French Breakfast

This has really pretty leaves, with some golden tips mixed in, and brews up a surprisingly dark red-brown color. I’m still not really getting the vanilla, but there smoke and chocolate are less overwhelming too, so I think some of that may have been proximity to dear Florence and the Caravan. This is still quite tasty, just a bit subtler now. Drinkable plain, with a heavy sweet mouthfeel, but definitely strong enough to hold up to milk; the milk softens and smooths it, and brings out more of the chocolate/vanilla flavors. This one is growing on me!

And oh hey! Now the numerical ratings show up when you over over one of the “previously rated tea” hashes! Thanks Steepster guys!

I made some chocolate chip/pecan/walnut/coconut blondies for a coworker’s birthday, and saved 2 at home for our dessert tonight. Gotta bring out the French Breakfast for this! Very yummy pairing. That slight smokiness and touch of vanilla works with all sweets! I also have a test tomorrow, so the black tea will help keep me up to study :)

Remember how I had that idea about pairing cannoli with this tea? Well I tested it tonight to make sure it would be good for the company I’m having Sunday, and…yeah…it’s a pretty fantastic combination! The hint of vanilla and smoke in this tea goes well with the slightly sweet ricotta cream and crunchy shell. I hope I can convince my guest to break out of the coffee-after-dinner-mold and try some tea with their dessert – I’ll let you all know how it goes!

Mmmmmm. This tea was so delicious last night – even my husband commented how wonderful it tasted. We both noticed a hint of smoke – that could just be the vanilla bean – but it was very nice.

I made a cheesecake today for tomorrow evening’s dessert for company.I had just enough batter from the cheesecake left over to put in two little ramekins and bake for our dessert tonight :) This calls for French Breakfast!!! A delicious pairing. That soft smoky flavor goes so well. My husband grabbed for the tea and commented on how good it was even before digging into dessert, which really says something!

I baked brownies for my coworkers birthday and set aside two for my husband and I. I’ve been waiting for this moment all day -brownies and French Breakfast after a long, hard week’s work. This tea is so reliably delicious with dessert – I don’t even think about any other one to serve. That little bit of smoky vanilla gets me every time.

…also excellent with brownies (and speaking of excellent, and brownies – Mark Bittman’s brownie recipe is divine! http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/recipe-of-the-day-brownies/

This tea can do no wrong paired with any kind of sweet! The smoky vanilla suits so well. I want to talk to my tea shop and tell them they should change the name from French Breakfast to French Dessert!!!

My husband had a really stressful day at work, so I picked up some chocolate chip cookies and white chocolate macadamia cookies on my way to the train. I made this tea to go with them. The smoky, subtle vanilla went really well with the cookies. I can see this tea standing up to all kinds of desserts and pastries! I’m having some guests for dinner on Sunday – I’ll see if I can talk them out of having coffee with the cannoli I’m serving for dessert, and recommend this instead!

I baked some walnut/pecan/chocolate chips so of course I made this for our evening tea. This tea has never met a dessert that it didn’t like!