English Breakfast

Well, due to not paying attention and accidentally putting the initial teaspoon into my ingenuitea while it still had the previous tea’s leaves in it, I have finished another sample! Yaaaaaaay….?

I like how this tea looks, with the long curling leaves – very different from the Scottish and Irish breakfasts! Today was one of my “forget until the last minute to make tea” mornings so short steeping time, and I think it really shows. The taste is a little malty, a little smoky, but only a little of both, and in general, it looks like it doesn’t do well with short steepings. Clearly it is meant to be brewed up properly. All in all, I have to say I’m pretty meh on it. I’ve got golden monkey for maltiness and Baker Street blend for smokiness and as I said in one of my earlier notes, smokiness just isn’t for me in the mornings. Honestly the only reason I even had it was because I wanted to have an unflavored simple black tea around just in case a friend of mine who hates any sort of flavors in her tea visited. But now that I’ve got a plethora of Upton black teas, it’s kind of lost it’s purpose in life.

1.25 tsp for 250 mL water @100C, steeped 4 minures, drunk bare.

I ordered the Silk Road sampler when my teen daughter asked me to order a custom-blend that comes in a tin with a picture of her favourite anime character on it. And it just so happens I’ve been craaaaaving Keemun today, and this EB is heavy on the Keemun.

Toasty/bready, smooth, a bit smoky, robust finish … ohhhhhh, yeah.

To my delight, this beautifully made tea greets me with a fruity, toasty nose. Two tsp of the loose, open blend are measured into my pre-heated, closed infuser for a 12-oz mug. The golden medium-amber liquor is smooth, with just a hint of astringency. The tea’s description begins with Keemun, so the smoke and fruit notes must hark from that Chinese region, rather than an Indian Darjeeling (more commonly used in EB blends). Quite good plain, there was only a tablespoon or two left when I added a tsp of vanilla soy milk. The result was a bit more richness and sweetness, without detracting from the true black-tea effect — a nice mix. The wholeness of the brewed leaves was attested to by how quickly the infuser rinsed out. The use of Keemun in this English Breakfast blend makes it stand out amongst the better ones I’ve tasted. It’s flavor and aroma lingered in my satisfied smile!

Ahhhh Adagio Teas….we meet once again.

Good morning my fellow Steepsters!

I needed a quick pick me up this morning since I was up way too late last night with my writing frenzy. I love when I get in the mood to put words onto paper. But this morning I have a few errands to run & before I can run out the door, I need a quick pick me up.

Enter Adagio Teas English Breakfast.
I had treated myself to a tea chest. I wanted one to show off during parties or for whenever friends stop over. Plus I figured I needed a place to store all the teabags I’ve got.

So the tea chest came with a variety of teabags. It’s loose leaf tea in a pyramid bag. I got the tea chest with English Breakfast, Peach Oolong, Chamomile, Cinnamon Spice & White Peony. This morning I grabbed the English Breakfast.

I love it!

It had a smell that I couldn’t quite place at first…but now I claim it as smoky. Very smoky. But I love it! Definitely wonderful on the taste buds for me. And I love the little energy kick I got from it. I used a little Sugar in the Raw in it, no milk.

I’m sure I’m going to have to get more when the teabags run out.

Prepared this Keemun gong-fu style and am really loving it.

I got a sample of this from a friend, and I’m intrigued. The brew is lighter than I expected, though I think that is more because I used too much water for the sample I had. I steeped for a full five minutes, hoping that might make up for it—I’m not sure it did. This is my first Keemun tea, and I’m definitely going to try more. It has a vaguely smoky, peppery aroma that is very lovely. The sip is gently smoky, nothing like a Lapsong Souchong (I remember with horror my first cup of that), and it goes down smooth. Overall a nice tea. Definitely one to keep on my short list for when my current stash starts to dwindle.

Having a fresh 20 oz pot with a pinch of Lapsang Souchong added.

My first foray with Adagio’s English Breakfast, and I am quite impressed. I’m new to loose leaf tea, but I’ve had many different English breakfast blends from bags.

The loose leaf variant is simply superb, especially compared to its bagged brethren. The taste was very rich and indulging. I let the tea steep for 4 minutes, since that was half way through the 3-5 minutes suggested, and the flavor was fantastic.

The color was rich, and the aroma made me want to drink another cup as soon as I was finished with the first!

So, to update, I did in fact have another cup as soon as I finished my last one. This cup I added a bit of milk and sugar vs the honey that I usually put in my tea. I liked my first cup better. I’m not one for milk in my tea, but I wanted to see if it would make the cup better or worse. I think I’ll be strictly sticking to honey in my black teas in the future.

I had this about two hours ago, while out running errands. It’s not the first time I’ve had it; it’s just the first time I’ve had it since I joined Steepster a few days ago. I like this tea quite a bit. It’s the first English Breakfast I’ve ever had with Keemun in it, and it’s a nice change from the usual Twinings-type blend. According to Wikipedia, the Keemun version is the traditional blend. That’s cool. I like traditional. The tea has a lovely floral-ish perfume to it, but isn’t too delicate for my tastes. (I typically like Assams and Ceylons for black teas, and hate Darjeelings.) Definite thumbs-up.

So that is smoky? At first it was kind of oily, in a “I smell petroleum jelly” way, but now I could definitely see someone calling this smoky. And woodsy, but not in a “I’m licking a block of wood way,” more like hmm, drinking by the fire. Interesting. Put in some creamer, and suddenly the smoke moves up, the woods fall back and the black tea taste comes forward.

I like this. Lots of interesting flavor.