This was a free sample from Mighty Leaf; thanks very much! So far this is the most disappointing tea I've tried from the batch so I wanted to get my review out of the way and move on to the others. I thought this was too thin for an Irish Breakfast, oddly muted; it tasted like something was missing, both in terms of flavor and mouthfeel.

Dry leaf is fairly finely broken, smell is soft, mostly fruity. I'm surprised by the nearly complete lack of malt in the aroma, as usually Irish breakfasts are richly malty.

The brewed cup is very deep and dark, even for Irish Breakfast. Somewhat bitter, but much smoother than usual for a tea this dark. A kind of neutral character temperature-wise, neither warming nor cooling. Somewhat flat and forgettable.

There's a sort of "deep forest" aroma, and has both toasty and fruity notes. The aroma though is very mild and muted. Fairly bitter but low astringency. Once the cup cools, it is surprisingly easy to chug it down quickly. Like the dry leaf, there's a conspicuous lack of malty aroma.

I liked steeping for 3 minutes and then following by a much longer steep. One of the best strengths of this tea was that it tasted just as good once it had cooled to room temperature. It also resteeped surprisingly well; the second cup was very similar in character to the first; a few weak malty notes (finally?) came out in the second steep, but overall it was more fruity than anything else.

I enjoyed drinking this, but I'd be unlikely to buy it. I much preferred the Assam Golden Tip, which I thought was similar in style to an Irish Breakfast and a much better tea overall, and is the exact same price. Stay tuned for my review of that one, which I'm eager to write.

I'm a bit puzzled by the price on this one: why is the 4 oz tin a dollar cheaper than the 4oz bag? Wouldn't it be the other way around? Either way I think this is a bit overpriced. This one is competing with some pretty decent teas in this price range, and I'd even prefer some much cheaper teas (like Ahmad Teas' two Assams) to this one.

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Comments:

Difflugia wrote: on April 19th, 2017

You've described several teas as "warming" or "cooling" (and at least one as both warming and cooling). That's not something I've noticed. What sort of a sensation are you describing?

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