No. 18 British Brunch (formerly known as Brahmin)

Very impressed with this tea. It is pre-packaged in sachets. Has a molasses and toast flavors with a bit of honey in the background. Strong in caffeine. It is perfect for a quick morning or afternoon pick-me-up without time to properly measure and steep a loose leaf brew. Excellent flavor that is not overpowering. I’ll definitely add this to my regular collection!

The weather here has finally started to get a little bit cooler and I’m really starting to crave some good fall weather so I can start drinking down my tea stash again without overheating myself. I’ve been hearing thunder on and off all afternoon today and the dark clouds have been ominously threatening but have yet to release a single drop of rain although I think that may change in the next hour or so. Its the perfect afternoon for a book and a cup of tea and I decided to give this a try. It came as a free sample with my order of Smith’s latest Makers Series and since it was sitting my my kitchen counter it wins the sip down lottery this afternoon. Its a decent tea, I could see myself drinking it in the morning with milk and sugar but its nothing so special that I’m going to run out to buy a box of it… If your looking for a good breakfast tea give this a try… it hits the spot.

So, I am slowly accomplishing my goal of finishing off the teas I have accumulated from Steven Smith Teamaker by November. I have 7 to go at this point, and should be able to finish at least 1 more before the end of the month. This blend of Ceylonese and Chinese black teas was the most recent sipdown.

I prepared this tea using the one step Western infusion I tend to favor for many black teas. I steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 212 F water for 5 minutes. Obviously, no additional infusions were attempted.

After infusion, the liquor showed a dark, rich amber in the cup. On the nose, I detected a mixture of roasted nuts (black walnut, chestnut, hickory, and almond), leather, caramel, toast, malt, and cream. In the mouth, I detected complex notes of caramel, toast, malt, cream, roasted nuts, molasses, leather, smoke, and orange peel. I also noted a slight floral undertone that I could not quite place, as well as a hint of cocoa.

This tea is a blend of Steven Smith Teamaker’s Keemun Hao Ya B, Ceylon Uva, and Ceylon Dimbulla. All were teas that I rather enjoyed, and here they combined to produce a good, solid, respectable blend. Unfortunately, I feel that the combination of Ceylonese teas overpowers the admittedly small amount of Keemun used. I think I would have enjoyed this blend more if there were slightly more Keemun in it. The Keemun could have provided a little more fruitiness and richness to balance out the natural briskness and astringency of the Ceylonese teas. Though I still rather enjoyed this blend, I think people who are maybe a little more interested in Ceylonese teas would enjoy it more than someone like me.

An excellent black tea. I prefer Ceylon teas when it comes to black tea, with Assam a close second, and this is a gorgeous blend of both. Perfect on cold days when you want a flavorful cup of hot, strong tea.

Basically the Lord Bergamot minus the bergamot. Honestly, not a favorite of mine. The quality is there though. I can totally imagine this being a go-to-tea for others. I still love their sachets, they work wonderfully and are so convenient.

Queued post, written May 18th 2014

Here is another one from my recent Auggy parcel. I’ve seen this one around before on Steepster, but it never really caught my interest enough to check it further. It just got lumped automatically into the ‘sounds nice but unavailable to me’ box and so I put it from my mind.

Now I get to have some anyway. I find the name of the blend attractive for reasons that I don’t even understand myself. If I were shopping somewhere and saw a black blend of that name, it would make me have a closer look.

This is one of those rare blends, where not only have they listed what goes in it, they’ve also done it in a more detailed way than usual. Many companies would just have put ‘Indian, Ceylon and China tea’. Some would go a little further and put ‘Assam, Ceylon and Keemun.’ This one actually specifies the two Ceylons used (Uva and Dimbula)! It made me go YAY! I wish more companies would take heed of this.

Now, Uva is a highgrown tea and Dimbula is as well. I don’t actually care much for the high-grown Ceylons although I find them easier to drink than a Darjeeling. As is my experience, though, a Darjeeling in a blend can become quite acceptable in a blend because it is tempered by the other ingredients, and this is the case with the high grown Ceylon in this blend as well. Assam and Keemun are both fairly strong teas for me. Some people classify Keemun as mild, but for me it’s not that mild. I think maybe I measure strength differently. Something with that much flavour in it feels strong to me. They both do an excellent job with keeping the Ceylon in line in this blend. It is primarily a Ceylon blend, though.

I’m actually getting very little of the characteristics of the Keemun and Assam. No grain-y notes, but a little bit of floralness which may or may not be part Keemun and part Ceylon. No cardboard-y notes from the Assam, but a great deal of body. It’s like the Assam and Keemun work to enhance the deeper notes of the Ceylons rather than add their own flavour to the mix. I find I quite like that. It makes the blend taste very balanced. It reminds me strongly of low-grown Ceylon actually.

I’m quite pleased with this one.

Was prepared not to love this, thought it might end up a little too brightly Ceylon-forward a la Red-Tailed Hawk for me to consider drinking regularly. But the balance of smooth deep Assam and bright coppery Ceylon is really good here, makes a splendid first-thing-with-food tea, flavorful and bold but smooth, just bright enough to wake you up and cut the greasy starch in your pancakes, and interesting thanks mostly to the depth in the sweet Keemun and malty Assam but not so complex or busy that you’d feel bad drinking it while still waking up. A+++ would drink again! Reminds me vaguely of The Black Lotus (less complex though), with Ceylon instead of Darjeeling playing the part of the bright sparkly note.

As always with SST blacks, I cut the steep time way down, only 3 minutes compared to their without-fail recommended (hair-raising!) 5. Funny, they’re one of the only tea companies whose directions I always automatically disregard with no reservations or regrets.

WOW! This is a bold and dense black tea! A definite favorite. Tried as a sample in a sachet, I very much look forward to getting this in loose leaf form!

Sturdy and pleasant