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Ewa

Scottish Breakfast Blend (TB14) from Upton Tea Imports

Ewa drank Scottish Breakfast Blend (TB14) by Upton Tea Imports

Upton Sampler Buying Spree Tea #12:
Time for a break from the Earl Grey/Earl Grey-like teas!
This stuff is really fine, it almost seems ground – is it pretending to be coffee? It brewed up quite dark and very strong. I think I may have used a little too much – too used to the more leafy teas. On the other hand, this would be perfect if it’s morning and you’re running late and you forgot to leave enough time to boil water and steep your morning tea and you are in danger of going to Chinese class tea-less and WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO.
As far as taste goes, as expected it’s a strong black tea flavor. Not subtle at all, this stuff. It’s got a sort of undertone that I’ve never really been able to describe well, but appears especially in oversteeped teas – like, super-saturated tea-ness, I don’t know. Anyway, this is definitely a good morning tea, especially if you have trouble waking up. (like me!)

2010-03-29 18:55:02 -0400

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Jim Marks 2010-03-29 22:40:11 -0400

If I’m remembering correctly, Scottish breakfast teas are all made from those smaller, broken bits rather than being at all tippy. I suspect this is a bit of ethnic humor by the English, implying that the Scots can’t afford proper tea leaves.

Given that structure, you’re going to end up with a denser scoop than with a more tippy tea, which could account for both your strong result and your astringent over-steeped sense, which all Assam seem to be susceptible when brewed too strong.

Ewa 2010-03-30 17:34:56 -0400

Ooooooh…man you know stuff about tea! Now that I think about it, yeah, I seem to get that over-steeped taste most with Assam. The more you know! (rainbow)

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I’m a Pole who grew up in Texas, is currently a graduate student in California studying Japan. How’s THAT for random?

Being Polish, my family has always drunk a lot of tea, and I am no different. I may drink more tea than water. On the other hand, I can’t say that I’m very particular about it; I’m generally pretty careless with steeping times and water temperature and I don’t even have a proper teapot (mostly because the lid broke during the move to California ;_;).

I always drink my tea unsweetened and I only add milk in the case of the most egregiously chai-ish of chais. (not really a big fan of milk in general)

Given that so many of my entries seem to be about my morning tea, I felt I should add something here about me and mornings: I fail at mornings. I fail at them a LOT. Therefore I often also fail at proper tea making in the mornings.