My Irish Breakfast ritual is the same as I used to do when I was a kid drinking black tea at a restaurant (with my parents looking askance at me, as if wondering, “Where did this kid come from? WE don’t drink tea…”): Lots of cream. I had a partly-used container of heavy cream at home, so this box of bulk tea bags kind of called out to me at TJ’s this afternoon.
My previous decaf Irish Breakfast was Stash, and I’m thinking after one cup of this that the Stash is tastier than this is. Maybe I understeeped (I’m too used to whites and greens, three minutes seems like an eternity to steep something!), but it just doesn’t have a lot of flavor. Tons of color—the spoon disappeared into the brew—but a less assertive, rich flavor than I’d like. The deep malty Irish Breakfast taste is supposed to blend into the cream and get deeper and richer, but this just sort of sits there in the cream, as though it’s been through a lot and wants to rest. For $3.49/box I guess I shouldn’t have expected much. It’s not that it’s bad—just that it isn’t standing up to my cream tea ritual. Sigh…
