English Breakfast Tea

Taken with a teaspoon of sugar and half and half.

Oh BOY I think this is the best English Breakfast Blend I’ve ever had the pleasure to sip! Complex and nuanced – I feel like I can taste the slightly fruity darjeeling-ness, a bit of smoky chewy Keemun-ness, and a robust malty Assam-ness and the Ceylon is smoothing things nicely – it is an invisible binder in a way – I don’t taste it but I feel it’s doing its job. I think what is making this a standout to me is the fruitysmoky. Very unique. Very enjoyable! Very much a whole tin kinda tea!!! I’d like to take it to 5 minutes and see what I get – there was absolutely no bitterness at 4 minutes and you know I like em bold :)

Methinks it is time to start on my sampler. Here goes nothing: No. 1 of 31

Took a page from Ewa’s book: closed my eyes, thrust my hand into the basket, diddled it around and grabbed. This is what came out. (That was really fun, by the way. I intend to go through the whole thing entirely at random.)

Pretty, pretty dry leaves. Long, twisted, pointy; a cross between olive green and chocolate brown. And the smell! First, chocolate. Then, tobacco. Then, coffee. Then, something green and toasty. All mixing together and swirling around. Bizarrely, the image that came to mind was of tiny, silver, schooling fish swimming this way and that.

I used the whole packet. According to my scale it is enough for 1.5 cups, but my favorite cup for tasting teas holds 12 oz of water, rather than 8. So six of one, half a dozen of the other as my mother would say.

A golden brown, “tea colored” liquor. Lighter in color than I expected. Sweet, chocolate/malt/brown sugar aroma.

How to describe the taste? It’s smooth and gentle, completely without sharp edges. It isn’t full-bodied like the Samovar Breakfast Blend; on the other hand, it is refreshing without being thin. This seems to be the influence of the darjeeling.

It has a taste I can only describe as leafy. It isn’t particularly sweet, though it does have a hint of malt. It makes me think of fall in the Northeast US, when the leaves are falling from the trees, fresh and fragrant. This is what I’m getting more than “floral” but perhaps it’s all part of a Kingdom Plantae continuum. There’s a nice, lingering, quintessentially tea taste. It’s what tea-flavored candy tastes like without the sugar overload.

It’s lovely. I’ll definitely order it. I like Samovar’s Breakfast Blend better, but who says you can only have one breakfast blend? It would be like only having one pair of black shoes.

So my poor attempt at budgeting just flew out the window – 3 different tea companies just got orders from me in the past 12 hours. And a fourth is probably coming since their coupon is only good through April. I must take a vow to not purchase any tea or teaware in May. This is redonkulous.

Okay, onto the tea! And we have a frontrunner on the Black Tea I will most likely purchase from GM. Yup, I shall add this to my shopping list so that it can join the Nepalese Afternoon Tea. I can’t really tell you much about this tea except that it’s smooth, complex, and what I think an ideal black tea with oomph should taste like – especially on the 2nd infusion. That’s where the sweet kicks in – not so much while it’s hot, but as it cools it gets sweeter and sweeter. Naturally all I can think of is how amazing this would be as an iced tea. NE

This smells smoky – I can definitely pick up the Keemun. Surprisingly, it smells rougher than their Irish Breakfast, which seems a bit counterintuitive to me. And actually, it does seem to be a heavier cup. The Keemun is very obvious but then I taste bright sparkles of Darjeeling – not enough to make it bitter or tart, just enough to give it a citrus-like top note of additional depth of taste. There is a stoutness to it that I don’t normally find with Keemun so I’m gonna say that’s the Assam, though I don’t taste cardboard/malty so much as feel it. I can’t really say I pick up the Ceylon, but honestly, that’s the hardest tea taste for me to pin down.

All in all, a good breakfast blend but nothing overly special. I think it would hold up really well to milk and sugar (the Assam mellows out the Keemun, making it thick enough to deal, I think but also decreasing the smoky – I’m not a fan of milk in my Keemuns). Because of that it is perhaps a better take-to-work-in-my-travel-tumbler tea than the Irish Breakfast from yesterday but in general a less exciting cup.

After reading Golden Moon’s newsletter yesterday I was inspired to try this tea today.

