Breakfast Blend

I found a bunch of neglected tea bags from various companies, and I’m hoping that one or more of them will satisfy my cravings for a strong, robust cup of tea. I decided to start with Numi because I’ve fond memories of this company from happy college cafeteria days (this is the brand UVic carried when I attended there; I always went for the Gunpowder or Mint though).

Even though my nose is super muted, I still can smell a touch of delicious, caffeine-filled black tea (bliss)! To taste, I still manged to get “sweet potato” and “malt” from this bright, bitter, slightly sweet tea – which is more than I hoped for (you can tell Numi includes Chinese black tea in this blend). It’s a lovely tea bag that’s as satisfying as turning rich, fine loam in the garden – but it’s possibly too lovely to add the planned honey and lemon.

Also, despite steeping the bag for 5 minutes in a tiny mug the astringency is more minimal than I was anticipating – something that only asserted itself after I finished my cup. But take that with a grain of salt; my head is currently cotton mush.

My go-to loose leaf breakfast tea

A decent bagged tea with enough bite to let you know it’s black tea, but not so much as to need sweetener or milk. It’s so blended I can’t really pick out any interesting flavors, it’s not a tea I’d reach for again, but it’s not the worst bagged breakfast blend either.

I’ve quietly replenished this a couple of times in the past year or so without mentioning it, simply because it’s a good no-fuss, no-fail morning staple. One other review mentioned that Numi has blended it so well, nothing stands out significantly. That about captures it. Smooth, (very slightly) sweet caffeine.

A good bagged tea strong enough to accompany a breakfast of homemade biscuits and gravy, eggs, avocado and spinach. Cuts through that heaviness while still shining in flavor. Mostly malty, a little woody, and a little sweet with a substantial citrus tinge.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #1 – A Breakfast Tea

So eyeing the list for September prompts, I might actually have a few possible challenge possibilities from what I brought along in my gallon zip bag of teas. Scratch that. Uncannily, I might be able to accomplish ALL the prompts with my gallon zipbag of teas, though they may not be actual sipdowns!   I like to bring a few teaspoons of each tea along, for variety so I don’t get bored with a tea, but also for space saving.  20 teaspoons = too much for travel.  1 teaspoon = not saving enough space in that gallon zip bag (too much packaging, not enough tea).   So this will be fun seeing what prompts I can accomplish away from my tea stash.

This tea is Not a sipdown and I’m glad.  I always forget this is just about the best black tea bag.  And accurate with the “breakfast” name. It’s so rich while not being astringent, two steeps.  I usually bring this specific tea traveling…

NOTE: This review is on the LOOSE LEAF version of the tea.

I enjoy Numi’s organic black teas, in bags or loose leaf, particularly their Chinese Breakfast selection. They also offer some of the best prices I’ve found for a pound of loose leaf tea during their periodic sales. A sale was going on this week so I thought this would be a perfect time to try another Numi product.

The tea leaves in the one pound bag were short and black. The smell was rich and tea-like. No specific aroma jumped out at me.

I steeped the leaves at 212 degrees for five minutes. The brewed aroma had a slightly sweet vegetable quality to it. The color was bright amber.

My whole cup of this tea maintained a pronounced and distinctive taste throughout. The flavor reminded me of sweet potatoes lightly sprinkled with maple syrup. The overall effect was quite smooth and only slightly sweet. I didn’t detect any harshness. The aftertaste was brief and appealing.

This Numi blend turned out to be even better than I hoped. The achievement made the extremely reasonable sale price that much more delightful. I am going to add this brew to my official morning tea rotation. I predict that I will be ordering another pound before this time next year.

This is a decent black tea. It has a pleasant sweet potato note, but it is rather bitter. It tastes mild enough that it might not stand up to milk well, so if I were to make it again, I would probably steep it for a shorter period of time.

Another tea I picked up for travel. At first, it has a nice malt scent. Once brewed, it is very… bold. There are a few different teas in this blend, but I mostly get Assam flavours. Which is normally something I like, but comes across a little too strong here.

My pallet is not that sophisticated, so I am only giving this an 80. This, however, is really good black tea. It is deep and rich, with notes I barely notice in supermarket brands. It definitely has an oaky note. It’s astringent, but not sharp.. even after sitting out a bit.