NYC Breakfast

Need tea before my brain can work. Grabbed this one because I am finding I enjoy trying different breakfast blends. No clue why but I do.

Can’t really get any smell off the dry leaves. I mean, they smell like something but I can’t identify what. My nose is a bit stuffy so I’m not going to fault the tea on that one. The brewed tea smells very… tea-like. A little sweet, a little… nutty and earthy maybe?

The taste is smooth and rich but not overly distinct. A little heavy feeling, but not in a clunky way because the overall feel of the tea is smooth and silky. So more like a heavy satin than anything unpleasant. I really enjoy the feel of this, actually. Solid and hearty but not rough.

No bitterness, no real astringency (just a tiny dryness at the end maybe), the nutty flavor seems to be the most distinct. I seem to get a hint of my beloved cardboard every so often but it’s not very strong so I might be imagining it or hoping for it.

Overall, a good tea, I think. Not super-special or flavorful but I really loved the heavy feel of it, especially since it was coupled with a nice smoothness – no rough bitterness or astringency that seems to come from heavier bodied teas. I’m not sure if I’ll have to get some, but I kind of wish I had a lot more in my pantry to slowly go through. If that makes any sense. So probably not one I have to go out and buy RIGHT NOW but when I order from Tavalon, I bet I’ll get some of this.

I also made the husband a cup. He likes it quite a lot saying that it seems to give different tastes with each sip – sometimes it is like a heavy Irish breakfast and others like a smooth black. He’s finding a bit of bitterness/astringency on the very tail of the sip that he says keeps it from becoming a 5 star tea for him, but it’s a 4/5 for sure.

ETA: Had the second steep of this (@6:30) with some fairly strong, butterscotch-y cheese and crackers and it held up well. Even though it had a thinner body that the first steep, the flavor was still nice and strong enough to combat stinky cheese.

I’ve had this in my cupboard for a while along with a number of other teas from my initial Tavalon order and I’m just now getting to them. (Yes, I am on serious lockdown. I am considering not coming out until I actually need tea, which could be a year from now.)

I am a sucker for names sometimes, and I spend a lot of time homesick for my old Upper West Side neighborhood. So of course, I had to try this.

The dry leaves look sort of twiggy, like Ceylon leaves sometimes do, but they also seem a bit heftier than Ceylon leaves. They smell like Assam to me. I’m guessing both of those are represented in this blend.

The liquor is medium amber with a twinge of red. Not quite the russet beauty that some other Ceylons produce in my cup, but its an intriguing color. The aroma is fruity, and somewhat malty-sweet.

This tea has a lot of substance to it, though exactly what makes that up isn’t readily apparent. I guess that’s what makes it NYC breakfast; it’s very much like most of my New Yorker friends. This is not a shallow tea, though it’s not overly complex. It’s pretty smooth, and slightly stout. Not really sweet, but not bitter. It doesn’t make you go “yum” but it has something sophisticated about it. It’s not as brash as some stronger breakfast blends. It’s just enough to get your eyes open while you wait for the subway to show up. Or to give you an edge while you’re sitting on the steps of the Met in the autumn chill, before you go in to get lost in an exhibit for a while. It makes me think of Central Park, undoubtedly because of the name. I may be gullible, but I get it.

And now I’m homesick.

I received this as a bagged sample in an order from Tavalon. Seems like a pretty standard breakfast blend. I would drink it again, but I’m not in love with it.

The bag is interesting. I can’t find anything on their website to say what it is, but it doesn’t appear to be paper or cloth. It’s like interfacing material, if you sew. It’s not sealed, it’s just folded over. Didn’t seem to interfere with the brewing, though.

In other news, the water cooler at work was FINALLY fixed so I can start having tea at work again – that’s one reason I haven’t been on the site much recently (also travel).

This was my other tea this month from tavalon. I am always on the look out for a good breakfast tea. I have alway loved Irish breakfasts, and one of my favorites is Oxford breakfast, and now I have NYC breakfast :)

It is a nice bold black tea with fruity undertones. I had a cup the other day for breakfast and it was delicious and I just had a cup a little bit ago with a splash of milk and some cookies and it really hit the spot. This is a really solid cup of tea!

This has definitely become one of my favorite teas, one that I’ll be ordering again. Beautifully strong, holds up excellently with milk and sugar, doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste that so many black teas have if you don’t add the milk and sugar – just the way I love my tea! Fantastic hearty taste.

I liked it. Wonderful aroma and pleasant aftertaste. I prefer other ebts to this one but this one is excelllent.

I drink many different kinds of tea but tend to heavily favor oolong and green teas. Every once in a while a black tea comes along that changes all that, at least for one cup. Tavalon’s NYC Breakfast is one of those teas. My sample was a funky, do –it–yourself tea bag with a fair amount of dry leaves in it. They had a pleasant sweet and nutty aroma. It’s funny but after writing so many reviews, I can usually tell if I will like a tea by the way the leaves smell. I steeped it using 212 degree water for five minutes.

The resulting tea was robust without being overpowering. Their website describes it as energizing and it definitely is. It had a nice aftertaste and did not need any milk or sweeteners. Quite frankly I think to do so would ruin it. That says a lot for a black tea. This tea was a morning staple of mine when I was working in of all places, NYC. I would definitely recommend it. In fact, I will probably order some the next time I win one of their fun Twitter contests. I will definitely have to try this tea iced as well.