Organic Breakfast Tea

This unflavored black tea blend was included as a freebie with my most recent Teabox order. Normally, I do not drink a ton of breakfast teas, but after trying a number of single origin teas from Teabox, I was curious to see how one of their unflavored blends would compare. Well, I am happy to report that I found this to be a nice blend.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped about 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. No subsequent infusions were attempted.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of wood and malt. After infusion, I found new aromas of brown toast, molasses, orange, caramel, and dried fruit. In the mouth, there were fairly strong notes of orange, malt, cream, brown toast, wood, leather, molasses, roasted nuts (almond, chestnut, and walnut), raisins, dates, and nutmeg. The finish was smooth and malty with lingering nuttiness and woodiness plus hints of cream.

This was a flavorful breakfast blend. I greatly appreciated the integration and balance of its flavor components. Though this is still not the sort of thing I would want to consume regularly, I did enjoy it. I think fans of breakfast tea blends would be satisfied with this one.

The dry leaves have a woody, malty aroma. The tea itself smells of dates and wood, with a slight smoky/nutty/earthiness. It very easily becomes bitter and tannic if oversteeped, or if the water is too hot, but if you manage to brew it just right, it is a lovely, mellow, rounded version of the typical “breakfast tea” flavor. I’m not generally a fan of breakfast teas, but I do have to say that I like this one is better than most.