Irish Breakfast

I have a dear friend who loves rainy and cloudy days. She finds them romantic. I always think of her when it is cloudy, which is the only good thing I can find about repeated cloudy days.

The sun is like a drug for me. When we lived in a duplex, I kept my nose pressed against the glass of the window looking outside. An older man down the street saved my sanity by telling me that I was welcome to come and wheel the baby around his lake anytime I wanted.

On the first warm days of spring I bare my arms and look toward the sun with closed eyes and feel my brain start pumping out all kinds of feel good chemicals.

So four days straight of heavy cloud cover is not sitting well. Plus, these are our first really truly chilly days.

IRISH BREAKFAST TO THE RESCUE! A whole pot to myself, taken with milk and sugar, to fortify me until the sun returns! You know, a pot of tea really does make the day more romantic. Now if I could just settle in with a good book instead of having to teach geometry to my little geometry-atheist…

Oh, she just refuted my last statement, saying that she isn’t a geometry atheist as she knows all too well that it exists. So, would she be called an anageometer? An anti-geometrist? Conscientious objector? I think she needs tea. Off to put kettle on….

Tea of the morning here, what looks to be a nice broken leaf assam. I have gone through a few tins of this now and have always enjoyed it, especially for the price: $6.25/4 oz.

I also like their organic assam so when this runs out maybe it’s time to re-order both? lol…

This is a nice malty tea that’s good with (soy) milk and sugar. The weather is dreary and foggy again but my sweetie and I are going on an overnight camping trip, which is nice. It will be good to get a change of scenery, i think. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wow, this was like a punch in the face. After it melted the paint off the walls I noticed a fruity taste. It smelled malty but I didn’t notice it in the taste. This is what I thought Irish Breakfast was supposed to taste like. Yeah! Thanks ashmanra. I couldn’t drink this often but I like it.

Tea of the morning…..

Wow. Pow, right in the kisser. This one is strong. Of course I need to preface with the fact that I don’t like to add milk to my tea, so that will play a factor in my review.

This is a strong, very malty black tea. The first time I tried this, it was bagged and with water from a water dispenser that probably was not super hot. I am also sure I did not steep it all that long. For that cup, I got smooth, pretty malty, but very enjoyable. This time, it is a little over the top for me. However, I am pretty sure it can all be solved by a few tweaks on my preparation. My perfect teaspoon measure was pretty scant, but I went a full 3 minutes. I think I will try 2 next time. Then, if that doesn’t work, I can lower the water temp a bit. I just need to be sure I write it on the package so I remember next time!

Usual mug method with scant measure and 3 minute steep.

It’s cold again here—it won’t make up its mind, keeps fluctuating from 50-60s to teens-30s—and this is perfect for handling getting out of bed and into the bracing biting maw. It’s nice and hefty but also relatively refined, with a hint of that cocoa sweetness Assam sometimes offers. More bitterness comes out at the end of the sip, but it’s ok because it meshes with the chocolate-y aspect (and there’s always milk if it proves too much). I kind of feel like some IBs don’t really taste archetypally “IB” but more tamped down as if to suit gentler, more demure dispositions (nothing wrong with that either, just not what I think of personally when I dig into one). As K S mentions in his note, this feels like what IB is “supposed” to smell and taste like in my mind; there was an immediate “coming home” emotion upon first sip.

I like it very much! Darn you Harney and your zillions of good breakfast options.

Having a (bagged) cuppa with milk & sugar and Christmas cookies, before going to a Christmas party where I will surely consume more Christmas cookies, but probably not any tea except southern style sweet, or, god forbid, the infamous Firefly! (sweet tea vodka from SC)

In the [comedic] words of Robin Williams: Irish men will kick each others ass and then sing about it afterwards. That’s kind of how I feel about this tea. It kicked my ass, no question.

Having an afternoon lift to get me through the day. I added a smidge of Tea Embassy’s Georgian Caravan to the brew to give a bit of smokiness. A quite nice mix for the afternoon, I think.

Tea #29 from Traveling Tea Box C

Whoa.

This is like a tea punch to the face. It’s a pretty standard breakfast tea, though — slightly malty and really strong. There’s a little touch of floral here too.

I’ll probably be grateful I drank this while I’m upgrading computers in an office later today.

http://instagram.com/p/dcdttcCnNd/

Starting my day off with this yummy tea. I let it steep a little too long so it seems very heavy to me. Almost like a fine Irish Stout (which is awesome because I can’t have any beer anymore!) really malty and rich. I didn’t add any milk to it, because we’re out and I thought the soy milk I do have wouldn’t do it justice! But I did add a hint of agave which made it taste just right. I need to stop forgetting this one is in my collection.