Difflugia
Tea Reviewer
Member since Mar. 9th, 2017. Reviewed 170 teas.
Reviews of Black Tea
Page 1 2 3 of 3 pages with 57 results
Decaf from Barry's Tea
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend69 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Apr. 8th, 2022
This is another box of tea from iherb.com. I'd about given up on finding a decent decaf black tea, but I had a discount and so the price was right.
These are the loose, tagless tea bags typical of Ireland and the UK, containing 3g of tea each. The dry tea smells surprisingly strong for a decaf, but as others have no...
Barry's Irish Breakfast from Barry's Tea
Style: Irish Breakfast – Region: ?????74 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 5/5
Mar. 27th, 2022
When I ordered some herbs from iHerb.com, they had better prices for Barry's teas than I can get locally, so I bought a few varieties to try and this is one of them. My box says "Irish Breakfast," so that's where I'm putting the review, but it's otherwise the same green box as the "Original Blend" and I suspect they're...
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English Breakfast from The Tao of Tea
Style: English Breakfast – Region: Blend65 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5
Feb. 25th, 2022
When first opening the tin, the tea smells earthy and dusty, very much like an inexpensive Yunnan black tea. The leaves are quite large for loose leaf tea at this price, but there are more than a few twig fragments among the leaves. This also matches my experience with inexpensive Yunnan black tea.
While brewing, th...
English Afternoon from New English Teas
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend35 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 2/5 Value: 1/5
Jun. 2nd, 2020
I found a novelty tin (Buckingham Palace!) of this tea and bought it on a whim. The packaging has EU-style product labeling, but the 2g (instead of typical UK 3g) teabag fill means this was either intended for sale outside the UK, they're cheaping out, or both. The teabags in this tin were collectively sealed in a myla...
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Assam Tea Bags from Taylors of Harrogate
Style: Assam – Region: Assam, India68 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
May. 4th, 2020
The dry tea has almost no odor at all. The teabag smells slightly woody, which could either be from the tea or the paper. The tea looks to be CTC pellets that were ground up further. I wonder if the "Pure Assam" that this tea seems to have replaced was orthodox tea and that's the difference.
This tea smells tannic a...
English Breakfast Tea Bags from Taylors of Harrogate
Style: English Breakfast – Region: Blend72 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
May. 4th, 2020
Each bag contains 2.5g of what looks like ground up CTC pellets. There's very little scent from the dry tea. It smells faintly woody, like a new newspaper.
This tea brews up dark. Before I've finished pouring the water, the tea is already darker than most black teas end up. By the time brewing's done, it's a deep br...
Ceylon Orange Pekoe from Twinings
Style: Ceylon Black Tea – Region: Matale, Sri Lanka (Dimbula)64 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 4/5
May. 1st, 2020
Dry, this tea smells vaguely of cocoa and molasses. It's understated, but pleasant. While brewing, the aroma is of light brown sugar, but not heavy. The cocoa from earlier is still there, but less pronounced than I expected based on the initial aroma and experience with other Sri Lankan teas. There's a faint note of ra...
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Decaffeinated Breakfast Tea Bags from Taylors of Harrogate
Style: English Breakfast – Region: Blend51 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5
Mar. 2nd, 2020
Dry, this tea smells like a Lipton teabag, which is potentially promising. I've yet to find a decaffeinated black tea that actually tastes like tea.
After adding water, a hint of earthiness comes through. The dominant aroma is the same wet paper smell that I now realize is a hallmark of decaffeinated black tea. The ...
Black Tea from Touch Organic
Style: Black Tea – Region: China60 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5
Mar. 2nd, 2020
According to the box, this tea is from "Southeastern China." Fujian, maybe? The dry tea is in unbleached, individually wrapped (but not sealed) teabags. It's finely chopped and smells earthy and dusty, kind of like old books.
I'll point out first that preparing normally (one teabag in eight ounces of boiling water f...
Afternoon Darjeeling Tea Bags from Taylors of Harrogate
Style: Darjeeling Black Tea – Region: Darjeeling, India64 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5
Nov. 21st, 2019
The dry tea is chopped up quite fine. It looks like a typical Darjeeling, having a range of colors from light green to a dark brown, indicating a range of oxidations. Taylor's puts 2.5 grams of tea in their bags, splitting the difference between the typical American 2 grams and the 3 grams of many English bagged teas.
...
English Afternoon from Twinings
Style: Black Tea – Region: ?????55 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5
Jul. 15th, 2019
The box says that it's a blend of Keemun and Ceylon teas. There are notes of cocoa and dark bread crust and the flavor's quite complex for grocery store tea, but it's too bitter and astringent.
The tea gets better and mellows a bit as it cools. The cocoa becomes more pronounced and I can taste the sweetness from the...
Bold Breakfast from Dunkin Donuts
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend63 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 2/5
May. 31st, 2019
I bought a cup of this from a Dunkin Donuts and liked it, so I bought a box to brew at home. The sachets are large and each contains 3g of finely-chopped tea. The box doesn't say which teas are in the blend (other than "from around the World"), but the tea looks orthodox rather than CTC.
The brewing tea has a strong...
Darjeeling (Loose) from Twinings
Style: Darjeeling Black Tea – Region: Darjeeling, India57 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 2/5
Apr. 4th, 2019
At first glance, the tea looks odd for Twinings. Twinings's loose teas are usually broken leaf, but the pieces are much larger and appear to be better quality than what goes into the teabags. The Darjeeling is different. The loose tea pieces are tiny and uniform and look exactly like what goes into the teabags. Like mo...
