Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Tea, Astringent, Brown Toast, Caramel, Cream, Dark Chocolate, Leather, Malt, Molasses, Nutty, Tannic, Walnut, Wood, Toast, Sweet
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by ChrisG
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 15 sec 11 g 13 oz / 394 ml

From Our Community

1 Image

6 Want it Want it

18 Own it Own it

  • +3

19 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I am annoyed at myself. I had nasal spray (for my allergies) before I brewed up this sample and that is definitely affecting my sense of taste. I don’t feel like I can rate this properly. I am...” Read full tasting note
  • “My first Assam, and I have to say that I really do enjoy this. I love the color, it is almost as dark as coffee. The taste is nice and bold, without any bitterness. This tea just seems like a...” Read full tasting note
    81
  • “I followed a cup of H&S Irish Breakfast with this CTC Assam as a comparison to see which I liked better. They are very different creatures; the Irish Breakfast is gentle where this is a strong...” Read full tasting note
    94
  • “Very good basic Assam tea. Bold and strong with no bitterness. It is simple and taste great hot or iced. I would describe this as the basic black coffee of tea. It is a great everyday morning...” Read full tasting note
    80

From Harney & Sons

Tea as the Indians drink it. Striking amber color, rich flavor and full bodied as well. It is a key ingredient in several of our blends, including the East Frisian and Indian Spice. It takes milk and sugar and can also be enjoyed solo. An “espresso-style” tea!

About Harney & Sons View company

Since 1983 Harney & Sons has been the source for fine teas. We travel the globe to find the best teas and accept only the exceptional. We put our years of experience to work to bring you the best Single-Estate teas, and blends beyond compare.

19 Tasting Notes

90
1048 tasting notes

It’s Saturday and I’m still cleaning out the backlog. I finished the last of a sample pouch of this tea yesterday morning and I’m just now getting around to posting a review. For whatever reason, I could not motivate myself to do anything after getting home from work yesterday. Anyway, this was a nice CTC Assam. If you are the sort of person who enjoys strong, malty breakfast teas, this one should be right up your alley.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in approximately 8 ounces of 212 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions. Just to be clear, you do not have to steep this tea that long. I prefer CTC teas to be very rich, brisk, tannic, and astringent, so I utilize a longer infusion. One can still get good results out of a 3-4 minute infusion with this tea.

Prior to the infusion, the dry tea leaves emitted a mildly malty aroma. After infusion, I picked up aromas of brown toast, malt, caramel, leather, molasses, and nuts. In the mouth, the tea liquor was lively and astringent, offering robust notes of caramel, molasses, leather, wood, black walnut, hickory, brown toast, cream, and malt underscored by hints of dark chocolate and brown sugar. The finish offered a swell of malt, cream, toast, caramel, and molasses.

In a separate session, I also tried this tea with a little 2% milk added. It completely transformed. The liquor remained strong, but the astringency all but disappeared. The tea’s woodier, toastier, nuttier qualities took a backseat while the caramel, brown sugar, molasses, cream, dark chocolate, and malt came forward.

I greatly enjoyed this CTC Assam. If you have had teas of this type before, this one will likely not surprise you in any way. For what it is, however, it is very nice. As a breakfast tea, it really hit the spot.

Flavors: Astringent, Brown Toast, Caramel, Cream, Dark Chocolate, Leather, Malt, Molasses, Nutty, Tannic, Walnut, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Fjellrev

Oh wow, most excellent description! That flavour profile is definitely a recipe for a fantabulous breakfast tea.

teepland

That is one of my standard morning teas as well. I always enjoy it!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

80
105 tasting notes

I have been looking for a good quality, inexpensive Assam which I can have on a daily basis for my morning cup(s). This one is perfect for that!

The quality is very good, even though the price is cheap and the leaves are CTC rather than whole leaf. I have brewed it for a few days in a row now and the taste is consistent each day. I taste the usual maltiness and slight astringency of a quality Assam, along with a light toast flavor. It has a full body and caffeine so this will certainly get you started in the morning! As far as CTC or bagged teas go, I’d rather have this tea than nearly all other brands/varieties which I’ve tried for my morning cup (one exception off the top of my head is No. 18 Brahmin by Steven Smith, but that is a bagged, full-leaf tea, not bagged fannings/dust). I still prefer an orthodox, loose-leaf tea as frequently as possible, but I am recognizing that I can’t do that and still stay within my monthly budget! :)

Overall, it is an excellent quality Assam for what it is. I recommend it for anyone else looking for an inexpensive Assam to have on a regular basis.

Flavors: Astringent, Malt, Toast

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 11 g 20 OZ / 591 ML
gmathis

Everybody needs a stash of cheap steeps!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

73
268 tasting notes

This is another sample from Ost, generously included to further my assam education. As this is a CTC, you will not be surprised to learn that it consists of tiny brown pellets. The smell is quite tannic and it brews up a mahogany color. Everything about this tea is BOLD, including the taste. It’s also a bit bitter, quite tannic, and has a scratchy feel to it on the tongue. I much prefer RiverTea’s Assam Beast of the East, but both a kind of “meh” to me. Ok, but not amazing.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

73
737 tasting notes

Got my H&S order today ^^ So excited. And all the teas smell fantastic. Can’t wait to try them all. And had to try an Assam first of course!
This one was definitely not as strong as I hoped. It’s kinda malty. Slightly sweet, not as much without the honey/malt combo. But glad I tried it, and didn’t buy more than that. xD Think I also got another Assam with my order…maybe that will be stronger.

Flavors: Malt, Sweet

TheTeaFairy

Enjoy your oder :-)

TheTeaFairy

“Order” damn typo!

Ost

Haha thanks! :D

Virginia

Yeah, I haven’t really found a CTC I’ve enjoyed yet…But maybe I just have too many misconceptions about it that make me subconsciously dislike all the CTC’s I’ve had, even when they were not bad. :P

Ost

Yeah, this was my first. Glad I only got a sample of it!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

75
38 tasting notes

I tried this bagged. Everything I could ask for in a black tea. Rich without bitterness, somewhat full bodied.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

75
16 tasting notes

This my go-to everyday morning cup – strong, firm body and takes milk and sugar like a champ. If you are looking to switch from coffee to tea – this is your tea. Good for homemade blends as well like chai. Very reasonable at $13/lb

Login or sign up to leave a comment.