Dorchester Breakfast

Sipdown! I enjoyed this blend as a nice wake-up. I was excited to try it initially and thought it might be THE breakfast tea. Although it does take the cake over H & S classics like their straight English Breakfast in terms of strength, balance, and flavor, I still prefer Scottish Morn over both. Glad I was able to try it though and it is a very nice British-style tea.

Backlog:

A very finely chopped CTC. It’s a really good breakfast blend though. Sweet and richly flavored. Malty. Not as earthy in the flavor as the aroma might suggest. This has that wonderful bakey-cakey kind of taste to it, the kind of flavor that you want in a breakfast blend.

Many thanks to Harney and Sons and their fabulous customer service! I wanted my daughter to try this as a replacement for her breakfast tea that we are having trouble finding, and this doesn’t come in a sample – just a 50 count sachet bag. I added the note “Do you have a sample of Dorchester Breakfast?” at the bottom of my internet order, and when my order arrived they had sent a loose leaf pouch of this at no charge!This is a very good breakfast tea if you like modern-British style breakfast teas as opposed to the earlier pure keemuns or smokey Dutch teas. It is most decidely made to be taken with milk and sugar. It is more astringent than the teas I usually drink, but the addition of milk smooths it out completely. This is a true eye-opening breakfast cup! I agree that you can compare it to PG Tips that grew up in a better boarding school. All that said, I still prefer English Breakfast 100% keemun, Queen Catherine, Royal English Breakfast, and Supreme Breakfast (yum!) for my breakfast teas.

CTC with the vaguely Grape Nuts-y smell of Grandpa’s Anytime Tea. Less complex (to be expected), not as much fruit but still full of flavor. With milk this is lovely. Someone else here said it’s like PG Tips that grew up at a better boarding school, which made me chuckle and is a great way of putting it.

Nice hardy tea for the morning or throughout the day for a nice little pick-me-up!

All comparisons for this tea are up against the more “crude” characteristics of Lipton’s Brisk Tea.

Aroma: A lively but delicate aroma of Assam, Ceylon, Darjeeling and Sri Lanka. This tea smells lively without the “zingy” tannins that tweak the nose.

Taste: Same as aroma. This tea is complex and yet simultaneously delicate; it’s awakening and yet again, smooth. Adjectives: Awakening, complex, delicate [nice on the palate, but can hold it’s own], smooth, sprightly and mouth filling without the heaviness. Bigger and more complex than an Yunnan but more gentlemanly and urbane than the “crude” Lipton Brisk Tea.

Aftertaste: It leaves an impression on one’s palate like a haunting tune [Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”]. It is mouth-filling without being heavy. The after effects of an Assam and Darjeeling [hardier than a Ceylon or Sri Lanka] than a softer linger of more delicate teas.

A nice tea to have in one’s collection; something to be pulled-out for guests for a nice afternoon tea, not so much for a morning jolt. Save the Lipton Brisk Tea for the morning as a kick-start for waking up.

this english breakfast blend has the briskness and body one would expect with a sachet of PG tips, but an elegant aroma and finish that outclasses the english standard – bravo!

The prices on the Harney & Sons website were so good when I was checking them out last week that I decided to buy two pounds to keep me alert in the morning while I hunt for employment. I purchased Scottish Morn, which I enjoy, and this Dorchester Breakfast tea. Both of these selections were highly rated on the Harney website.

When I opened the one pound Dorchester package, an aroma like Assam pipe tobacco burst forth. The leaves were brown, very short, and ground-looking, like coffee, which I’ve become accustomed to with tea made for/by the Brits.

I steeped the tea at 212 degrees for five minutes. The final product was the color of molasses. The odor was Assam with a slightly sweet and malty characteristic.

The flavor was malty Assam with a fruity sweet attribute. Although the taste was quite bold, it was also gentle on the palate. I detected no astringency and the aftertaste was brief and pleasant. I found this tea to be quite delicious from the first sip of my initial cup to the last one, four cups later.

This selection is advertised as being specially blended for the Dorchester Hotel in London. They definitely came up with a winner. If I ever make it back to London, I will include on my itinerary a stop at the hotel for afternoon tea time.

The name immediately brought flashes of William Boyd’s Bond novel (Solo) and a trip to London I had taken years ago. Obviously, I had to order a sample.
Well, it doesn’t have the flavor of Vesper martini but this tea did not disappoint.
The taste is not overwhelmed by cream and sweetener. It is enhanced. It plays a close second to the Irish Breakfast blend as my go to morning tea.
It is a brisk, robust blend with a mellow yet distinct malty note.

I love black tea and this tea was ok in my opinion. I found it quite astringent and lacking flavor when I drank it plain, and when I added milk to knock down some of the astringency I felt like it had even less flavor. I honestly don’t think I’d buy it over something like Yorkshire Gold. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t excite me either.