Earl Grey was originally low quality tea leaves. The bergamot was added to fool people with unexceptional palates into thinking they were drinking high quality tea.
I mean all Twinings though. Tea, like everything, gets very elitist at the sticky end. You can look at the gradings to understand this. The Twinings sold in Taiwan is classified as dust or fannings (Twinings has some higher grade teas but not often seen here). Itās whatās left over after the grading process. At the high end you have stuff like āSpecial Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoeā which is seriously expensive.
Obviously Iām not bringing coal to wherever. Taiwanese teas are different, and generally superior IMO.
OK, which British mass produced Earl Grey teabag that is easily available in Taiwan do you consider superior to Twinings? Comparing Assamās finest is a tad unfair.
Itās basically half decent commercial black tea with bergamot added.
One could make it easily at home starting with high grade loose tea. But it depends what you want. The knock off earl greys invariably have very weak flavour.
I think I tried the Taylorās loose Earl grey which was pretty good as well.
They are really are strong teas , highly processed to a consistent flavour profile and fragmented to tiny pieces for an instant hit otherwise they donāt taste good as all , for those who love caffeine mix with milk. Mostly from African origin interestingly.
Yes , Twinings is excellent, they have been in the tea business since about 1700, they still have their original tea house on the strand London. They are exceptional and I am an admitted black tea addict. They are to tea what Guiness is to stout (Although I prefer Mirphyās). The English breakfast tea is certainly exceptional too.