French Breakfast

I had a feeling that I wanted straight, unadulterated tea this morning. So I rooted through the glorious Golden Moon sampler and came out with this French Breakfast. From what the packaging says, it’s an estate Ceylon, which I found quite interesting. I like Ceylon, but I usually think it’s better suited for blending instead of as a stand-alone.

The dry leaves smell like… black tea. That earthy aroma that just screams “default!” to me. They’re fairly small and wiry, so if you’re expecting a show in your teapot, don’t put this one in. This one brews up to be a very pretty red/copper color, quite typical of the Ceylon varietal but still very yummy looking. I can detect a slight sweetness in the smell, but other than that, it smells like… Ceylon. As do the wet leaves.

I have a fairly difficult time describing Ceylon. The word I usually use is “smooth.” I think if you want to start someone out on black teas and don’t know where to begin, Ceylon would be an excellent choice. It’s familiar, in that it tastes like a WAY higher quality Lipton (and I’m pretty sure their normal teabags are Ceylon dust/fannings). It’s pretty much a baseline tea. As a result, I’m never completely blown away by it – it’s not surprising, but it is comfortingly familiar. Like that old sweater you don’t wear as often, but still keep around just because on cold winter days it feels good to snuggle down with.

I actually found that when I stopped sipping the tea and went off to do something else, the flavor actually subtly expanded to include that elusive honey-like note Golden Moon describes in their tasting notes. It’s a sweetness that doesn’t usually come out particularly strong in black teas, so that was a welcome surprise.

Something like this French Breakfast would be a great daily drinker. While I definitely prefer something with a bit more complexity and oomph to it, this one is smooth and entirely sippable.

Ew not a fan of this one. Too much astringency. Left a funny taste in my mouth as well. oh well another tea down off the 12938714876723642374734873248729387429837432877 types out there heh :)

I haven’t slept at all. Just when I thought I was going to get some sleep, one of the two female test drivers in Formula 1 was in a freak accident, the car hit the transport truck while she was driving. And a witness said the helmet took the brunt of the impact, ambulance services say life-threatening injuries and I am trying to keep myself calm by drinking this but it just feels like it’s going to come back up.

I’m not really religious but if you are, please say a prayer for Maria de Villota, or at least keep her in your thoughts that she will be okay. All I can think about is how Dan Wheldon died in a freak accident last year and I’m just terrified.

The tea though, it’s helped ease things a bit. At this point it’s just something to comfort my nerves, but it’s pretty good anyway. I’ve never been much of a Ceylon fan but I could see myself drinking this every so often. Its smooth, there’s a little bit of a honey taste, but it just doesn’t stand out like other black teas do. But when you need tea for the sake of tea, this is a real winner.

We’re slowly making progress through all these samples, woo!

For a straight black tea, this is very, very light and sweet. There is some honey flavor to it, but nowhere near the flavor that I associate with the Sinharaja from Golden Moon. This one is much… well… less of everything. Less flavor, less sweet, less worth buying again, methinks.

It’s not bad, really. It’s just not… striking. And it is a bit spendy for a middle of the road tea.

Caesar gives thumbs down.

Golden Moon Tea Sampler #3: Picked at random

This is a good tea. I liked it but I also acknowledge that I’ve become a bit spoiled. If I had tasted this 6 months ago I would have assigned it 100 points and would have pledged to drink it every day. At this point, I need to start my day with a Lapsang Souchong and then move on to a nice strong black tea. This could be one of them, but it just didn’t “pop” in my mouth in the way that Keemuns, Yunnans, and Darjeelings do.

I think this is a good tea but I know my test for a great tea (for me): having a severe anxiety attack because I don’t have more in stock and feeling a need to run and order it. I won’t do that with this one but I wish it well.

Having a little post-lunch tea. This smells lovely – a little spicy, sweet and almost honeyed. I’m really enjoying smelling it while I let it cool. There’s another note in it that I can’t quite place. Figs maybe? Don’t know. Smells good.

Okay, so I just finished a big ole Cara Cara orange so I don’t know if that will affect what I’m tasting any but maybe. The tea tastes soft, but with a hint of astringency at the end that made me happy that I decided to do 3 minutes instead of 4. The flavors are fairly faint (a trade-off that I’ll accept for the lower astringency) but they are there, subtle and pretty. Sweet, maybe a little fruity, maybe a little floral. Mostly there’s the taste of tea with pretty little puffs of something dancing over top. Then the astringency comes in a kills the pretty but fortunately it isn’t strong enough to put me off though I’m contemplating a sprinkle of sugar. Okay, out of sugar so guess I won’t give that a try.

I’m not in love with this tea because of the ending astringency – that sort of thing really gets to me – but it has potential. I should have enough in my sample for another small cup so I think I’ll give it a shot later at maybe 4mins with milk and a little sugar and see how that goes.

^2.3g/6oz

We are almost done with our samples! We have three left. I want to wait to try one for a bit.

