English Tea No. 1
76
Percentile
5 ratings |
|
Commercial Description
A long-standing favourite, No.1 is a blend of premium quality teas with a subtle flavour of bergamot. Balanced in aroma, colour and strength. A delightful cup for all times of the day.
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Ratings & Reviews
Page 1 of 1 page with 5 reviews
63 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5Difflugia (170 reviews) on Feb. 1st, 2019
The "subtle flavor of bergamot" is definitely subtle. I can't actually smell any bergamot in the dry tea. Instead, it smells entirely like a malty CTC Assam.
While the tea's brewing, I can just make out the citrus through the tea. I'm getting less malt than when dry, but much more dry, tannic, earthy leaf with a background of dates. I've sampled a few Kenyan teas and I think that's where this blend gets most of its character.
The first taste is kind of a shock. The tea is both more bitter and astringent than the teas I've been drinking lately. It definitely has the bracing punch of a more bitter English-style tea like PG Tips. The initial bitterness has notes of hops and gentian (the flavoring in Moxie soda), but fades leaving raisins and dried cherries. I can taste the brightness and orange of the bergamot, but I don't think I would even recognize it without being told that it's part of the blend. It tastes like I drank a cup of Earl Grey, then poured English Breakfast into the same cup.
I suspect that this tea is vastly different with milk, but the balance is too tannic for me as-is. The notes of dried fruit are tasty, but don't soften the bitterness enough the way a typical Assam's malt and molasses flavors do.
The tea bags are priced comparably to other premium teas ($4.50 for a box of 20), but aren't the bargain that the loose teas are.
74 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5Tchuggin' Okie (400 reviews) on Jun. 24th, 2017
This bagged tea didn't earn quite as high of a rating as Ahmad's loose-leaf version of English Afternoon, but it was very good. Oodles of bags of this turned up in my pantry in an unmarked tin (my wife likes it, apparently), so I figured to give it a try.
I could taste the bergamot a bit -- not as much as with the EA tea of course, but pleasantly detectable. In a big, white cup that I use for these reviews, the color turned very dark and opaque within a minute or two out of about 7-8 minutes of immersion. The flavor was robust and satisfying, if a bit plain. It's not the strongest, richest black tea I've had (that would be a pure Assam from Murchie's), but sits firmly in the upper quartile. A generously dense, straightforward black tea that goes well with sweetener and lime juice (I drank some for reviewing before adding the juice)...
73 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5jlund (9 reviews) on Dec. 8th, 2015
This tea came in an assortment pack purchased at a local Marshall's. It has a smaller amount of bergamot than the earl grey and I found it a quite appealing and relaxing cup of tea. It is not overly strong, but strong enough to wake you up in the morning. Definitely a step up from common teas at the supermarket.
This tea, along with Ahmad's Ceylon and green were both very good for the price.
63 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5Alex Zorach (1453 reviews) on Jun. 20th, 2014
I had the opportunity to try this a long time ago, but the tea bag wasn't terribly fresh, so I waited to review it again. This time I got a fresh, individually sealed tea bag from my friend Anna--thank you!
This tea does have a hint of bergamot but it's just a hint, so little I almost couldn't notice it, so it tasted more like a straight black tea. Robust, full-bodied, with a little bitterness, moderate astringency, and a hint of a savory quality.
Among tea bags, I liked this better than Ahmad's English Breakfast, but not quite as much as their English Afternoon. This tea was a tad less malty than the afternoon one; I thought it was a little smoother, more aromatic, and more complex than their English Breakfast, although it was still a pretty straightforward tea.
Good (and a lot better than mainstream tea bag brands), but pales in comparison to Ahmad's loose-leaf. If I wanted a tea in this style, I'd go with their loose-leaf Ceylon, which ironically, was the next cup of tea I drank after drinking this one, so I was able to compare.
77 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 4/5Sir Rob (1 reviews) on Apr. 26th, 2012
Great flavor, especially with a cinnamon stick and some cloves in the kettle.
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