Reviews of Black Tea
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Festive Breakfast (Teabags) from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: English Breakfast – Region: Blend74 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Feb. 4th, 2024
Whittard has a single-sourced English Breakfast by name (from West Java), and an entirely different tea more of the traditional EB style—this one—composed of Ceylon and Kenya teas. Unlike the named EB, I couldn't find Festive Breakfast on Whittard's website, but instead, got it as part of a gift assortment.
Fo...
English Breakfast (Teabags) from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: English Breakfast – Region: West Java, Indonesia77 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 4/5
Dec. 24th, 2023
Given how unimpressed I've been with most of Whittard's offerings so far, this was a pleasant surprise. English Breakfast is their advertised "No. 01" mainstay tea since the Victorian era, at least in loose-leaf form, so presumably the bagged version shouldn't be terribly different.
Though not very strong, the dry...
Darjeeling (Teabags) from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: Darjeeling Black Tea – Region: Darjeeling, India69 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Dec. 3rd, 2023
The photo is from Whittard's website where (as of this writing) 50 round, stringless bags sell for USD $9.50, not too bad for what I presume to be a decent-quality Darjeeling. [They also sell loose-leaf Darjeeling.] Mine came from a 5-bag sampler pack, each bag being of the fold-over type stapled to a string and tag....
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Organic Nilgiri Black Tea from Trader Joe's
Style: Black Tea – Region: Nilgiri, India65 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Oct. 26th, 2023
This was a strange black tea, in that the in-cup and dry-bag aroma differed more from the flavor than the great majority of black teas I've had. As it turns out, that's a good thing, because the aroma wasn't bad—just weak and weird. The smells were reminiscent of something I don't often associate with tea: mild ch...
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Royal English Breakfast from Harney and Sons
Style: English Breakfast – Region: Blend67 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 2/5
Jan. 1st, 2023
As with their "Green Tea with Coconut & Ginger", I got this at a last-day estate sale for a quarter (proportionate fraction of a bulk pantry buy). Not per bag, but for the entire tin! That's the best value I've had for a good tea. However, you probably can't match that. So how costly is it, for real? A peek at the...
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Platinum Jubilee Tea Bags from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend71 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 5/5
Nov. 13th, 2022
While still good, this was the least desirable of the Murchie's "Jubilee" line I've tried so far. Blended this year (2022) in honor of the late Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee, it contains a mix of Darjeeling, Assam, Yunnan and Keemun. Given the strong history this company has with teas of those origins individual...
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English Breakfast Black Tea from Rituals
Style: English Breakfast – Region: ?????63 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5
Oct. 17th, 2022
Not great, but decent and tolerable: that's how I'll characterize this blend. In my relatively limited experience, many food-service black teas (including English Breakfasts) taste rather flat, hollow, sometimes excessively bitter, or often weak, as if they've either been allowed to sit out in the open for 20 years, ...
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Irish Breakfast (Loose) from Twinings
Style: Irish Breakfast – Region: Blend59 / 100 Aroma: 4/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5
Apr. 27th, 2022
The version I'm rating is from the "American" tin (packed in Greensboro, NC, but presumably shipped over in bulk to parse out for that purpose). It doesn't look appreciably different from the photo I uploaded off Twinings' website.
Dry aroma was surprisingly weak for an Irish Breakfast blend, but pleasant to the e...
Balmoral Blend Tea Bags from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend84 / 100 Aroma: 10/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Apr. 7th, 2022
This Ceylon/Assam blend is yet another in a long line of Murchie's teas paying tribute to British royalty in some way. According to the website: "Murchie's Balmoral Blend Tea was originally blended for York House School—a private school for girls which has been an institution in Vancouver for over 75 years. This b...
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Decaf from Barry's Tea
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend65 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Feb. 17th, 2022
My samples of Barry's Decaf came from a motel where the "regular" tea was Lipton. As such, I haven't tried the normal, caffeinated breed of this tea yet for comparison's sake. Both there and at home, I tried it before bedtime, as the website advocated (but without knowing of said suggestion yet).
Dry-bag aroma wa...
Decaffeinated Black Tea from Great Value
Style: Black Tea – Region: ?????18 / 100 Aroma: 2/10 Flavor: 2/5 Value: 1/5
Jan. 1st, 2022
Brought home from a low-grade motel somewhere in southwestern New Mexico, this tea wasn't high on my priority list to try. Cheap motels are that way for a reason—well, several reasons—one being those that do bother to offer tea often buy cheap tea in bulk from Wal-Mart. The nearest Wal-Mart to this place was at l...
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Editors' Blend Tea Bags from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend91 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Nov. 3rd, 2021
Murchie's carries so many different tea blends that it takes a long time—years, at a normal tea-drinking pace—to get around to trying most of them. I wish this one had landed on my porch sooner! This may be the richest, smoothest, fullest-bodied all-black tea blend of theirs, or anybody's for that matter, that I'...
