Adventures in Tea: Irish Breakfast

Irish breakfast tea from VT Tea and Trading Co is bin #263 in City Market's bulk section.  The Wikipedia page says it's described as having a malty aroma; in the batch I drank, it was almost milky, as if it had been pre-added.  I remember that when I first tried Irish Breakfast (probably Twinings?) many years ago, it was too strong and bitter for my taste (I didn't then, and still don't, like to put milk or sugar in my tea), but now I quite like it.  And, like the Wikipedia page suggests, it's good at all hours of the day.

Irish Breakfast tea, loose leaf in my jar at home

Previous tea: Lipton Black

Adventures in Tea: Lipton Black

A few bags of this were left over from a kid's kombucha experiment. I do not have fond memories of Lipton's tea growing up.  AFAIK back then they only had the dreadful orange pekoe made from the leavings that couldn't be used for decent tea.  The "America's Favorite Tea" moniker simply means "we make the cheapest tea, and that's fine for making sweet tea, which is what we're being used for." As far as any caffeinated drink contributes to having a healthy heart... well, I guess it's better than soda.

All that said, I would be willing to drink this tea if it were available in a hotel room.  It is still greatly inferior to Nilgiri Blue Mountain as a plain black tea.

The box of leftover Lipton's black tea with tea bag

Previous tea: Nilgiri Blue Mountain

Adventures in Tea: Nilgiri Blue Mountain

Nilgiri "Blue Mountain" tea from VT Tea and Trading Co is bin #310 in City Market's bulk section.  The Wikipedia page says it's described as having citrus and floral notes; I do not detect that in the batch I drank.  This is just straight up black tea with nothing else added to it and it stands on the quality of the leaves.  It's quite good, and I would choose it when in the mood for plain black tea. 

Nilgiri Blue Mountain tea, loose leaf in my jar at home

Previous tea: Sherl Grey

Adventures in Tea: Sherl Grey

Sherl Grey comes from Geeky Teas, which takes a well-known tea and adds its own pop geek culture twist.  This tea starts with an Earl Grey base, and then adds cornflower, raspberry leaves and blueberries.  From a bit of googling, these all appear to be reasonably common additives, but I'm not sure they are often all added simultaneously.  

The bag with Geeky Teas' design and description of Sherl Grey

 

It looks pretty, though the blueberry scent overpowers the usual bergamot scent when I open the jar.

Sherl Grey tea, loose leaf in my jar at home

No regrets trying this, but I will probably not add it to my usual rotation.

Previous tea: Lapsang Souchong

Adventures in tea: Lapsang Souchong

(following up slowly on the initial post)

 

Lapsang Souchong from VT Tea and Trading Co is bin #325 in City Market's bulk section.  It is a type of black tea; what differentiates it from other black teas is that during the drying process it is smoked on a pinewood fire.

The batch I had was strongly piney, though Sarahmac declared it "smelled like bacon".  I enjoyed it for a week, but probably will not have it again anytime soon.

Adventures in tea

A long time ago, probably in grad school, I became a regular tea drinker.  I hadn't acquired a taste for coffee, but tea was a good way to take a quick break from work, have a sociable hot drink, and get a little caffeinated.  After trying several teas, I settled on the Twinings Earl Grey as my favorite, and mostly drunk different brands of Earl Grey since (mostly the VT Tea and Trading Company, which is what's in the bulk section at City Market).  For a while I would alternate with Gunpowder Green tea on days when two pots of tea were needed (often in the winter), then switched to making an herbal tea for the afternoon pot so I wouldn't be up all night, then switched to making two pots of Earl Grey.  This past winter I was often making three pots of Earl Grey a day, and it started to get monotonous, so it was time to mix things up a little.  Over time, I'll jot down some notes about the teas.

A few years ago, a catalog from Upton tea had this nice explainer on the general types of tea.  There are then, of course, many varieties within these general types.  I tend to prefer black and white teas; we'll see what else the bulk section has to offer!