Bolder Breakfast

Tea of the morning…. (SRP#8)

I have had this one for a while. I think it appealed to me because it was likened to coffee, and I used to be a pretty hefty coffee drinker. Also, in looking at my big pile of samples, I can see that I am going to get through the black teas in my SRP-Sample Reduction Plan, well ahead of all the others. I NEED a black tea in the morning. I guess it will be a great time to use up some Franken Breakfast once I tackle those sample blacks and try the few new ones in transit (yes, I fail at ‘no buys’ for tea)….

This tea is interesting. The first thing it reminded me of is Javavana Mate from Teavana. Maybe it is not as sweet, but there is a definite note of chocolate, and the tea base is earthy and mellow. It is also a strong tea base. I do see why this tea is suggested to coffee drinkers. It could stand up to any kind of additions well. If I had gotten around to trying this in my coffee drinking days, I am pretty sure I would have purchased this. But now, I only have an occasional cup of coffee (and the occasional coffee flavored ice cream is even better!) Tea has won me over.

Usual teapot method.

I got this tea for Christmas and after reading the reviews, it piqued my interest the most of the three. I was a little put off by the idea of puerh flavored by anything other than flowers, but then I read the ingredients. Apparently this is mostly plain black tea, then some puerh added.

It brews up very dark, and carries a decent kick of caffeine. The cocoa flavor is mild, similar to the way the milk tastes after a bowl of Cocoa Crispies. There’s also a little bit of a vanilla’s sweetness. I can’t taste the puerh very much, but it’s there. This might be a good place to start for people with really westernized tastes. (Speaking from experience.)

This came as a sample from Terri HarpLady – thanks so much!

Not quite sure what to drink this morning, so I reached for a breakfast blend. As a rule, I don’t really buy them. I generally find them to be bland or boring.

This is not the case with this one! There’s a dark, fruity sweetness to it, almost like cherry or mulberry. The scent is full of dark chocolate, and there a bit of that wrapped around the fruitiness of it. As it cools, there’s a whiff of cinnamon that comes out.

I finally found a breakfast blend I like!

Usually I don’t post tasting notes about teas which I find mediocre or unpleasant, but…
This
is
the
worst
pu-erh
I’ve
ever
had.

I want to thank LENA for sending me this delightful tea. I liked it quite well although not enough to want to buy it. I thought of Maiden’s Ecstasy by Samovar (with which Bolder Breakfast shares some traits) when I was drinking this. The tea is, as another reviewer, the wonderful Auggy described, a pu-erh with training wheels and there’s certainly a place for that for tea-drinkers. The tea is robust and has some chocolate qualities. And yet I ask myself what is missing here?

I am not sure what it is I want. I want more of something—a je ne sais quois—to be elucidated here. Maybe I want more pu-erh or maybe I want more of the chocolate to step forward. This is a tea that may (or may not) stick in my memory and call forth an urgent order in a day or two or a week or two. That has happened to me a lot here: I’ll give a tea a good but not rave review and after I while I will find myself wanting to return to that particular taste and revise my opinion upwards.

I added some milk and a small lump of sugar.

Thanks again to Brandy3392 So I like chocolate. I like black tea. I love pu-erh. However I’m not sure why this is called Bolder Breakfast. I think the pu-erh actually smooths it out. The chocolate is not very prevalent but that’s okay. I’m really digging this one. I think it reminds me more of one of my favorite teas from Dr. Tea. Scrooge’s blend the flavor is almost and exact mimic. When Mr. Scrooge gets low I’m glad there is a tea to replace it for me.

This is the first I tried from my swap with TerriHarpLady. And there was a lot to choose from! Black tea wonderland! I chose this as I definitely needed a caffeine boost. The cup brewed up super dark and I could smell the chocolate and it definitely tasted a lot more more chocolaty than I expected. The puerh mellows out the chocolate a bit without overwhelming it. Overall I liked it. I liked the second steep better as the chocolate was a little milder. I think I’ll make a latte the next time I make this. I think steamed milk would make this a great breakfast treat.

I have tried this before and I guess I forgot to report on it! My first time tryng it, I enjoyed it quite a lot. The dry leaf is very clearly chocolatey, which I enjoyed. And the hearty, malty flavor of the tea itself was very pleasant. I remember thinking it would be fun to try with some milk and maybe sugar like I would other breakfast teas (despite the bit of pu-erh mixed in).

Well, I tried that today…. it was quite a failure! This is definitely superior when it is consumed as-is!

The Tea Spot will send you a free sample of tea if you sign up with them, so I did it. I was curious about the company, and they’ve been having a bunch of sales, so I thought I’d check them out. What better way than for free! I got this in the mail today, which was kind of a consolation prize for still not receiving my HI orders. And I couldn’t stop myself from opening it right up and trying it! It was definitely bold, and I tasted all three ingredients: black tea, puerh, and chocolate. I’ve not developed a taste for puerh, however, so it threw off the rest of it for me. It is more subtle, since the black tea and chocolate shine through, but alas, I’m not a fan of the woody, leathery puerh. I do think the tea is good quality though, so I will probably try some more of their teas in the future.

Welcome to day number three of Pu Erh week! You know I am kinda liking these themed weeks, it makes my love of organization and sorting very happy. Speaking of sorting I am almost done sorting my bucket of 11,000 perler beads, it would probably be really tedious if I didn’t enjoy it.

On this frigidly cold day I am pulling from my notebook for a neat Pu Erh blend. Bolder Breakfast by The Tea Spot is a blend of Pu Erh, Chocolate, Black Tea, and Sunflower Petals. It is a tea with loads of caffeine and perfect for a morning boost (and help people who want to make the switch from coffee to tea) with a robust flavor. The aroma is rich, very rich blending chocolate, malt and earthy notes with a mild sweetness. The aroma reminds me of milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate, with a slight hint of nuttiness.

Once I steep the tea the leaves take on a brightness that reminds me of Ceylon tea with malt and earthy notes. There is still the aroma of chocolate but it is not as strong, taking a backseat to the aroma of the tea leaves. The liquid is very rich mixing earthy and loamy notes with a faint ‘market aroma’ from the Pu Erh. As an aftersmell there are notes of sweetness and maltiness.

The taste is very intense and sweet, an extremely robust, rich tea. They were not wrong when they said it could be a good ‘switchover’ tea because I can certainly see a similarity with coffee. The taste is a great blend of robust tea and rich chocolate, still more of a milk chocolate. There is a slightly metallic mouthfeel that gives the tea an added brightness. It manages to be creamy and rich which still being earthy, there is also a touch of astringency which is very pleasant. As the tea cools it becomes a bit more astringent and also a little more earthy. I also tried this tea with a bit of cream, there was no need for sugar because it is already pretty sweet, the cream takes away any of the astringency and gives it a bit of a chocolate milk feel. This tea is certainly a good breakfast tea, making me feel very awake and alert.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-tea-spot-bolder-breakfast-tea-review.html