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Black Tea from Farmer Brothers
Style: Black Tea – Region: ?????71 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 5/5
Mar. 27th, 2019
I was surprised off the bat by the unexpected aroma from the brewing tea. Instead of an Assam or Ceylon blend, it smells like inexpensive Yunnan teabags like Foojoy. It's smoky, earthy and woodsy.
The flavor reinforces my guess that this blend is predominantly Chinese. Astringent without bitterness, this tea tastes ...
Darjeeling Tea from Tradition
Style: Darjeeling Black Tea – Region: Darjeeling, India88 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 5/5
Mar. 12th, 2019
The oversized bags contain nearly 3g of medium-sized (for loose leaf tea) broken leaf pieces. It's definitely not a typical Darjeeling, though. Most Darjeelings are less oxidized than other black teas and tend to have more vegetal or floral aroma notes. This one's different. There's no green apparent on the leaves and ...
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Kalami Assam Indian Tea from Ahmad Tea
Style: Assam – Region: Assam, India85 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 5/5
Mar. 7th, 2019
Based on the previous reviews, I bought a pound box of this tea. Most of what I could say was already said by Alex in their spot-on review. I find that I get the best cup of tea by allowing it to steep for ten minutes or so.
Even with such a long steep, the bitterness is understated for an Assam. Though the tea gets...
Premium Full Leaf Tea from Alghazaleen Tea (Do Ghazal)
Style: Ceylon Black Tea – Region: Sri Lanka / Ceylon83 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 5/5
Feb. 20th, 2019
I picked this up in a Middle Eastern grocery near Detroit, MI. I bought a 250g pouch of tea that turned out to be double-bagged with an outer mylar pouch and a thin plastic bag inside. The tea is quite broken and in relatively small pieces, but quite aromatic even when dry. It smells of caramel and pastry, like slightl...
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Black Tea from Lipton Tea
Style: Black Tea – Region: ?????48 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5
Feb. 19th, 2019
When I do drink regular Lipton tea, it's usually from a catering tray where it may have sat for a day or a month. On a whim, I got a small, sealed package (fifteen teas bags for a dollar) so I could try it fresh.
When dry, it smells oaky and leafy, but muted. After steeping, it develops a bit more character and ther...
Organic Black Tea from Prince of Peace
Style: Black Tea – Region: Yunnan, China61 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5
Feb. 1st, 2019
I found this box of tea at a natural health store on my lunch hour. Most places that carry Prince of Peace tea don't carry black tea, so I grabbed them. The 100 tea bags are individually wrapped in paper, so I transferred them to an airtight container after removing the plastic seal from the box.
The unbleached pape...
Breakfast Blend (Morning Rise) from Numi Organic Tea
Style: Black Tea – Region: Blend75 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 3/5
Jan. 19th, 2019
Smells earthy, like a pu-erh, or one of the less sweet Yunnan blacks.
Numi's website says that this tea contains Keemun and that's the first impression I get from the flavor; it's full of dark molasses and prunes or raisins with a bit of cocoa. The finish is dryer, and the earthiness I noticed in the aroma lingers. ...
Darjeeling Black Tea from Bigelow Tea
Style: Darjeeling Black Tea – Region: Darjeeling, India68 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Jan. 10th, 2019
The dry tea has the same basic smell of other blended Darjeelings. It's smells of dry leaves in autumn, a bit oaky and of raw pecans.
I tend to find Darjeeling teas to be somewhat more delicate than I'd prefer. This one is no exception, but I also wouldn't call it weak. It's lightly astringent with a very mild bitte...
Steep English Breakfast Fair Trade Certified Black Tea from Bigelow Tea
Style: English Breakfast – Region: Sri Lanka / Ceylon90 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Jan. 10th, 2019
Without beating around the bush, this is a really good Sri Lankan/Ceylon tea. This seems to be one of the few brands of bagged tea that selected Sri Lankan tea for its flavors rather than for simply being "mild". This tea is remarkably similar in flavor to Ahmad and Alwazah branded Ceylon teas that are available from M...
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Assam Tea from 24 Mantra Organic
Style: Assam – Region: Assam, India70 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Dec. 9th, 2018
I bought this tea as a grey market item from a nearby Indian grocery store. Lately, I've tried and enjoyed a number of teas from Indian brands and this one is no exception.
As far as appearance, the dry CTC "crumbs" are larger and slightly lighter in color than those of most other CTC teas. The brewing tea reminds m...
Classic Blend from Benner Tea Co
Style: Black Tea – Region: ?????25 / 100 Aroma: 3/10 Flavor: 2/5 Value: 2/5
Sep. 13th, 2018
The standard tea bags are wrapped in paper, so if they're not put into an airtight container, they'll probably start to go stale before the box of 100 is finished. The dry tea looks like a blend of orthodox and CTC produced teas and smells smoky, malty and a bit like fresh straw.
The brewed tea is disappointing. The...
Darjeeling Tea from Lipton Tea
Style: Darjeeling Black Tea – Region: Darjeeling, India72 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 5/5
Jul. 18th, 2018
Lipton Darjeeling Tea used to be known as "Lipton Green Label" and is packaged for sale in India. I buy this tea as a gray market item at a local Indian convenience store.
This tea is better quality than one might expect from Lipton and is overall a medium-quality Darjeeling. The tea appears to be mostly whole, smal...
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