Irish Breakfast Tea

Appearance: Brews up very dark—a deep, rich amber.

Scent: Hints of cocoa and malt with a berry-ish edge.

Taste: Surprisingly mild. Not much of the “bite” that I expected from a “robust breakfast tea”. Slight astringency.
(Reads the GM label) —No hazelnuts. Maybe a bit of prune and cherry. There is an underlying honey-sweetness reminiscent of A&D’s Jackee Muntz!
(Adds a touch of milk, per GM’s recommendation) —hmm, I taste only milky black tea. The subtle nuances of flavor have been drowned out by milkiness. May have been too much milk. But the astringency is gone (of course).

Overall, this is a serviceable breakfast tea. A black tea that will not “scare” anyone. Very likeable, pleasant and mellow.

Some Irish Breakfast teas are so brawny, it’s almost a dare to like them. This tea has plenty of heft but is more mellow and refined. The color is ale-brown with a golden cast and a malty aroma. I didn’t pick up the fruit flavors as described, but there are definite sweet notes slipping through every once in a while. A delicious cup with or without the additions of milk or sugar.

I had always steered clear of the blended teas for fear they were inferior to the single harvest teas that went into the blends. This tea proved me so wrong.

The liquors rich root beer brown, as dark as a good cup of coffee. The aroma is light in the cup, a bit sweet and vegetal.

On the tongue the flavor of this tea really pops, full bodied, rich and so much more than the sum of it’s parts! Yeasty and malty, exactly what I like in a black tea, but also a bit of astringency that recalls a good Darjeeling. The finish is soft for such a powerful cup, and slightly sweet with a hint of dark chocolate.

This is a powerful tea, great for mornings, or anytime a quick jolt of energy is needed. This one’s on my list of teas to keep on the shelf!

Gene

Wow, I’m afraid I didn’t get this one. Decided to give my Breville a little workout this morning. Brewed this tea twice as it was very weak and bland the first time around. My usual starting point for single estate assam’s is roughly 2 gently rounded tsp/cup, 212, 5 minutes so that is what I used for the first brew. This tea has very large leaves so figured that would work as a starting point. The tea was pretty tasteless and even worse after adding milk – just a subtle bitterness at the end. No malt, none of the complex flavors that Golden Moon describes.

Brew number 2 (fresh leaves, not a resteep) using 2 overflowing (as opposed to gently rounded) tsp/cup. Still pretty blah and couldn’t stand up to the addition of milk. I can just hear my husband complaining that the tea is watery. Won’t even try it on him. Again, no malt, and no complex flavors.

Going to move on and pull out my old tin of Harney and see how it compares. Might do some Upton FBOP blend as well.

Sample 9/31
While I was expecting this tea to be really bitter, I found it it be really light. Not sure if this is because my tea water had cooled a little bit before steeping. Hints of honey with a slight nutty flavor. While I enjoyed this tea I didn’t find it Robust as the description implies.

Good. Smooth and clean with just a hint of sharpness at the end.

I really need to start writing these while I’m drinking the tea again instead of this afterward habit I’ve gotten into.
This tea was a bit of a surprise it smelled and tasted mellower then I was expecting with an Irish breakfast. There was some malty aspect but the honey quality tamed it. There was a detention I couldn’t name, perhaps that it the cherry and the prunes they mention on the label. I rather liked this tea. Not what I expected but pleasant and something I could see myself drinking with some regularity.

The mix of black leaves and golden tips brews up copper red in the cup. Aroma is malt and leather. Taste is malty, roasty and and sweet. Mildly astringent.

Last ‘breakfast’ tea of the day – I have a big paper due tomorrow so I figured it was time to get out the big guns. This one is a rich and robust and, while the packet didn’t mentioned where the tea was from, I’m reasonably sure based on the distinct malty flavour that it’s an Assam of some kind. This is a tea that’s definitely better enjoyed with milk as it brings out some of the subtler flavour components such as those nice fruity notes.

Here’s hoping that it’ll keep me awake for the next several hours.

Lovely, rich, robust black tea. I’d begun to worry that my Golden Moon Tea sampler might turn out to be a total bust, but this is by far the best and most flavorful tea that I’ve tried from the company so far. I added a small amount of milk and beet rock sugar, which enhances the flavor of this tea. It’s really nice with the banana nut bread I’m having for breakfast.

It’’s not the best black tea I’ve ever had. I’d like it to be a little stronger, but it’s good. I may be overrating it a little since the other 2 Golden Moon Teas I tried were so disappointing, but I’d definitely buy this one.

I used 1.5 tsp. per 8 oz. water since I’d found the other Golden Moon samples rather bland. It worked great, but the tea is flavorful enough that I’d probably try 1 tsp. per 8 oz. next time. Also, I followed the company’s brewing instructions and steeped this one for 4 minutes, and I did not think it became bitter, not even when I tried it before adding milk.