English Breakfast

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Chinese Keemun Black Tea
Flavors
Blueberry, Smoke, Walnut, Hay, Honey, Malt, Tea, Toast, Pepper, Wood, Caramel, Hot Hay, Chocolate, Sweet
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf, Sachet, Tea Bag
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by twiggles
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 15 sec 2 g 12 oz / 368 ml

From Our Community

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144 Tasting Notes View all

  • “My tin is getting dangerously low, and I bought the one pound bag! It is almost gone… It is finally a really cold morning here. I needed some warmth to look forward to after breakfast. Tea is...” Read full tasting note
  • “Second tea of the morning…… We will just call this “the parade of Keemuns”. I am trying to get an idea of which basic Keemun is the best flavor profile for me. I have three in a similar price...” Read full tasting note
    87
  • “Apparently I’m on a bit of a Harney & Sons sampling kick. I’d like to say I’m going to be methodical about it and stick mostly to these for a while but that would probably be misleading. I...” Read full tasting note
    85
  • “This is a nice Keemun with a peppery taste. This is a very smooth tea with a slight sweetness to it. It has a very slight smoky aftertaste. A nice cup of tea in the morning.” Read full tasting note
    79

From Harney & Sons

Our English Breakfast has an ancient pedigree. Researchers have traced its heritage back to the black tea the English drank regularly in the 1800’s. 100% Keemun.

www.harney.com

About Harney & Sons View company

Since 1983 Harney & Sons has been the source for fine teas. We travel the globe to find the best teas and accept only the exceptional. We put our years of experience to work to bring you the best Single-Estate teas, and blends beyond compare.

144 Tasting Notes

67
596 tasting notes

Not a bad tea, but rather too mild for my tastes.

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90
123 tasting notes

I don’t know what I was thinking this morning. Apparently I thought this was going to be a light, gentle, quiet tea, so I used TWO tea bags in my first cup. With 2% milk.

And I’m OK. My hands are not shaking. In fact, 4 hours later, I am about to have another cup, this time brewed with 1 silken bag for about 5 minutes. No milk, sugar, half-and-half, or lemon.

[Pause] [Sniff] [Pause] [Slurp] […Pause…]

When I sniff I can catch that sharp, almost vinegary smell someone else mentioned. It’s rather nice, like malt vinegar or even balsamic.

First unadorned sip is strong, definitely “fills the mouth” (if I’m beginning to understand that term) with the flavor of tea, and then retreats with almost no aftertaste. I could get used to drinking this black. Must try this experiment with my Assams later.

Now it’s cooled down a little and I can take bigger sips. It’s a bit puckery but pleasant. That’s “briskness,” right? H&S doesn’t seem to think it’s very brisk, as they only give it a 1 on their scale of 1-5. Maybe I am a wuss, after all.

This is my first China tea of this new exploration, and I believe it is the first Keemun I have ever tasted. The knowledgeable tea buyer at my local British import shop guided me to it when I asked whether they carried a pure Keemun. It’s not clearly identified as such on the bagged tin, although if you read the back it says “Produced in late spring in Annui Province, China handplucked, fully oxidized.” I believe on the loose-tea tin it does say “Keemun” in fine print.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec

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82
47 tasting notes

Courtesy of Janefan! I love sachet tea bags- they’re convenient while retaining all the goodness of loose leaf tea. I had this for my morning tea, and it was a very smooth Keemun with a pleasant sweet aftertaste. Not a sugary flavor, but just natural slight sweetness of tea. It would be also good other times of the day as it is not very strong.

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84
1015 tasting notes

I had a sample of this and was pleasantly surprised. Most of the breakfast teas I have been drinking need milk or sugar because they are not that smooth plain. This tea, however, was great plain. I think this will be going on my shopping list.

Preparation
3 min, 0 sec

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59
20 tasting notes

I have a disease of acquisitiveness. I lusted after having some of Harney & Son’s pretty tins in my collection. Now, I am also an anglophile, and I wanted the English Breakfast tea H&S makes that is “the original tea the English drank”, so that meant it was the 100% Keemun. So, I get to my local grocery today and they have both the pretty tin (20 sachets, 1.4 oz) for $7.49, and the plain black tin (Loose, 4 oz) for $7.19. Well…I don’t like the polyester sachets, right? Non-biodegradable and all that. And I was faced with a choice: a pretty tin and less tea for more money, or more tea at a better value?

Sigh. I’m growing up. I bought the loose tea. Because in the end, it’s all about the tea.

I’ve had Keemuns before, some of them decent, some sour and undrinkable. This one is pretty good. It has a smell and character that puts me in mind of Chinese grocery stores. There is a bit of a tang to it, something sort of vinegar-y. I will play with this one a bit and see what I uncover.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 45 sec

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67
54 tasting notes

Not as good as Irish Breakfast, but we still buy this in bulk and go through it pretty quick.

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74
19 tasting notes
Complex and earthy flavor is well rounded with a satisfying finish. Light to medium bodied.
Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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62
439 tasting notes

This seemed like a good tea to try, both my dad and I like Keemun, but this tea is blah. A fair example of Keemun, but we’ve both tasted better and I won’t need to purchase this again. It’s not bitter, and would be a good tea to blend with.

ashmanra

I bought this years ago, maybe more than once and back in my milk and sugar days, but it really doesn’t have any wow factor on its own. Premium Keemun Hao Ya from Teavivre is more to my liking.

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66
1233 tasting notes

Old Tea Bag Sip Down
Part 9. Last one. For real.
This one was hiding. The bag looks fairly beaten up but not in too bad of shape. Should be decent. Oh. Ooo. The aroma coming off the liquor as the tea steeps is quite nice. Notes of earthy honey, cream of wheat, and those lovely woody Keenum notes. This is actually quite lovely. Would be even better fresh and loose but heck this is much better than I thought it would be. My only reason for rating it in the 60s is simply because it is not very strong. This could be due to it being an older tea bag, which I am fairly certain of. Beyond a small lack of character, the flavors hint at malt, some cream of wheat, a bit of lacquer, and a gambit of woody notes.

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80
20 tasting notes

Strong but not too brisk, a little fruity and nutty, smoky, liked it a lot.

Flavors: Blueberry, Smoke, Walnut

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

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