Bolder Breakfast

Thank you DHart1214 for this tea sample!

This is my very first tea from The Tea Spot. I know they have a shop in Boulder,(for goodness sakes that’s the headquarters of the company) but with so many shops to choose from in that tea wealthy town…I have yet to get around to it.
I chose Bolder Breakfast this morning for DUH obvious reasons. And, the tease of chocolate with pu’erh was begging me for a review. Please little package of tea from Boulder, Colorado…(I thought) don’t make me lose face and look like an idiot in the tea community! This State has awesome beer, great tea houses, but can’t we please have some decent Colorado blended tea (I’m leaving Celestial Seasonings out of this)?!

I brewed my 8oz in a mug with a finum filter for 4 minutes.

The scent was delicious with cocoa steaming a promising cuppa tea.

The first sip was Very mild. I could taste cocoa, no pu-erh, and a very mild black tea. Nothing but mild, non-assertive and middle of the road tea flavor. Even a bit sour probably due to the flavoring.

I didn’t like it.

I added sweetening and cream. The additions helped the tea but the black tea base is so bleh that I didn’t enjoy the tea. Probably people who are sensitive to strong flavor would like this tea. I can’t imagine why though. And the sourness. And lack of pu-erh flavor. Oh no! Yucky!

I would never choose to buy this tea. Thumbs Down!

Appreciate that Dhart1214 sent me some of her The Tea Spot teas for me to try!

This is really amazing! Thank you Terri Harp Lady for sending some my way!
I do not recall ever having anything from The Tea Spot before but I plan to check them out if they have a web presence!
Excellent chocolate flavor and the pu-erh is lovely as well. A very nice blend!!

Tea of the morning…. (SRP#8)

I have had this one for a while. I think it appealed to me because it was likened to coffee, and I used to be a pretty hefty coffee drinker. Also, in looking at my big pile of samples, I can see that I am going to get through the black teas in my SRP-Sample Reduction Plan, well ahead of all the others. I NEED a black tea in the morning. I guess it will be a great time to use up some Franken Breakfast once I tackle those sample blacks and try the few new ones in transit (yes, I fail at ‘no buys’ for tea)….

This tea is interesting. The first thing it reminded me of is Javavana Mate from Teavana. Maybe it is not as sweet, but there is a definite note of chocolate, and the tea base is earthy and mellow. It is also a strong tea base. I do see why this tea is suggested to coffee drinkers. It could stand up to any kind of additions well. If I had gotten around to trying this in my coffee drinking days, I am pretty sure I would have purchased this. But now, I only have an occasional cup of coffee (and the occasional coffee flavored ice cream is even better!) Tea has won me over.

Usual teapot method.

This came as a sample from Terri HarpLady – thanks so much!

Not quite sure what to drink this morning, so I reached for a breakfast blend. As a rule, I don’t really buy them. I generally find them to be bland or boring.

This is not the case with this one! There’s a dark, fruity sweetness to it, almost like cherry or mulberry. The scent is full of dark chocolate, and there a bit of that wrapped around the fruitiness of it. As it cools, there’s a whiff of cinnamon that comes out.

I finally found a breakfast blend I like!

This has pu-erh in it but it also has other stuff which, I will admit, is the reason I picked it up. The thought of chocolate + pu-erh was interesting to me especially since the reviews I’ve seen for the Numi Chocolate Puerh make me want to try it. But the store didn’t have the Numi, just this. So I got it.

This is like pu-erh with training wheels – serious training wheels. I can pick some pu-erh characteristics – the smell has a faint sweet hay note to it and the taste has some light earthy notes that can only be the pu-erh. But if I hadn’t had pu-erh before this one, I might have missed those things so it certainly doesn’t strike me as a strong pu-erh blend. The main taste I’m getting is mostly a fairly standard Yunnan-like taste and a bit of chocolate. The chocolate smells a lot like Lupicia’s The Au Chocolat (of which I am a big fan) but the taste is milder. The chocolate really comes through as a cocoa aftertaste for me. Occasionally I get a hint of tart on the end of a sip but not so much to impede my enjoyment of sipping.

The tea is smooth and a little silky. Pretty full-bodied texture but not chewy. I’m not sure if I would really call this ‘robust’ – I suppose with my lean towards Scottish and Irish breakfast blends, ‘robust’ is fairly typical for me so while this is more robust than your typical English breakfast blend, I think this guy might be intimidated by a few of the other blends I have in my pantry (Samovar’s Russian blend would kick its butt and the Samovar Breakfast blend would laugh while it happened… Shoot, Thomas Sampson might get in on the action but ultimately, he is a gentleman).

