Orange Pekoe

This was, up until my introduction to DAVID’s Tea about a year ago, what I would always think of when someone said “tea”. However any time I have tried this before was in my tea hating days, so I could never say too much about it. However, my grandmother makes a pot every morning and these days I’ll never say no to tea.

I can see why this is popular. It’s super basic. Not bitter, even if over-steeped (my grandmother leaves the bag in, much to my chagrin). Slightest citrus note, but nothing in your face. I, personally, would get bored of it, but to each his own.

So I went out for dinner last night and wanted a tea with my meal. I ordered a green tea and they brought me one with spearmint which generally would have been fine but I noticed it was Tazo which, for various reasons, I didn’t want so she brought me their tea box so I could pick another. They were all Tazo except Red Rose Orange Pekoe so that’s what I chose. I drank it happily with cream and it was pretty good. I prefer it with sugar too but I passed on the extra calories. This tea reminds me of my grandparents. My Papa always drank this tea and my Nanny had a collection of those little figurines that came in the box years and years ago. A nice little change from my usual herbal selections.

I had a pot of this tea today with brunch and it was amazingly mediocre. One tea bag was not enough to make a pot, so it was weak and watery. A fair bit of cream and sugar made the whole thing passable, but bleh. I really wish more restaurants would serve decent tea.

On the bright side, the rest of brunch was fantastic! We went to Neechi Commons and had the Talia breakfast, which is a skillet with really good fried potatoes, bacon, kale, mushrooms, onion and red pepper, topped with poached eggs, and fresh fruit and toasted bannock on the side. It was wonderful.

Favorite tea if there is nothing else to have. Have this most of the time. love to make ice tea with it, add alittle lemon and honey and its amazing on a cold rainy day.

I grew up in Canada and this is one of the only teas I knew back then. I recently went back and tried it again with a little milk. It was very weak and, while not unpleasant, it was certainly lackluster.

The taste is muddied, and tasted as if I’d steeped it too long, even though it had only been three minutes. Not something I’d have again.

This is what my roommate prefers for iced tea. I’ll drink it if everything else is gone. It’s better than no tea at all, anyway.

I drink this with supper every night and have been doing so since I was a kid. To me, this is the black tea I go to when I need a pick me up and find that it has a very full flavor considering that it is a bagged tea. When I think orange pekoe, I think of this.

So I had this monday at work. My lovely sister was brewing tea for everyone and this was just yummy. Always a good classic.

I like to drink this steeped in milk with a bit of sugar in it.

I’m not much of a straight black tea kind of girl, but I do enjoy orange pekoe in latte form :P