A very pleasant breakfast tea, well-rounded and full of flavor. It is bold but it isn’t too edgy, I am finding it quite palatable without additions. There is a briskness to it from the Ceylon, some malty tones from the Assam, and even some earthiness and spice from the Keemun. Rich and delicious.

So, I figured it was time to finish up the GM sampler. Picked blindly, got this one, perfect for breakfast!

This tea is probably one of the best breakfast blends I have ever had. You can smell the typical breakfast tea aroma from the leaves, but once brewed it releases a whole world of aroma and flavor. A robust aroma of black tea – slightly fruity and slightly smokey, definitely smells delicious. The flavor, you can actually almost pick out all of the teas in here: there is a smoothness, a malty flavor, a slight smoke and a hint of fruit. Absolutely delicious.

Infused hot, four minutes, no additives. Delicious. Second cup enjoyed with a teaspoon of sugar and some half and half. Also delicious.

The scent is like Thomas Sampson eating grapes! A grape-y Thomas Sampson. Must be the Darjeeling in the mix.

The taste is kind of “thick” and malty with just a hint of sweet. I think I’ve steeped this beyond 5 minutes (close to 6!) but it’s not overly astringent or bitter at all.

This breakfast blend is pretty delicious, overall—it has plenty of body and is strong enough to hold up to milk and sugar, but I like it fine on its own. Although, If I were to change anything, I would make it just a bit stronger, add a bit more “punch”.

And it tastes more biscuit-y as it cools. Biscuit-y is always good.

OH MY GOD THE INTERNET WAS DOWN.

I am addicted to the internet. I am not ashamed to admit it. I freak out when it’s not working. This tealog was originally supposed to be posted around noon today (I actually wrote it out in Word so my impressions would be lost – NERD), but because the internet went bye-bye, it’s going up now.

Anyway…

This is an extremely intriguing tea. Once again, with Golden Moon, I’ve been trying to get through some of the more basic teas before I vault into the complex and interesting ones.

There was enough for two servings in my sampler packet. The smell that came from the little GM Packet of Joy was interesting and nuanced. I knew I was smelling good tea, but I really couldn’t distinguish any components. The leaves are obviously of a variety of varietels – some are long, some are short, and there’s a fair amount of broken bits.

This one steeped to a dark copper color, and the tea liquid was had a scent similar to the dry leaves.

On first sip, I let out a little sigh. This one is good. Very good. There are four different teas at play in Golden Moon’s blend: Assam, Ceylon, Keemum, and Darjeeling, and each plays a distinct and interesting role in the tea. Part of the fun of drinking this was trying to distinguish all the flavor components. Golden Moon really has done a stellar job of blending these beauties together so they create one complex taste with individual components. If I concentrate really hard, I can almost taste each individual tea. The boldness from the Assam, the smoothness of the Ceylon, that somewhat tart component of the Keemum, and something extra, that I could only guess is Darjeeling.

I wish I could have actually sat down and enjoyed this a bit more, but this morning was pretty hectic. Our internet is down, and everyone in the house is pretty much in a frenzy. I’m glad my sample has a bit more, that way I can have some of this tea again.

Although I don’t think that this is a beginner’s tea, I think a budding tea enthusiast and a tea expert would both enjoy this. I gave a few sips to my mom, who commented, “Wow, this is really interesting tasting. And complex.” This ain’t Liptons, baby. This is TEA.

As I’m trying to work through this sampler pack, I decided to have a cup of this with breakfast. And you know what? It’s really good! You can completely pick up on darjeeling, assam, and ceylon, with bit of keemun in there. In fact, the keemun might be the ingredient that sets this apart. I think if I didn’t already love Brattle Street as my go to breakfast cup, I’d put this in the running. As it is, I might one day have to order a tin. Right now I have more breakfast blend than I know what to do with. I’m glad for this pleasant surprise.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/englishbreakfasttea/

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #7 selected at random

I was glad to select a robust tea. It’s too early in the day to go in for an airy-fairy white muskmelon with breath of lilac type of tea. This English Breakfast did not disappoint me. It’s full and rich and the blend is a lovely combination. I would consider making a full purchase of this. I’d like to have a breakfast tea in stock aside from my beloved Lapchang Souchongs to offer visitors or in case my taste shifts—-and taste, as we know, can be fickle.

I’ll see if this tea calls to me in the next several weeks. Overall, a hearty recommendation.