Anyway, this seems a little gentle to me to be considered (what I view) a breakfast blend. That might be the chocolate to it, though. Well, the chocolate and the overall smoothness to the tea. But that’s not a bad thing. Not ever tea can be an aggressive, wake-me-up-so-I-can-attack-the-morning tea (though it does seem to have a good caffeine kick). So as a breakfast blend, I think I’m missing the boat (probably mostly because it is chocolaty). But as a general tea, I think this is pretty tasty. Smooth, rich, dark, chocolaty and caffeinated. Not the best chocolate tea I’ve had (that’d be Lupicia’s The Au Chocolat) but certainly not the worse (TeaGermanname anyone?). But I won’t be sad to have to drink this and I could see repurchasing it under certain circumstances. Though I really don’t think this has the taste profile to actually qualify as pu-erh.
^4.6g/12oz

Usually I don’t post tasting notes about teas which I find mediocre or unpleasant, but…
This
is
the
worst
pu-erh
I’ve
ever
had.

Prior to infusion it smells like a chocolate black flavored tea. During Infusion…Pu-erh…eeeek…BUT…the Pu-erh smell decreases the longer it steeps. Post infusion it smells of both Pu-erh and cocoa.

First sip I made a funny face…mostly because of the overwhelming Pu-erh taste.

After I let it cool just a little and decided to sip it quicker it seemed to taste a little better. Yeah…as it cools it tastes better…more even!

This is ‘ok’ and I thank Auggy for letting me try it!

I want to thank LENA for sending me this delightful tea. I liked it quite well although not enough to want to buy it. I thought of Maiden’s Ecstasy by Samovar (with which Bolder Breakfast shares some traits) when I was drinking this. The tea is, as another reviewer, the wonderful Auggy described, a pu-erh with training wheels and there’s certainly a place for that for tea-drinkers. The tea is robust and has some chocolate qualities. And yet I ask myself what is missing here?

I am not sure what it is I want. I want more of something—a je ne sais quois—to be elucidated here. Maybe I want more pu-erh or maybe I want more of the chocolate to step forward. This is a tea that may (or may not) stick in my memory and call forth an urgent order in a day or two or a week or two. That has happened to me a lot here: I’ll give a tea a good but not rave review and after I while I will find myself wanting to return to that particular taste and revise my opinion upwards.

I added some milk and a small lump of sugar.

Thanks again to Brandy3392 So I like chocolate. I like black tea. I love pu-erh. However I’m not sure why this is called Bolder Breakfast. I think the pu-erh actually smooths it out. The chocolate is not very prevalent but that’s okay. I’m really digging this one. I think it reminds me more of one of my favorite teas from Dr. Tea. Scrooge’s blend the flavor is almost and exact mimic. When Mr. Scrooge gets low I’m glad there is a tea to replace it for me.

I got this tea for Christmas and after reading the reviews, it piqued my interest the most of the three. I was a little put off by the idea of puerh flavored by anything other than flowers, but then I read the ingredients. Apparently this is mostly plain black tea, then some puerh added.

It brews up very dark, and carries a decent kick of caffeine. The cocoa flavor is mild, similar to the way the milk tastes after a bowl of Cocoa Crispies. There’s also a little bit of a vanilla’s sweetness. I can’t taste the puerh very much, but it’s there. This might be a good place to start for people with really westernized tastes. (Speaking from experience.)

I have tried this before and I guess I forgot to report on it! My first time tryng it, I enjoyed it quite a lot. The dry leaf is very clearly chocolatey, which I enjoyed. And the hearty, malty flavor of the tea itself was very pleasant. I remember thinking it would be fun to try with some milk and maybe sugar like I would other breakfast teas (despite the bit of pu-erh mixed in).

Well, I tried that today…. it was quite a failure! This is definitely superior when it is consumed as-is!

Thanks to Lena for sending me this yummy breakfast tea! I would add my own tasting note but as I read through the notes Carolyn’s note was pretty much to the TEA (lol at my own corny joke). So on this I have to say DITTO CAROLYN!!!!!!

HInts of chocolate puerh and a great black tea I really like it.

I think this is the tea I’m drinking. I got a sample from Lena, and it had the name but not the company.

Assuming this is it, it’s a nice chocolate-y tea, but as others have pointed out, not particularity heavy on the pu-erh. I’m betting it would rock with sugar and cream (right now I’ve just got it sweetened). The tea is slightly bitter, but it blends well with the bitter of the chocolate flavor, and overall, it’s just nice and smooth.

Good tea. I think I need a second cup.

Imagine a Chocolate Malt…that’s what this tea brings to mind when I open the tin & breath in…“ahhh, my love, I missed you over the weekend,” I whisper as I pour hot water into my cup. This is currently one of my favorite teas in the cupboard. It is a dark, dark brown brew, with a chocolate & clay-like aroma, a very slight bitterness to the back of my tongue, so earthy, so good. It isn’t sweet, & there are times when I add a pinch of stevia & some coconut or almond milk, but I haven’t been doing that much lately. On the 2nd brewing, the color mellows to a reddish brown & the flavor becomes more mineral & a little more tannic, but still acceptable & bold enough for my tastes.
This is the kind of tea I especially like when the weather gets cool. Of course, it’s 84 degrees right now, & I was suppose to garden this morning, & I have other things to do as well. “Gratefully, this tea packs a punch & I will probably become mobile in a few minutes”, she said.

