English Breakfast

Second quarter’s investment at the neighbor’s garage sale. This one doesn’t seem to get much love in other reviews, except for the cute packaging.

I’ll be the rebel: I like it. The product description, at least the one posted here, doesn’t mention the varieties in the blend, but educated guess would say lots of Keemun and a little Assam. Sweet and melba-toasty without milk.

Not as strong as my preferred Assam weekday morning teas, but it’s Sunday and I’m blessed with an hour in the patio glider watching Tazo take his morning nap in the sun. I don’t need to be kicked awake today.

First tea of the morning. Tony has a thing for Ahmad Earl Grey, so when he ordered some, several months ago, he also got a 100G tin of this for me. I feel that I should drink a cup from time to time, & since today is Father’s Day, here it is.

It’s not a bad tea, actually, but not a tea Im fond of.It’s sufficiently bold, pretty bassy, with an astringent bite. It is the type of breakfast blend that I shouldn’t drink before breakfast, or that I should include some form of sweetener or coconut creamer with, as I can feel in my gut the rising of queasiness that comes from certain teas on an empty stomach. I should drink it more often so that it gets used up, & then I can take the tin home & refill it with something wonderful.

1 bag for 250mL water @100C, steeped 5 minutes, drunk bare.

A bit flat. Some smooth heft from Assam and Kenyan teas, but the tea itself is practically dust. No bitterness, though.

I bought this for the tins. On Amazon, you can get this in a 4 pack of so-cute-it-oughta-be-illegal little English phonebox tins (not pictured here). I justified the purchase by reasoning that I could drink the tea at work where I still use bags and use the tins at home for tea storage.

Well, the tins are just as cute in person, maybe more so, but my greedy little eyeballs breezed right over the description that they’re also banks. So each one has a coin slot in the top. Sigh.

They come with a bit of tape over the coin slot, and I added a second, bigger piece, and I’ll just put the label for whatever tea it is on top so it looks less wonky.

But why am I spending so much time on the tins? Because the tea is utterly unremarkable. It’s dust in a bag that brews up to an average, slightly tart/sour, english breakfast blend. I have 99 more of these and I’ll drink them easily; it isn’t crap. But there’s not much to say about it. It’s a lot like all the tea I drank before I knew more about tea.

I liked this tea much better the second time – perhaps it tasted bland because I was getting a cold.

I visited a British store and found this adorable red english telephone booth tin filled with packets of this tea. (I really bought it for the tin, the tea was like a “free gift with purchase” deal.) I’m drinking it for the first time now and it is really good and strong. My new electric kettle boils my water like crazy and it takes about 30 minutes before the tea is sippable afterwards, but I think it really makes my teas crazy strong. I usually just stick with Twinings English breakfast but this is a great alternative.

Having a cup of this while I write and it is really good! I didn’t have milk with it or honey, just straight English Breakfast, but on my second cup I will try to see if I can introduce some milk to find out if like it less, equally or love it even more.

My first English Breakfast tea & I am looking forward to having this daily!

I’ve yet to try an English Breakfast blend that I did not like, and this was no exception. Very hearty, smooth, silky…altogether a very enjoyable cuppa black tea.

Again big bags tea bag. It is from their “A gift from London” series.

This tea held its qualites great. It was like brand new, full-bodied tea. I am pretty much impressed. And it wasn’t bad at all, flavourful and bold, quite tannic, quite malty. Decent English Breakfast bag, athough drank in the afternoon.

Nice caffeine boost as well, and very welcomed today.

I purchased a sample box of Teas from Ahmed and i have to say this is my favorite one so far. Not too strong but not too mellow. A bit of honey & milk don’t affect the flavor much but it really doesn’t need much to still be a good tea.