River Shannon Breakfast Blend (TB20)

The Final Sipdown: Day 10
Decupboarding Total: 18

Since I slacked yesterday (though not intentionally), I plan on decupboarding three teas today to keep my goal of two per day. So let’s all just pretend that it is yesterday for the next few minutes.

I was waiting to see how this tea went with additives before I rated it, hoping some sugar and creamer would help perk it up. Well, this morning I had it with additives and yeah, not a fan. It just tastes so flat and cardboard-y. Not even good cardboard but boring, slightly dirty, uninteresting cardboard. There’s a bit of a nutty-bitter taste at the end but it’s not even a strong enough nutty flavor to be interesting. It’s just flat and boring. I’m sure there is some caffeine content to it and if I think about it, I might be able to agree with the “clean” bit of the tasting notes so the tea isn’t a total loss. But frankly, I can pick up more interesting and tastier blends at the grocery store.

I’m out…it was good! :P

BUMMER. I totally screwed this cup up and it was the last of my stash…sigh…I put way too much loose leaf in there…it was texture-E and bitter…but totally my fault…I know it’s good otherwise tho…so I will keep the rating…

I just love this tea. Its robust, brisk, and chewy. I just returned from the Dr. and I have strep throat. So, I’m going to drink tea and rest. I’ll be back when I feel better which I hope is soon. So everyone drink tea and prosper.

I guess I’m never really out of assam teas as long as I have River Shannon. A very strong malty blend of assam teas and quite delicious. It makes a great start to the day with a very brisk and robust tea. I love it.

This tea is a real eye opener in the morning. The assam and ceylon teas make for a very brisk, robust, and chewy cup of tea. This is one of my favorites in the morning which is why I bought a 1/2 pound of it on my last order. It also makes a fantastic iced tea.

Back on the ice tea kick again. I made this for my wife and she loves it. She said, “buy more of this tea”. I blinked and looked at her and said, “your kidding right”. She said, “Nope, I’m serious, this makes fantastic ice tea”. I may make a tea drinker of her yet. I just used JacquelineM’s recipe and used splenda instead of sugar. Now I have to go and buy more tea.

I’m having this tea iced. I use 6 tea measures in a large tea ball and place it in 32 oz of water overnight. Then I take out the tea ball and add 32 oz of water and place in the refrigerator. The tea is clear and delicious. I add splenda but to each his own.

This tea really hits the spot this morning. This is not a meek tea, its brisk, robust, while having the astringency of a breakfast tea. It will wake you in the morning. I’m getting to the bottom of my tin which means I have to get more. I love it hot in the morning and my wife loves it iced. This is a tea that will always be in my cupboard if I have anything to do with it. It is a fantastic tea.

Yes..Yes..Yes.. I finally got this tea back in my cupboard. I hope 1/2 pound will last me a while. This is an excellent bold and robust breakfast tea. It doesn’t have a lot of bitterness and just a tad astringency. A fantastic tasting hot tea that also makes a very good iced tea.
2.5g/8oz

Woke up a little groggy so this strong tea is what was called for. This is one of my favorite blends as I like the malty taste of the assams in the blend. Very strong, no bitterness and a touch of astringency. Its cold, rainy and a little snow here so a strong delicious tea is called for. My stash is getting low as I use this for iced also. Almost time to order more which is no problem as it is very inexpensive which is a plus.
3g/8oz

This tea is brisk, robust, and everything else you want in a breakfast tea. It has the astringency and the slight bitterness that you would find in an assam tea. A very nice tasty tea to wake up to in the morning.

This tea has a lot of flavor. Its robust and brisk and has a thick malty smell and taste like assam teas. It actually reminds me of coffee in the morning. The mouthfeel is there along with the caffeine kick. This is a great tea to wake up to.

I needed a strong tea this morning and this one fits the bill. Its strong, brisk, and chewy and a great wake up tea.

This is one great breakfast tea, brisk, robust, and has the astringency of an assam with just a little bitterness. I’m getting low and will have to reorder soon.

I awoke sleepy this morning and I just had to have a cup of this wonderful eye-opening brisk, robust tea. You can taste the assam and ceylon teas and the malty taste. It has the slight bitterness and the astringency of a breakfast tea. Very nice.

Yeah, I made ice tea also using JacquelineM’s recipe. Its just as good as she said it was. I left out the tazo and used splenda. Been drinking this and watching basketball all day.
The only thing different is I can still buy more tea.

Ok, caveat guys: I am not, in fact, sure that this is River Shannon. It is in an Adagio Masala Chai sample tin, but it is definitely not chai. Because I am a giant nubcake, however, I failed to make a note of what it IS. HOWEVER, it is the only one of my Upton Samples that is unaccounted for, so…odds are pretty high!

It’s very weird, because the tea smells totally oversteeped, but I was having one of my “forget to make tea until last minute” mornings instead of my “forgot I made tea and let it steep for like 20 minutes” mornings. (Those are basically the only two kinds of mornings I have. I don’t like mornings) That means that I, in fact, steeped it for about 30 seconds. But it still has a kind of weird burnt, overdone smell to it. Very strange. And not particularly appetizing given that I have a presentation today and my belly is in knots about that already.

