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$2.20 oz |
$22.25 lb |
As its name implies, English Breakfast tea is an ideal accompaniment to a morning meal. Our exquisite version of this tea is made with a classic blend of Sri Lanka Ceylon flowery pekoe (FP) black tea from premier tea gardens. The result is a very distinctive, strong, rich tea. When brewed the English Breakfast produces a bright, full bodied, and amber tea. It may be enjoyed with milk or lemon (but not in combination, the lemon would curdle the milk). It also makes an exceptional iced tea. This stimulating tea is the perfect morning wake-up drink. By the 1700s tea at breakfast was part of the English lifestyle, having replaced the customary practice of drinking ale with breakfast! The prototype for English Breakfast was developed over a hundred years ago by the Scottish Tea Master Drysdale, in Edinburgh. It was marketed simply as "Breakfast Tea". It became popular in England due to the craze Queen Victoria created for all things Scottish (the summer home of Victoria and Albert was the Highland castle at Balmoral). Tea shops in London, however, changed the name and sold it as "English Breakfast Tea". Like today's fo'-shizzle-my-nizzle teens who embrace rap culture, the English of the 19th Century were crazy for anything even remotely Chinese, where tea in it's most purest form originated. Tea houses in London began adding "English" to the name, and the tea became and remains one of the most popular teas in England. English Breakfast has become a favorite of tea drinkers worldwide and is the tea most often enjoyed during English High Tea. It is a blend of fine black teas, often including some Keemun tea. Many tea authorities suggest that the Keemun tea blended with milk creates a bouquet that reminds people of "toast hot from the oven" and may be the original source for the name. Although usually served in the morning, it is the perfect refreshing and invigorating tea for any time of the day. The longer you allow this tea to brew the stronger it becomes. This tea is best enjoyed with milk since the casein in milk renders the tannins in tea insoluble and reduces the characteristic bitterness of strong teas. Regarding the addition of milk, there is the age old argument of when to add the milk to the cup -before you add the tea or after. Milk-firsters argue that adding milk last scalds the milk noticeably and therefore the milk should be warmed slowly with the addition of tea. Milk-lasters argue that adding milk after the tea has been poured is the only way of judging the proper amount of milk to add by watching the color of the tea change. Non users of milk regard the whole issue as silly. |