Bird Pick Breakfast Tea

An article I was reading recently divided black tea into two camps:  Chinese black tea vs. so called "British Legacy Teas,"  teas from former British colonies such as India, Sri Lanka, or Kenya.  Although this is a bit of an oversimplification, it does roughly work.  Chinese black teas tend to be lighter in body and cleaner in texture, and as such, work well as afternoon teas.  The right blend of Chinese blacks can make a pretty good breakfast tea, though.  I've mentioned English Breakfast blended solely from Keemun variants in the past, and it's a good, sturdy breakfast cup, as is Harney and Son's Queen Catherine.  I speculated that this was a more traditional breakfast blend, since tea from China was introduced first in Britain.  It looks, however, like I was pretty wrong on that.  According to which origin you pick, English Breakfast tea was first blended in Edinburgh, Scotland, or New York City, around either 1850 or 1870, and was a blend of Assam and a lighter tea, probably a Ceylon.  So much for my theory...the lighter Keemun blends must have come later.  Oh well, I never claim to be an expert, pretty much for this reason...I'm really just learning as I go along.

So, as mentioned last time, Bird Pick is a company out of California that specializes mostly in pretty high quality Chinese and Taiwanese teas.  As might be expected, then, their breakfast teas are usually pretty similar to the fancy Keemun based English Breakfast blends:  a strong flavor, but a light body and clean texture.  Bird Pick Breakfast tea however, is sort of a best of both worlds tea, with a fair bit of Keemun, blended with a light Assam, for an interesting mix of flavors and a round, full flavor profile.  It's a bit smoother than say Harney and Son's "All-Keemun" English Breakfast, but also probably not as strong a cup.  The balance is quite a bit more to the Keemun side of things than any similar breakfast blends I've had, with nice earthy note and a strong hint of Keemun smokiness, and the Assam maltiness lingering in the background.  Bird Pick's website notes citrus flavors, though I don't personally find them here.  I sometimes wonder, is my palate that undeveloped, or do these tea sellers exaggerate just a bit?

Bird Pick's Chinese blacks tend to do well with a slightly shorter steep time, maybe two to three minutes, though the Assam base here provides a little leeway.  As a true breakfast tea should in my book, Bird Picks breakfast tea tastes just right with the addition of milk, though it's not bad on it's own.  Sugar might work too, though I haven't tried it.  All in all, a nice cup, but probably not quite a morning goto.  Still, I like this company, and will have to try more from them in the future.  Score:  85 (B)

St. Paul's London Breakfast tea

St. Paul's London Breakfast is a unique and interesting black tea blend from Culinary Teas.   It was created to honor St. Paul's Cathedral, an iconic London landmark, and by extension, the city of London itself.  It's blended from three different teas to reflect three different important growing areas; there is an Assam from India, a Ceylon, and a Chinese tea from Anhui province in China, an area most notable for Keemun, which I suspect is the constituent in St. Paul's.  In addition to the somewhat unorthodox mix of tea regions, the master tea blender felt that some Earl Grey should be included, as it is both a very iconic British tea and the favorite of the Queen of England (apparently...I didn't fact check that).

This is a pretty interesting and novel mix of flavors, and I have to admit, I knew none of this when I ordered it.  I only saw that it was a previously unknown breakfast tea, and as I've mentioned before, I particularly love the concept and style of British breakfast teas.  I did sort of a double take when I opened the package for the first time and smelled the unmistakable bergamot aroma of Earl Grey, but some quick online research filled me in on what was actually going on.  An eyebrow raise and four or five minutes later, I had a steaming cup of tea, ready to see if such an unusual blend would work.  I added milk and sweetener right from the word go; in many cases, I like to try the tea on its own first, but as this is a breakfast tea, albeit an unusual one, I think milk and sugar add to the experience.

