Review - Earl Grey (Caribou)

Okay so I went to Caribou coffee with daughter to meet with friends and she could work on a health presentation.

Decided to give the Caribou teas a try--I chose Earl Grey.

I love Earl Grey....I love the smart taste of bergamot, I like the light taste of the black tea behind...I figured it was a safe bet for me.

The tea comes in the same cups as their coffee and if it hadn't been for the little tab on a string you would never have known it was tea.
So I sat down and took off the lid to add my sugar (1 tsp/6-8oz cup)...and found that it was not a regular tea bag but it looked very much like a coffee filter that was bundled up around the leaves and tied with the string.

I wish I had paid a little more attention to what she was doing to see if she made that bundle herself or if it was pre-made.

This had to be the worse cup of Earl Grey I had ever tasted.
There was very little bergamot flavoring...so little that it couldn't be tasted over the bitterness of the tea. It was only steeped for a few minutes, but it was really really bitter.

To me this is a sign of old tea---little flavoring, over-brewing.

I'm glad it was only $2 a cup or else I would have been really upset.

First the bag did not look like it held enough leaves in it for a large cup of tea (16 oz)...swollen the leaves took up less room than those of the traditional teabag--for a 16 oz cup they should have used 3 heaping tsps of dry leaves. I would estimate that the bag used 1 - 2 tsps.
I did go to their website and Caribou sells the premade canisters of 'tea balls'...so chances are it was not the brewista's fault.

The site does not say how many cups their container is supposed to make--so I'm just guessing that they figure, one bag all sizes--just brew longer for a bigger batch.

Well as any tea lover knows---it doesn't work that way....over brewing tea will simply make it bitter...and too much water will wash-out the flavor you wish to enjoy.

Ah-ha moment here!

Would I buy this again? No.
Was it worth the price? Yes. 16oz=$1.60

Final thoughts:
Caribou should stick with coffee---they don't know tea in my mind.
I will probably try some of their others...but I recommend that you steer away from the Earl Grey.