I am taking a long hard look at my tea shelves to decide what should stay and what should go. There are a few teas I would like to buy but I really don’t think I should until I get rid of, or at least sip down, a few that I already have.
This is one my youngest daughter loves but I am just meh about it. I decided to try changing my steeping parameters today to see if I would fall in love with it. I used 205 F water and gave it only 3 1/2 minutes. It is now quite drinkable for me with no additions but I can’t say I am in love with it. And like many Assams, this has made my tummy say, “Rrrrr?” and raise its eyebrows. Maybe I will just tell daughter to drink it up or let me give it to a friend who is just getting into loose leaf tea.
I am adding a resteep of this to my notes today because I don’t think I have resteeped it before. I really wasn’t done having tea, and thought I would experiment a bit. I really didn’t know how this would act, but with Golden Monkey in there I thought it would fare pretty well.
I dumped the leaves from the infused basket into a second pot, added one teaspoon of fresh leaves, and steeped for five minutes. There was still a bit of the first steep in the original pot, so when time was up I added the second steep to the first. It is quite good! And I feel very thrifty for saving those leaves.
This was very nice as a milk and saugar breakfast tea this morning. It is paired with cheese toast and mustard, naturally!
Teawing recently enlightened us about cheese toast being a traditional treat for British sailors in the 19th century. Well, a few weeks ago I realized that I had never read Treasure Island, nor have I seen the movie. I decided that would be the next book we read aloud. A couple of days ago we reached the chapter where Jim Hawkins meets Ben Gunn. When Ben speaks of living off goats, berries, and oysters and not seeing Christian food in three years, the one food he mentions by name remembering fondly is toasted cheese! Why, isn’t it a small world and full of coincidence!
As for this tea,my youngest absolutely adores it, she being an Irish Breakfast fan and all! And I like it with milk and sugar, though I haven’t taken to it plain. But I do not care overmuch for Assams.
Cheese toast and tea! Youngest is joining me, so I chose this one as it is one of her favorites. I think there are other teas that we like more, so I don’t think I will reorder this one. I can drink it with milk and sugar, but it just doesn’t appeal to me plain, and there are other milk and sugar teas that really WOW me. I had hoped that the Golden Monkey in it would make it a favorite, but it doesn’t come through as much as I would like. Perhaps I should try mixing the last bit of Golden Blend with another breakfast tea that I like better, or even add some extra Golden Monkey to it. Hmmm….might have to have another pot of tea!
I decided to try this one again today. The first sips were plain, and it is a smooth tea that hoes down easily. It has medium body and aroma. Much about this tea is medium! But it isn’t bad, it just comes across as a good, basic tea. Harney English Breakfast makes me ooo ahhh in the morning, this one is good but no oo ahhs. At least not from me. Youngest was once again very glad to see it, and had a big cup. The daughters have nicknamed this tea “Irish Monkey”, which I
just love, although Golden Breakfast would have done well, too. Anything is funnier with monkey in it!
Very nice pot of tea this morning, with the smooth sweetness of Golden Monkey tempering the strength of the Assam. Lovely!
