I’m pretty sure this English Breakfast, available to buy loose at a local tea house, is from SpecialTeas. It matches the description and photo to a t(ea – sorry!). My husband had it at the tea room, and liked it so much we took 4 oz of leaves home with us.
Fast forward to last night. We had some shortbread begging to be eaten, and this tea popped into my head. What I remember from taking a sip of his at the tea house was the word “Classic!” popping into my head. Like a really great tea bag that you grew up with only a million jillion times better. That utterly English idea of tea with milk and sugar.
The package recommended to steep this one for 3 minutes, but I knew I preferred my milk ’n sugar teas at 5. What to do? Since the leaves were very broken, I decided to compromise and steep to 4 minutes. It was pretty much perfect – the milk and sugar did not drown out the wonderful tea flavor, but there was no bitterness or astringency. It was so good with shortbread. I think my pet name for this tea is going to be “Shortbread Tea.” !!!
I’m not a huge Ceylon fan; I always find them a bit insipid. In this case, though, it rounds out the Assam and makes for a rich but not heavy tea. Like I said, classic. I think you could serve this tea to anybody and they would like it, which may sound like I’m damning it with faint praise, but I honestly mean it purely as a compliment. There is nothing not to like here, and I think having this type of tea around is really great for when you don’t know quite what you want, when you want your food to be the star, and not the tea, and when you have guests of varying tastes.