The first notes are all Assam, lots of malt and oak, which is quickly followed by the tang of bergamot.  The mix of flavors work quite well, far beyond my expectations.  The Keemun (again, a guess, but it seems likely) contributes to the broad base of the tea, adding roasted cocoa and earth notes to the Assam, while the Ceylon...well, that may just be a delivery vehicle for the Earl Grey-ness, as I don't truly detect any notes in the cup.  I have noted in the past, however, that I am nowhere near as good as I would like to be at picking out teas in a blend.  The surprising use of bergamot in a breakfast tea is restrained, a strong hint of flavor without overpowering the profile, and without the cloying aftertaste it sometimes leaves.  The Assam brings a nice strong body that mixes quite well with milk, giving the tea a good thick mouthfeel.

The malty Assam, earthy Chinese black, and bergamot flavors are beautifully balanced.  Having made a few mediocre attempts of my own at blending a couple of very basic teas, I am very impressed by the skill that went into this blend.  I wouldn't go so far as to make it my daily cup, but I applaud the novelty and the effort at blending, and it is one I will get again.  Though it has a fair bit of Assam and calls itself a breakfast tea, I think this one is good any time of day, but then, I've always been rather partial to bold, strong teas all day.  Score:  95 (A)

Harney and Sons English Breakfast

I've encountered teas from Harney and Sons from time to time, and always thought to myself, "What a nice, proper English tea company."  Harney and Sons it turns out is based just over the border in New York, and is about as English as, well, apple pie.  They are however, a great company, with a lot of blends, both traditional and rather innovative, by the looks of it.  I've only had a few of their blends thus far:  the Queen Catherine, and the subject of today's review, their English Breakfast.  Now, a while back, in a discussion of breakfast teas, I noted that while today most English Breakfast teas heavily feature Assam, there are some "fancy" blends that are composed solely of Keemun, a Chinese black tea, often known for a wine or fruit taste.  As it turns out, English Breakfast  blended from Keemun teas is in fact much more traditional, and probably dates from before Indian teas were featured so heavily in Britain.  Harney and Sons English Breakfast is just such a blend, giving me the opportunity to try something both traditional and new to me.

The tea itself is high quality loose leaf tea.  I'm always impressed with Chinese black teas, and this is no exception.  Though they tend to be a bit less forgiving than Indian teas, I find Chinese black teas to have some really unique and clean flavors.  I made a single cup of this over the weekend, using the old tea ball:  a rounded teaspoon's worth of English Breakfast in the tea ball, freshly boiling water, steep for about 4 minutes, add a splash of milk, and ready to go.  As a breakfast blend, I suspect this would play well enough with sugar, but I don't find it necessary myself.

As I've noted somewhere before, the Keemun I've had had a strong, unique taste, reminiscent of a dry red wine or roasted fruit.  What then, would a breakfast tea made up solely of Keemun taste like?  Surprisingly, a lot like most other English Breakfast blends I've had, with a sort of crisp, biscuit-like note to the flavor, suggestive maybe of buttered toast.  I will say this has a far cleaner, more refined flavor profile than cheaper blends that I've had in the past.  There's no muddiness here, just a clean, fairly bright mouthfeel, with the faintest hint of smoke that lingers through a moderate and pleasant finish.  There's only some mild astringency, but nothing to pucker the mouth or dry out the tongue.  I don't know that I'd make this a goto for my morning mug anytime soon, but it's definitely a great tea, worthy of the occasional cup.  It also goes to show, I have an awful lot to discover about Keemun...reviews to come someday.  Score:  90 (A-)

Irish Breakfast Green

Irish Breakfast green tea is a blend of three green teas from Culinary Teas.  The intent was to create a blended green tea with a strong body and bold flavors, reminiscent of Irish Breakfast tea.  The tea went on special right around St. Patrick's Day, appropriately enough, and I was intrigued by the idea, enough so to give it a shot.  The tea itself is made from three distinct greens:  A Kenyan green, a Hoji-cha Japanese green, and a Gunpowder green.  Each tea brings something to the table; the Kenyan (who knew Kenya produced green tea?) brings a nice solid body, the Hoji-cha a toasty flavor, necessary if we're to emulate true Irish Breakfast, and the Gunpowder a crisp texture and a hint of natural smokiness.

