English Breakfast

And so the journey begins…

I just finished my first cup of loose leaf tea, and what a tactile experience it is! I brewed this up in my brand-new IngenuiTEA, using a teaspoon of Adagio’s blend, and steeping it for the recommended five minutes. I couldn’t help but sniff the little tin over and over again as I waited impatiently for the cup to finish brewing.

The tea steeped to a much more amber color than I was expecting, but I’ve read in several places that this is typical of Adagio’s blend. But the smell! It was so tea-like, so indescribable in a tea way, that my nose is too newb-ish to make out everything. It’s so awesome to watch those leaves unfurl and grow. It looks like an actual plant, and not dust from the factory floor!

The taste is amazing. Beyond the taste of the English Breakfast blend, and this tea in particular, I’m going to talk about the taste of the loose leaf itself. It tastes clean, and pure. It’s not bitter at all (the five minute steep time sort of freaked me out, because if you steep most bagged teas for that long, you have a fairly foul brew). It’s rich and smooth and nuanced. It’s almost like seeing in 3D for the first time. There’s no flatness of taste, or stale flavor. It’s just pure, unadulterated joy.

To talk about this English Breakfast – it’s a bit lighter than I think of when I think of English Breakfast, but it has a lot of the smokey elements that I can sometimes detect. It has an almost buttery quality underneath the main tea taste, with a pretty sweet aftertaste. It isn’t astringent at all, and rolls on my tongue in pure delicious awesomeness.

I am definitely craving another cup. How yummy! It’s like I wasn’t wearing glasses anymore, and now I can see! The only complaints I have right now is that I probably want this one a little stronger. I probably have to add a teeny bit more tea to my teaspoon.

Here comes a ridiculous question, regarding the teaspoon. How does everyone put their tea on the teaspoon? I tried digging my measuring spoon into the tin, but then freaked when I realized that I was probably breaking my precious leaves! So I washed my hands and dried them a million times before carefully picking up the leaves and placing them on the teaspoon. I wasn’t sure how to really “make” the teaspoon, though. The leaves are fairly wiry and long. It didn’t seem like a full “teaspoon,” even though the leaves were peeking out beyond the level point of the spoon.

I know I’m getting all technical. Perhaps I just have to add more tea to the teaspoon, or buy one of those teaspoons made especially for measuring out tea.

Either way, this was an awesome, awesome experience. I can’t wait to continue my journey with loose leaf! YAY!

English breakfast, in my personal set of tea stereotypes, is Irish breakfast that just couldn’t make the varsity team. But this is a really nice surprise. Stout enough to wake you up, not just jostle you. Cheapskate that I am, I tend to use about half the leaf I normally should, but I splurged this morning and put a full two-spoon measure into my travel mug. Glad I did.

Last night I cleaned out and rearranged my Tea storage system, again! It’s nothing fancy…a 3 shelf corner cupboard, plus an old wicker shelf with a series of cardboard boxes (that teas I ordered came in). I think I need to probably do this at least once a week, moving all of my favorites to the back so that I’ll give the other teas a chance once in awhile. Then I came on steepster, and got in on a chat (on some tea review somewhere, can’t remember where though…) about how people line up their teas and such. I felt right at home!

I’m really making an effort (this time around) to stick to the Tea Rotation plan I made, so this morning this was my Black tea pick. It’s from one of Adagio’s black tea samplers (along with yunnan jig, yunnan noir, Puerh Poe, and Assam Melody).

Per their instruction: 1 tsp in a cup of hot water, 4 minutes.
Meeh….it’s ok, but nothing to write home about.
Not to be unfair, I made a 2nd cup, this time using 1 Tablespoon of tea, and steeping 3 minutes, and NoW We’Re TaLkInG! When in doubt, add more tea! I also added some stevia, and it’s tasty! It seems that most English breakfast blends are heavy on the Assam and tend towards tartness, but this one is a Keemun, which I find to be more of a smokey malty fruity mellow kind of thing. Very nice.

backlogging some teas from the other day before getting to today’s tea. Forgive my lack of detail in my tasting notes as of late, it’s been insanely hectic with the kids & I haven’t really had time to sit down & really write out my thoughts, so I’ve been just jotting down some quick notes & rushing off to tend to the babes

After having this after only having had bagged English Breakfast, I can’t really say that I know much about it, but I can say that I will never go back to bags again after drinking this.

Gentle understated smoke with earthy leather notes with a smooth finish. With my second cup I detected a maltiness that was quite nice. No bitterness at all (by that I mean unpleasantly bitter qualities, as I do like a slight touch of bitter to my teas). It was a very comforting cup to start off my morning the other day :)

This is the perfect tea for those bleary-eyed moments in the morning when you can barely remember how to make tea. The flavor and aroma remind me a bit of good Irish stout. It will wake you up faster than a Marine drill sergeant. And, if you just can’t quite face all of that bright-and-cheeriness early in the morning, it mellows quite nicely with a bit of milk and sugar.

Well, due to not paying attention and accidentally putting the initial teaspoon into my ingenuitea while it still had the previous tea’s leaves in it, I have finished another sample! Yaaaaaaay….?

I like how this tea looks, with the long curling leaves – very different from the Scottish and Irish breakfasts! Today was one of my “forget until the last minute to make tea” mornings so short steeping time, and I think it really shows. The taste is a little malty, a little smoky, but only a little of both, and in general, it looks like it doesn’t do well with short steepings. Clearly it is meant to be brewed up properly. All in all, I have to say I’m pretty meh on it. I’ve got golden monkey for maltiness and Baker Street blend for smokiness and as I said in one of my earlier notes, smokiness just isn’t for me in the mornings. Honestly the only reason I even had it was because I wanted to have an unflavored simple black tea around just in case a friend of mine who hates any sort of flavors in her tea visited. But now that I’ve got a plethora of Upton black teas, it’s kind of lost it’s purpose in life.

