Sainsbury’s Tastes The Difference – Limited Edition Grapefruit Infused Earl Grey Tea
Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Grapefruit Infused Earl Grey contains black tea, bergamot flavouring, grapefruit flavouring, grapefruit peel and lemon flavouring. I have had half a dozen mugs of it and I am still not sure what I think about it.
I can see how such a thing came about. Earl Grey is, by its very nature, a citrusy brew. Its primary flavour is bergamot: a shrivelled-up lime-looking orange. Lemon is a frequent bedfellow of Earl Grey blends, both Twinings and Sainsbury’s use lemon in their standard Earl Grey blends. And if you bung a bit of orange in there, you’ve got some Lady Grey.
It was only a matter of time before someone cast the citrus fruit net a little wider.
I imagine that there was a meeting of the Sainsbury’s Tea Flavour Innovation Task Force (I assume all supermarkets have one) in which the following conversation took place:
“Right lads, we need a new tea flavour combo for the Limited Edition range. Any ideas?”
“How about an Earl Grey that has bergamot, lemon and, umm, grapefruit?”
“Brilliant. Well, that’s sorted then. Pub anyone?”
Grapefruit Earl Grey is not a terrible idea, but it’s not a brilliant idea either. You see, the thing about grapefruit is that, unlike its citrusy siblings, it’s just so very grapefruity. The grapefruit in this tea overpowers everything. Grapefruit is the flavour equivalent of a conversational bore who won’t stop talking about themselves and interrupts you if you try to say anything.
And yet for all that, it kind of works. Kind of. I have no problem polishing off a cup of the stuff. But afterwards, I’m not entirely sure if I actually enjoyed the experience. I’m all for teamongers pushing the tea blend envelope in interesting new directions but, you know, I think there is a reason why Earl Grey blends have traditionally contained every conceivable type of citrus fruit except grapefruit. I don’t think it actually belongs there.
Every time I drink it, I am reminded of the words of Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
Today’s featured book is Kitchen Essays by Agnes Jekyll. This is a brilliant collection of articles written for The Times, first published in 1922. It contains chapters such as “Food for Artists and Speakers”, “Luncheon for a Motor Excursion in Winter” and – my favourite – “In the Cook’s Absence”. This chapter provides some simple recipes (such as ‘Garbure a la Lionnaise’ and ‘Lobster a la Newburg’) should one’s Cook need to go and visit her sick mother for a few days. “Leaving these instructions before your kitchen maid’s eyes, the sound of your stimulating words of hope and faith in her ears, you will be able to transfer most of the burden onto her shoulders and go up to dress for dinner, feeling you have done your duty.”
I am in no way an expert – on anything – but just want to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the grapefruit infused tea by Sainsbury’s. I am down to my last 7 packets (I bought every packet on the shelf of my local supermarket) and will mourn its passing in due course.
I just wanted to say that I loved the Sainsbury’s Earl Grey with Grapefruit infusion! Grapefruit is my favorite of the citrus fruits & this tea was lovely! I’m addicted to it! But sadly I’ve now run out of it! Would you consider putting this permanently on your shelves please?