English Breakfast

This is what I was raised on. Perfect with cream and sugar, this is something to constantly keep in your cupboard. Thank you, Grandma June, for introducing me to this classic tea!

It can be strong, so I usually don’t steep it as long as others do. It’s so tasty, but be careful you don’t drink too much of the caffeinated version in a short period of time. I made that mistake once and couldn’t figure out why I was shaking. :)

If you’re a fan, you should also try Afternoon Tea and Ceylon Uva (available from Lupicia).

Today is cold and rainy here at the coast in Maine. Its a great day for hot tea. This is a nice tea (bag) from Twinings. I always seem to like their teas. This one is brisk, robust, no bitterness, and just a little astringency. A nice tea to wake up to.

This tea is fantastic! I guess I could call this my introduction to black tea since I used to go for only green, although I’ve had black tea sometime before. This tea has a very full-bodied taste, which was not too strong nor too weak. I really couldn’t ask for more when it comes to a good basic cup of black tea. Oh, and I learned that I don’t really like milk in black tea either because it seems to mask some of the tea’s unique flavor and it brings down the temperature a little. Anyways, this cup was enjoyable enough to convert me to a black tea drinker from green!

Add: My initial taste note of this tea was full of praise, but now that I’ve had more experience with black teas, I just don’t think this is strong enough. I can visually see this after I’ve finished the cup and see that it doesn’t leave much of a stain as other strong black teas. It’s still good enough for what you can easily get at the supermarket though.

I find when I sniff this tea, it makes me think of honey. I don’t think it REALLY smells like honey (maybe faintly), so I assume it’s just my mind going “this needs honey”.

That’s not to say that it actually NEEDS it. I’m still drinking it without, and I like it. It’s a basic morning breakfast tea. Wakes me up. Gently! And doesn’t require any additives; it’s only slightly sharp-tasting. It’s basic; I don’t love or hate it, and it goes good with morning foods. I’m drinking it bagged sadly, as no places in my area sell it loose leaf, that I know of.

I keep this around for when my mother visits because she doesn’t really understand my tea setup and prefers to make her own (she usually gets up before me since I’m on the west coast and she’s coming from the east coast (of the USA)). Bagged is what she usually gets, although I spent a couple of hundred dollars of plain black teas from a variety of sources for her to try during her iced tea experiments earlier this year.

Anyway, I like this tea slightly better than the Teavana English Breakfast that I was drinking earlier today. The brew is less astringent and only a tiny bit bitter (I think I steeped it for slightly too long, lost track of time). This is the bagged variety. This tastes like a nice simple tea with not much coming out on a flavour profile except a slight mineral note, mostly just tastes “tea”-like to me.

I enjoy a simple cup of tea now and again, but I think I’ll mostly just be saving this for when my mother visits.

To me this is the standard English Breakfast, an easy tea that is hard to mess up and that I can enjoy whenever. I like it with milk, sugar, both, or straight up (which is how I had it today). English Breakfast tea will always make me think of backpacking across England (the Cotswold Way) when I was 14 or 15. That was way before I got into tea, but I drank this every day and loved how British people would always drink it with tons of milk and sugar!

Left this in for 4 minutes and it was already getting bitter. I know some people like their teas a bit bitter, but I really can’t stand it at all. I added some milk to help. It became drinkable with the addition of milk. But the taste was nothing to go “WOW!” over. It’s just kinda so-so. It’s definitely drinkable, but I’m not going to be desperately trying to buy this again. I think it’ll be good for me in the mornings when I’m still half-asleep and just need something to wake me up. Twinings’ Lady Grey and Earl Grey are my favorites so far, now I just need to try out that Irish Breakfast.

From all my collection of english breakfast tea, this is one of the best ones. Its easy to find in stores, not expensive to be a quality tea and the flavor makes harmony between the strong taste of black tea and a lovevly refreshing touch. Personally i truly recommend this kind of tea to be consumed while a tender little sweet snack perhaps, not so sweet cause it will ruin the classic flavor of the traditional english black tea.

Must get some fresh bagged black teas! I’ve been super busy and low energy lately, so it’s easier to use tea bags in the morning. All I could find was this old, crumpled packet! It’s still good though. :)

I really like this tea because it is a very smooth plain black tea. I had it with my pancakes this morning and it complimented it very well. :D

Note: This is a review for the bagged version.

It’s morning and I needed to wake up, so I made a strong cup and added some milk. Basic English Breakfast, nothing special but so far I like it. A bagged tea I wouldn’t mind. I will have to try it straight sometime.

Morning cup of tea, inadequately steeped due to impatience. Drunk with milk.

The funny thing about English Breakfast is that there’s a taste in it (woody? maybe it’s just tannins) that I don’t remember from drinking tea for breakfast in England. I’d prefer that it wasn’t there, but nevertheless, a decently strong, milky tea is required as the first tea of the day, and this does the job.

Wake up call! Arggggggggggh.
Being groggy isn’t really the time for anything fancy, so EB shows up.
Not bad for the morning. It’s strong, so it wakes you up a bit.
Nothing special though, just good old black, but that might be because I didn’t add milk and sugar, which goes good with this. Or maybe it’s because I’m not drinking it with traditional breakfast food, since I’m really starving.

I seem to always have some of this around. I drink bagged teas at work because loose leaf is too fussy. This tea is ok. It tastes like it has always tasted, and I’ve drunk a lot of it over the years. Compared to the new loose leaf english breakfasts I’ve tried, it’s a little less bright and a little less deep, but it is by no means unpalatable.

I’m a newbie and this was one of the first loose leaves I was able to get my hands into. By itself it’s a bit blah, but I usually add 5 drops of homemade vanilla extract (couple of vanilla pods in a small jar, fill with vodka, wait for 6 months shaking each month) makes it lovely.

Today I tried rinsing the leaves for a couple of seconds and it helped lower the astringency and took care of some sediment.

I’ve never been a fan of English Breakfast but this is really kind of blah. It’s a cleaning out the cupboard cup ;)

For a bagged tea this one’s pretty good – no bitterness, nice and smooth, quite flavorful. It’s especially delicious when drinking while eating something “cinnamony.” I really need to try more loose leaf breakfast teas.

I drink this in the office Monday – Friday in the mornings. This is usually my first cup of loose tea of the day if I am not drinking coffee. This can be mixed with Yerba Mate during afternoon tea.

Ok, let me preface this by saying this is my rating for a bag tea. It’s not fair to compare bag teas with loose leaf. The bag will loose 99.9% of the time. Having said that, the Twining teas have been very consistent and make a good cup. This English Breakfast is essentially my yardstick for all other English Breakfast bag teas. It produces a nice color, has a nice touch of malty-ness, and, for me, has just the right amount of caffeine. It takes milk and sugar well, but does fine without, too. You can find it in most chain grocery stores. Again, it will never compete with premium loose leaf, but it’s head and shoulders above the majority of the bag options.

Not just for breakfast is so true!
Waiting for winter weather with an old friend. Decided
to add some milk…yum pretty much covers it. Dark and rich too.