As with all green tea, brewing requires a hair more caution than black...I use briskly steaming (not boiling!) water, and brew for no more than 2 or 3 minutes.  Hotter water or longer brew times run the risk of scorched, bitter tea...I suspect this blend is a bit hardier than some, but still, it pays to be careful.  The tea brews up a nice dark green color, a bit darker than I've come to expect from greens, and has a nice body and a full flavor.  As with all greens and whites, no additions are necessary...milk or sweetener would mask the delicate flavors, and defeat the purpose of drinking high quality tea like this in the first place.

There's definitely a complex and balanced profile.  The Gunpowder brings some nice crispness and the suggestion of smoke to the table, and the Hoji-cha definitely lends a roasty, faintly nutty note that doesn't exactly taste like Irish Breakfast, but is at least reminiscent of it...perhaps in the way rooibos reminds one of true Camella Sinensis tea, but doesn't quite taste like the real thing.  The toasty note remains through the finish, which is mildly astringent and refreshingly clean, as I tend to find with quality greens.  There's none of the hints of fruit or flowers as in some un-oxidized teas, but then, such notes would be out of place here anyway.  So, does it remind me of Irish Breakfast tea?  Sort of...it's perhaps more suggestive of Irish Breakfast than a straight up green version of the stuff.

All in all, not my favorite, but a well executed combination of three teas.  While with black teas I sometimes do favor carefully constructed blends, with greens and whites, I prefer unblended, stand-alone teas, though I really like the concept of Irish Breakfast green, and applaud the effort in creating it.  I would love to try more blends along these lines in the future, but I think I'm even more curious to taste each of these teas on their own.  Score:  80 (B-)

A First attempt at Mixology

In my review of Nilgiri, I noted that it was a key component in Irish Breakfast, a common and flavorful blend.  In fact, the two most basic components of Irish Breakfast, Nilgiri and Assam, were sitting right next to each other in my cupboard, so it was only a matter of time until I decided to give mixing my own Irish Breakfast tea a go.  This past weekend found me at a loss as to which tea I felt like making, and I decided, today was the day.

I've read a little here or there about mixing teas, and it's as simple as mixing two or more teas together, but also a bit more complicated than that.  Different teas, and especially different leaf sizes will require different brewing times, so we have to be sure that the leaves of each constituent tea are as close in size as possible, then figure out just how long we're going to brew our creation.  Luckily, my Assam and my Nilgiri are roughly the same tea grade, and they both brew for about three or four minutes, so for my first attempt, a lot of the guesswork is taken out of it.

With a sense of "Let's just do it, and see what happens" (this may be why I am not an engineer), I dumped about half a teaspoon of Assam and half a teaspoon of Nilgiri in my pot, added boiling water, and steeped.  The result was a cup that tasted close to, if not exactly like Irish Breakfast.  The flavor was close enough to encourage me to keep trying, yet far enough off to make me wonder what I did wrong.  Am I missing an ingredient?  I know some Irish Breakfast blends feature Ceylon, but I didn't think it was obligatory.  I do think I could use some work on my ratios; I think I probably added too much Nilgiri and not enough Assam.

So, then, my first attempt at mixing my own blend was not a rousing success, but neither was it an abject failure.  I'll keep at the Irish Breakfast, I think, until I get it down, before I try something more complicated.

Coming up next, a week devoted to Earl Grey!

