Irish Breakfast

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Assam Black Tea
Flavors
Blueberry, Cream, Leather, Smoke, Vanilla, Wood, Tannic, Astringent, Bitter, Malt, Tea, Thick, Oak, Tannin, Thyme, Honey
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf, Tea Bag
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Shae
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 4 g 13 oz / 386 ml

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86 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I have a dear friend who loves rainy and cloudy days. She finds them romantic. I always think of her when it is cloudy, which is the only good thing I can find about repeated cloudy days. The sun...” Read full tasting note
  • “Tea of the morning here, what looks to be a nice broken leaf assam. I have gone through a few tins of this now and have always enjoyed it, especially for the price: $6.25/4 oz. I also like their...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “Wow, this was like a punch in the face. After it melted the paint off the walls I noticed a fruity taste. It smelled malty but I didn’t notice it in the taste. This is what I thought Irish...” Read full tasting note
    86
  • “Tea of the morning….. Wow. Pow, right in the kisser. This one is strong. Of course I need to preface with the fact that I don’t like to add milk to my tea, so that will play a factor in my...” Read full tasting note

From Harney & Sons

Our Irish Breakfast tea is 100% Assam, and like most traditional Irish blends, this is a great way to begin your morning. In contrast to other versions of Irish Breakfast tea, you could say ours is a little more sophisticated. It tastes great on its own or takes milk and sugar well.

Ingredients: Black tea.

Details: The Harneys have been out of Ireland for sometime, so our Irish Breakfast is an older version. This tea recalls a time when the teas came from Assam, not Africa; and were small broken leaves, not CTC pellets. So this is a simple tea that can handle milk and sugar well.
Dry Leaves: Dark brown leaves.
Liquor: A medium-dark brown liquor.
Aroma: This has some of the malty aromas found in other Assams. However, since it is a smaller tea and there are no tips, the aromas seem to be muted.
Caffeine Level: Caffeinated
Body: This has very good body. It is usually served with milk. Of course, the Irish would have it no other way.
Flavors: This is usually served with milk and sugar, so the flavors harmonize well with them. There are subtle notes of roast malt.
Brewing Time: 4 to 5 minutes
Brewing Temp: 212° Fº

https://www.harney.com/products/irish-breakfast-tea

About Harney & Sons View company

Since 1983 Harney & Sons has been the source for fine teas. We travel the globe to find the best teas and accept only the exceptional. We put our years of experience to work to bring you the best Single-Estate teas, and blends beyond compare.

86 Tasting Notes

3217 tasting notes

I have a dear friend who loves rainy and cloudy days. She finds them romantic. I always think of her when it is cloudy, which is the only good thing I can find about repeated cloudy days.

The sun is like a drug for me. When we lived in a duplex, I kept my nose pressed against the glass of the window looking outside. An older man down the street saved my sanity by telling me that I was welcome to come and wheel the baby around his lake anytime I wanted.

On the first warm days of spring I bare my arms and look toward the sun with closed eyes and feel my brain start pumping out all kinds of feel good chemicals.

So four days straight of heavy cloud cover is not sitting well. Plus, these are our first really truly chilly days.

IRISH BREAKFAST TO THE RESCUE! A whole pot to myself, taken with milk and sugar, to fortify me until the sun returns! You know, a pot of tea really does make the day more romantic. Now if I could just settle in with a good book instead of having to teach geometry to my little geometry-atheist…

Oh, she just refuted my last statement, saying that she isn’t a geometry atheist as she knows all too well that it exists. So, would she be called an anageometer? An anti-geometrist? Conscientious objector? I think she needs tea. Off to put kettle on….

Hesper June

Ha! I am with your friend.
I need the rain, and mist and fog.
(and on a more serious note, my breathing issues actually disappear when there is more humidity in there air)
Of course, I am currently living in a high desert where rain is very very infrequent.
Oh, well!

ashmanra

Would you like to trade places for a few days? LOL! (But only if you finish painting the kitchen while I am basking in your sun! Hehe)

Hesper June

Hey! I am weird and I love painting, so its a deal:)

Sil

mmmm i love rainy cloudy days.

gmathis

I run on solar batteries. I think they are located somewhere in the back of my neck. Come February, I have to fake sunny skies by wearing obnoxiously-brightly-colored sweaters. (And of course, I live with two moles who run around with the lights off at night.)

Janefan

Oh, I’m the same way with the sun. Just a couple cloudy days can ruin my outlook and sap my energy. I use a Verlilux full-spectrum lamp on my desk, and started taking a Vitamin D supplement last year. They help, but only slightly. The only thing that really works is sunshine! My DH (who loves the cold and winter) calls me his “solar powered wife.” LOL at least my cats understand.

Bonnie

Love the tea! Poor daughter. I’ve always had a math block. However, I always scored very high in logic and was the top student in my technical college. No idea why!?! I hated algebra and geometry! If someone had ever come up with a way to teach the whole bloody thing in a cooking context, I would have been open to it and brilliant!

ashmanra

I have always longed for a tiny glass room that would keep the wind off of me and allow me to start getting sun on my skin even earlier in the year. Good thing I live where I do…I really could not take a Northern winter!

ashmanra

She definitely has some kind of geometry block! She loved algebra and did well in it, and so far is making A’s and B’s on her tests, but the daily work is like pulling teeth.

Rebecca Lynn

Yeah, northern winters are kind of rough. I have one of those Seasonal Affective Disorder lamps that I turn on when I’m doing my homework in the evening…otherwise I’ll fall asleep at like 7 pm! I call it my happy lamp __

gmathis

I have seriously considered a “happy lamp,” but the first ones I looked at were so pricey it kind of scared me off.

ashmanra

Do Ott lights count for that? If so, they go on half price sales at JoAnn’s often!

