This has been my go-to morning cuppa for much of the past week or thereabouts. I have long had an attachment to English breakfast blends, and I am happy to report that this one has consistently struck me as being a good one. It is an organic blend and is comprised entirely of Chinese material. I’m not certain what the teas used in this blend are, but I am almost certain that Yunnan black teas make up a healthy percentage of it.
While I normally prefer to gongfu Chinese teas, I am not accustomed to gongfuing blends, especially breakfast blends. I opted instead for my trusty one step extended Western infusion process. Hey, if the vendor insists on labeling this an English breakfast tea, I am going to treat it like one. Anyway, I steeped 3 grams of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 205 F water for 5 minutes.
After infusion, the orange tea liquor produced aromas of toast, malt, wood, caramel, and sweet potato. In the mouth, the liquor was brisk, astringent, and tannic, offering notes of wood, malt, cream, roasted nuts, brown toast, sweet potato, caramel, molasses, and bitter chocolate. I got hints of camphor, orange rind, and smoke as well. The finish was mostly astringent, woody, and nutty. I found the caffeine uplift to come on pretty quickly too.
For an English breakfast tea, this was very nice. I kind of wish I had taken the time to gongfu it once or twice, but I have so little left now that I may as well just plow on through the remainder the same way I’ve been doing. It may sound crazy, but this kind of reminded me of a budget version of The Jabberwocky. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a strong, consistent black tea blend to get them through the day.
Flavors: Astringent, Brown Sugar, Brown Toast, Camphor, Caramel, Chocolate, Cream, Malt, Molasses, Orange, Roasted Nuts, Smoke, Sweet Potatoes, Tannic, Wood
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Budget Jabberwocky? Dang that’s a statement.
Yeah, I knew that might get some people going. To be honest though, there are some similarities. The Jabberwocky is 100% Yunnan black tea (a blend of Wildcrafted Dian Hong, Yunnan Gold Tips, and Ailaoshan Black if memory serves) and I’m pretty sure this is mostly, if not entirely Yunnan leaf material. Some of the aroma and flavor components are going to be very similar to say the least. Obviously, the leaf quality here is not as high as The Jabberwocky nor is this blend as complex and refined, but there are just a few similarities.
I’m guessing there’s got to be some Yunnan in this blend then
It kind of threw me at first too. I’m aware that research suggests that classic English breakfast teas were 100% Keemun. Looking at the thin, wiry, jet black leaves, I expected this to be mostly Keemun. Now, I grant that Keemun and some Yunnan blacks can be very similar, and this blend did have the chocolate and smoke notes I get out of Keemun, but I kept looking for those telltale stone fruit and leather flavors and never got them. This was decidedly soldier and nuttier.
*woodier. I hate autocorrect. I really hate autocorrect.
It makes for a good guessing game: ‘What did he type before autocorrect hit?’
Woodier. Autocorrect believed and continues to believe that I mean soldier.
Budget Jabberwocky? Dang that’s a statement.
Yeah, I knew that might get some people going. To be honest though, there are some similarities. The Jabberwocky is 100% Yunnan black tea (a blend of Wildcrafted Dian Hong, Yunnan Gold Tips, and Ailaoshan Black if memory serves) and I’m pretty sure this is mostly, if not entirely Yunnan leaf material. Some of the aroma and flavor components are going to be very similar to say the least. Obviously, the leaf quality here is not as high as The Jabberwocky nor is this blend as complex and refined, but there are just a few similarities.
I’m guessing there’s got to be some Yunnan in this blend then
It kind of threw me at first too. I’m aware that research suggests that classic English breakfast teas were 100% Keemun. Looking at the thin, wiry, jet black leaves, I expected this to be mostly Keemun. Now, I grant that Keemun and some Yunnan blacks can be very similar, and this blend did have the chocolate and smoke notes I get out of Keemun, but I kept looking for those telltale stone fruit and leather flavors and never got them. This was decidedly soldier and nuttier.
*woodier. I hate autocorrect. I really hate autocorrect.
It makes for a good guessing game: ‘What did he type before autocorrect hit?’
Woodier. Autocorrect believed and continues to believe that I mean soldier.