English Breakfast (HT)

Sipdown – just finished off a tin of this. It’s been convenient having the teabags at the office but I don’t think I need to repurchase this again. The tin is quite pretty and I’ll be keeping it.

There is a lot to be said about this tea. First off it’s NOT Harney & Sons regular English Breakfast. Instead of a stereotypical IN YOUR FACE english breakfast taste, this blend offers something brisk but smooth. I am a fan of African teas and the lovely things they bring to my mouth. They are smooth, have a gorgeous body and a warm toasty/malt flavor. So I was thrilled to see that Harney had used African tea in several of their blends. I was not disappointed by this tea and I had high expectations. With milk and honey it is creamy, relaxing and yet still carries the vigor of what English Breakfast tea drinkers expect. I will buy again. And yes, the tin is lovely!!

Apparently not to be confused with the gold/black tinned “English Breakfast” tea from Harney and Sons, this one is in a silver tin and is labeled as “HT Blend” on both the tin and their web site and is different from the gold/black tin which is 100% Keemun. The silver HT tin says it is a blend of Ceylon and African teas.

Steeped this for quite a long time – 5 minutes or more – after which it became more tannic. However, even at 4-5 minutes the tea is not as strong as some other English Breakfast teas I have tried. It’s quite good, though, and I love the nice tin it comes in and the high-quality pyramid sachets. However, I have now seen this on the web for between $5-$6 (US), but I bought it at a Biggby Coffee shop for $9.99… clearly marked up more than it might be at a grocery store or online shop. I would say that I prefer Twining’s English Breakfast Tea over this tea, but I like my tea relatively strong with milk/creamer and sugar/Splenda.

Overall on my scale of common English Breakfast Teas I have tried, I would rank this somewhere between Republic of Tea and Stash at the bottom end of the scale, and Twining’s at the upper end of the scale.

Beautiful English Breakfast. Smooth and mellow with a lovely body. Normally I’m an Earl Grey gal, but this definitely growing on me.

I adore this tea. I have been drinking English Breakfast with my father since I was 8 years old, and it remains a fast favourite, even though I drink flavoured tea more often. I got a tin of this tea for Christmas (2011) and by the beginning of the next February, I am down to two tea bags. I think it is because this version of English Breakfast is creamier than others, which have an earthier flavour. I love it.

Grabbed a tin of these sachets and a sample of plain old English Breakfast to see if I could tell the difference.

Verdict after a tasteoff: nope, can’t tell much difference and I don’t think I’m really an English Breakfast person at this point. I’d prefer a thick Assam, a Yunnan or a Taiwanese black to be my first cup of the day.

2.5 grams to 60 ml of just off of boiling water (tap water). Steeped for 35 seconds.

1. English Breakfast HT Blend:
dry leaf scent – like smelling freshly turned earth, hints of a malty scent
taste of liquor – light fruit, dry mouth feel, maltiness from scent not present
wet leaf scent – definitely fresh earth, this has a deeper, more complex scent than the normal EB. That would seem to indicate that the taste should be deeper and more complex and I am just not getting it.

2. English Breakfast:
dry leaf scent – light fruit and earth but not as fresh as the HT blend
taste of liquor – a somewhat lighter version of HT with more fruit notes coming to the fore, still induces a dry mouth feel. I don’t get any smoke and isn’t that what Keemuns are kind of known for? This is 100% Keemun according to the website.
wet leaf scent – reminds me of a second flush Darjeeling with a lot of fruit notes on top of the mild wet earth scent, no malt that I can discern

Always possible that if I try again with different steeping parameters (lower water temp, less tea) these may be easier to differentiate and I may like them better. For now, I get a lot of Ceylon taste in the HT blend and just basic tea from the EB, pretty much. If I had to decide tonight, I’d keep neither in my cupboard though I’d use the sachets when going out to restaurants as it is better than the junk you normally get there. :)

http://tinyurl.com/zh9dzec

This is a great tea. It has good body and I don’t notice any bitterness. It’s much stronger then the Titanic blend but less then Golden Sun.

I received a bunch of these sachets from EvaGrimm in our recent swap. Thank you!

I have 2 left. Only 2. I have been drinking this not stop at work since it showed up in the mail. I haven’t really tried too many “breakfast” blends and I also hadn’t really used too many of H&S sachets. For a quick, kick in the butt/slap in the face cup of tea in the morning this has been perfect. No hassle at work with the loose leaf. It is a bold, brisk, strong cup and is vary predictable and stands up well to temperature and me forgetting I am steeping tea. I am not 100% sold on this blend. I think these few cups will launch me into an H&S black blend trying experiment. Thanks again EvaGrimm for sharing these cups.

Annoyingly, I just lost a lengthy tasting note relaying this afternoon’s steep-off chez sherapop between Harney & Sons English Breakfast and Mighty Leaf Organic English Breakfast. I’ll try to reconstruct what I wrote.

My first observation was that the tea in the Harney & Sons sachet was ever-so-slightly darker than in the Mighty Leaf sachet. Both smell like classic English Breakfast, with a hefty dose of Assam—or reasonable facsimile. Harney & Sons has used Kenyan Milima in place of Indian Assam. Not sure what Mighty Leaf is using. Perhaps it is just good old-fashioned Assam! The lighter coloring of some of the tips in the Mighty Leaf sachet leads me to suspect that they may be using more Ceylon or some other tea lighter than Assam as the mixer. I believe that Keemun is often used.

The brew of the Harney & Sons was slightly darker than the Mighty Leaf liquor—also dark amber. The scent was characteristically English Breakfast. I cannot smell or drink English Breakfast tea without thinking of Tazo Awake—no doubt because I consumed so much of it in the past.

As far as the taste is concerned, I began thinking that I preferred the Mighty Leaf. Then it seemed that I preferred the Harney & Sons. Basically I seemed to go back and forth from sip to sip! I mistakenly added cream before starting the sip-off, so probably I’ll need to do another steep-off in order to determine the winner in this case!

Good Stuff. I made a Tall Cup (16oz tumbler, 2 satchet) and it was slightly much, but good flavor all around.

Update: Added a bit of sugar and it lessens the stomach weight.