Help me find the perfect breakfast tea
Hi everyone!
I’m looking for ‘the perfect’ breakfast tea but don’t know where to look for.
I would like a tea with the following characteristics:
- Full body (very important).
- Caramel/honey flavour
- Strong (enought to be served with milk+honey/condensed milk.
- Caffeine punch
- Not bitter (or not too much).
and if it has some malt flavour it will be welcome as well.
Any recommendation?
PS: I’m looking for some twinings english breakfast uk version samples and I’ll order some vahdam teas assam and breakfast samples.
I have just ordered some of this ones:
https://www.vahdamteas.com/products/assam-enigma-second-flush-black-tea
https://www.vahdamteas.com/products/daily-assam-black-tea
https://www.vahdamteas.com/products/bokel-assam-second-flush-black-tea
https://www.vahdamteas.com/products/classic-english-breakfast-black-tea
I think that the first one can be what I’m looking for to take alone.
Sounds like an Irish Breakfast you be looking for.
English Breakfast is more smooth when its made with Ceylon tea.
Irish tea with Assam has a bolder character.
You might want to compare them both.
Take a look at the Upton Imports site. Search for Breakfast
and it should bring up several pages.
They should list quite a few Breakfast Blends, as well as Ceylon and Assam varieties.
A single origin Assam or Ceylon may meet your needs as well.
What I would suggest, echoing the above, definitely an Irish breakfast. but I have a Cream Irish Breakfast. It is not flavored, but a smoother version. I also have a French Caramel Crème Brulee. I think of the second as more of a dessert tea, but imagine a combination of both might be just the ticket. Adding just enough of the FCCB to the CIB would caramel it up for you. It sounds so good, I think I am going to try it myself.
I see you can’t buy from USA, so my apologies. The Cream Irish is a Metro Tea and they are international, but wholesale only. So you would have to find an international vendor who carries it. The Crème Brulee is a USA tea.
If you are willing to ship from the USA Simpson and Vail has some good teas. I am not sure if I have tried their Irish Breakfast tea but I have always been happy with the quality of their teas. Not for instance as high a quality as Whispering Pines but also less than half the price while certainly not being less than half the quality. I don’t know how expensive their international shipping is.
www.svtea.com
Dianhongs are perfect for breakfast. If you’re open to blends, I have one for that as well.
The Assam Enigma that you mentioned is an excellent choice of tea in general. How it stacks up for your particular breakfast needs, I can’t say. It meets my requirements pretty well though. If Vahdam’s Signature Malt ever comes back in stock, that’s an awesome choice.
I have yet to be fond of an English Breakfast blend from any supplier. Always too bitter and and not enough malt for my taste. Likewise Irish Breakfast blends. But that’s just me. :)
Some months ago I received a 10gr assam sample from an order to goldentips (former vahdam teas) and I really love it, as it was full body and sweet, but I don’t remember the name. So I expect this one (for what I can read in the description) to be that tea or at least simmilar. The other ones are in order to try to find something stronger enough to take with condensed milk (and to amortize shipping, that’s $15 to spain, quite expensive…)
I haven’t found any of their Assams that I don’t like, just some that I prefer to others. The Royal Assam blend was pretty nice if I am remembering correctly. Don’t they offer free shipping after a certain amount? I know they don’t offer it to the US, but I thought it applied everywhere else.
I’d agree with people suggesting an Irish Breakfast, and honestly my favourite is still just standard own Barry’s Green Label (although this might be nostalgia from my childhood with an Irish mother). It’s a blend of Assam and Kenyan tea, and is lighter than their red label.
You can pick a box up on Amazon.es for €3,50 (just search “Barry’s Irish Breakfast”) so even if it’s not your thing… it’s not exactly expensive.
I don’t find it bitter at all unless accidentally over-brewed (which I, uh, am prone to do a lot in the mornings)
Edit: Twining’s English Breakfast is alright, but a bit weak to me. Definitely not first-thing-in-the-morning material.
I’m trying to get some samples of the Twinings earl grey, irish and english breakfast from the UK, as twinings said me that are stronger than the version they sell here. Then if I like it I’ll buy 500gr of each to amortize the shipping and exchange cost.
I can’t buy it from amazon.es and the shipping from the .co.u makes it expensive for me (I’m still a student).
How come you can’t buy it from .es? I’m looking at it on there right now, and it’s in stock. Is the shipping still terrible?
I’m happy to send you some from here in the UK, honestly.
There is (the loose leaf is called “original blend” but “original” and “Irish Breakfast” is the same), but I’ve never found it outside of Ireland and it isn’t available on Amazon uk, com, or es.
You can buy it directly from their site for €3,29 / 250g and shipping to Spain is €3,11 (I put in a zip code for Barcelona to calculate, but I imagine it’s the same across-the-board, there)
http://barrysteashop.ie/products/barrys-original-blend-loose-leaf-tea?variant=346685709
Edited to add: The “gold” and “classic” blends are also available loose leaf. Gold blend (red box) is stronger, and Classic (black box) has a slightly richer taste. Personally the Green (original/breakfast) is my favourite.
I was just reading this for Twinings English Breakfast. There isn’t any Ceylon tea in their bb:
“Tea from Kenya and Malawi provides the briskness and coppery-red colour while Assam gives full-body and flavour. The robustness from these regions is complemented by the softer and more subtle teas from China and Indonesia. The combination of these varieties yields a complex, full-bodied, lively cup of tea that is perfect any time of day.”
Pretty much the same as what it says in my package from a few years ago.
It is a Ceylon blend:
“English Breakfast: Our English Breakfast is over 80 years old and tastes even better than ever. This blend is the perfect mix of Assam, Ceylon and Kenya”
https://www.twinings.co.uk/tea/english-breakfast
“We only use high-grown Ceylon in our English Breakfast for the full depth of flavour.”
https://www.twinings.co.uk/tea/english-breakfast/english-breakfast-50-2015
They do have a “strong” variant these days (still a Ceylon blend) but even that is oddly weak. Bizarre, since every other tea I have from them – which is a lot – is wonderful.
Edit: Twinings saying that the stuff they sell here is stronger than the stuff they export makes me wonder how weak it is elsewhere, though.
Yah, this is North American market Twinings.
So the NA variant doesn’t contain Ceylon. Interesting. I’d imagine it’s more similar to an Irish breakfast, then? Those are heavily weighted towards the Assam.
Edit: Yup, looks like the only difference between the two is EB contains a blend of kenya/malawi for the African teas and IB is just kenya.
I think it’s because the British associate Ceylon with quality tea (and rightly so imho). Perhaps N.A. markets are less demanding. The switch to other areas for teas is industry wide as well. Lower costs etc..
Yorkshire tea bag teas hold up to condensed milk if brewed the Yorkshire way for four minutes before adding the milk.
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