Very good, basic black. I like this a lot better than Adagio’s Irish Breakfast, which is odd, since I typically prefer my black teas stronger than this. The hint of smokiness from the Keemun is really nice. It’s inoffensive and not too exciting, but good.

Ahhhh Adagio Teas….we meet once again.

Good morning my fellow Steepsters!

I needed a quick pick me up this morning since I was up way too late last night with my writing frenzy. I love when I get in the mood to put words onto paper. But this morning I have a few errands to run & before I can run out the door, I need a quick pick me up.

Enter Adagio Teas English Breakfast.
I had treated myself to a tea chest. I wanted one to show off during parties or for whenever friends stop over. Plus I figured I needed a place to store all the teabags I’ve got.

So the tea chest came with a variety of teabags. It’s loose leaf tea in a pyramid bag. I got the tea chest with English Breakfast, Peach Oolong, Chamomile, Cinnamon Spice & White Peony. This morning I grabbed the English Breakfast.

I love it!

It had a smell that I couldn’t quite place at first…but now I claim it as smoky. Very smoky. But I love it! Definitely wonderful on the taste buds for me. And I love the little energy kick I got from it. I used a little Sugar in the Raw in it, no milk.

I’m sure I’m going to have to get more when the teabags run out.

Prepared this Keemun gong-fu style and am really loving it.

I got a sample of this from a friend, and I’m intrigued. The brew is lighter than I expected, though I think that is more because I used too much water for the sample I had. I steeped for a full five minutes, hoping that might make up for it—I’m not sure it did. This is my first Keemun tea, and I’m definitely going to try more. It has a vaguely smoky, peppery aroma that is very lovely. The sip is gently smoky, nothing like a Lapsong Souchong (I remember with horror my first cup of that), and it goes down smooth. Overall a nice tea. Definitely one to keep on my short list for when my current stash starts to dwindle.

To my delight, this beautifully made tea greets me with a fruity, toasty nose. Two tsp of the loose, open blend are measured into my pre-heated, closed infuser for a 12-oz mug. The golden medium-amber liquor is smooth, with just a hint of astringency. The tea’s description begins with Keemun, so the smoke and fruit notes must hark from that Chinese region, rather than an Indian Darjeeling (more commonly used in EB blends). Quite good plain, there was only a tablespoon or two left when I added a tsp of vanilla soy milk. The result was a bit more richness and sweetness, without detracting from the true black-tea effect — a nice mix. The wholeness of the brewed leaves was attested to by how quickly the infuser rinsed out. The use of Keemun in this English Breakfast blend makes it stand out amongst the better ones I’ve tasted. It’s flavor and aroma lingered in my satisfied smile!

Very standard, but good. I find that brewing it with a little more than a teaspoon makes it more flavorful, but not bitter. Right now I’ve got a hot cup of it, sweetened with three packs of Sugar In The Raw because that’s how we do it in the deep south, dammit! Actually, I think it’s probably just a bad habit of mine. Anyway, I like this tea a lot. It would be good to keep around for everyday pots.

Having a fresh 20 oz pot with a pinch of Lapsang Souchong added.

My first foray with Adagio’s English Breakfast, and I am quite impressed. I’m new to loose leaf tea, but I’ve had many different English breakfast blends from bags.

The loose leaf variant is simply superb, especially compared to its bagged brethren. The taste was very rich and indulging. I let the tea steep for 4 minutes, since that was half way through the 3-5 minutes suggested, and the flavor was fantastic.

The color was rich, and the aroma made me want to drink another cup as soon as I was finished with the first!

So, to update, I did in fact have another cup as soon as I finished my last one. This cup I added a bit of milk and sugar vs the honey that I usually put in my tea. I liked my first cup better. I’m not one for milk in my tea, but I wanted to see if it would make the cup better or worse. I think I’ll be strictly sticking to honey in my black teas in the future.

I had this about two hours ago, while out running errands. It’s not the first time I’ve had it; it’s just the first time I’ve had it since I joined Steepster a few days ago. I like this tea quite a bit. It’s the first English Breakfast I’ve ever had with Keemun in it, and it’s a nice change from the usual Twinings-type blend. According to Wikipedia, the Keemun version is the traditional blend. That’s cool. I like traditional. The tea has a lovely floral-ish perfume to it, but isn’t too delicate for my tastes. (I typically like Assams and Ceylons for black teas, and hate Darjeelings.) Definite thumbs-up.

So that is smoky? At first it was kind of oily, in a “I smell petroleum jelly” way, but now I could definitely see someone calling this smoky. And woodsy, but not in a “I’m licking a block of wood way,” more like hmm, drinking by the fire. Interesting. Put in some creamer, and suddenly the smoke moves up, the woods fall back and the black tea taste comes forward.

I like this. Lots of interesting flavor.

Adagio’s version of English Breakfast does its best to distinguish itself from this workhorse of black tea blends. Touches of smoke and pepper come through with the steady malt flavour. A good choice for a casual drinker who wants branch out into more adventurous tea tasting but isn’t quite ready to leave the comfort of the familiar breakfast-style teas.

Good basic English Breakfast. Still learning to like this as it is slightly stronger than I care for but it is not bad at all.

This is a beautifully tasting tea and is very enjoyable to drink and finish off a long day. It’s aroma is very relaxing and the taste is welcoming, I recommend it as a healthy standard and as an every day tea as well!

This tea is delicious alone or with a splash of cream. The ‘breakfast’ part of the title does not lie; it is fantastic for those early morning moments. I think Adagio’s version is rich and bold, with great quality of the leaves.