Irish Breakfast

Malty, strong, kick-your-butt tea that is best taken, in my opinion, with milk and a little sugar. My favourite wake me up tea. This is a robust black. Say whatever you like about crappy bagged tea, but I can’t beat this for convenience. I love this stuff; another tea my mother drank often and raised me on. Always in my house.

Malty and hearty. I’ve never tried this tea black, as when I first tried it I was not experimental with how I took my tea, but it is certainly delicious with half-and-half and a pinch of sugar. In this sense, I find it very coffee-esque. I would certainly purchase this tea again.

Personally, when I think “I want some tea”, Twinings Irish Breakfast is usually the tea I’m thinking of. It more or less defines the very word for me. Robust, delicious, and not too fussy about water temperature or steeping time. I like mine hot with a generous spoonful of sugar and no milk.

Hmm, this time was just “meh”, I guess since I’m starting to notice the difference between this and say the Assam from DAVIDsTEA and to prefer the latter. Ah, the pursuit of good tea – it’s why we’re here! :)

This tea seems to taste different whenever I have it. This time for Breakfast it woke my mouth up, got me doing some warm ups and then prepared me for a big dose of English Muffin. It’s just great on any occasion again with a little milk and some sugar. Oh, how I love the versatility of this tea.

This tea kicks my butt in the afternoon when I’m starting to get sleepy. Nice and strong, even seems surprisingly forgiving when I accidentally steep it too long. Distractions at work? Never! Probably because it is so strong that my tastebuds aren’t given a chance to notice anything tannic about it. I drink it straight, but it probably would mellow out with some milk.

This is my normal office tea. I tend to forget that I put a tea bag in and steep it way too long, but it’s still quite drinkable. I like the bitterness and astringency that it has (even when steeped a more reasonable amount of time). This is a serious no joke black tea.

This is my standby, always in the cupboard late night cup. Plenty hot with milk and sugar, and I can practically feel my nerves slowly smooth out and unfrazzle. Not the most adventurous cup, but a good reliable cup every time.

So this was an interesting experience this morning. First, I’d been doing the decaf thing for a while so when I decided I would just do the full caffeine version… hmm. maybe not the wisest choice as I feel a bit jittery now.
As for the flavor. I took my first sip just after finishing a glass of juice. Not pleasant at all. I was terribly disappointed since I remember enjoying this tea. It tasted really old and stale.
After I got the juice/sweet taste out though, I continued and it was much improved. I used a small amount of milk in it and it’s very enjoyable over my eggs and toast. I’ll continue using this one in the am but I think I’ll try to remove some of the caffeine, steer clear of drinking it with juice and likely not add any sweetener just to be safe (I’m not a fan of sweet teas anyway.)

Dark, rich… almost coffee-like in its strength. Needs quite a bit of milk! (I’m a wuss.) An excellent morning drink.