English Breakfast Black Tea

DAVIDsTEA

$5.98USD for 2oz

As an avid TeaVana drinker (and former employee) it was really hard for me to embrace the fact that there were other tea companies out there that could compare to my beloved TeaVana. DAVIDsTEA was one of the companies that I had heard a lot about but never wanted to try because I felt that I was betraying the company that introduced me to “real” tea. It wasn’t until I received a package of their teas, including this English Breakfast, from one of my #metimeteaswap partners that I had the opportunity to try them.

Packaging

DavidsTea’s English Breakfast arrived in a silver heat sealed bag. It is lightproof and resealable so the tea can stay fresh for a little while in the bag. This is great since I’m not a huge English Breakfast drinker. But with fall/winter coming soon it’ll become more of a go to on a cold Saturday morning.

Everything on the label is written in both English and French, which makes sense since this is a Canadian company. Their labels are clean and classic. On the label is the name of the tea, the kind of tea (black tea), and the net weight in both grams and ounces. English Breakfast is considered “The Classic of Classics”.

I would agree with that. English Breakfast is absolutely a well known, and popular tea.

How To Brew

The back of the bag has a brief description of the tea, the ingredients (Sri Lanka Black Tea), and steeping instructions. They say to use 1-2 of their Perfect Spoonfuls for every 8oz of water at 200ºF for 4-7 minutes. If you look on the website, the time says 3-5 minutes so you need to figure out which time works best for you and your tastebuds.

I let my tea steep for 4 minutes. As it brewed the earthy aroma heightened and it had a slight honey smell to it. English Breakfast teas aren’t normally very sweet and can have a bit of a bite to them so I was pleasantly surprised.

The Experience

The website described their English Breakfast Black Tea by saying…

There’s nothing better than waking up to a fabulous cup of English Breakfast tea. Which is why we took great care in choosing our signature blend. The winner? A flowery pekoe from Sri Lanka. This delicious black tea is perfectly balanced and full-bodied, without being overpowering.

This Sri Lanka Black Tea steeped to a beautiful amber color. I haven’t seen an English Breakfast be so vibrant in a long time. The first steeping had a bit too much of a bite for me. Not necessarily bitter, but it had a lot of astringency. This is why I am not typically a fan of English Breakfast.

Since this is a traditional black tea, the leaves can be steeped multiple times. Since I was still getting a honey aroma I wanted to see if I could get that flavor to come out more. I let my second steeping sit for 4 minutes as well and was pleasantly surprised. There was no astringency in the second steeping and the honey flavor came out nicely. I was actually able to sit and enjoy this cup of tea, unlike the first steeping which just wasn’t for me.

In Conclusion

Considering I am not an English Breakfast fan, I really enjoyed my session with this tea. I am so happy that I took the time to try the second steeping instead of crossing this tea off my list completely.  The next time I make a cup of DavidsTea’s English Breakfast I will do a 5-10 second rinse and offer that to my sweet tea pet and make myself the second steeping to drink.

I understand why this is a morning wake-up tea. It is absolutely full bodied and would make a coffee/dark tea drinker very happy. DavidsTea did a great job searching for the right tea for this blend. I will keep some of this on hand for friends and family who prefer English Breakfast in the morning but I will stick with my sweeter black teas for my own personal daily use.

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