Irish Breakfast

Some mornings - like the mornings it takes three times as long to get your eyes open and twice to get dressed because nothing feels cozy enough - you just need to grab the first bag that doesn’t require anything but hot water. This fit on a bad clothes day when nothing else did (beverage or apparel, either one.)

This tea oils my engine. It’s not the rolls royce of teas, however, when double bagged it packs quite a punch. It’s malty and is a workhorse for those who just want something strong and black. It needs cream and sugar. I cut open the bags and dump into a tin to use as a base for my homemade masala chai. It tastes almost identical to the Irish Breakfast tea I purchased by Fortnum and Mason. It does the job, no frills, just function.

The only thing worse than Trader Joe’s tea is Trader Joe’s bagels. I mean really, have you tried those awful things? my friends have this story about the bagels.

So back in their old place i guess they used to have a raccoon problem. raccoons would break into the trash all the time and tear all that up. anyway one day i guess some raccoons break into the house and pretty much destroy the kitchen. they get into everything and eat everything they can get their hands on. everything EXCEPT for the Trader Joe’s bagels, which were totally out and they didn’t even touch them. those bagels aren’t even consider food for wild hungry animals!

so yeah the tea is almost as bad as those bagels.

This is the first “plain” Irish Breakfast tea I’ve had (that I can remember) and I have say…I am not fan. It brewed up very dark and looked like coffee, which is neat. Surprisingly it wasn’t bitter at all.

But the flavor….gag me. I love English Breakfast and black teas, but this just didn’t work for me. To me, it smells and tastes like salty yams and garbage. Someone else’s tasting note said “sewage”, ha. I had tried Adagio’s Aries blend, and it had the same yucky taste, which I assumed was from the chai…nope. It must have been from the Irish Breakfast mixed in.

If this is was “malty” tastes like…well, I don’t think I like malt, then.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve updated my tea log. Mostly because it’s been a while since I’ve had a new tea to drink. But in the interest of keeping up a vibrant community presence…

Blech. This whole box of tea has been really distasteful. No floral, no tobacco, no nothing. Just stale, and old. It’ll have to do for now though…

A grim, joyless slog born more of a sense of duty to sunken costs than any desire.

This is a bagged tea from a grocery store superchain. If you expect perfection or fine estate assam, you’re probably not going to get it here. However, for a strong, tasty punchy breakfast blend that is easy and fast. This is it. I bought it for my tea cupboard at work and it comes in extremely useful every day at 3:00 pm when I’m lagging. I like it with cream and sugar. Its a bit bitter and punchy and while not my favorite tea, it definitely does the job.

Strong and stout and not sweet…like I like my women…..kidding. A good brew for a cold afternoon I’m liking it more getting a little more maltiness… not too bad really.

It’s a staple in my tea cupboard… but I can’t say that I enjoy it black. It’s bitter, tannic, and incredibly strong.
But it’s great with milk and sugar. It’s English Breakfast’s stronger, meaner brother. For when you feel like punching Lipton in the arm.

Smells bad, tastes bad. This is my first Irish breakfast tea and I wonder if they are all like this? I love English Breakfast and don’t mind a stronger tea but the sewage aroma is difficult to stomach.