Earl Grey. Really. It can be a super high-quality, wondrous experience. Who knew?

I drink a cup of Earl Grey tea first thing every morning, way before considering the days sessions of gongfu teas. I am talking early-early in the morning here, half-blind with no glasses on, hands barely working yet, heading for the machine. And Earl Grey is my last hold-out in my easily abandoned thirty year long habit of tea-bags. Earl Grey. Don't even know what it is, never asked what kind of black tea is used, but the word 'Bergamot' is in there, and I like it with.......dare I say? *Mocha Mix. That's a non-dairy creamer that is nice and thick like cream, is not 'flavored' and its how I have always had my Earl Grey teabags. And, sad to admit, tea-pods, since we also own a Keurig and I am guilty of creating my share of pod-waste-plastic from a couple years of Earl Grey pod style.

Once I began to drink  good loose tea, I never even thought of Earl Grey as an option for that new style of tea drinking. I am pretty strictly a tea-purist in that I don't do flavorings, so I assumed Earl Grey was not something I would be making loose. Ever. Obviously over the past year I have learned much; how without using oils or fake 'flavours', I can indeed enjoy teas that have been tossed with Rose bits, Jasmine flowers, and today I learned, Bergamot zest.

Smacha's Earl Grey is a fine grade Keemun, with what I have been told is Bergamot zest. All I know aside from that bit of info, is it looked gorgeous in the bag, smelled wonderful, but far more subtle than the Earl Grey's of my 'youth' and it brewed up super delicious in my Smacha auto-tea brewer as pictured here.

Uncertain of parameters I used 7.5 grams and the first 'pot' was a delight.
This is a wake up call. This says I don't have to keep those Earl Grey tea-pods in stock at the house, this was just as easy to make, yes perhaps a little more effort will be required to clean up as I have to wash out the infuser, but so very worth that one minute of labor.
Honest to gawd, I am never buying Earl Grey in a pod or a bag again. Ever.
This may seem a small thing, but it is just as imprintable an experience as when I first tasted good quality high mountain Oolong a year go and said, 'never again will I drink shit tea', so too, this mornings first loose EG experiment has changed how I will do things in a permanent way. I am finally fully free of the bag and the pod! Praise Jeebus!

Gorgeous!

(* Ok, so I just forced myself to see what exactly Mocha Mix is made of and there is no way I am going to be using it now that I am drinking a good, loose-leaf Earl Grey. I am a heathen, not an idiot.)