China Breakfast

Rishi’s China Breakfast tea is made from ancient tea trees in the Mannong Manmai reserve in Yunnan Province in China. And, yeah, they’re trees, which is what would happen to all tea bushes if tea estates didn’t prune them regularly to make them easier to harvest. These trees are also used to make Rishi’s Golden Yunnan and Rishi’s Golden Needles.

So what’s the difference between the three — aside from the price? Rishi’s China Breakfast tea is composed entirely of mature leaves. Golden Yunnan is composed of leaves and buds (leaf buds that have yet to unfurl). And Golden Needles is nothing but buds.

Rishi’s China Breakfast is rich and malty, just like the label says. What it’s missing, however, is the sweetness that you’d find in Golden Yunnan. Buds typically are sweet since the plant tends to pump sugar to the buds to nourish them and get them to open up. No buds generally means less sweetness. Rishi’s China Breakfast is a good tea, but it doesn’t give you the full spectrum of flavors that Rishi’s Golden Yunnan provides. My wife says the tea tastes like it has no bottom. I liken it to playing your stereo through one channel — it’s like you’re missing half the music.

So here’s my recommendation. If you take your tea with milk (or rice or soy milk) and sweetener, Rishi’s China Breakfast tea is great. It’s rich, malty and can really hold up to milk. If you take your tea straight, I’d recommend spending the extra dollar and get Rishi’s Golden Yunnan. You’ll appreciate the extra sweetness that buds can provide to the mix. And if you’re feeling really flush financially, really splurge and get Rishi’s Golden Needles and experience the joy of an all-bud tea.

“China Breakfast is a pure Dian Hong style black tea harvested from Yunnan’s antique tea trees”
This tea used to be my favorite everyday breakfast tea. It’s both full-bodied & smooth. Not a hint of bitterness. However, years ago our first bulk order was $20/lb. Today, the same order would cost $30/lb. – a 50% increase.

3/22/13 Update: This tea now costs $42./lb. There is a 5% discount for 2 or more lbs. http://www.rishi-tea.com/product/gram-tin-china-breakfast-organic-fair-trade-black-tea/chinese-black-tea

I have found the tea to wake up for! Except I can’t drink it in the morning because I like it so much that I won’t bring it to work and have it associated with an office in any way so I have to wait until I get home to drink it. Hopefully I am not up all night tonight.

I first tried this tea at Spot Coffee, my favorite coffee shop which is 45 minutes away. They are one of the TWO places here in south florida to serve or sell loose leaf tea, since the third recently closed.

Anyway, I first tried this tea on a nice rainy day, my favorite kind of day, and it was in a very large mug. Ah, a nice mug of tea it was! With just a bit of raw sugar, I truly enjoyed the taste and boldness of it. I am still learning ways to describe tea taste so bear with me… that’s actually a good way to describe it, it tastes comforting like a big hug from a nice big bear.

After my first cup, I kept thinking about the tea and when I went back to the shop a week later, they said they sell it! So I bought some and had my second cup yesterday in my own big mug. Usually I use glass and infusers but I wanted to drink it the same way as in the shop so I filled an empty tea bag for my mug.

Each sip was better than the last and I felt nothing lacking in the tea. Its just pure awesome, and even though its very drying to the mouth, I see this as a good thing because it reminds me to drink a glass of water after, which is always a good thing.

Not only does it taste good, but its origin is very interesting to me. The tea comes from ancient tea trees! I study trees and am obsessed with both subjects so I am in love.

Still good. I drink it every morning.

It was good, but nothing special and a little disappointing. I feel like my batch might have been a little bit stale as it was pretty bland. To me, it tasted a lot like the Tazo Awake teabags, which certainly wasn’t what I was hoping for. On to the next one.

Thank you Ricky for sharing this Yunnan with me.
I am on a quest to find that morning tea that I want to reach for each morning. This is not for me, but if you like Yunnans, this is your tea. Brisk and bright…but not my cuppa.

Rishi recommends brewing with 1 Tablespoon per cup. I didn’t have enough left for that this morning so I finished it off with the more traditional teaspoon per cup. The result was predictably milder without the typical robustness of a breakfast blend. Still a very good, but mellow tea. I will be reordering and will stick with the recommended Tablespoon of tea in the future.

It’s 2:40 in the AM over here so I don’t really feel like writing a review…

But boy is this delicious. Phenomenal in my opinion; pretty standard and everything I had hoped for in this cup. Was not disappointed; no bitterness, just a smooth black tea that was not overwhelmingly strong.

I need to give this tea more credit. It was excellent cold-brewed as an iced tea. It a perfect go-to tea in the morning.

Pretty good tea. I take it black, steeped to the point where it’s a bit bitter. The tea itself isn’t very spectacular, tastes like a staple black tea. It finishes off quite smoothly with a noticeable aftertaste of chocolate, but that could just be my mug; still tainted with the stench of death from an ill-advised battle of gas station cappuccinos and myself.

This is what kicked me off the coffee habit, and I’d strongly recommend it to anyone. Despite the pretty average taste, it still comes down smooth, it’s certainly malty, one might even say comforting.

Basically, it’s a decent, fairly priced cheap breakfast tea. Great with pastries, if you swing that way, and I’d imagine it tasting good with milk.