English Breakfast

Wow – it’s my 2000th tasting note on Steepster?! crazy!

I had a really rough evening last night, did not sleep well at all. It’s difficult to find a sleeping position that doesn’t hurt my broken arm but I also ate dark chocolate before bed, which was not a good idea in hindsight.

This is really hitting the spot today, the soymilk I added is bringing forth some gentle cocoa notes but there is also a lot of malt, yummy goodness!

And so the journey begins…

I just finished my first cup of loose leaf tea, and what a tactile experience it is! I brewed this up in my brand-new IngenuiTEA, using a teaspoon of Adagio’s blend, and steeping it for the recommended five minutes. I couldn’t help but sniff the little tin over and over again as I waited impatiently for the cup to finish brewing.

The tea steeped to a much more amber color than I was expecting, but I’ve read in several places that this is typical of Adagio’s blend. But the smell! It was so tea-like, so indescribable in a tea way, that my nose is too newb-ish to make out everything. It’s so awesome to watch those leaves unfurl and grow. It looks like an actual plant, and not dust from the factory floor!

The taste is amazing. Beyond the taste of the English Breakfast blend, and this tea in particular, I’m going to talk about the taste of the loose leaf itself. It tastes clean, and pure. It’s not bitter at all (the five minute steep time sort of freaked me out, because if you steep most bagged teas for that long, you have a fairly foul brew). It’s rich and smooth and nuanced. It’s almost like seeing in 3D for the first time. There’s no flatness of taste, or stale flavor. It’s just pure, unadulterated joy.

To talk about this English Breakfast – it’s a bit lighter than I think of when I think of English Breakfast, but it has a lot of the smokey elements that I can sometimes detect. It has an almost buttery quality underneath the main tea taste, with a pretty sweet aftertaste. It isn’t astringent at all, and rolls on my tongue in pure delicious awesomeness.

I am definitely craving another cup. How yummy! It’s like I wasn’t wearing glasses anymore, and now I can see! The only complaints I have right now is that I probably want this one a little stronger. I probably have to add a teeny bit more tea to my teaspoon.

Here comes a ridiculous question, regarding the teaspoon. How does everyone put their tea on the teaspoon? I tried digging my measuring spoon into the tin, but then freaked when I realized that I was probably breaking my precious leaves! So I washed my hands and dried them a million times before carefully picking up the leaves and placing them on the teaspoon. I wasn’t sure how to really “make” the teaspoon, though. The leaves are fairly wiry and long. It didn’t seem like a full “teaspoon,” even though the leaves were peeking out beyond the level point of the spoon.

I know I’m getting all technical. Perhaps I just have to add more tea to the teaspoon, or buy one of those teaspoons made especially for measuring out tea.

Either way, this was an awesome, awesome experience. I can’t wait to continue my journey with loose leaf! YAY!

Working late and I’m fading fast. There’s some crappy Bigelow bagged teas in the staff lounge, but nothing else. As the boy said, luckily past Beth plans better than future Beth, because I found a bag of this in my desk drawer! I need to start keeping an emergency stash of black tea for occassions like these.

This is nice, strong, and hearty.

Sipdown!

… Is there any feeling more liberating than the feeling of being at the start of vacation? Waking up in bed going, “Hey, I don’t have to hate this Monday – because I don’t have to go to work in two hours!” YEAH!

This was a good tea, but I’m debating on whether or not I’ll restock it.

English breakfast, in my personal set of tea stereotypes, is Irish breakfast that just couldn’t make the varsity team. But this is a really nice surprise. Stout enough to wake you up, not just jostle you. Cheapskate that I am, I tend to use about half the leaf I normally should, but I splurged this morning and put a full two-spoon measure into my travel mug. Glad I did.

I am getting low on this….and will be looking for a replacement. It is good, but I think there are things out there that I like better, and are a better value. Still, not bad with milk and sweetener.

My mini-rant on Adagio…..I get that the bags make more sense than the tins as far as the environment, and have even talked myself into the fact that the bags make room for more tea faster as they empty. I just think it is a bummer the general amounts went from 4 oz. down to 3 oz. in a bag. It feels like it did when half gallons of ice cream went down to 1.75 quarts, or even 1.5 quarts. Do companies really think we are that stupid? Or are they just trying to keep their prices the same, but giving us less….so it looks like they have not had a price increase in years. They are all tricksey!

Last night I cleaned out and rearranged my Tea storage system, again! It’s nothing fancy…a 3 shelf corner cupboard, plus an old wicker shelf with a series of cardboard boxes (that teas I ordered came in). I think I need to probably do this at least once a week, moving all of my favorites to the back so that I’ll give the other teas a chance once in awhile. Then I came on steepster, and got in on a chat (on some tea review somewhere, can’t remember where though…) about how people line up their teas and such. I felt right at home!

I’m really making an effort (this time around) to stick to the Tea Rotation plan I made, so this morning this was my Black tea pick. It’s from one of Adagio’s black tea samplers (along with yunnan jig, yunnan noir, Puerh Poe, and Assam Melody).

Per their instruction: 1 tsp in a cup of hot water, 4 minutes.
Meeh….it’s ok, but nothing to write home about.
Not to be unfair, I made a 2nd cup, this time using 1 Tablespoon of tea, and steeping 3 minutes, and NoW We’Re TaLkInG! When in doubt, add more tea! I also added some stevia, and it’s tasty! It seems that most English breakfast blends are heavy on the Assam and tend towards tartness, but this one is a Keemun, which I find to be more of a smokey malty fruity mellow kind of thing. Very nice.

Very standard, but good. I find that brewing it with a little more than a teaspoon makes it more flavorful, but not bitter. Right now I’ve got a hot cup of it, sweetened with three packs of Sugar In The Raw because that’s how we do it in the deep south, dammit! Actually, I think it’s probably just a bad habit of mine. Anyway, I like this tea a lot. It would be good to keep around for everyday pots.

backlogging some teas from the other day before getting to today’s tea. Forgive my lack of detail in my tasting notes as of late, it’s been insanely hectic with the kids & I haven’t really had time to sit down & really write out my thoughts, so I’ve been just jotting down some quick notes & rushing off to tend to the babes

After having this after only having had bagged English Breakfast, I can’t really say that I know much about it, but I can say that I will never go back to bags again after drinking this.

Gentle understated smoke with earthy leather notes with a smooth finish. With my second cup I detected a maltiness that was quite nice. No bitterness at all (by that I mean unpleasantly bitter qualities, as I do like a slight touch of bitter to my teas). It was a very comforting cup to start off my morning the other day :)

This is the perfect tea for those bleary-eyed moments in the morning when you can barely remember how to make tea. The flavor and aroma remind me a bit of good Irish stout. It will wake you up faster than a Marine drill sergeant. And, if you just can’t quite face all of that bright-and-cheeriness early in the morning, it mellows quite nicely with a bit of milk and sugar.