A Belated St. Patrick's Day Review -or- Irish Breakfast Tea/Cream Irish Breakfast Tea

The Irish drink more tea per capita than anyone else on Earth--an average of four cups per person per day.  Irish Breakfast tea is often the preferred blend, to the point that a request for "tea" will bring Irish Breakfast.  Barry's and Lyon's are the top competitors in Ireland, while Twinings is the most common Irish Breakfast blend in the states, but aside from bag tea, there are many different fine Irish Breakfast blends available here in America.  I traveled to London and Ireland in 2008 with every intent of drinking many a cup of fine tea.  Unfortunately, between jet lag, lack of sleep from unfamiliar conditions, and the general need to get up and go, I spent the entire trip subsisting on bad instant coffee and never actually had a cup of tea.  It's a matter of some regret; though I probably would have ended up being served bag tea anyway.

So then, today's review is based on a quality blend of Irish Breakfast tea from a small company somewhere in Pennsylvania (a bag given to me by a good friend), but I've had fine cups of the blend from many different companies.  I've mentioned Irish Breakfast here before, often as a point of comparison to other breakfast teas.  The blend is based on Assam, like most other breakfast teas, mixed with Nilgiri (some blends feature Ceylon, which is fine as an addition, but not a replacement for the Nilgiri).  The Assam brings a malty base, while the Nilgiri brings a distinctive toasty aroma and light, fruity flavors to balance the astringent Assam.  This tea brews up an intense dark brown, almost the color of coffee, and has a full, strong flavor.  Irish Breakfast is intense enough that I don't think I'd even try to drink it without milk and sugar.  I find I also need to be careful with steeping time and the amount of tea I use.  The astringent character can almost dry out the tongue, and it's increased by too much tea or too long of a brew.  Again, this is more of a problem in cheaper blends that feature Ceylon in lieu of the more refined Nilgiri.  Sugar helps balance the bitter taste and texture some, but nothing can save a cup that's been steeped too long.  Indeed, the chalky mouthfeel has led me to prefer Scottish Breakfast, but I sometimes get nostalgic for a cup of the Irish Breakfast.  After all, it's the tea that really introduced me to the bigger world of teas outside of generic Red Rose and Lipton bags, many years ago.

Culinary Teas offers an Irish Breakfast blend that I should try sometime, but they also offer a Cream Irish Breakfast tea that is simply amazing.  (This is not to be confused with their Irish Cream tea, which is a less strong tea base flavored with Irish Cream, and is also good, but not as good.)  Cream Irish Breakfast is Irish Breakfast tea flavored with actual cream.  The addition of cream flavoring adds balance and sweetness to the malty and astringent tea.  The resulting brew is nothing short of fantastic;  creamy with a velvety, smooth texture, sweet and strong and astringent all at the same time.  Cream Irish Breakfast may not be strictly traditional with the addition of cream flavoring, but it's one of the best cups of tea I've had in a long time.

Scores:  Irish Breakfast 80 (B-) and Cream Irish Breakfast 95 (A)

Scottish Breakfast Tea -or- A Tea for Scotch

As I've noted before, I thoroughly enjoy breakfast teas.  I like the bold flavors and the malty Assam teas that tend to dominate the style, and I like how well the blends go with milk and a little sweetener.  Of the breakfast teas I've had, I usually pick Scottish breakfast as my favorite.  It has a fuller flavor profile than Irish or English breakfast, with more malt and fruit notes, and a hint of oak....all tasting notes shared with the world of Scotch, which may help explain why I'm such a big fan of this tea.  If I had to guess, I'd say there are Ceylon and possibly Keemun teas mixed with the Assam, but I'm far from an expert at picking out teas in a blend.  Scottish Breakfast tends to be a bit harder to find loose than its cousins, but happily, Culinary Teas (pretty much my go-to for loose tea these days) has it in stock.

