The "subtle flavor of bergamot" is definitely subtle. I can't actually smell any bergamot in the dry tea. Instead, it smells entirely like a malty CTC Assam.

While the tea's brewing, I can just make out the citrus through the tea. I'm getting less malt than when dry, but much more dry, tannic, earthy leaf with a background of dates. I've sampled a few Kenyan teas and I think that's where this blend gets most of its character.

The first taste is kind of a shock. The tea is both more bitter and astringent than the teas I've been drinking lately. It definitely has the bracing punch of a more bitter English-style tea like PG Tips. The initial bitterness has notes of hops and gentian (the flavoring in Moxie soda), but fades leaving raisins and dried cherries. I can taste the brightness and orange of the bergamot, but I don't think I would even recognize it without being told that it's part of the blend. It tastes like I drank a cup of Earl Grey, then poured English Breakfast into the same cup.

I suspect that this tea is vastly different with milk, but the balance is too tannic for me as-is. The notes of dried fruit are tasty, but don't soften the bitterness enough the way a typical Assam's malt and molasses flavors do.

The tea bags are priced comparably to other premium teas ($4.50 for a box of 20), but aren't the bargain that the loose teas are.

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