The last of my Doctor Who fandom blends. It’s nice to have a change of pace from Earl Grey, because I feel like I’ve been drinking a lot of that this morning. This one has a decent, solid base of Irish Breakfast, with cinnamon and orange flavouring. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk.
For the first few sips, I could only really detect the sweet, caramel-like maltiness of Irish Breakfast. While nice, it’s not quite what I was expecting. Successive sips reveal some cinnamon, although it’s nowhere near as strong as I thought it would be. It lurks in the background, and only really emerges fully in the aftertaste, where it contributes a warming feeling and a hint of spice. The orange, I feel, is almost completely lost. I get the odd citrussy flash, but nothing I’d really be able to pin down as orange if I didn’t know that’s what it was supposed to be. Possibly this one has lost a little of its flavour, although none of the other blends in my sample box have, so I’m thinking it was perhaps a fairly mild blend to begin with. It’s pleasant enough – straightforward and easy to drink, not too in-your-face like some flavoured blends can be. I was hoping for more of an orange/cinnamon play-off, especially as its cold out today, but I’m happy enough with how this one turned out. It’s probably not one I’d repurchase, but I’ll have no problem finishing up my sample tin. Sometimes a fairly simple, reliable black tea is just what I’m after, anyway.
