Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Breakfast Tea’

I have two tea bags with which to form a review of this tea. So, I will be sharing my thoughts on this tea as I progressed through both tea tastings.

First tea bag:
The smell from the dry tea bag is minty. The teabags from Hampstead Tea are really full, not your typical tea bag. I brewed the bag for 2 minutes, added a splash of milk and sipped. “What does this remind me of? Dirt? No, mint.” For me the tea has a mint aftertaste. Is this bad? It depends, do you want your breakfast tea to remind you of mint? I decided on this first cup that I did not want mint with breakfast.

Second tea bag:
The smell from the dry tea bag is minty. No denying the mint flavor. As I brewed for two minutes, I braced myself for the previous flavor profile. I sipped my first sip and hum…it seems better to me. Is it a tea that I would pick for breakfast? Probably not. I did read another reviewers take on this tea and they compared it to a Darjeeling. I can see that comparison now that I have drank two full cups of this robust black tea.

Overall, I like Hampstead Tea tea bags, they are full and brew up nicely. This particular EB left me wanting something else. It is just not my cup of tea.

You can purchase the Organic Fairtrade English Breakfast directly from the Hampstead Tea website.

I’ve heard such rave reviews of this tea that when I had the opportunity to try it for myself, I jumped on it. Opening the bag you are hit with the smell of rich, dark baking cocoa. The dry leaves are extremely beautiful, long, twisted, and dark in color. This is an unflavored black tea, so why does it smell like cocoa?

I brewed the tea for 5 minutes using boiling water. The aroma while steeping is the same as the dry leaf only intensified. It brews up a rich, golden brown color which is actually a lighter shade than I expected from the look of the dry leaf. The tea has a strong chocolate scent along with a nice earthy component.

I took the first cup plain and hot. The taste is very rich and slightly earthy like you would expect with oolongs. The aftertaste is of baking chocolate and gives the tea a naturally sweet quality. This tea can also stand up to the addition of milk as a breakfast tea which seems to intensify the chocolate quality by giving it a creamier feeling.

This tea is very complex with each sip continually morphing through a variety of flavors. From sweet to earthy to rich black tea to sweet, dark chocolate. I prefer this tea to be steeped for 4 minutes rather than the suggested 5 because it seems to bring out more of the chocolate quality while keeping the earthiness as a backup. Dawn is extremely smooth and lacks the astringency that can so often be found in black teas.

Dawn is the most complex tea that I’ve had and the complexity seems to make you crave the tea even more. If you enjoy black teas, this one is a must try.

You can purchase the Dawn directly from the The Simple Leaf website.