This is very smooth. Definitely sweet with a honey like flavor. I think it makes a better afternoon tea for me. When I need some thing to wake me up with, I need a bit more bite, a tea that will insist that I perk up immediately. This is good but nothing really calling out to me.

Golden Moon sample No. 20 of 31, random. The home stretch!

I’m tired. Need to get more sleep than I’ve been getting. I don’t know whether lack of sleep can affect how things taste?

I ask because I had a sort of unusual experience tasting this one. To start with, the dark, chocolate brown dry leaves seemed to me barely to have any smell at all. I got a little sweetness, maybe a teeny tiny chocolate note, but mostly… not much. Neutral, planty earthy smell and not at all strong.

Then I steeped it, and did a little bit of a double take on the aroma. I wondered whether it was just me, or did it smell an awful lot like the aroma of GM’s Nepalese Afternoon? The aroma was definitely sweet. Black tea sweet. As I concentrated on it a bit, I determined that I definitely got a predominantly honey note to the sweetness rather than brown sugar. But at first blush they seemed very similar. In color as well.

In taste, though, they differ. This one hits me with sweetness right away. The first sip was extremely sweet and honeyed, though that may have been primarily in contrast to the taste I had in my mouth from a cup of something else (Tazo Om) half an hour earlier. The second sip, less so, but still can taste the honey. It has a briskness to it, and is more astringent than I remember the Nepalese Afternoon being. Medium to light bodied, I’d say.

Does seem like it would go well with food. Does seem more an afternoon tea than a breakfast one, at least in terms of my personal preferences.

Hmm. Not sure where to place this one. I think on balance I like it not quite as much as the Nepalese Afternoon, and it would be down the pike a bit on my breakfast blend list.

It’s probably one of those that will get at least to the semi-finals as I narrow down the universe of all possible tea to a manageable stash to keep on hand. I will probably order some to try it against a narrower field and see whether it makes it to the quarter finals.

Yay, my samples from Golden Moon are here! Woo!

I thought I’d start off with this one because I need some caffeine and the honeyed description sounded delicious. I used about half the leaves in the packet in 8 ounces of water. There is a sweet, honey like flavor, but it’s the kind that I’ve found in a lot of black teas. I think that good black teas tend to have a delicious honey/black tea/sweet aftertaste, if you know what I mean, and this tea has lots of that delicious aftertaste.

The flavor of the tea just seems like “default black tea” flavor, with very nicely executed “good black tea honeyed aftertaste” flavor. It’s just a little tannic, but I didn’t have any trouble sipping my cup without sugar or milk. That kind of smoothness without milk or sweetener is pretty rare for breakfast bends.

Personally, since I drown my tea in milk and honey and sugar, I would rather have cheaper, lower quality, ground up Twinings English Breakfast. It’s not nearly as smooth or honeyed as this tea is, but I don’t mind, since I’m going to smother it in milk and honey anyway. However, I think this tea would be perfect for those times you just want a nice, clean cup of delicious black tea. I might just keep this one in stock for those times, since I’ve tasted very few plain black teas as good as this one without additives. Yum.

Well as a blizzard slams NJ, I took off of work, I did not want to drive in these conditions, end of story. Anyway, since it is breakfast time and I can have a full breakfast on my day off, I will have some Breakfast Tea. I chose this one because it was on top.

The leaves are small and black and give a distinctly black tea smell. Ceylon. They do not smell unique or intriguing, just like black tea. I’m fine with this. Brewed 4 minutes hot, with no additives. As I have said, I traditionally take breakfast tea with milk and sweetener, but I chose to try this on it’s own first.

The initial aroma of the brewed tea is what I expected, it is black tea: with the subtle earthy aroma with a hint of natural sweetness, maybe honey. Smells wonderful. The flavor however, goes so much further beyond the smell, it is earthy and rich, it is smooth and sweet without any sweetener, there is a full-bodied flavor going on here without any effort at all.

This tastes like the ideal you hope to get out of every black tea they serve you at a restaurant; it’s like an older, now-stale bag, you know what you want to taste, and what you want to taste is rich, smooth, full-bodied range of pick-me-up and start-my-day tea. This is EXACTLY what you are getting from this French Breakfast tea, hearty yet delicious black tea. I am so glad I added nothing to this, I may have to go back and try all of the other breakfast teas I adulterated by adding milk and sweetener.

Also, as a note, expect a full array of ratings today, the day is young, and I have no where to be. Until then!

This tea smells suprisingly like warm honeyed biscuits! The taste is a bit like milky, toasted oatmeal— yummy!

I’m really enjoying this tea, although I wasn’t so sure I would. I’m kind of prejudiced against Ceylons because, from the few I’ve tasted, I’ve found them too mild, timid and non-descript—fit only as bases for flavored blends.

But this “French Breakfast” is opening my mind. It is mild, yes. But it’s mildy elegant . The flavor is present but in a soft and comforting way.

