A classic, yet exemplary Irish Breakfast tea: true to the style, but also top-quality. My favorite Irish Breakfast tea yet.

Dry leaf is dark and smell pleasant, fruity (like dried fruit), malty, and slightly spicy.

The brewed cup is strong and smells surprisingly much of wintergreen, which I love. There are also strong fruity and malty aromas, like the leaf suggests. Flavor is bold but not too bitter. Very rich and full-bodied, moderately astringent but I find the astringency is very pleasant. Warming, but also with a hint of a cool, fresh sensation in the finish.

This tea can be brewed more strongly than recommended. Upton recommends 3-4 minutes, which produces a pleasant cup, but if you are really going for the Irish Breakfast feel, you might enjoy a single, very long steeping (8-12 minutes). This tea does get bitter, but not overwhelmingly so, and I found the cup very enjoyable when brewed super strong in this way.

Brewed normally, it easily makes two cups, using a 3 minute steep followed by a single, very long (8-15 min) steep.

I found this tea really enjoyable to drink and I can see drinking it every day. The price is excellent too. This tea competes with teas in a much higher price range, and it's certainly on the more reasonable side for Irish Breakfast blends, yet like I said before, I think it's the best example of one I've ever tried.

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