This tea is one of the best things I have ever put into my mouth, including teas, foods, desserts, and wines. The trick is to use exactly the right amount of water (8 fluid ounces) and exactly the right amount of steeping time (5.0 minutes) to let the three key ingredients meld together then let it cool enough to hold it in your mouth. The chocolate finish is heavenly.

This one presents an interesting idea: pu’erh tea and chocolate flavoring in a breakfast blend. It also has mallow flowers on the ingredients. I don’t know what they are supposed to taste like, so it was one more reason I had to try this blend.

The dry leaves in my tin do not look nearly as oily as the leaves in the picture provided for this entry. The in smells heavenly. The biggest note is chocolate, but I can smell some aged tea smells in there, too.

The color is a red-brown, with some murkiness; it is medium in darkness compared to other breakfast blends I’ve brewed. The aroma above the cup is mostly that of black tea. The chocolate comes in next.

I first get the flavors of a nice black tea. Flavors are generally bright. I taste some cinnamon. The pu’erh provides some powdery, back of the throat flavor but is not dominant here. Chocolate flavor comes in as the last and lightest note. I appreciate this. It is there, and it is nice, but the tea flavors are clearly dominant.

This gives me gum-tingling astringency, which I like in a breakfast blend. Bitterness is balanced and at the higher end of what I can enjoy without adding milk, also appreciated in a breakfast blend. However, it could definitely be bolder and still be enjoyable, especially with milk.

Adding milk transforms this cup. The chocolate comes out front, making it remind me a bit of a milk chocolate bar. Some of the black tea bitterness goes away and the pu’erh comes out a little bit more, and these are interesting mixed with the chocolate bar flavors. I feel like, with milk, I could never get this cup confused with anything else in a blind taste test.

Astringency starts to make my tongue feel dried out by the end of the first cup. I love it!

This is an interesting blend that I enjoy.

Felt like a bold chocolate blend today and this is a great one. The fragrance is of chocolate. The taste combines chocolate, a distinct flowery tea taste, and a strong firm taste of something else (almost a coffee note), probably the pu-erh. It doesn’t taste much like the classic pu-erhs I’ve had, which works well in this tea. The tea itself has that wicked black color that I usually see in pu-erhs.

My every morning, right as rain, ain’t morning without a cuppa tea is Twinings UK packed English Breakfast, with a splash of milk. (Just like my standard generic cup of tea in the afternoon/evening is PG Tips with a touch of sugar). Moring isn’t about adventure, it is about routine, and normalness. Tea blends are made to predictable, and while most geeks focus on the varietals, the “regular bloke’s blend” is very satisfying.

But every now and then, you want something different. I usually go for a pure Keenum, or a high end packers “English/Irish/U.K. Brekkie”, or even a black current black. Usually for a morning or two, then back to my beloved Twinings UK packed. (Most tea blenders adjust their blends for different markets to meet local taste – they are all recognizable as the “name” profile, just different emphisis on the ratio of the component teas, or a different leaf cut (size of the tea leaves affects flavor).

The Tea spot has a reputation of putting out excellent quality, and at times very non traditional, full leaf blends. I usually have a tin or two of their teas in my rotation.

I recently picked up their Bolder Breakfast. It is a ridiculous blend of black tea (Assam and Ceylon, i think), Pu-erh, and a slight touch of dark cocca powder. It is fantastic, a very bold tea: robust black nose, with a hint of chocolate, dark as night in the cup, and a very rounded malty sweet taste leaving the impression ok the complexity of dark chocolate with a thin feel. Boiling @ 5 min, reg sized pot, with a touch of milk (and would consider a touch of sugar, depending on my mood). Again, not for every morning, but a excellent change of pace.

This was my first breakfast tea back when I put a good bit of sugar in my tea along with milk. I like the chocolate although it’s not strong. I’m not a pu’erh drinker so I can’t identify what notes the pu’erh may be adding. It once was my favorite breakfast tea and although it no longer is I like to have it on hand as it truly does satisfy coffee drinkers as well as tea drinkers. I still like it best sweetened and with milk.

I’ve been wanting to try something with pu’erh in it for a while now, so I finally broke down and bought this blend (since I heard it is like pu’erh with training wheels). This is an excellent breakfast blend. It starts out tasting a lot like Irish breakfast, then finishes with cocoa and an earthy flavor that I assume is the pu’erh. The aftertaste is long and pleasing. Even though this contains chocolate, I wouldn’t really consider it a flavored tea – the chocolate just kind of rounds out and compliments the flavor of the tea. I really appreciate that the chocolate flavor that is there tastes real, not artificial like so many other chocolate teas. This tea probably won’t wow anyone, but it is just a very good tea all around. Prepared with almond milk and stevia.