We don't know when or if this item will be available.
“Just gave this a go this morning. It smelled super delish at Lady Elegant’s (a place that sells mostly Metro Tea stuff in Minneapolis) and I’ve been wanting a loose leaf tea to have at work that...” Read full tasting note
“Had a brief but lovely exchange with Lala today in order to swap GCTTB1 and GCTTB2; we met up at the Vintage Tea Room which is a lovely little British style tea house. While sadly she couldn’t stay...” Read full tasting note
“I bought this tea recently from Nova Scotia Antiques&Collectibles, Fred Baines’ eBay store, where I buy most of my tea. I’m still getting acquainted with this one. Since I am totally in love...” Read full tasting note
Tea Growing Countries: India, Kenya
Shipping Ports: Calcutta, Mombasa
Altitude At Which This Tea Was Grown: 6500 feet above sea level
Tea Manufacture Type: CTC (Cut, Torn & Curled)
It may surprise you to learn that the people of Ireland drink more tea per capita than any other population on Earth. It’s true! In fact, your average Irish citizen drinks about 6 cups per day. What’s more, the cups that they drink are so strong that you could almost stand a spoon upright in them. Indeed, the Irish prefer what some might call a “sturdy” cup of tea. In order to provide the Irish with blends this strong, tea blenders supplying the market buy up top all of the top quality seasonal output from Assam and Kenya. The Assam teas are picked from the top production of the Second Flush, a period of high growth in the month of June. The Kenyans selected are usually those produced in either February or August when the most flavorful tea leaves are grown. The Assam component of this Irish blend gives the cup a strong, deep, malty character with heavy layers of astringency that dry the mouth, feeling almost as if you could chew the tea. (This is similar to the way a very dry wine can make you “pucker”.) The Kenyan teas provide a bright coppery color with profound floral notes that add a complex depth to the cup. If you’ve ever wondered what gives the Irish so much nervous energy, you’ve got your answer… It’s a strong blend!… You can enjoy this incomparable tea in the morning with toast or a traditional Irish “fry-up” or even as an “eye-opener” before a big night out on the town!
Company description not available.
Just gave this a go this morning. It smelled super delish at Lady Elegant’s (a place that sells mostly Metro Tea stuff in Minneapolis) and I’ve been wanting a loose leaf tea to have at work that would be happy in a tin, so this seemed a good bet.
A very nice and thick-feeling brew. Deep amber color. Probably since I like bitter tea, I let it brew a bit too long but it was perfect after about 3 minutes. I might even go a little longer… A nice tea to wake yourself up with!
Had a brief but lovely exchange with Lala today in order to swap GCTTB1 and GCTTB2; we met up at the Vintage Tea Room which is a lovely little British style tea house. While sadly she couldn’t stay for tea, I managed to sneak in a pot and some food before I started work at one…
This was definitely what I had been craving all morning; the maltyness that’s typically associated with Irish Breakfast blends in particular sounded like the perfect flavour note to really hit the spot – and it did deliver in that regard. I definitely wish that this particular Irish Breakfast wasn’t CTC though because the tea house put the leaf directly into the pot and then it strains as you pour so it got pretty astringent/bitter quite quickly. It wasn’t anything that a little milk and sugar couldn’t cure but I prefer not to add sugar if I don’t have to.
As far as food goes I got my standard Cranberry Cucumber Cream Cheese Sandwich, which I highly recommend to anything who gets the chance to visit the tea house in the future. And for dessert I got a slice of Coconut Cream Pie which was definitely decent though not the best dessert I’ve had from them: the Pecan Pie in particular is DIVINE.
I don’t visit the tea room enough, it’s such a convenient walk from work…
Flavors: Astringent, Malt, Raisins
Sounds like a splendid morning.
Could you please explain how to make italics on steepster?
If you want to italicize something you just need to format the word/words like _ this _ (just take out the spaces so that they’re right next to the word). It’ll look like… this.
Thank you!
Practicing :)
This is a revelation
I bought this tea recently from Nova Scotia Antiques&Collectibles, Fred Baines’ eBay store, where I buy most of my tea. I’m still getting acquainted with this one. Since I am totally in love with Metropolitan’s Scottish Breakfast, I thought I might like this as much or even more. I must say, it’s a bit of a comedown from the S.B. For one thing, this is CTC, which is a nuisance as it plugs up the spout of my teapot and gets into my mug excessively. I can’t think why this must needs be CTC when the S.B. is mostly large aesthetic leaves that are good enough to eat! I need to experiment with the brewing of this Irish Breakfast, I think, because so far I’ve found it (with milk and sugar, as is my wont) rather one-dimensional and uninteresting, not even as good as PG or Red Rose supermarket tea bags. I must be doing something wrong; it can’t be that bad. I don’t find it has the depth and resonance of the Scottish Breakfast. Comments, anyone?
