Irish Breakfast

Whee! Fun updates! Looks great, Steepster Overlords! (Now if we could just edit the comments we make….)

I spent my drive to work this morning pretty much doing three things: listening to OK Go, trying to ignore that I need to get gas (it’s literally freezing outside… I am not mentally prepared to stand out in that to pump gas) and trying to figure out what it is that this tea lacks.

I’m not saying this is a bad tea. Far from it. I quite enjoy it. I even caught a whiff of cinnamon today from the dry leaves. I tried to find that taste while drinking it, too and decided that maybe there is a hint of it on the tail end. Maybe. But anyway, I like this tea. Stout, wakes me up, but isn’t mean about it. It’s a 4/5 star for me. It’s just missing… something. Something that would give it just that little extra depth of flavor to push it into a 5/5 star tea (I am horribly stingy with 5 star ratings – out of the literally hundreds of teas I’ve tried, maybe 25 have gotten a 5).

Also this morning, I think I’ve fully figured out what malt tastes like. Others have done a great job describing it but going from acknowledging what it should taste like and really understanding what it tastes like took a few tries for me. Anyway, to me it is what comes across as a combo of bake-y and cardboard. Today I got more cardboard from this tea, but not bad cardboard. Gourmet cardboard. Not the licking-the-dirty-and-already-used-cardboard-shipping-box in-your-face-ness that I get from ROT’s Lucky Irish. This was good, clean, nice quality cardboard.

I promise, it’s not a bad thing.

But yeah. I like this tea but can’t quite love it (though it will definitely be a go-to tea for me until I find a 5-star Irish Breakfast). Now that I’ve had a chance to get to know this tea, I think I enjoy Assam Harmony more so I’ve dropped the rating just a hair to reflect that.

I got some of this from ever-awesome Lena in a swap and I decided to start my morning off with it. However, I’m going to have to leave a rating off of it because my morning also involved reading for a class and, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to pay very much attention to the tea.

I’m going to try it at a shorter steep time next go round because this was a little bitter for me. It had a slight smokiness to it and an even slighter sweetness at the finish. In some aspects, it nearly reminded me of coffee, but the flavor wasn’t as full and it didn’t have that roasted quality that I usually get from coffee. I also didn’t get any maltiness from it, which I was expecting to at least get a hint of.

But anyway, this could all be for nought because I really wasn’t doing a good job of paying attention and, let’s be real, if acoustical wave forms are actually able to hold my attention in the morning I need to let that ride.

What I can say with certainty is that the caffeine didn’t take very long to kick in and I was feeling antsy before long, which began to disrupt my reading kick a bit so I didn’t finish the cup. Caffeine jitters and being snowed in do not mix very well – especially when you’ve been cooped up in the house for almost a week.

No, wait, it’s actually been a full week now. I have literally been stuck in the house for an entire week. Our street still hasn’t been plowed. The tea I was supposed to get in two days ago has been delayed yet again because of “adverse weather conditions” [this being the order that includes my greatly anticipated Caramelized Pear]. Steepsterites, I am going to lose my mind if these roads do not become drivable very soon.

So thanks for the tea, Lena! Sorry this entry bites pretty hard. I’ll try to get some better thoughts down next time. In the interim, have some snow pictures.
http://bit.ly/aHprnD

It’s wednesday, my regular day off and I’ve taken the rest of the week off as well. (This, btw, has nothing to do with illness, it was already planned, so no worries there). After the restorative power of yesterday’s Assam, I felt like giving this on the that TeaEqualsBliss sent me.
I didn’t really find any aroma to speak off, but my nose feels a bit like it’s considering acting up a little bit, so I don’t fully trust my sense of smell. I don’t think it’s all there at the moment.

The flavour, however, reveals the cardboard-y note of Assam. I probably wouldn’t really have picked that one out so easily if it hadn’t been for yesterday’s Assam and the revelation that was the cardboard note. (Sometimes I feel like I’m nicking all of Auggy’s words, but they’re such good words!).

It also has a surprising sweetness. Smooth, almost creamy. I’m not the sort of person to put milk in anything, even if it is recommended to me. I always try it plain first, and usually that’s the way I’ll drink it. Milk is an added occasional luxury. Maybe that’s why, to me, it doesn’t take very much for a tea to taste like it already had a drop of milk in it.

Maybe it’s some sort of phantom flavour. Like phantom pains where a patient may still feel the sensations of the amputated limb. I can almost taste the flavour that isn’t there. Or something.

It’s not really something that I would connect with a Ceylon, though, so I think that’s because of how the blend is coming together.

Funny thing is that if I were to break this apart and have the Assam on its own and the Ceylon on its own, then I don’t really think I would be more then fleetingly impressed with either of them. But together it’s a different story and they come together quite well.

