Lucky Irish Breakfast

Republic of Tea is everywhere, it seems….

this morning I went into a “specialty” tea shop in Oakland and all they had was Republic of Tea and Ahmad, don’t know how special that is but I needed some caffeine. The oat and fruit bar I had from there was an excellent breakfast treat, but this tea… so ho hum.

I expect an Irish breakfast tea to be malty and stout but this just seemed like a generic black tea. I put some soymilk in it and it served its’ purpose but there is nothing special or interesting about it. Le snooze

I would suggest the Twinings brand over this one, it’s cheaper and a lot more flavorful.

SQUEE!

Auggy sent me an extremely awesome package in the mail of a bunch of teas for me to try. Just because she’s amazing and awesome like that. It wasn’t even a tea swap – it was a gift! Once I amass a large enough tea collection, she’s getting lots of yummy goodness her way!

Anyway, the package arrived yesterday, but I was so busy that I barely had time to tear it open and inspect all the wonders inside. I was out late last night, and I woke up super groggy and completely out of it. I was out until 4:30 am last night at a friend’s birthday party, and it was freezing out. 7 degrees with wind chill. So yeah, I woke up not in the best of spirits this morning. I wanted something delicious and strong. Something pirate-y that would be a nice kick in the pants.

And boy, did this deliver! The wet leaves smell strong and assertive, the way a proper Irish Breakfast blend should. The cup brewed up to a much darker color than Adagio’s, but less cloudy than Twinings. On first sip, I had a huge smile on my face.

Auggy knew that I had been disappointed with Adagio’s blend – that it wasn’t RAWR-in-your-face assertive enough for me to call it a true IB. The Twinings blend is such a punch-to-the-face it could almost be TOO aggressive at times. This one is the perfect happy medium to those two. The Assam gives a nice, malty kick at the end of each sip, pulling you awake by your lapels. And the Ceylon is the beginning of every tasting note, that smooth, default essence-of-tea taste. They complement each other very nicely, creating a very drinkable cup with more sophistication than the Twinings blend but still enough kickassery to really wake you up in the morning.

This is the way that I pictured Irish Breakfast loose leaf to taste. Smooth but bracing with a some astringency and spice. Auggy hit the nail right on the head when she sent this to me! I can’t wait to tear through everything else she sent me!

I’m mixed on this tea. I was expecting the tea equivalent of a kick to the head with stoutness on this one but it turned out not that way at all. Yeah, it’s strong and I can feel the caffeine running through my veins. But taste wise it wasn’t as overpowering as I expected.

But I think I’m going to have to stick to my previous thoughts of just not liking Assam. There is something about Assam… it, to me, tastes like cardboard smells. So I’m drinking this enjoyable tea and then get a ending taste like I licked a shipping box (which no, I don’t do regularly) and the taste only comes up with things that have Assam in them.

So here’s my question: how crazy am I? Is it the maltiness of the Assam that reminds me of cardboard? Or am I just getting bad Assams that actually taste of cardboard?

I loved this tea. I bought this tea the first time because it won first place at the North American Tea Championships Fall 2010. I had been pretty disappointed with TG’s English Breakfast Blend that had won 3rd place and I figured that there must be something better. This is just Assam and Ceylon-both teas that are self-drinking (unlike a couple of the teas in the TG blend).

The first cup was a revelation. Strong, yes, but not bitter. Bold. Malty. Simple yet very flavorful. Didn’t need milk and sugar to get through the cup like I did with TG’s. In fact, never even tried it with milk or sugar. It was just get it and go. Perfect way to start my day. However, if I only had one tea in the house I could have drank it all day long. If I had been a Steepster member back then I would have given it a rating in the 90’s.

So, when I needed a new boiling water tea (most of my teas brew at 195 or so), I did not hesitate even though it did not win an award in the 2011 Fall NATC.

Liquor is deep copper. Leaves are dark brown/black, short, somewhat needle-like with just a few golden tips/buds mixed in.

This batch has been so…disappointing. It’s not weak, but it’s not nearly so strong and bold. The flavor is just kinda… subdued. Not so malty. Not so anything it was last time. This is not a good thing for a breakfast blend. The first thing I did was to look at the best-consumed by date. I was suspecting they sold me the same batch that I had purchased last year. But no, it was January 2014 as opposed to March 2013 with different production numbers so that wasn’t it. I tried “refreshing” the leaves for 3 seconds in boiling water-to no measurable effect on the flavor.

I understand that variations in climate, precipitation, temperature, etc. can all effect the taste of tea leaves from crop to crop. That is to be expected if tea comes from a single garden. However, I expect a big outfit like RoT isn’t buying from just one Assam garden and one Ceylon garden. I would think they would buy from multiple gardens to try to prevent too much variance in their teas. I suppose climate variations could effect the whole regions too. I don’t know.

I wonder if they are using cheaper and lower quality teas for this blend now and saving the better stuff for their more upscale offshoot, Rare Tea Republic

Well, I’ll drink one cup first thing for now-because I don’t have any other boiling water teas, but I am looking to get some other breakfast-type boiling water teas, so I may or may not finish this.

[Backlog] – I love Irish Breakfast tea, but I was left unimpressed by The Republic of Tea’s version. It’s not as rich or robust as other Irish Breakfast teas that I’ve had. It wasn’t undrinkable, just nothing really that special.

This is my morning cuppa. When I want to start the day right I turn to this tea. For this tea I don’t use any fancy porcelain or count my infusions. I just put some in a teaball (gasp!) plop it into a nice mug and pour boiling hot water over it and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then I add a splash of milk and some sugar (double gasp!) and the resulting brew is sweet, warm, with strong flavors of malty-carameliness. Then I can say that I am ready to start my day.

This tea is not overly exceptional on its own by any means and lacks a certain depth, which is why I am only giving it 85. But when it comes to my daily brew I don’t need an exceptionally perfect tea. I just need a good solid tea to mix with milk and sugar and this is it. I’ve tried others but I keep coming back to this one. A must have staple of any tea-head’s cupboard.

I bought this on a whim because i was low on cash and didn’t have the gas to get to the nearest place that sells my usual tea, so I swung into a local food market and picked this up to get my irish breakfast fix. I was a bit sad to find that it wasn’t quite as robust a tea as I’d have liked, but still a decent tea, not quite the most flavorful, but not as bad as your typical grocery-store tea bag. (oh, also I tend to lean more towards loose-leaf teas, so this is a somewhat unusual choice for me). Recommendable, but not recommended.

Well, I haven’t tried this blend from any company except The Republic of Tea, so I can’t compare it to similar blends. However, I love this tea in the morning! It’s got kick, it’s got deep flavor, and it’s got caffeine. I recently kicked my (too many cups of) coffee habit, and this tea is a nice substitute. I drink this tea in the morning, plain and nice and hot.

a nice change from the usual English Breakfast tea