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88
2816 tasting notes

Tea of the morning here, what looks to be a nice broken leaf assam. I have gone through a few tins of this now and have always enjoyed it, especially for the price: $6.25/4 oz.

I also like their organic assam so when this runs out maybe it’s time to re-order both? lol…

This is a nice malty tea that’s good with (soy) milk and sugar. The weather is dreary and foggy again but my sweetie and I are going on an overnight camping trip, which is nice. It will be good to get a change of scenery, i think. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML
boychik

Have a great time!

yyz

Have fun!

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86
1719 tasting notes

Wow, this was like a punch in the face. After it melted the paint off the walls I noticed a fruity taste. It smelled malty but I didn’t notice it in the taste. This is what I thought Irish Breakfast was supposed to taste like. Yeah! Thanks ashmanra. I couldn’t drink this often but I like it.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
Bonnie

I like those sturdy black tea’s!

Hesper June

Sometimes I need a face-puncher tea on these cold winter morns:)

TeaBrat

me too!

Claire

I might need to try this! I enjoy a good face punch black tea from time to time.

gmathis

Welcome to the dark side (heh heh heh heh).

ashmanra

LOL! Yep, I use slighter cooler water and give it a shorter steep, then I sneak up on it with some milk and sugar to tame it and we are good to go!

K S

Be afraid. Be very afraid! Not. This was really good cold – once cold I didn’t need sugar.

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985 tasting notes

Tea of the morning…..

Wow. Pow, right in the kisser. This one is strong. Of course I need to preface with the fact that I don’t like to add milk to my tea, so that will play a factor in my review.

This is a strong, very malty black tea. The first time I tried this, it was bagged and with water from a water dispenser that probably was not super hot. I am also sure I did not steep it all that long. For that cup, I got smooth, pretty malty, but very enjoyable. This time, it is a little over the top for me. However, I am pretty sure it can all be solved by a few tweaks on my preparation. My perfect teaspoon measure was pretty scant, but I went a full 3 minutes. I think I will try 2 next time. Then, if that doesn’t work, I can lower the water temp a bit. I just need to be sure I write it on the package so I remember next time!

Usual mug method with scant measure and 3 minute steep.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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612 tasting notes

It’s cold again here—it won’t make up its mind, keeps fluctuating from 50-60s to teens-30s—and this is perfect for handling getting out of bed and into the bracing biting maw. It’s nice and hefty but also relatively refined, with a hint of that cocoa sweetness Assam sometimes offers. More bitterness comes out at the end of the sip, but it’s ok because it meshes with the chocolate-y aspect (and there’s always milk if it proves too much). I kind of feel like some IBs don’t really taste archetypally “IB” but more tamped down as if to suit gentler, more demure dispositions (nothing wrong with that either, just not what I think of personally when I dig into one). As K S mentions in his note, this feels like what IB is “supposed” to smell and taste like in my mind; there was an immediate “coming home” emotion upon first sip.

I like it very much! Darn you Harney and your zillions of good breakfast options.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec
keychange

Yeah! shopping list, next order around the corner!

ifjuly

seriously i think i’ve got something ridiculous like 15 teas or so on my “could definitely reorder sometime” breakfast tea list from harney. nobody does it better than the queen, but they have a lot of great brisk options!

yyz

Keep warm! I’m still lost when it comes to Fahrenheit. It was annoying on the cruise ship, because at least 60% of our pax were Americans and we wouldn’t get newsletters until halfway through the day. People would come and make small talk about the weather and I was honestly clueless. Our news options were either BBC, Sky news and Foxnews and to be honest when way it’s usually BBC.

ifjuly

I would choose BBC in a heartbeat of those options and I live in the American South (land of endless Fox News plastered everywhere), ha.

And thanks! Tea helps. (:

keychange

Oh yeah, BBC lover here also! and yes, no one does it better than the queen, but hey, if others come pretty close, I need to get all up in that.

__Morgana__

I know, right? So many great black blends I can’t say no to any of them. Ugh.

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70
2977 tasting notes

Having a (bagged) cuppa with milk & sugar and Christmas cookies, before going to a Christmas party where I will surely consume more Christmas cookies, but probably not any tea except southern style sweet, or, god forbid, the infamous Firefly! (sweet tea vodka from SC)

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 30 sec

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52
100 tasting notes

In the [comedic] words of Robin Williams: Irish men will kick each others ass and then sing about it afterwards. That’s kind of how I feel about this tea. It kicked my ass, no question.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 15 sec
TheTeaFairy

hahaha! question is: Did you kick back?

HFDWOOD

I agree…one of the strongest I have tasted!

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75
259 tasting notes

Having an afternoon lift to get me through the day. I added a smidge of Tea Embassy’s Georgian Caravan to the brew to give a bit of smokiness. A quite nice mix for the afternoon, I think.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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69
615 tasting notes

Tea #29 from Traveling Tea Box C

Whoa.

This is like a tea punch to the face. It’s a pretty standard breakfast tea, though — slightly malty and really strong. There’s a little touch of floral here too.

I’ll probably be grateful I drank this while I’m upgrading computers in an office later today.

http://instagram.com/p/dcdttcCnNd/

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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88
421 tasting notes

Starting my day off with this yummy tea. I let it steep a little too long so it seems very heavy to me. Almost like a fine Irish Stout (which is awesome because I can’t have any beer anymore!) really malty and rich. I didn’t add any milk to it, because we’re out and I thought the soy milk I do have wouldn’t do it justice! But I did add a hint of agave which made it taste just right. I need to stop forgetting this one is in my collection.

CHAroma

Hmm, I’m not sure I would have thought to add agave to tea. Sounds interesting!

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