Edinburgh Tea and Coffee Company

Not recanting any of my previous notes on this one; it’s still on the milder side of my wake-up tea preferences, but good all the same. No one tea in the blend outshouts the other.

I’ve previously noted how light this is for a morning tea, but I will amend my comments after steeping a quart of this all day in the fridge. It stoutens (Yeah, stoutens. I made it up, so there)considerably with a slow, cold steep. Bit of apple-peel sharpness to it now. Good stuff.

In a moment of weakness, I agreed to teach both hours of fifth grade Sunday school this morning due to lack of volunteers on a holiday weekend. (Individually, this group is full of a bunch of unique and lovable kids. Collectively, they’re a toxic mess of bad mojo. Too many large personalities in a small room.)

So, after a less-than-stellar night o’ sleep, I grabbed something I thought would boot me awake. This wasn’t it.

I’ve never known any Scots personally, so I am open to correction, but subtlety does not strike me as being a national personality characteristic. So the lightness of this tea surprises me. Not a bit of astringency. Makes me think of wheat toast crust. Plenty of flavor, just not the kind that conks you on the head with a caber.

I won’t delete my first tasting note on this one, but I’m going to retract it; I alluded to some heft that wasn’t there. May try doubling up on the bags next time.

Tried with a little half-and-half this morning, and all I’m getting is the milk. Back to straight up next time.

Another surprise from the Easter Elephant. A nice bagged morning blend (EE knows that mornings are always a rush and it’s easy to ruin good loose tea). Not as strong as I had anticipated. I’d place it just past Yorkshire Gold on the plain hot water——>PG Tips left to stand 30 minutes scale.

With milk, this is one of my favourite teas. It is light and floral, rather than being bitter or overpowering, like some black teas.

Very light and soft. I added honey but wouldn’t again as I think due to the lightness it has to stand alone to be enjoyed.

Really like the boldness of this black tea, good pick me up.

I picked up a tin of this at TJ Maxx a while ago. I have had a few cups of it and love the strong flavor and the burst of energy it gives me. I have a ton on my to-do list today, so I’m starting the afternoon with a cup of this tea to get me going. The tea is a dark reddish brown color and smells deliciously malty and sweet. I seriously could swoon just smelling it. The flavor is very robust and just a little bitter. There is a nice, full, malty aftertaste. This tea takes milk and sweetener well, and becomes a smooth and bold cup. If it were just a little less bitter it would be almost perfect.

-Dry blend has small granules of black tea leaves.
-Dry leaves smell like strong black tea. Tea liquor aroma is malty and sweet.
-Tea liquor is a clear very dark reddish brown color.
-Robust and slightly bitter flavor and finish. Light malty and bitter aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Good tea. Adding milk and sweetener produces a bold and smooth flavor. Slightly bitter.

A very bold black tea. It smells phenomenal when brewing and really has the kick you would expect from an African tea.

The liquor is a dark red. It is much darker than most black teas I have tried in fact.

The taste is extremely bold. There is quite a bit of bitterness, almost like a black coffee in a sense . It doesn’t not taste malty or astringent, just bold.

If you’re looking for a coffee replacement, this is the tea.

Oh my did I overindulge on Superbowl food. (I’m not going to talk about the actual superbowl because the reffing was so bad I want to tear my hair out poor 49ers) Usually I make burgers and guacamole and halftime, and we have chips & dip in the first half. This year I decided to forgo the burgers and make bacon cheeseburger dip—I thought if I replaced regular dip with that and skipped the burgers, it’d be lighter. But the dip was so good, and I made so much… and then guacamole… and then cookies… urgh. So I needed something light to combat it—I’m really in the mood for some genmaicha or a nice sencha, but I’m at my parents’ house for the game so I only have what I brought with me.

I decided instead on something herbal, and lo and behold I have a bag of this from KittyLovesTea! Well, it’s not exactly 100% herbal, but there’s some thistle in it so it counts.

This is an interesting blend. At first sip (and sniff) it smells just like your average Indian black, ctc, nothing special. But the thistle adds a really nice herby dimension, almost floral and with a hint of pleasant bitterness. Not overstepped black bitterness, but more like… grapefruit rind bitterness. Refreshingly brisk, this is really doing the trick! Thanks fellow Kitty!

It is already great to be off from work until the new year, but having a new Christmas present tea to taste makes life even better! I was fascinated by the name of this tea.

Being of direct Scottish heritage (my mother was born and partially raised in Scotland), and having spent a month and a half in Scotland myself, I was intrigued by the inclusion of Scottish thistle in this tea. Heather, I could understand. After all, heather is a sweet and dainty little flower that grows on the Scottish hillsides. Thistle, on the other hand, has painful thorns. According to legend, the invention of the kilt was necessary to allow Scottish soldiers to be mobile when marching through fields covered with this prickly plant. So, thistle is not an ingredient that I would expect to find in my beverage.

When I opened the hinged tin and pierced the bag inside, I noticed that the short tea leaves were like coffee grounds. Also, many red and yellow thistle blossom pieces were mixed with the leaves. The aroma of the unbrewed leaves was standard African tea with something extra, although the smell was not flowery.

