Builder's Breakfast Brew (formerly Triple B)

A strong, solid breakfast tea I’d recommend to others who like the type; it’s not really my preference so I quickly turned it into an iced tea. This is a tea that would hold up well to an Arnold Palmer, which is a favorite of mine.

This sample bag was included in my 2022 Advent Calendar mailing box. Being breakfast, I steeped up a mugful to spend some time browsing the internets. Steeped for the full 4 minutes with 212* water. As per usual, no add ins were used. It is malty and astringent. As per usual, no ad ins were used. I could see myself drinking this again with a small amount of sugar or milk. My impression is that this is a solid black tea. Probably not something I would order from them as it reminds me of other locally sourced black teas but I’m glad I received this tea to sample!

Sipdown 181-2021

Found this to be quite underwhelming. Came out quite bitter and astringent.

Goodness, this is certainly bold. It reminds me of PG Tips. Malty, full-bodied, strong. Takes approximately three days for my kidneys to process and recover.

An Ode to Tea challenge – B

A sample from B&B!  Nothing I was really eager to try, as it’s a plain black and I can get the less unique teas other places than B&B.  But always happy to try a tea!  The CTC leaf has a seemingly misplaced floral aroma on the dry leaf.  Not present in the flavor though.  Really just a solid plain black.  The flavor is strong but not too strong!  Not much to say here.
Steep #1 // 16 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min
2021 sipdowns:  67

Very interesting aroma after opening the zip bag. Wet earth, autumn leaves, impression of smokiness, a bit of caramel.
After steeping the aroma is very malty, with bread crust notes.
And very rich, malty taste, with slight sweetness and lot astringency.

Bird & Blend Tea Advent Calendar – Day 23

Catching up on a couple of missed advent calendar teas today since I’ve been sick for the past few days. I’m still not completely better, but at least I can taste again (mostly). This is described as B&B’s strongest breakfast tea, plus I could see that it was all CTC leaf, so I only steeped it for 2 minutes instead of my usual 3.

For me, this doesn’t have enough character. It mostly tastes tannic, with some malt and dry leaf notes. There’s perhaps a little bit of dark pumpernickel bread flavor.

I think this one is likely meant to be taken with milk and sugar, which is not something I’m in the habit of doing. So it’s really not my sort of tea. But that’s okay!

Holiday Tea-son! This was the final day in my advent calendar, though it was yesterday’s tea; the final day of the calendar was an iron-on patch (Me? Do ironing? How funny B&B! I put some tape on the back of it and stuck it on the frame of my computer desk, heh). Since I was re-steeping my pu-erh yesterday, I didn’t really make any other tea, so I just saved it for today to have with my breakfast. My sachet was a bit damaged inside the package; it had a small hole and I noticed some of the CTC tea at the bottom of the paper packaging envelope around the sachet, so I cut the sachet open and dumped the tea into my gravity well infuser to steep. I also steeped briefer than I usually give blacks, only going two minutes on this one, since it’s CTC leaf. Really robust blacks aren’t my favorite. While most people steep their blacks 4-5 minutes I typically only do three, so I push CTCs back even more, heh. Just call me Little Miss Tannin Wuss.

Okay, even with a two minute steep, I totally believe B&B when they say this is their “strongest breakfast blend.” This is a bold tea. Phew. It’s very malty, with a strong autumn leaf note, and just a touch of molasses and cinnamon towards the end of the sip. It is still a bit bitter with quite a bit of astringency after the sip… I can’t imagine having steeped this for the recommended four minutes!

I do realize that teas like this are designed to be taken “British style” with milk and optionally some sweetener, but since that isn’t my preferred way to take my tea, these just aren’t my favorite as far as breakfast blends go. I much preferred the taste of the Great British Cuppa blend from B&B, which I found had a nice flavor on its own, and I had no problem drinking as it was and found quite pleasant; I really am going to have to add a bit of milk and honey to finish off this cup.

I’m sure this is exactly the kind of black tea someone out there is looking for; that someone just isn’t me.

240/365

Bird & Blend describe this one as the strongest breakfast blend in their range, but I’m finding it suits my morning tastes pretty much perfectly. I wouldn’t say it’s really strong, but it’s certainly satisfying – pretty bold, malty, and excellent with milk. It reminds me a little of their Great British Cuppa, in that it has a kind of baked white potato flavour kicking around in the background. In fact, the only difference I can see is that this one’s a CTC, and that one wasn’t. Not usually a go-to for me, but it gets points for speed and convenience. I really wanted my tea this morning!

This one came as a sample with my last Bird & Blend order, but it’s one I’d consider buying in future. They certainly know how to do a good breakfast tea!