Malachi McCormick's Blend

Tea, or should I say, teas of the morning…..

I decided to do a side by side of Malachi McCormick and Supreme Breakfast. I do like them both, but am trying to decide which one to keep around. I do realize that I could keep them both, but I am going for a little more simplicity here. I need to rein in the stash and settle on a few breakfast tea choices rather than a few dozen.

I think the Supreme Breakfast is heavier on the Assam, but it could just be that it is blended with higher quality teas. I get a heavier malt than the Malachi. I brewed this one a little longer than I did last time (4 minutes instead of 3) and I think this hits the Assam bitterness threshold for me. It could probably be corrected for my palate with steeping time. I do have to say that I am leaning more toward the Malachi. What I love about Keemun tea is the cocoa notes, and Malachi has them. They are much lighter in the Supreme Breakfast. I definitely can’t say that I am sorry that I tried the Supreme because it is a great tea blend, but for now I think the Malachi fits me better. It is such a relief that I can still be happy with good basic tea, and that my tastes have not all given over to the more expensive varieties. (Malachi is currently $20 a pound, and Supreme Breakfast is $32.)

Brewed side by side by the usual mug method.

(I also ordered a Harney Mug in my shop order…it is the same as my white ForLife mug, except with the Harney logo. Since I have three ForLife infusers from my one mug and two teapots, it all works out perfectly for side by side comparisons!)

Ahhhhhhhhh! The perfect cup for this crazy morning! A morning I would rather NOT repeat!

I think this just may be the most refreshing BLACK Tea I have ever had!
YUM!

We haven’t had this one in quite a while. The tin is getting low, but I don’t think I will be ordering this one again. It is, as it says, a decent cup of tea, but it doesn’t ring bells for me. Youngest likes it more than I do, but she is such a fan of Irish Breakfast teas. We had this one for second breakfast. I took the first cup plain and the second with milk and sugar. It didn’t thrill me either way, though it wasn’t bad. I would just rather drink something that makes my eyes light up!

This smells awesome in the sample packet. It has that planty, earthy smell I get from good Assams with something else as well. It’s not really chocolate, not really vanilla, but it might be a hint of either of those. Not really smoke but could be a hint of that as well. The leaves are really pretty and bird nesty looking like some Ceylons (which is interesting since this doesn’t have Ceylon in it according to the picture at the top of this page).

It makes a dark, mahogany colored tea, with a sweet, smooth and malty aroma. The flavor is really yummy. It is a hearty flavor without a heaviness to it like some of the stouter breakfast teas (e.g., Queen Catherine). I’d describe it as medium bodied leaning toward full. It isn’t overly complex or deep, but it is full flavored, fairly smooth (a got tiny nip at the back of the throat, but it’s not consistent), and not overly sweet despite its malty aroma.

My main problem now is that I’m liking so many black teas, I’m not being very successful at narrowing down what I buy after sampling. With the exception of a few real stand outs, I’m getting a cluster of very goods and excellents and I’m having a hard time cutting them more finely. I also can’t keep them all in my head each time I taste a new one.

Does anyone have a systematic way of doing this successfully?

A chilly 22 degrees here in Millerton, NY. This morning pot was just what we needed to get the day started. With it’s toasty flavors and sweet aroma, this warmed us right up, getting us ready for a day of retail!

Without further ado, another excerpt from Malachi’s book, “How to Make a Decent Cup of Tea”.

“Forty years elapsed between the first proud declaration and the second sorrowful inquiry, a shameful interval indeed which saw the decline of the most basic of institutions. I refer to the Decent Cup of Tea.

We can survive functional literacy or shattered windows of vulnerability, but not the demise of a Decent Cup of Tea. So, while we may, let us review the proper way.

Firstly, of course, you must keep your tea in a proper tea-caddy, preferably on one of those little wooden boxes that are lined with tea-chest paper. (Tea is sometimes sold in these boxes: whenever I’m in Dublin I go to the world-famous Bewley’s to savor the tea, the ambiance, the Harry Clarke stained glass windows, the conversation at the tables – and to pickup a box or two of their wonderful tea.)

Of course we’re talking “loose” tea here. No teabags OK?

Incidentally you may be interested to know that the word ‘caddy’ comes from the Malay word, ‘kati’, meanigf a small unit of weight, that tea was sold by in that part of the world."

Stay tuned for the next excerpt about a Decent Cup of Tea!

A couple of short notes today. I drank this early in the morning, and it is now late and I’m yawning!

My partner’s last name is McCormick, so when I saw this I went oh my goodness! It’s McCormick tea! I’ve been on a quest lately to find some decent, inexpensive, everyday teas and ordered a tin of this. After all, it bears the last name of someone I love very much, so for that alone I figured I could like it.

And I did! It’s not going to knock your socks off (in other words, it’s no Laoshan Black), but this had a pleasant malty flavor with a hint of cocoa, and no astringency. Although I disregarded the instructions and brewed it for 4 minutes instead of 5.

As a testament to its name, this is in fact a Decent Cup of Tea.

I have spent the morning with Malachi McCormick, the last of the black tea samples from Harney and Sons. This is described by the company as a simple and unpretentious blend of black teas. Before tasting it, I wondered if it would therefore be boring and blah. I must say no, emphatically no! It is a very flavorful cup of tea-smooth and sweet with a grainy/toasty aroma. That being said, I like black teas in general and as long as a black tea is decent, I’m probably going to like it a lot and rate it at least in the 80’s. This goes in the very good category for me, if not outstanding.

i have so much fic to read. i feel like my email is blowing up with new posts of stories. huge ones that exceed 100k words, and tiny little ideas that are adorable in both content and size (300 words).
it’s a little daunting? but MOSTLY just gleeful.
tea and a book. tea and a book!!
poetry. fan fiction. memoirs. non-fiction. comics. art books. on and on. there’s never enough time!!
maaaybe if i spent less time on steepster? …. NAW! nope wrong answer :)

this tea. not a keeper. i really thought i would flip for it more. but it just kinda came and went. i barely remember it to be honest. i’ll have another pot within the next week or so. perhaps i’ll amend my post when i do.

1.5 tsp for 300mL water @100C, steeped four minutes, drunk bare.

Simple and good. Toasty sweetness form Keemun, heft and creaminess and malt from Assam. Reliable. I’d keep this as a staple.

I always forget to use tea as a way to dust off the cobwebs in my brain upon first waking up—a throwback to my intermittent fasting days I reckon (I still use the window—don’t eat anything from 8pm to 12pm. Has made worrying about breakfast in the rush of work days a non-issue, which I like, plus when I DO eat breakfast-y foods on days off it always feels so special now, like just going for pancakes is a huge deal, whee). But the other day after dinner I was thinking about how if I don’t start drinking tea earlier in the day than I have been (I often forget to until well after lunch, eek) I will never be able to enjoy my brisk quite caffeinated stuff, of which I have a lot as it’s still my favorite category. So here we are, with a very decent and standard cup of breakfast-y tea with that traditional black tea taste I sometimes crave and miss like no other. Not a bad way to greet day at all. Only hope this doesn’t take me down a slippery slope of NEEDING caffeine first thing to even be sentient at all (oh coffee addict days, I really don’t miss you). We’ll see.