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December 17th

Oh look, it’s the first unflavoured tea that I’ve seen in this calendar so far! It’s morning, we’re going to England tomorrow, what could be more suitable, then, than English Breakfast? I can’t remember the last time I had a breakfast blend…

There is a very strong Darjeeling-y aroma to this. It smells very VERY much like Darjeeling. heavy sigh It smells rather astringent as well, which is annoying because I used a timer and it’s not even ctc leaf. Underneath all that I’m vaguely detecting something darker which makes me think Assam-y thoughts, but I can’t be certain because of all the Darj. I hope it’s just my nose playing tricks on me.

ACK! Horribly! Bitter! What the h…??? I used a timer! My coughy throat is definitely not liking this, it’s undrinkable. I’m going to make a new cup and set the timer for even less. (2 minutes on a small pot! That has never been too much before with non-ctc! Mind boggles.)

Oh wait. Rinsing out the pot, there’s an awful lot of leaf in there. I must have accidentally added leaf twice. No wonder it turned out so horrid, then. That explains a lot. And my timer-use should be fine. phew!

Right, here we are! Fresh cup. It still smells a bit Darjeeling-y, but Darj-Gone-Wrong isn’t the overpowering note here. I should point out that when I say something smells like Darj it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily in there. It doesn’t even mean that I think it’s in there at this point. It just has some notes in it that reminds me of what I dislike about Darj. Really it could be any high-grown tea. They all do that for me, but I’ve just learned to recognise it as ‘Darj-y’. Mind you, in an English Breakfast blend the inclusion of Darjeeling is not at all unlikely.

Unlike before, when Assam-y notes were just vaguely there in the background, it smells primarily Assam-y now. Thick and malty with a bit of honey and wood to it as well.

Flavourwise, it now seems a bit on the thin side. eyes cup Since when did breakfast blends turn into rocket science??? This is why I prefer Chinese black! I never have these problems with Chinese blacks! I was hoping it was just because it was still too hot to drink, but the problem persists after a bit of cooling. It’s as if there’s a note missing right in the middle and it has been replaced by hot water. This means it doesn’t actually taste like very much.

Highly disappointing, considering how much it smells like Assam, and Assam is not exactly a delicate tea. I really can’t describe what little flavour there is there. It’s just coming across as vaguely tea-like with a Darj-y aftertaste, a bit sour and grassy.

I suppose it’s drinkable, but absolutely nothing to write home about. And immensely disappointing. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought this was out of your average cheapster quality teabag, probably one that had been marked down due to approaching the last sell-by date.

I think in the future this blend will be beefed up by what other good black teas I can find on my shelf. In this form, however… No. Just, no.