Breakfast Blend

I meant to grab Scarlet Sable to bring with me to work but this one is in the same size and color container so… oops. But my Russian blend caffeine ran out about an hour ago so I need something else to perk me up. Sadly, my office has not instituted nap time. (Item #762 on the list “Things to Enact When I Rule the World”).

Smells thick and chocolaty. And raisin-y. The smell is cuddly. The taste is happy. Bright. Snuggly. Sweet. Brisk. And hopefully the caffeine content will lead to the ability to write full sentences.

This tea boldly states, “I AM TEA.” It makes me think of standard teabag tea. If standard teabag tea was actually good. It reminds me of the smell that comes from the Luzianne bags as I make the husband’s gallon o’ iced tea. They strike me as being in the same taste family. But this one? This is the heights to which a standard teabag blend like Luzianne can only hope to achieve. This is a typical, normal, standard, plain tea blend made good. No. Made GREAT. Full, round flavor. This is tea.

And caffeine. Please. Let there be caffeine.
^3g/8oz

Thank you so much to LENA for sending me a sample of Samovar’s Breakfast Blend. The dry tea has a very pleasant and sweet aroma. It’s quite robust but the sweetness adds an appealing twist. This is a mannish tea with some real sweet soul.

The brewed tea is quite strong and certainly deserves consideration for anyone looking for a good shot of caffeine. It’s very malty. I added some milk and a bit of sugar and decided I prefer this tea with the additions. The sugar and milk seem to elicit more of the sweet overtones of chocolate and raisin and the milk cuts through the strength a bit to make the tea relax a bit.

I will certainly consider buying a full-size tin of this tea when I, inevitably, place another Samovar order.

Finally getting around to trying this one Thanks to Lena, Thanks Lena! I have been drinking my morning black teas but mostly drinking iced teas during the day as it has been so hot here. Anyway I needed something to get me up and rolling this morning so that I could start my tomato sauce early and make the rest of dinner later this way I could work while tomato sauce was simmering.

Anyway did I tell you I love the Breville One Touch it is awesome and I do love it. While I was food processing tomatoes Breville made me tea Yay! On first sip I thought woah this is strong and bitter I think I over steeped it and maybe went too hot with the water temp I did 212 for 5 min. Next time I’ll try lower on both temp and steep times. Anyway after the initial shock to the tastebuds which made me think I might have really screwed up and have to through this pot of tea out I bravely took another sip and it wasn’t bad at all!

I don’t know what was up with my first sip but glad I continued on as it wasn’t bad I get a very faint cinnamony taste and faint hints of floral. I cannot wait to try this tea when prepared properly it is on my list for tomorrow morning. Thanks to Lena for the generous sample I get a second (third and fourth) chance with fresh leaves. Thanks again Lena!

Update: Much smoother at 3 minutes! I like it. It also gives me that caffeine kick which I need.

Now it’s time to start digging into my Samovar black tea sampler pack, and no better place to start on a rainy Monday morning than with their Breakfast Blend. The dry leaf has a nice appearance, with visible golden tips mixed in.

Four minutes in just boiled water and I’ve got a medium-dark brown liquor that has a typical black tea scent with hints of malt and spice. The taste is good – it is brisk, i.e. just the right amount of astringency, and there are peppery/spicy notes that remind me a little of Golden Moon’s Sinharaja, though not as pronounced. This tea is tasty straight up, and with cream and sugar it’s a nice, comforting way to get going at the beginning of the week.

In serious sleep deficit today and trying to get work done at home. Among the bonuses of working at home is total access to all tea-making equipment and all recent loose tea deliveries.

I wanted something black to keep me running, so I chose this to sample. And a fine choice it was. Unless I’m very much mistaken, the black tea here is at least in part the same as in the Earl Grey Lavender that I liked so much. It has the same malt/brown sugar/molasses aroma to the dry leaves, a true reproduction of which can be found in the scent of the tea after steeping, only richer, rounder and otherwise more developed.

If there was a crayon in the Crayola box labeled “Tea,” it would be this blend’s quintessential color: a warm mix of golden, brown, orange and red. (No offense to green tea drinkers intended; I’m just gambling that in Crayola nomenclature-speak your drink’s color would be called “Green Tea.”)

As this is my first non-bagged breakfast blend, I can’t compare it to others, but I can say that drinking it for breakfast would make me happy. Drinking it now is making me happy. It’s luscious. Compared to the bagged versions of English breakfast I’ve had, it is downright voluptuous. It’s what Awake wants to be.

Back to work I go with a smile on my face, and a pleasantly astringent sweet aftertaste on my tongue.

I had my sample of this with breakfast today. It actually reminded me a lot of PG Tips… which means I’ll probably stick to PG Tips and Tealuxe’s Brattle Street Blend for my breakfast tea needs. It was really good; just especially when combined with shipping costs more than other options that are really good as well.

On another note, in my cleaning spree, I found an empty tea tin that was very exciting!! It was a Whittard of Chelsea Oxford Tea, brought (by my parents) to me from Oxford while I was in college. This was the very first loose leaf tea I had, and though I just prepared it using my microwave to heat water and whatever I could find to strain it, it was amazing. So amazing that it propelled me down this path that I’m still on a decade later. Now that I found the tin and know what type it was, I’m going to have to see if I can track some down to see if it holds up to my memory!!

Steep Information:
Prepared in store. Served in a teapot without leaves and a small cup.