I brewed the leaves for five minutes at 212 degrees, the maximum recommended time and temperature. The color was a brownish gold. The brewed aroma was again standard tea with something else.

I hate to be repetitious, but the flavor of this tea also was…you guessed it…standard tea with something extra. The best way to explain it is that the sweet overtones and astringency that I’ve often noticed in flowery teas were present in this tea, but not to the extent where I could classify them. I can only identify the taste by calling it STANDARD AFRICAN TEA PLUS.

This is a pleasant tasting tea. It is not bitter. I liked drinking four cups of it. I just did not find the flavor easy to pinpoint. Maybe that doesn’t matter. Perhaps I should just shut up and enjoy it.

I was starting to get a little bummed out. I hadn’t had a new tea to taste in a good while. But, thanks to Santa Claus and my always wonderful and thoughtful wife, I now have two new Scottish teas to try out!

When I snipped open the bag of loose leaf tea inside the well-designed hinged tin, my sniffer was immediately slapped with an aroma similar to Rooibos tea. Perhaps that is because the leaves were grown and produced in Kenya. The leaves were very short and had a consistency almost like ground coffee.

Other reviews that I read about this tea seemed to be unanimous in their assessment that this was a milder breakfast blend. Since I prefer potent black teas, I opted to steep this selection for the maximum recommended brewing time of five minutes at 212 degrees.

The brewed liquid had a reddish gold color. The smell was like a light but standard black breakfast tea.

The first sip produced a slightly sweet malty taste. It was quite pleasant but still mild, even after five minutes of steeping.

With subsequent swallows, I started to experience a flavor kick with this tea. It was not bitter but it lingered to form the basis of a malty, African black tea blend aftertaste.

This is a very nice tea. I enjoyed it straight up without milk or sweeteners, which is how I drink all of my teas. It was also a fantastic complement to the terrific Scottish Empire Biscuits that my lovely wife baked for me for Christmas.

I don’t think you could go wrong with this tea at breakfast or in the afternoon. I look forward to sampling another tea by Edinburgh Tea and Coffee Company…TOMORROW!

very very traditional tea with a nice twist. the good quality black tea is rich and warm with a slight chocolaty flavour thats nicely paired with the thistles. its slightly flowery but just and undertone bc the shining star is certainly the good quality tea leaves. its a strong brew with vanilla and chocolate tones that go well with afternoon cakes and desserts. Its also got enough caffeine to replace coffee and its always good to replace that bean juice with the worlds REAL favourite beverage…

I received a few samples of this tea from a friend in Scotland.

A nice refreshing tea with a ceylon flavour boosted by a floral/herbal after taste. Lovely for something a little different, it almost reminds me of a jasmine taste but without so much floral bitterness in flavour.

Great black tea! It has the right amount of flavour without tasting tart.

It’s okay. The first brew needs sugar and milk. The second brew is okay without sugar or milk. It was quite expensive for just teabags. I would be interested in trying the looseleaf version.

The Mr.Coffee Mug Warmer I ordered from J&R arrived today in the mail despite the Canada Post rotating strike going on nowadays. I saw in the news yesterday that the government passed a back-to-work legislation that will force the union postal workers to return to their jobs by next week or so. Not sure how I feel about this though because there are people saying that these workers are overpaid with much too generous benefits, pensions, vacations, etc. (Canada Post is a crown corporation BTW for those unaware), but I’m sure that this would be untrue for most of the hardworking people there that would surely deserve what they are getting. Anyways… the mug warmer seems to be working great, except that it’s barely doing anything for this mug I have that has a bottom with its edges protruding out. I tried one with a flat bottom and the tea remained quite warm and even hot near the end of the cup.

I bought this tea quite a while ago, and I was surprised to find that I didn’t log this one. Compared to the recently logged Irish Breakfast, I think it has a much cleaner taste although still maintaining a bold, robust profile. It has a light body with not much astringency, and has subtle notes of malt and wood(I read oak somewhere in a review of an anonymous Scottish Breakfast).

A lovely, flavorful tea with an exotic kick to it. Picked it up while on vacation in Edinburgh, and every sip is reminiscent of the lush, fecund, highlands.

Lovely way to get the morning started! This blend has a bit more kick than the English and Irish versions I have tried. Very full, Kenyan comes through. I prefer to use both sugar and milk with this one, versus no sugar for Irish breakfast teas.

This tea is very similar to the Scottish Breakfast but tastes a little stronger. The Kenyan tea is dominate in this blend but is still much milder than any other African tea I have drank. It still has a kick to it and is not bitter at all. More steeping may cause bitterness but I like the 3 minute steep. The tea is very tasty and while it says afternoon tea, I’m drinking it for breakfast and it works. Another T.J.Maxx tea @$5 for 125 grams.

This tea really surprised me. I was expecting a very strong tea as the leaf was very broken and small. The tea does have a kick but is much milder than expected. My tea sense is getting better as I can detect assam, ceylon, and kenyan tea in this blend. (Much more Kenyan than the others). The tea is lighter in color than an assam would be and is not bitter at all. There is a little astringency but not enough to bother anyone. I really enjoyed drinking this tea. The tea was very inexpensive as I found it at T.J.Maxx for $5 for 125 grams.