92 Tasting Notes
I love love love this tea. My typical steeping routine for this tea is 3 minutes for the first brew (which I don’t rinse, the super strong brew knocks my socks off), and then I add an extra 30 seconds to each additional steeping. I had this at work the other day and managed about 5 steeps before it was time to call it quits (on work and the tea). Strong, earthy and mellow. I tend to really like steepings 2 and 3 for this one.
Preparation
This is an ok silver needle, but then again my sampler has been sitting around for ages, so time has probably taken a good amount of the flavor that should be there. It’s still drinkable enough to finish out the tin, but I probably won’t go crazy on the re-steepings.
Preparation
If the flavor is weak, make sure you’re using enough leaf. I think that’s why some people don’t care for whites. I know they suggest 1tsp, but I use 2.25g/6oz. Just out of curiosity, I measured one of their whites (may or may not have been this one) and was shocked that 2.25 was actually over 1TB since the leaves don’t fit well in a measuring spoon.
Iced chai latte today, and it’s actually pretty decent. Usually iced tea with milk somehow tends to go terribly wrong for me, but the frothed milk here worked out well. A nice late summer beverage
Preparation
Ahh, the last of this tin, just means there’s more room for new tea. Good strong cup of tea this morning, but next time I get Twinings Irish Breakfast, I think I’ll stick to buying the bags. The loose tea is just so tiny, every cup ends up having a bunch of dust in it. I usually prefer loose to bagged, but this is one of those teas that’s better off staying in the bag.
Preparation
Today at work I really felt like a having a cup of black tea with milk, and I would have loved a cup of any sort of Irish breakfast tea, but unfortunately my choices were the silver needle and the standard bag of Lipton that we keep at work. I chose the Lipton, it had been ages since I’d had any (I usually bring tea from home), so what the hell, I gave it a try. I usually add lemon to Lipton, so today was a bit different when I added milk. It wasn’t horrible and satiated my craving. As I poured the milk into the cup I was reminded of a coworker who made a cup of tea, and added a creamer to her cup, and upon doing so exclaimed that the creamer was bad! That happens occasionally in the restaurant business, so I told her to just make a new cup of tea. Then she explained that first she added the lemon, and then the creamer. I then explained that when you combine milk and lemon, the milk curdles. Hours later, when making a new cup of tea, I saw her add a creamer to her cup, and then exclaim, “it did it again!”
Me: “did you add lemon?”
Her: “yeah”
Me: “milk plus lemon will curdle every time”
And then I had to walk away.