When I first wake up, I don't have it in me to be a tea snob, carefully sniffing out the grassy hay notes in obscure Chinese teas. It's not what I crave at that hour, and the subtlety would be lost on me anyway.

So, with breakfast I usually like some kind of milky, sweetened, very strong black tea. A breakfast blend, or masala chai, or maybe an intentionally overbrewed earl grey.

This tea is definitely in the right genre - rich smell, robust and a bit loamy when you brew it straight off the boil. But, for me it was less than the sum of its parts. I like breakfast teas with a strong malt character, or at least a really full flavor profile, and this one somehow tasted thin. The maltiness definitely didn't come through as strongly as I would have wanted, and no matter how strongly I brew it, all the 'rich black tea' characteristics are there, but somehow more muted and thin than I would like. There's also a bizarre soapy aftertaste I get if I sweeten it too much.

I find it works best brewed as strong as you can manage - it doesn't easily become tannic - with light sugar and milk. But even then, there are better breakfast-y teas out there, including from Twinings.

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Comments:

Alex Zorach wrote: on February 17th, 2013

My favorite straight black tea from Twinings is their Ceylon. But I haven't tried this particular tea so I can't compare. The best Irish Breakfast teas I've tried have been loose-leaf, but I did enjoy Ronnefeldt's one in tea bags...it's a mainstream brand in Germany and probably in much of Europe but I rarely see it over here. I have yet to try any of the actual Irish brands though; I wonder if they're better.

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