Tea: Drinking the Loot Part I

During Monday's tea party/tasting, I not only consumed many a tasty cup, but also squirreled away some of the many interesting varieties I did not have time to try into my bag. The loot:



As I needed some cheering up today, I tried two of them: London Tea's 'The Eminent Earl Grey' and English Tea Shop's Savory Blend, one of their special Christmas flavors.

I have in the past not been a big drinker of black tea, mainly being stuck on Yogi Tea's yummy spice blends and the odd cup of green tea in between. Lately, this has shifted a little, and I've drunk my share of black tea over the past few months, mostly with milk and honey to warm me up in spring. Some time this spring, I also had my very first cup of Earl Grey - astoundingly late in my tea drinking life, I know.
Anyway, this version of Earl Grey was quite nice. It smelled heavenly when I took it out of it's packaging, and it made for a lovely drink as well. I'm thinking that if my tongue weren't still slightly burnt from being too hasty (and possibly greedy) on Monday I would have enjoyed it a lot more. The fact that it was still quite nice (and didn't taste like vanilla at all *tiny obscure reference to Monday*) makes me think it must in fact be really REALLY good. It's also fairtrade, with a bag made from corn starch, so it's biodegradable. There's still the issue of the plastic wrapping etc, if you're looking into the green issue, but at least it's somewhat going into the right direction.

As for the savory blend, it smells like toffee in a cup. It tastes like toffee in a cup. Since it's a Christmas blend, there's also some hints of orange and other spices. Lovely.
Sadly, these are, afaik, not fairtrade, and again, there's that plastic wrapper. I know that's supposed to keep the flavours intact, but...I wonder whether that's really necessary.

The London Tea teas can be got in loose form as well...which fixes the wrapper issue. :)

And a final note, I drank both of these in the evening, and maybe I shouldn't have...I'm sort of sensitive to caffeine/theine, so drinking two huge cups of essentially black tea later in the day...makes for some lying awake. But then again, that's not exactly a special feature of these two blends,  so if you're sensitive as well, you're probably being more careful than me anyway. ;)