English Breakfast

Tea of the morning here; nothing stellar aside from the fact that it’s free at the office. I do prefer my black teas to have a bit more oompf and this seems a bit wimpy. Added some soymilk. Now I’m off to go make something better…

First Cup of the day with Wildtree Banana Bread (hate bananas but like most banana bread…weirdo, I know!)

I figured I’d go back and try a bagged tea after all of the loose leaf I’ve had, and see how differently it tastes. That project flew out the window, though, because I think I overstepped this puppy. I was in the midst of a highly entertaining e-mail conversation and let the teabag float there for too long. As a result, this one isn’t tasting as good this morning.

The tea juice is a lot darker than I remember. It’s probably because loose leaf is much less murky and dark. Loose leaf is also a lot less bitter. That might be from the oversteep, because I really don’t remember my cup of English Breakfast looking this dark, but it was still surprisingly bitter compared to what I’ve been drinking the past few days. The nice flavor profiles are still there, but I find myself not wanting to pick up the cup as often. I think that bags might be even more finicky than loose leaf (or at least some bags, for that matter), since you’re releasing so much dust/tannins into the water at such an accelerated rate. If you don’t watch, it’s bitter.

… you know :D

Love to watch milk mix with hot tea:
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l188/malomorgen/Teas/18052010013.jpg

FINALS. FRAK.

…I swear I will update my Steepster like you would not believe once I have a life again.

Another beautiful morning at Sunset Beach! Yesterday we got to see not only the woodstorks of Vereen Park (have only sighted them once before in about 6 visits) but we saw their babies, too! They still had that awful baby bird hairdo that is so cute, but were old enough to walk around and fish with Mama, and Daddy awed us by flying over. Magnificent!

As for the tea, it was just so-so. It is a basic cup of tea, not offensive but not ringing any bells for me. I did a shorter steep because I thought that it might get bitter quickly being a bagged tea. Perhaps a little more time would have made a more robust tea.

There is a tea room nearby. Hope to get there later today and see if there is something delicious to report!

This was the bagged version. As far as bagged tea goes, this is a good choice. It is smooth and not bitter. Good with just a tiny dash of milk. I took this to my Mom’s for convenience’s sake since I had limited time and supplies.

Finally, I get to try one of the standards (at least in the US) for English Breakfast thanks to teawing….thank you for the generous Twinings sampling, by the way! I jumped directly from so-so bagged tea right into loose leaf in my tea journey, so I missed getting a chance to try some of the better bagged ones. I also find it interesting that there are some bagged teas that I like quite well. And this is one of them. It is always good to have something on hand that will travel easily as loose leaf can get a little messy.

This really is very good for a bagged tea. I liked this one without milk, but slightly sweetened. The tea itself is pretty basic, the flavor is rounded and smooth. It works for me, because I tend to gravitate toward good basic tea lately.

I’m not operating at maximum capacity right now…attempting to get back on track and finish everything on my desk before our 2pm meeting.

And…decupboarding!!

A classic tea blend from one of the oldest tea companies in existence. Perhaps I should be drinking this with my pinkie out. ;D