that I could probably hot brew twice for even less waste, which I have not done yet. Hybrid brew works for me and tastes the way I want it to. Slightly stronger and smooth. I thank Coffee Bean for a cost effective decent amount and mix of English Breakfast tea. DVCCO

As others have said, this tea is very strongly oiled. I do not doubt that it is some oil of bergamont, but it seems to be from a source of different quality from the bergamont in Twinings Earl Grey. The scent of the tea reminds one of Twinings Earl Grey (more than, say, lemon scented teas), but it is not really the same in its complexity of flavor as the Twinings Earl Grey. This may be from some cause such as use of black teas from Sri Lanka or India tea in place of black Chinese tea in the base, but it might also be due to the bergamont used.While the tea is tasty, and in that respect resembles Davidson's or Bigelow's Earl Grey, it just is lacking the muskiness and smoothness of the Twinings Earl Grey, which I believe is essential to the character of the blend. I think the tea base determines such qualities, and the Coffee Bean Direct product just does not have a complex enough tea base.This is not the tea I was hoping for, but it is still nice.If you like the bergamont scent of Earl Grey so much that you really don't notice the tea that it is wrapped around, you may really like this. On the other hand, if you find yourself gravitating to Twinings Earl Grey (officially endorsed by the Earl of Grey) over the others, then this will not be your cup of tea.