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Diamond Jubilee Tea Bags from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend87 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Aug. 27th, 2021
Another Murchie's mix marches out of the box and firmly into fond appreciation, this one in a traditional but growing group that honors assorted British royalty. The dry-bag aroma is mild but pleasant, offering an honest hint at the smooth and bold flavor to come. This blend tastes, has in-cup aroma and smells in the...
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Scottish Breakfast Tea Bags from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Scottish Breakfast – Region: Blend89 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Aug. 4th, 2021
Somehow, through all the teas I've chugged the last few years, Scottish Breakfast hasn't gone down the gullet yet. Why? Forgive my neglect. I've been missing out. I won't speak for other shops' renditions yet, but Murchie's has a championship-caliber blend going here.
Maybe some of it was reading that many Scott...
Extra Strong from Typhoo
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend81 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 5/5
Jun. 29th, 2021
Typhoo hard-sells to appreciators of strong tea with what appears to be their newest offering, straightforwardly titled Extra Strong, with this verbiage on the side of the package: "The most hardcore quality teas from estates in India and Africa, wrestled from the plant and blended together. Deep. Bold. Strong. Th...
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Premium Tea Decaffeinated from Bigelow Tea
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend46 / 100 Aroma: 4/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5
Jun. 13th, 2021
This tea came from a motel. That isn't surprising, considering that the Bigelow website for the product offers 48-bag boxes and cases thereof, as if targeting the food-service market. I've gotten the regular version of this (which is mediocre too) in motels as well as on airplanes.
For a decaf tea, Premium Decaf w...
1894 Select Orange Pekoe Tea Bags from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend84 / 100 Aroma: 10/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
May. 26th, 2021
Imagine if Lipton black tea were actually really good, how it should taste. This is that. 1894 is one of the original Murchie's teas from nearly 130 years ago, first blended by their founder in Victorian-era Vancouver. It's a simple, straightforward, unpretentious mix of good-quality Ceylon and Assam, with both the ...
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Murchie's Afternoon Decaf from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend74 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 5/5
Apr. 3rd, 2021
As decaf teas go, this was about the best I've had. I think I've found a new beverage to chug when I get a hankerin' for black tea before bedtime. Long a big fan of their traditional Murchie's Afternoon (formerly Empress Afternoon), I got this in a variety pack and didn't even open the box for months, afraid of disa...
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Prince Charles Blend Tea Bags from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend87 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Jan. 14th, 2021
Prince Charles isn't among most heavily advertised teas in the large assortment Murchie's carries, but maybe it should be. It was, according to the website, "originally blended in 1981 to commemorate the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana." Good thing this tea long outlasted that marriage!
The dry bag gave a sharp...
Rocky Mountain Blend from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend72 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 5/5
Aug. 15th, 2020
Both the loose and bagged versions of this blend have gone down my gullet, and I honestly can't tell much (if any) difference, at least within a reasonably narrow batch-to-batch margin of error. That said, I'll base this review mainly on what I've got right now, which is bags from a sampler pack.
The dry-bag (and ...
Assam Tea Bags from Taylors of Harrogate
Style: Assam – Region: Assam, India73 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Jun. 2nd, 2020
Taylor's has/had a "Pure Assam". Does the absence of that adjective here make this one "impure" by default? :-)
Seriously, I don't know if "Assam Tea" is the same as "Pure Assam", repackaged and rebranded, or a parallel offering. It has been a few years since I tried and reviewed "Pure Assam", so I can't compare...
English Breakfast from Lipton Tea
Style: English Breakfast – Region: Blend54 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5
Feb. 11th, 2020
I bring news! Whether it's good news or not is up to the reader. This tea, as a brand with the same name, is not retired after all, as of Feb. 2020. Instead, it has found its way to the food-service division of Unilever, Lipton's corporate overlord. I'll upload a photo of its newest packaging separately. I was abl...
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Organic Autumn Harvest Black Tea from Trader Joe's
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend69 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Feb. 6th, 2020
This is not to be confused with the apparently much-better-known Trader Joe's "Harvest Blend" herbal tea, which is a completely different product. Instead, this black tea came in a 10-bag sealed wrapper, tucked into one of four squares of a wooden gift box. The outside paper wrapper of the gift box describes all four...
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Storm Watcher from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend81 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Dec. 17th, 2019
Being in Oklahoma, the name of this seasonal tea intrigued me a lot, even though the storms inspiring it are cold, wet wintertime blasts on the British Columbia coast, instead of southern Plains severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. Then again, that makes sense. What would tornado tea be, and would it even matter? The...
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English Breakfast from Revolution Tea
Style: English Breakfast – Region: Blend63 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5
Dec. 2nd, 2019
The next entry from a Revolution variety pack delivered one of the strangest experiences I've had with a tea. Sniffing the dry bag (pyramid sachet) rendered an unmistakably familiar aroma that took me many tries to recall its specific origin. "Sniff, sniff, sniff...I know this...sniff, sniff, sniff...where have I sme...
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