The harsh glare of morning may be too much for this “temperate” tea. It would be better suited for a lazy, luxurious brunch. Or as an afternoon repast—with plenty of milk and sweet nothings.

backlogging yesterday’s GM Grab Bag Extravaganza :-) “French Breakfast”…not a name or type that I’ve heard before..might as well call it “Queensland Extra”. Seriously, I think they made up the name. Nonetheless, this was a fine Ceylon with a nice bright and sparkly appearance in the carafe. A bit of an earthy undertone, but with the normal briskness I expect of a Ceylon tea. I’d put it in the good/average class for a Ceylon…which means I’d be happy to drink it any day. I got two 12 oz steepings from the sample, the second being a bit peaked.

GM Sampler #ohmylordidon’tknow&amtoolazytotallywhat’sleft of 31 ;)

I awoke to such an overcast drizzly day that I knew I had to start my day with a black tea. But black teas are such a mystery to me. It seems like a lot are much too harsh for me, but then I love lapsang souchongs. I can’t tell the difference between Ceylons, Keemuns, or Assams and that drives me nutty cuz I want to! So I thought as I rifled through the sampler basket “Oh hey, this one’s Ceylon – I just need to make a note of this being a Ceylon and then go from there.” Well, that’s my hope. I think my theory falls flat since I don’t think that I have straight up Keemun or Assam tea handy for a comparison. D’oh!

Everything seemed like stereotypical black tea from the scent of the dried/steeped leaves to the cup’s aroma. The taste is really suprisingly pleasant. There’s this nice subtle sweetness that I’m digging. I feel sorta crazy(er) in that I almost feel like I’m drinking the pre-smoked tea that’s used for lapsangs, because this is the undercurrent taste I get while drinking GM’s LS, only a bit sweeter.

I’m on my second steep and there is a bit of dryness happening at the back of my throat, but not enough to dissuade me from drinking this again. But I’m not rushing to add this to my shopping list. But, I could see myself buying some to keep on hand for days I need a simple “reset” to my tea routine. NE

Another weekend, another Golden Moon Tea! See pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/frenchbreakfast/show/

This was a good black tea! It’s lighter than English Breakfast (in taste and color), has a hint of something floral to it, and kindof reminds me of yesterday’s Darjeeling.

Unfortunately there was a little speck of turquoise something in it, which I pulled out prior to steeping, but it kept me from fully enjoying the tea. Maybe I’ll give it another go in the future. Despite that, the part that I tasted was quite good.

Thank you to Sandy Stith for this sample (and all of the other samples that you sent as well- I look forward to trying them all!)

This is a very light breakfast blend- soft, sweet, honeyed flavor. There’s a brightness to it as well. I wouldn’t say that it’s enough to call it astringent, but bright. I’m also picking up a fruitiness. Figs perhaps? It’s making me think of fig newtons, so figs it is.

It isn’t a very robust tea, so I think it’d be one I’d drink in the afternoon rather than as a breakfast choice. It is quite lovely and something I would definitely drink a lot of :)

I rearranged what is left of my Golden Moon Tea sampler and decided to try this one. I wanted something smooth. This one was smooth. There was a hint of astringency lingering in the back of my throat, but this had a slight sweetness to it that sort of counter-acted it. I wanted to try this with sugar, and I found it more enjoyable IMO. :) A good everyday black tea.

Smells like good black tea. Color is nice dark brownish.
Tastes quite common for a black breakfast tea. I assume it would be really good with milk and honey. Anyways quite tasty but not really wow-ing.

This is nice enough, but maybe needs to be drunk plain to really shine. Using the full 3.6g sample for 12oz of tea, it tastes a little weak with milk and sugar. I’ll use less water on the next steep and try it plain, because I’m really not getting anything special from this one as is.

I wanted a strong one to start off the work week, and this seemed like a good bet. Nothing too out of the ordinary in the scent or appearance of the dry leaf. I’m going for five minutes of steeping time to make sure I get all the flavors.

Well, it certainly is black tea. Dark, dark brown liquor and a full-bodied aroma with hints of tobacco. The first sip lets me know that there are plenty of tannins – I’m getting that scritchy feeling on my teeth, like I’ve been eating spinach. There’s some sweetness there too. Okay, time for the cream and sugar. Mmm, that really mellows out the tannins, but it’s not bringing any other flavors strongly to the fore. Overall it’s a fine tea, but not spectacular.

Just received my Golden Moon sampler, so my apologies for the upcoming spamming of your pages :)

It’s a rainy Saturday morning, mom is baking brownies, and I wanted something standard with my eggs. That, and considering my standard dislike of black tea, I figured I’d get the “breakfast” teas over with.

I can’t really detect anything special about it. It’s not as good as my [one] yunan (hey look, I can compare teas now!), but it’s better than other black teas I’ve attempted. The packaging claims a hint of honey, but I can’t tell. I won’t be running out to buy it, but hey. That’s what a sampler is for.