I have a good amount of this and it could easily become one of my stable teas, but I have put the Irish Morning Tea from A C Perch’s on my shopping list for when I run out. The European Adagio shop carries the Irish Breakfast, but I thought it would be nice to get some comparison and some
different perspective on it. (Besides A C Perch’s is probably quicker and cheaper for me, what with being a danish company. Especially since I’m shopping there anyway)

Of course I had to add the A C Perch’s blend to the site first, and then I unleashed the full force of OCD on the A C Perch’s teas already in the database. They all have pictures and proper descriptions now, except the one that I couldn’t seem to find. (I hope I didn’t accidentally step on anybody’s toes with this) I even discovered that the genmaicha I had from them wasn’t their genmaicha at all, but a variation. The things you learn…

Anyway, this Irish Breakfast. Quite surprisingly yummy. I don’t know what’s going on with that, I’m supposed to prefer Chinese!

I threw in a little Irish Breakfast on top of yesterday’s leftover Keemun Concerto. Yum. This tea is comforting and heavy…malty and smokey. Fantastic for a cold, rainy and generally yucky day. Taken with milk and a little Truvia. Does anyone else have an opinion on this Truvia stuff? I came across it by way of my local tea shop. They have packets out on their tables with the Splenda, raw sugar, etc. Just curious if this is the latest and greatest in the world of sweeteners.

Wow.

So this one’s actually pretty interesting for me, because I think I’m beginning to be able to detect taste differences between different varieties of teas!

This one steeps to a medium-colored amber. It’s drastically different than the color of Twinings’ brew, which is so dark and murky it could be mistaken for coffee.

Even though I haven’t ever tasted Assam tea by itself, because I had some Ceylon last night, I was able to pick out the Ceylon taste immediately. In the first couple of sips I kept thinking “buttery” once again for Ceylon. This disappeared as I got midway through the cup, but it was still interesting. After each sip, I’d get a dark and interesting kick. Not bitter (and I think there’s a fine line here), but I guess a taste that could be described as “malty,” as Adagio and Lena have said. And I thought to myself, that has to be the Assam!

I really, really enjoyed this cup this morning. But here’s the crazy thing – I actually wanted it to be even bolder. I think the ratio of Ceylon to Assam is okay, but I would have actually wanted more of an Assam kick. I wanted the brew to be a bit more in-your-face, kicking ass and taking names. Towards the bottom of the cup, the Assam was definitely more present, and I felt myself grinning through those last few sips.

This is definitely more endlessly sippable than the Twinings blend, but I sort of like how assertive and RAWR-worthy Twinings’ Irish Breakfast is. Thinking back on it, it’s probably because they’ve dialed it up on the Assam a bit. Their blend made me feel like a scurvy pirate, slugging down my brew with a big “ARR.” It’s almost masculine. This one was more of a “rawr” without Caps-Lock. Not to say it isn’t delicious – because it is – but I was actually expecting it to be a bit stronger.

This is my hubby’s favorite, and one of the few black teas I have left in my cupboard (need to re-order!). It’s a good wake-up tea, but a little light on flavor. I should probably use double the leaf, but always forget.

On a side note…as I’m still learning the “steepster way” – I’m not sure whether these tasting notes are for “what I’m drinking now” logs, or just for review of the tea? Anyone care to educate me? :-)

Needed a strong tea this morning. Cold has moved from my head to my chest and is rock solid in there. Can’t taste a whole lot but boy could I taste this!

Started the day by finishing off the remainder of my Irish Breakfast sampler. Out of all the breakfast teas this is by far my favorite. Then again I’ve only been comparing this to tea bags, so there’s no comparison. I had the first cup with milk and sugar and the second cup plain. First cup was bliss, second wasn’t far from it. The tea doesn’t get overwhelmed by the milk and sugar. Time to restock, that is after I try Rishi’s award winning breakfast tea.

Definitely getting the malty notes today – the Assam gives this a real heartiness and full body. It has a depth and strength that I miss in some of the more delicate blacks (Darjeeling, Ceylon). I’m having a little more trouble picking out the Ceylon in the blend, but that’s probably what’s making it more interesting than a straight Assam – there are some high notes above the malt. With a little milk, this is rich and satisfying.

Remarkably smooth, yet also robust. Ceylon gives a pleasant lemony backnote, while the Assam provides substance. Great palate cleanser.

Smells malty, not enough depth. It was okay but not fabulous. Slight bitterness towards the end; perhaps I should decrease the steeping time a little (I steeped five minutes as suggested) or try it with milk. I think Irish Breakfasts are best with milk, so I will try it again next time with milk; I just felt like drinking my tea straight this morning.

Well, I didn’t cheat…I was tempted but I didn’t! I said I was going to do the ole’ random pick all day long and this one popped up…I really wasn’t in the mood for it but a promise is a promise, right!? I like this tea…but am interested to see how the rest of the random selection will go today…hum…

Another cup of this first thing in the afternoon after sleeping in. Since it’s gotten so cold out, I’ve really been craving hot tea, and this was perfect. Two teaspoons of sugar in an mug from the 70’s. Like a pot of slightly murky amber. :)

had this this morning for breakfast before my test. I do like this tea a whole lot as a morning tea or dreary afternoon tea. Good malty taste NOT BITTER! there is a difference between malty and bitter and you really should not have a bitter tea if you brew it right. anywho, I like this far more than earl grey bravo. And this morning I tried it with a dab of milk and a dab of honey as apposed to suger it was tasty.