Tasting Notes:
Steeped Tea Smell: Honey and black tea
Flavor: Black tea, sweet
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: none
Liquor: hard to see in the dark lounge

MilitiaJim ordered this tea with the Wasabi Caesar Salad w/ Wild Smoked Salmon (Organic hearts of romaine, wild smoked salmon, shaved parmesan, garlic, croutons, & Caesar dressing w/ a wasabi kick)

Post-Steep Additives: MilitiaJim experimented with both the provided brown sugar and cream.

Ordered at the Zen Valley location for dinner with Squash Dumplings w/ Dipping Sauce (Handmade vegetarian squash dumplings w/ spicy sesame-soy sauce).

We were seated in the upper area in the back at a table for two. The back area was dimly lit. The place was a very relaxed atmosphere with an attentive staff. We purchased a tin of Russian blend and tea oil to take home (sadly the tea oil was confiscated by the TSA because we forgot to mail it home or check a bag). The place was not very busy, there were two other couples there when we first arrived for dinner Saturday night.

I enjoyed the other Samovar lounge location more and would prefer to return to Yerba Buena Gardens rather than this one. We did not get to try the Mission-Castro location.

Pictures: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/12/samovar-loose-leaf-black-tea-breakfast.html

Wow, this is malty! I need more English muffin with strawberry jam just to wash down the rest of my tea! This is what Twining’s Irish Breakfast was trying to be. If anyone wants to pinpoint what a “malty” flavor is, start and end your journey right here. This is fantastic! The leaves actually hold up to a second infusion pretty well too.

Another new tea to try thanks to threewhales. This tea smells earthy, slightly sweet and with a hint of chocolate. It brews up extremely dark in just 3 minutes and is medium-bodied. Initially, there is a slight bitterness which dissolves away to an earthy and sweet quality that I’ve rarely come across. The aftertaste is bold and quite pleasantly tea-like. This would make a great base for all sorts of additions, but I think it could only handle a tiny bit of milk. It is also very easy to drink plain with the flavors developing as it cools.

I don’t think I would purchase this, but it is pretty good.

Backlogging. Drank this in the morning. I only have 2 more black tea samovar samples left, and this was one I was holding off to drink expecting it to be good.

It was definitely a good cup, strong, malty, delish… but after having so many other black teas from samovar it’s just not that special overall.

Fairly mild for a breakfast blend. If I didn’t know it was a Yunnan, I would have guessed this was primarily a Sri Lankan tea. The aroma is salty and vegetal. The taste is a mild bread and butter taste like a buttered dinner roll. A gentle, neutral sweetness. Moderate astringency. Medium amber colored liquor.

Mmm, this is quite nice. Strong and full flavored, a little harsh plain (but I may have oversteeped a touch), smooths out easily with a little milk and sugar. Hints of cocoa, fruit, and spice, but I’m not actually getting a lot of malt from this one. That’s fine though, the flavor is round and satisfying regardless.

I drank this for breakfast. Nice plain breakfast tea. This helps me wake up without puzzling my taste buds. No additives, 2 tsp, 12 oz boiling water, 4 minutes 1st steep, 5 mins 2nd.

Thank you Ricky for sending me some awesome tea samples, this being one of them!
Yunnan. Let’s see, my first tea love was a Yunnan. This is smoother than that first love. It is bold, but not too much. The smell is a pleasant tea smell. I added a dot of milk that I agree with Doulton that the milk “relaxes the tea.” The astringency is mild, which is good for me since I seem to be sensitve to astringency. It is better than the bagged english breakfast teas I have tried and loved. I seem to go seasons with my tea drinking, I drink one or two teas almost constantly, then I move one to something else for a season. Will this tea be part of a tea season for me, can’t tell at this moment. This is my first Samovar tea and I am pleasantly pleased with the experience.

My first review on Steepster! Hopefully first of many…

I initially got this tea because it sounded like one of the more “normal” teas that Samovar offered, and after trying many of their more exotic options, I decided to give this a try as well.

Let’s see how I manage to express my experience with this… They say that this is the perfect ex-coffee drinkers convert tea that helps them wake up in the morning. I’d say I’d have to agree. This is pretty similar (but obviously different, as what would be the point if it tasted like coffee) and it does give a little bit of a kick, but not too much. I drink it black, as I have been doing with pretty much all of the teas I have been trying. I tried adding sugar a few times to some of them but I decided no matter how little I added, the sugar would somehow overpower the taste of the tea. I want to taste the tea, not the sugar.

Anyways, for $12 for a large can, this is a great deal especially because you can re-steep it a few times throughout the day. I think I can usually manage a good 4 steeps out of it before it starts to get thin. It’s a good alternative tea for me in the morning when I feel that I’ve had too much Maiden’s Ecstasy during the week. ;)

This is a mannish tea with some real sweet soul.
The brewed tea is quite strong and certainly deserves consideration for anyone looking for a good shot of caffeine. It’s very malty.
I found this a great replacement for my morning coffee (a thing of the past now).

After visiting Samovar in San Francisco over the summer, I’ve become a frequent buyer of their teas and this was one of the first I purchased online.

Personally, I feel so much better in the morning when I wake up and have breakfast while sipping on a fresh cup of Samovar Breakfast Blend. It’s not too strong of a black tea, but it has a relaxing, soothing aroma to it that is always pleasant in the mornings.

Delicious heavy malt, thick brew. Smooth, lingering finish. One of my favorite breakfast blends when I want something thick and with a heavy mouthfeel.

I accidentally let this brew a little too long, but was surprised that the actual tea was not very strong. Used a teaspoon for one mug…will need to try increasing amount of tea leaves. Overall, was nice with some milk and sugar.

A great, deep black tea for a pick-me-up. Good for a coffee alternative.