The taste is much nicer, though. A nice assertive black tea taste with only a hint of astringency, just to let you know it’s there. No hint of oversteepedness at all. The fact that it was able to have this much personality with even a short steeping time is heartening, but that combined with the smell make me think that this would not be suitable for my other kind of morning. Sadly, I have no way of knowing what kind of morning it is going to be until it is already happening, so no way to plan ahead for that!

There is also a weird underlying piquant note in the aftertaste that makes me think of cola for some reason. I am going to go ahead and attribute that residual chai taste due to being too lazy to clean the sample tin out properly.

Well, back to mornings as usual at Chez Ewa. Let this steep for maybe a minute before running out the door. Ah mornings. You suck.

So, I’ve been letting this stuff air out in a shallow container in hopes of getting rid of the chai contamination, and I decided it was time to risk it again. The root beer taste IS gone, thank goodness. But there’s nothing to replace it. It just tastes kind of generic and slightly astringent. Maybe I should just give up on this stuff?

Ok, I actually grabbed the right tin today for trying this out and comparing it to the Irish and Scottish breakfast blends. I kind of wish I hadn’t though because I am totally getting root beer from this. ROOT BEER! Now this is bad for two reasons, 1. it makes no sense, and 2. I don’t like root beer.

The root beerness faded into a general sweet note as I got further into the cup, but I have to say I am still dissatisfied with it. It’s just not smack me in the face enough for my mornings. I think I’ll have to stick to the plebian quick brew blends. Looks like it’s back to the Scottish blend for me!

So I was going to offer the rest of my sample to Morgana since she mentioned she’d like to try it the last time I posted on this, but I have a suspicion that the whole root beer taste might be coming from contamination with what was previously in this tin, so I wonder if this wouldn’t be doing both her and the tea a disservice. Still, if you want to risk it…

I was craving this after reading Dan’s tasting note. I arrived home cold, rain soaked and mud splashed (once again!) so this was a perfect antidote :) Strong and brisk, no nonsense, takes milk and sugar beautifully. I’m upping the rating a little – it really is the perfect tea for when you need to get warmed up but quick!! I also want to try it cold brewed for iced tea. I think that method would be great because it will cut down on any astringency.The price of this is so good, you don’t mind using it for cold brewed iced tea which needs a good deal of leaves.

First iced tea of the season! I used 4 cups of filtered water and 4 tablespoons of River Shannon into my pitcher, and put it in the refrigerator for 8 hours. I then made simple syrup (1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, put on low to medium heat on stove til combined into clear liquid) and chilled it. When 8 hours elapsed, I strained the tea into a carafe and added 4 tablespoons of simple syrup to sweeten it.

It was really good! I love the cold brew method – no bitterness at all and the tea, which is normally a “puts hair on your chest” strong tea, was mild and delicious. I once made hot brewed iced tea out of a Golden Monkey tea for company (only once because it’s too expensive to use doubled like that!!) and this cold brewed tea reminds me a lot of that!

We have almost drank all 4 cups! I think I’m going to do this again tomorrow and also throw in a bag of the Passion tisane for a fruity variation.

Today was SUCH a comedy of errors. We set out to buy some art supplies, and accidently put the wrong address to the store in the google phone GPS thingum – and wound up at the wrong shopping center (we only realized this after wandering around puzzled for a half an hour). Where is the right one? Another half hour away! Sigh – our whole day was eaten up just getting a few mat boards and canvases. FINALLY home, River Shannon to the rescue, double portion! Takes lots of comforting milk and sugar, and stays really flavorful. A good basic strong black tea to give you a little lift!

32 oz water + 4 tbs River Shannon +1 Tazo Passion full leaf tea sachet + 24 hours + 4 tbs simple syrup = YUM!

This equation brought to you by the fact that I just paid my bills (bill + bill + bill + bill +bill + bill = no money to buy tea until April!)

You know those days when you are behind before you even started? I came in to work an hour late because of my dental appointment and EVERYTHING needed immediate attention! I was drowning, and my usual response would have been to grab a cup of coffee. I chose this instead. It sure did wake me up, but I don’t feel jittery like I would have after (the third cup of!) coffee. I feel alert, focused, and ready to tackle all of this work! It tasted wonderful too :) Very bold but balanced – cream and sugar lovely. This is now my go-to-instead-of-coffee tea!

After having to put on my wet coat and go to class this afternoon, I was so DAMP! The damp went right to my bones. There is one tea that always works to get that bone chilling feeling away – River Shannon. After coming home and making a large cup of this no nonsense, strong black tea I finally felt warm again (changing into dry clothes helped too!). I always drink this tea when I’m extremely cold or extremely tired. It is so reviving.

Another day spent out in the freezing cold taking photographs!

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackiemania/sets/72157622999565681/)

I needed this bold tea to warm my bones!! I steeped it one minute less than last time (as per package recommendation) and it was smoother…I think I’ll add 30 seconds because I liked it a little rougher and brisker. That’s the whole point of an Irish Blend if you ask me :)

I took a better look at the leaves this time – it’s and interesting mix of broken black leaves and golden tips. I love the color of the liqueur, a really vibrant red. The taste isn’t wowing me this time though; the malty baked assam flavor is trending a little bit towards… sawdust. Sadly :( Even with a generous dollop of milk it’s drying my tongue out a bit. I have enough left in the sample for another cup or two though, so I’ll have to play with the steeping parameters (less leaf, maybe?) and see if it was my fault.