CTC Irish Breakfast Blend (TB12)

So in my Monday morning haze, I had this made and in my travel mug before I realized that my travel mug smelled like the armpit of hell because I’d forgotten to clean it after having a tea latte over the weekend. So…last bit of breakfast blend ruined, and mug set to soak in a variety of things that the intarwebs tell me will get rid of the terrible terrible smell.

Mondays!

(In case you are wondering, the intarwebs is mostly saying bleach, baking soda, and vinegar – not all at once – so nothing earth-shattering there)

2nd of 5 breakfast blend samples from Upton … tested with T. of honey.

I remember testing Adagio’s Irish Breakfast and liking it … setting it aside to retest later, and it seems to have gotten buried by so many others which have met the same fate (one of these days, I really need to revisit that box).

This blend is VERY strong. I’m one of those people who hates (capital H) coffee. I am not trying to substitute for coffee, but am looking for a non-Coke morning caffeine boost. This tea is very bitter, and is getting more bitter as it cools. I’m not even going to try and temper it with milk or cream. This one goes into the “omg NO” pile (thankfully a much smaller group).

2/8/14 Sipdown. 3g/60z/212F/3min. This is the first CTC tea I can remember having loose, though I’ve seen plenty in tea bag dissections. It’s made a good pot of tea, properly brisk, pleasantly colored, good scent. But the physical tea is a little disturbing to me. It looks like very fine mulch, and when I picked out a bit of the steeped leaf to examine, it sort of smeared away into just a kind of smudge of mud on my finger tip.

Pros — 3 minute steep time made an wicked strong liquor. This tea would be great for iced tea, for cooking, for anytime an intense traditional English style black tea flavour is wanted. It’s a good cup of tea.

Cons – mulch.

Side note – 15g is the perfect sample amount for me. It’s exactly the right amount for one pots worth western brewed, and one gaiwan session.

Ok… no more trying new teas in a travel mug. I swear to you, even the least offensive travel mug I own gives a faint plastic taste to tea. I gave this one a second chance with the same parameters – 1 tsp of tea per 6 oz of water, 3 minute steep at boiling. Only this time I made it in one of my favorite mugs. The result? So much better! It has a nice depth and soothing maltiness (a good thing in my book.) It’s not a complicated tea, but it is strong, and that’s all I ask of a morning tea! Recommended, especially at the attractive price point.

It has been quite a while since I’ve been away from Steepster. It is not that I have completely lost interest in teas and noting down my feelings about them, but it is perhaps my laziness kicking in plus all the studying I had to keep up with from school. Now that I am enjoying my summer break, I seem to have more time to relax and enjoy the passing of time.
Something to note for myself is that in the recent months, I have now completely moved away from green tea and acquired a heavy preference for black teas. This could be due to being “burned” by the bad order I made quite a while ago from Specialteas (which is now out of business BTW). I had to throw away nearly 10oz of it due to it getting old without anyone in the family willing to drink it. Anyways, I am not quite sure if I will come back to trying other green teas in the future but as it stands I am now predominantly a black tea drinker.

This is the first Irish breakfast tea that I have tried, and also my first order from Upton Teas Imports. From what I have read, it is supposed to have a very robust, bold, and strong character that gives you a jolt in the morning just like coffee does, but perhaps to a lesser degree. And from what I’ve tasted, it is quite exactly that. The liquor is nearly full-bodied, and it lacks the astringency that I would have expected and is therefore capable of some over brewing. Since Irish breakfast teas are mainly blended with Assams, I thought it would have a very malty taste but instead the malt was more towards being in the background while the warm toasty taste was what hit my palate most of the time. Overall, a very good C.T.C. tea that I will see myself buying again in the future.

This is extremely good tea. I make it with a fair amount of milk and a bit of sugar and find it very satisfying. It must have a high caffeine content as it really gets me going. Great stuff, I will for sure be ordering some more once I am out of my initial 125g stash.

Disclaimer: I just tried this tea today, and it’s from a sample packet that I received 4(!) years ago. Soooo here we go!

It has a nice Assamy scent when brewed, and is definitely a breakfast tea for those days when you don’t feel like getting out the door, as it will really make you wake up! There’s a bit of a vegetal taste that lingers on the tongue, and it’s great with a little milk added.

I’ll definitely buy more of this in the future to see if it’s even better when it’s not so old.

I think the most important thing here is not to get the water too hot…I’ve only just started drinking this again after temporarily running out of filters and it’s quite pleasant, but it does seem to get bitter faster with close-to-boiling water rather than cooler fare.

A great cuppa even after it has been sitting around in the pot for 10 minuets. Takes a bit of milk and sugar just wonderfully. One of my favorite get up and go cups.

Got this as an extra sample with my first Upton order. It reminded me of Twinings’ Irish Breakfast which I also enjoy, so this little free sample went a lot quicker than expected.