Brahmin's Choice (No. 18)

I needed a good tea for wake up this morning. The tea bag is huge and I steeped about 16 oz of tea. The tea is robust, brisk, and malty. I get more of the ceylon taste than the assam from it but its still very good.

This is a very brisk, robust, malty tea. Its a very good choice for breakfast or for waking up in the afternoon like me when watching soccer. I can taste the assam, but the ceylon really stands out in this blend. It doesn’t have too much bitterness and does have a little astringency. I was hoping to taste the keemun, but alas I just can’t find it. Sill a nice cup of tea.

This is a brisk robust tea. I can’t find any bitterness and only a slight astringency. It has a nice kick to it like a strong coffee. This blend has excellent teas in it, you can taste it. It makes a very nice breakfast blend.

OK, now I’m very confused. I fixed this the very exact way I did yesterday and today this tea is strong, bitter, and very astringent. I can hardly drink it. This is getting dumped and I’m going back to the drawing board and try a 4 minute steep. I’m dropping the rating until I can see what it wrong. The 5 minute steep is the directions on the box.

2nd try;
I increased the water to 12 oz as this is one huge tea bag and decreased the steep time to 4 minutes. This is much better than earlier. The tea is smooth and not bitter. Yet this tea just tastes like tea, a strong tea. I’m not getting any of the nuances that I get from other teas. Maybe its the blend, I’m not sure. I really expected a lot from this tea. If anyone has any ideas on how to prepare this tea, please leave me a comment.

Accidentally let this sit for six minutes. But it’s forgiving, although a little sharp. This tea really defines “malty”; I think of cracked wheat bread when I drink it.

I finished this off just two days ago. I wanted to bring the empty box home, to use for other teabags or some such, but wasn’t able to fit it into my luggage and was forced to chuck it. I’ll probably buy more tea from Smith anyways, so chances are I will collect more of the boxes.

Just as delicious as always. I’ll miss the cracked-wheat essence. I’m home now, though, and able to access my full tea cupboard. I nearly hugged it.

The trip was fine. I got to the airport very early (long story), and my luggage was over-weight, so I had to choose what bag would be bumped in the event that the plane was too heavy. My rocks were in one bag, my tea and books in the other. It was a difficult decision, but luckily nothing was bumped, so I haven’t suffered.

I have a ten-page report to write that’s due this week. I’ve procrastinated the hell out of it, and I’m very bad for doing so.