Irish Breakfast

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!

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.

I got 1-4 oz. tin each of this and Earl Grey Bravo for Christmas and I absolutely burned through the Earl Grey and have moved on to Irish Breakfast. The only other time I had this tea before was at about 7 a.m. after staying up all night finishing a biochem paper before running off to turn it in and take the final exam. I made it about two times two strong, WAAAY over steeped it and didn’t add milk or sugar. It was awful, but MAN was I awake!

So now I drink this mostly at work , where I have a timer and some whole milk and either sugar or Splenda (I prefer sugar, but feel like I have to add 3 to a normal cup to taste it at all. If you like your hot tea sweet, Splenda is the way to go!). I enjoy it everyday and will for a long time or…or at least until my order of Earl Grey gets here!

Fruit: that’s what these leaves smell like. Another one from the Raja sampler set, and it is a touch more bitter than Yunnan Noir (even at 3m30s). As for taste, though, I am drawing a blank. I think it’s pretty standard for a straight black (this is me not knowing how to describe it) and it doesn’t really have any defects. This is so-so, but certainly better than Assam Melody (which doesn’t really have anything going for it).

Addendum: it doesn’t have any strange mouthfeel or aftertaste, so that’s nice.

Smells like peaches or apricots. Tastes likes apricots too. I don’t even think I’ve had too many apricots, but upon first sip of this tea, apricots instantly came to mind, so I’m going to go with it and pretend I know what I’m talking about. This tea is very smooth; no bitterness whatsoever. It’s also very light and easy on the stomach, making it a good tea to have in the morning, or drink throughout the day.

First cup at work for the day. The bitterness makes it a bit tangy, but I like it, it gives it an edge. It’s a rich flavor but not like nutty or chocolatey, more of a refreshing feel. I have a sample packet of this that I’ll probably finish off soon.

Found the 4 oz tin of this on sale at the local Fresh Market. I’ve prepared it numerous ways with creams and sugars and such and the best result I’ve had so far has been from just adding honey. It’s a great alternative to coffee and the unwanted reactions that I get from it. I don’t even drink any coffee at all anymore.

After the first morning’s cup of which I add just a touch more than 1 teaspoon, I brew it a second time for a lighter cup at lunch time.
I will continue searching for another black tea however before thinking of purchasing again. I’m looking for that morning cup to look forward to!

It’s a cool morning here in Houston and some warm tea is just the ticket. I like my Irish Breakfast with a good amount of sugar and a touch of milk, and that’s what’s in it this morning.

Not as bold as I’d imagined (I think I imagined it more like an English Breakfast), but not bitter, either. And that is the more important of the two, methinks. It is a lovely flavor. My first sip, I was rather “meh”, but the more I’ve sipped it, the more it has wormed its way into my heart palate.

This is my first Irish Breakfast ever, so I have nothing to compare it to. That being said, I really like it and it’s my “go-to strong black blend” I do tatse the complex notes of flavors..boldness, maltiness, notes of hay, savory, sweet, all that.
As a matter of fact, shouldn’t Adagio use this blend as a base for some of their flavored teas instead of using just Ceylon Sonata? It would probably make their other teas more interesting

Well after a day at work, my Adagio order finally came in! Although it wasn’t as massive as it originally was (due to a transaction problem with my web browser that made me scale back a bit), I ended up with this. I like it, don’t get me wrong. I’m just trying to figure out what i feel it needs. Sugar maybe? But on the other hand, I just got one with pot #3 of it :P

I throw about a Tbs. of this in metal diffuser and drop that into a ceramic mug with about 2 cups of water 212. Then after about 2 min. I pull it out. Great mellow aroma and taste. Reminds me of a warm blanket I just pulled out of the drier.

Now having said that, the gate of heave opens to me and angles sign when I drink this with cookies. I like chocolate chip cookie best with this.

I got a sample of this tea as a birthday present from my boyfriend, along with 2oz of White Peach and a sample of Dancong Aria. Pretty small amount of tea, but with the shipping and exchange rate, it cost us fair bit. I have to limit these orders to special occasions, unfortunately.

Anyway, I decided to try the Irish Breakfast first. I like a good blend of Ceylon and Assam very much, they are like parts of a symphony that sound a bit bland or harsh on their own but complement each other perfectly when blended together. This blend is magnificent. It is perfectly balanced, and using just boiling water for three minutes makes it full flavoured with not a hint of bitterness. It coats the palate nicely with no dryness on the tongue afterward. Deep and dark malty molasses from the Assam, bright and cheerful floral notes from the Ceylon. I like to put a bit of light brown sugar in my black tea. This cup was perfect. Delicious!

This tea is

This sample compliments of Erin’s cupboard clean out.

Brewed up a light amber. Smells mildly salty and roasty. Taste is very mild for an Irish Breakfast. A little maltiness, not much else. Saline aftertaste. Maybe I need to use more leaf.

Thank you Erin for the chance to try this one.

I have a large amount of homework to tackle this morning, on top of already being stressed out, so I needed a tea that could keep up with me today.

And holy unbelievably bold tea batman… I have found it. While adding my inventory of teas to the virtual cupboard, I rediscovered a few teas that I had forgotten about. Irish breakfast was one of them.

This is a very hearty brew, with quite a bit of astringency and dryness. The dryness kind of turned me off by the time I got to the bottom of the cup – hence the lower score. If this tea were any bolder, it would probably have the ability to make one see through time.

Enjoyed this with breakfast this morning. Was definitely pleasant, but nothing special. Tough to pinpoint exactly what was missing, overall the flavors were fairly muted. I don’t know that the Assam malty-ness came through as much as the description implies it ought to, which might be the key to taking this tea from enjoyable to very good.