Second Breakfast

This is a very nice breakfast tea. There is a strong crusty bread note that is so good. I can also taste chocolate, and, although I expected it to be stronger, I’m glad it’s not the dominating note because it seems more breakfast-y to me this way. There’s also notes of stone fruit and honey as well as a light floral note at the end of the sip. I was on the fence before about whether there was a dried or stone fruit note.Today it’s stone fruit… something between apricot and cherry. It’s a juicy, fresh taste that weaves around the honey and floral flavors. It all blends together into a lovely medium bodied tea that is nice to wake up to (even if it is a Monday).

This was a sample sent with my whispering pines order.

I knew this was a blend of two teas but couldn’t recall which ones when I made it. Right after the first sip, I knew there was the Ailaoshan black, but then also could detect keemun. Ah, delicious!
I might even prefer this blend to the straight ailaoshan – it has more grain and chocolate malt notes which meld with the fruitiness so beautifully.
A fancy and gentle breakfast tea, which would also be good anytime of day.

Received this as a sample from my last WP order! Wow, this tea… It’s delicious, and complex. A blend of two black teas, it’s more restrained than a typical breakfast blend, which I love. It has notes of bread and fruit and chocolate, along with a subtle floral finish. I find that I have to sip all my teas from Whispering Pines slowly, and really focus on what I’m drinking, or I miss out on all the subtleties. (I didn’t pay nearly enough attention when I tried my first cup of this, and couldn’t remember a thing about it afterward. Bad tea drinker, bad!)

Now I really want to order more, so I can drink this all the time. Agh, but I have far too many teas in my cupboard right now, and on my wish list! Whispering Pines, you’ll be the death of me. (Or just my wallet, I guess?)

I’m enjoying this one again in the afternoon. Today I lost track of time and let it steep a little too long—I’m not sure how much exactly, maybe 5 minutes? In any case, the long infusion produced an aroma and flavor that reminded me very strongly of petrichor. As I learned from Roswell Strange recently, petrichor is the scent after rain. It’s an interesting note, though I wouldn’t recommend long infusions of this tea to find it—the overall effect of this cup was not nearly as good as its usual profile.

(Rating is from previous impressions)

Working from home this morning because i haven’t been able to sleep well since we got back from vacation. So i’m exausted. The plus to that, is that since my other half is working nights this week, we’ll have a bit of time together to start putting the house back together lol my mother will be up in a week? and our spare bedroom currently has all our office things in it.
the other upside so this, is that my other half got up early to make banana bread, so it would be warm from the oven first thing in the morning. So a slice of that and a cup of this, and i was off to a great start this morning. Still meh about this tea, so the last of it is off to cavo so that she can give this one a try.

This tea is good, overall. I get notes of malt first followed by the baked bread and sugarcane. That being said it is too malty for my tastes. Being foremost a fan of Puerh I don’t like malt all that much, unless it is the rare chocolate malt taste, which this doesn’t have. It is still good though.

I brewed this tea once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 4 min. I would recommend this tea to drinkers who like malt flavor.

OH MY GOSH!!! I TASTE THE BREAD!!!

It’s only my first sample from the lovely Ost (and my first taste of anything from Whispering Pines) and I am already being enlightened. I’ve been reading “baked bread” in a lot of reviews lately and kind of had that “hmph…yeah right…” reaction every time. Like…I can’t believe that tea can taste like bread (don’t judge me for my newbie-ness). It just boggles my mind in an I-totally-love-this kind of way.

And to be honest, I’m so taken aback by the bread part that I don’t know that I can pick up on anything else. Certainly suitable for breakfast! It feels like I would enjoy this right around afternoon snack time, as well.

Mj sent me a sample of this one because, a while back, I was ruminating over making some myself since I had both the teas in the blend. However, I would need to try some first to know what taste I was going for. I had actually totally forgotten about the whole thing, until I saw this little samples in mj’s swap package with the words “for experiments”. Thanks dear! :P The leaves are small to medium in size and very dark. They’re thin and quite twisty. Dry, they smell like delicious cocoa goodness (hah, that Cavalla again) and it’s making me want to eat them… I steeped mine for 3 minutes in 200 degree water.

I can smell both teas in the brewed aroma – the breadiness and malt from the Keemun along with the fruitiness and floral from the Ailaoshan. The same is true in the taste for me. I’m relieved that the bread flavor is very strong here, as I was worried that it might get overpowered by the fruit. There’s also a lot of maltiness, and then the lovely dried fruit and caramelized brown sugar from the Ailaoshan. I also get a little bit of floral near the end. Based on the overall taste here, I’m guessing either a 50/50 split or maybe like a 60/40 with the Keemun being the majority. Unfortunately I don’t have any of the Keemun right now, so I’ll keep the other half of my sample for when I do. :)

This was included as a sample in my order. Feeling a bit blue this morning, so I decided to try it based on the name, which is an awesome name for tea.

It’s quite good, and very gentle for a breakfast tea. For some reason, I really want to add some cinnamon to it, so I might give that a try for the second cup. I wish I had some jam and scones or croissants to go with it. Or maybe some lembas bread…

http://instagram.com/p/sr7mC1lIVI/

This is my second stab at this tea. The first came out weak and inconsequential in the cup…so if first you don’t succeed, try again!

Ordering Whispering Pines Second Breakfast was close to a no-brainer for me. I love good tea blends. What I mean by I love good tea blends is that I love good tea in good tea blends. Because Whispering Pines sells so few straight black teas, and all that I have tasted have been to my liking, it was easy to know I would like this tea. And like I do!

Second Breakfast dry leaf in incredibly chocolatey smelling. Not cocoa. Chocolate. The chocolate note joins with the sugar cane quality in the Ailaoshan black tea to give a strong scent of warm chocolate syrup. Wet, the leaves unfurl long and beautiful. The liquor of Second Breakfast is a warm amber brown that smells of earth and chocolate and a touch of dark stone fruit. In the cup, the keemun’s earthiness mutes the usual boldness of the Ailaoshan black. It expands the base flavor profile of this tea so much so that there isn’t much going on the middle of the cup. There is some grain and a touch of malt as a middle note, which is a pleasing combination with the earthy chocolate bottom note. Top note is a dark stone fruit and a dark forest floral note. Nothing bright in this cup, but nothing overly dark and brooding either. If this cup was a forest and you were Lil Red Riding Hood, you’d continue on your way to your grandma’s house. The audience wouldn’t be waiting for a big “BOO”, and hopefully, when you got to grandma’s house, she’d have a lovely large cup of Second Breakfast waiting for you. Warm, earthy and comforting, it is a good cup of tea with a lovely deep flavor profile.