Coffee Bean DirectEarl Grey Black 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.

This is great Earl Grey loose leaf tea. I've made several gallons of it in the last week since I received it. It tastes exactly like I expected, with a clear and distinct flavor of oil of bergamot, not just aroma as others have reported. I consider it to be every bit the equivalent of the Twinings brand. I've been drinking Earl Grey tea for more than 20 years. I know how it tastes. This is authentic. It's just packaged in bulk for an unbeatable price. I would not steer fellow tea drinkers wrong. I would toss the tea into the sea if it didn't taste right than write a false review.I always read the one and two star reviews before ordering a product to assess the potential negatives before paying my money. In this case, I find the few negative reviews to be completely devoid of merit. Maybe they got a bad batch, I don't know. There's a lot that can go wrong in the tea making process that can have nothing to do with the tea itself. Using unfiltered tap water or certain kinds of mineral water can greatly affect the result of the flavor, due to chlorine, iron levels, and hard water minerals. Using paper filters can selectively absorb flavors and the oils. The only thing that touches my tea is triple Pur filtered water, glass, and stainless steel using a 51 oz. Bodum Bean Ice French Press, which is great for tea as well as coffee. The Bodum Bean is designed specifically to be able to refrigerate after extraction, since it has a sealed lid and a lever to act as a pitcher, and it won't pick up off flavors from the fridge very easily. I carefully control the steeping temperature and time to get a consistently good extraction of the tea or coffee. I have a digital food-grade thermometer to confirm the steeping temperature. Who knows why some people might report problems with the flavor of something. Having congestion, a cold or flu can reduce taste and smell, and some people are more sensitive or less sensitive to flavors than others.Note that you can make Lady Grey tea from Earl Grey by adding orange peel and lemon peel to it. This is a great use of orange and lemon rinds if you have citrus trees, like I do. It's easy to use a citrus zester to make long strips of peel for drying to add to tea all year round.

Does not even slightly have the taste of orange pekoe tea or none I have ever had. Does not even have the aroma of orange pekoe.