Organic English Breakfast

This one is okay. I often receive these sachets as free samples when ordering from Harney, and have been trying to sip them all down. It isn’t a remarkable tea by any means, but it’s still nice. Far better than most English Breakfast teas you’ll find in the supermarket. I don’t love Keemun on it’s own, but this seems a good quality Keemun. I can tell it’s the same used in Harney’s delightful Queen Catherine blend. But on its own it’s just a bit dull. Malty, sweet and a little grainy. If you take your tea with milk I bet you would be fond of this one.

As I was making my daughter’s breakfast this morning, she was setting up our episode of Sailor Moon Crystal on Crunchyroll, so I grabbed this sample sachet out of my tea drawer for a quick cup of morning tea.
Sitting down to this epic, drama-filled episode (seriously, this series is opera-like, compared to the original…), I was finding myself feeling quite underwhelmed by this cup.
Honestly, it tasted pretty watery and insipid to me.
As the cup cooled, however, the flavour became more present, turning into a pretty drinkable cup of tea.
I even steeped for a second time, so the cup held enough interest to warrant that.
While I wouldn’t purchase this on my own, I didn’t feel the need to dump it out, either.
It was just ok.

I received a sachet of this in my recent order. It was just ho hum. Nothing really stood out about this tea. It was light and I was expecting a strong breakfast tea. This is not one I would repurchase.

Sample cube 10/18

This was a decent, fairly average breakfast tea. It was malty, had that typical black tea fragrance, and a slightly dusty (not crisp) mouthfeel.

John Harney Appreciation Tea #18

I found a few of these wrapped sachets of Organic English Breakfast tea from H&S (I believe that they came in the beautiful red linen covered gift box), and just noticed that the tea is actually completely different from the HT tin English Breakfast. In this case, the tea is straight organic Keemun. In the HT tins, the English Breakfast is a multi-origin blend.

Well, I prefer this one (although the other one tastes more like my “concept” of English Breakfast). I am drinking this orange liquor au naturel, and the flavor is really nice—as good as some of the haute single origin black teas I’ve tasted recently. But of course that’s what this is: Organic China Keemun!

I wonder why the ratings are lower for this than the standard H&S English Breakfast? Perhaps because this tea tastes less like the English Breakfast we’re all so used to, from Twinings, et al…

Free sample with my not so current purchase.
This cup is smooth and a little bland. I would not buy it but wouldn’t turn down if offered.