****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Short Version: Best price out there for excellent tea especially if you like a malty aromatic mahogany color tea to serve with Cream & Sugar or to drink Neat or even Iced. Excellent for your Kombucha too. This would also be an AMAZING gift for any Black Tea Lover in your life ~ it is an extravagant amount, yes, but not at an extravagant price. If you do the math you are getting over 2 pounds excellent quality tippy, malty scrumptious tea for less than $15 a pound. That is an amazing price. Buy Some, it keeps forever in a cool dark pantry so you can't go wrong. No fancy tool needed: just a mesh strainer or a tea ball or even buy your own unbleached empty tea bags and fill them as you like.LONG VERSION: I am not a certified Tea Master, but I am a long time enthusiast who as been in love with English Breakfast teas for well over 35 years.Appearance: there are no big shaggy leaves here, so at first it gives the impression of an Indian style CTC ("Cut Torn Chopped") but upon closer examination I see a very consistent natural creosote color leaves and a smattering of delighburl fawn color tippy leaves. A high quality consistent size tea, no wee fannings here, no dust.Aroma: the dried tea lets me know I am in for a treat; something malty and lightly toasted, the hint of dried alfalfa that makes me think fondly of rich sweet livestock fodder, of a green juicy plant carefully dried, holding the sunshine within...Appearance: rich red/brown color like aged mahogany. Lovely.Mouthfeel: thinner than a Pu'er, but still just right to go with breakfast or afternoon Tea & Biscuit.Taste: Perfect Cuppa. This will pair nicely with fluffy scrambled eggs or acidic and sweet fresh fruits, it will even stand up to a mild spiced sausage and or smoky sweet bacon (if you like an especially spicy start to the day such as a spicy sausage or Hatch New Mexico Green Chiles in your modette, or a plate of Huevos Rancheros, I would try an Irish or even Scottish Breakfast tea). It is also delightful for afternoon tea or late night on the weekend Me Time.I have bought and enjoyed so many English Breakfast teas Harney & Sons (Yes Please!), Vardhan (boozy and lush! Worth the price), Positively (Very Nice I order several pounds a year!), Twinings (Yum!), Tea Forte (Nice, but $$$), Numi (Very Tasty, but $$$), New English Teas (Yummy!), Frontier (alright for every day, good budget tea), Davidsons (has been thus far reliably decent!), U.S. Wellness Naturals (meh, won't buy again). Taylors can be trusted to be The Cuppa you NEED for all occasions and still make the moment feel very extravagant. Delightful!Steeping: I do like my tea fairly strong and brew it long, maybe too long...With this tea I almost always steep as second time (often chilling the second brew for later in the afternoon if it is too hot for a cuppa). I let it steep for 1 minute, pull the strainter up and out then put the strainer back in my teapot or cup to brew another minute ( 6 minutes total, I did say I like it strong, right?) . This brew I serve with raw sugar and half and half ( No compromise; this is Self Care here, Folks!). If I make it to serve without sugar, I only steep for 4 minutes. Use the best water you can get your hands on.Tea fixes so many woes. Not sure what to do? Put the kettle on!For a Medium Size Teapot: (5 cup capacity ~ not sure how big you teapot is? fill it with water and measure how many cups it holds!)1 level tablespoon tea (small size of these fine leaves makes it easy to measure consistently!)into a metal strainer or big "tea bell" style strainerAdd 1 quart of filtered water fresh off the boil (that is about 5 cups or just over 1,000 milliliters).steep 5 minutes pull strainer up, steep 1 more minute if you like it dark, like Sherlock likes itServe neat (plain) or with Half & Half and Sugar, also nice to serve with lemon (just not lemon and cream or the cream will split and look a fright!).Just want a big cozy mug of tea? Put 1 teaspoon tea in you tea bell or an unbeached drawstring paper tea bag and add boiling water, wait 5 minutes. Be sure to leave yourself room for Half & Half and Sugar if that is your preference.