Nothing unusual in the brewing.  Typical for a blended black tea, one rounded teaspoon per mug, water at a rolling boil into a warmed teapot, steep for about four minutes.  Scottish Breakfast brews up as dark as Irish Breakfast, but lacks the sharp astringent note I often find in Irish Breakfast blends.  The flavor is bold, round, and strong, with lots of malt and some pleasant oak. It's a great cup with a big breakfast, or on a chilly winter afternoon (I've never been one for so-called "afternoon" teas anyway).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Scottish Breakfast makes a fantastic hot toddy type of drink when mixed with Scotch, especially a sweeter malt.  The similar flavor notes blend together and complement each other very well.  Now, I can't exactly endorse mixing a good single malt with tea, as I'm a firm believer in not diluting fine whisky in any way, but a smooth blend or maybe a bargain single malt would go well.  A cup brewed a bit strong, with plenty of milk and sugar, and a generous measure of whisky makes a great restorative hot drink to ward off the chill or soothe nasty cold symptoms.  Be wary, though--strong, sweet tea can hide a fair bit of whisky, and this drink is so good, it's easy to forget it's also pretty strong.  Score:  90 (A-)

Canadian Breakfast tea

I've always been very fond of the British concept of "breakfast teas."  Strong blends of black teas, a bracing cuppa to help you wake up and begin your day, and a fair contrast to mellower afternoon teas, such as Darjeeling.  English breakfast and all the other variants I've found almost always highlight lots of Assam, a strong, malty Indian tea that plays very well with milk, perhaps a breakfast tea's central characteristic.  (I've read of fancy English breakfast blends made solely of Keemun, but never had one, so I'll leave that as the exception.)  Keemun, Ceylon, Kenyan, or Nilgiri teas are blended with the Assam in different amounts by regional variant and by blender.  Irish Breakfast is perhaps the darkest and most astringent, featuring some amount of Nilgiri blended with the Assam.  Scottish Breakfast, one of my favorites, is as malty as the Irish breakfast, but with a rounder flavor profile and less astringency.  English Breakfast is mellower than it's Celtic cousins (confusingly, both of which were referred to as English Breakfast at one time in their own countries), with a biscuity, buttered toast note to it's profile.

This was it for breakfast teas that I was aware of, until a few weeks ago.  Erin and I were browsing through Culinary Teas, our go-to these days for loose teas, looking for a few old favorites and some new things to try, and we stumbled across Canadian Breakfast tea.  I was immediately intrigued; I don't come across many "traditional" North American tea blends, but pondering it, given (most of, sorry Quebec) Canada's hugely English and hugely hugely Scottish background, it made immediate sense.  We grabbed a 2 oz. pouch to try, amongst several other great teas, with forthcoming reviews (Cream Irish Breakfast is amazing, but that's for another day).

The day the package came in the mail, I had to open the Canadian Breakfast and have at least a nice long smell.  I smiled, and said to my wife, you know, we should really sweeten this with maple syrup, it just seems fitting.  I first had maple tea almost ten years ago, courtesy of my good friend Jacob.  The maple sugar or syrup blends great with the right tea, and it seemed to me, a fine blend from Canada, also known for it's maple sugar, was perfectly appropriate.  I know, an actual New England Breakfast might be more appropriate.  After all, what New Englander doesn't love maple syrup?  It brings to mind images of Vermont farmers tapping maples on a cold winter morning, or perhaps a huge stack of pancakes, drenched in butter and mapley goodness.  Unfortunately, I've yet to find any such local tea blend.

I brewed in the usual steps for black tea.  Four good spoonfuls in my warmed teapot, water at a rolling boil, steep for about four minutes, strain into cups, add sweetener and milk, sniff, sip, and enjoy.

The tea itself is excellent.  Malt notes predominate from the Assam, and I detect a hint of oak (a favorite flavor of mine, I must find out what tea that particular note comes from!), and a nice round flavor and feel on the mouth.  Less malty than the Scots variant of breakfast tea, and not as astringent as the Irish, but bolder then the English.  The maple syrup blended very well with the strong flavors, with the tea and the maple complementing each other, and neither flavor standing out too much.  A good match, it seems, though I'm holding out for an honest to God, New England breakfast tea to mix my maple sugar with next.  Perhaps I'll have to learn to blend tea myself, and create it.

Score:  90 (A-) Another great breakfast tea, I'll be sure to get this again.