English Breakfast

I don’t typically feel the need to write more than one tasting note per tea unless something different strikes me or (as in this case) I just feel like it. Contrary to what my absence of commentary on Steepster might suggest, I have actually been quite busy drinking and enjoying my teas of late. With spring coming just around the corner, I have been working on using up my “winter teas” in order to make room for the influx of new spring delights that await me. (I make that sound like a chore, but believe me, “using up tea” is no tedious obligation that I feel I must do…it’s a pleasure!) So, one of the teas in my winter collection is this English Breakfast, and I will be sorry when it is gone because I absolutely love it. It’s just one of those perfectly solid reliable black teas that you never get tired of, you know? Like that favorite sweater you wear (probably too often) in winter, but it doesn’t matter because it fits perfectly, feels comfortable, looks nice, is just the right color, and is suitable no matter what the occasion. That is this tea. Mmmmm, delicious! But, like my favorite sweaters, once summer comes this will be out of sight for a while until next year when I reorder for winter again.

Now, some of you may say, why can’t you just enjoy it in summer too? Well, I have weird ideas about what teas I like to drink and when. Not that it’s a hard and fast rule of course, but generally speaking I like certain teas at certain seasons. Black tea I generally drink heavily in the fall and winter, whereas greens, oolongs, and white teas all are what I consider “warmer weather teas.” I love black tea a lot though, so obviously I would never stop drinking it altogether just because it’s summer—I simply have different black teas I like to enjoy then. (For instance, I tend to choose Indian and African black varieties for summer, China blacks in winter, for no other reason than a good Nilgiri or Kenyan black seem “summerish” to me. Somehow they just fit with the hot weather, maybe because their countries of origin are typically super hot? Seems silly, I know, but that’s how I roll.) Anyway, here’s to sipping down some of my lovely fall/winter black teas: Lapsang Souchong, English Breakfast, Emporer’s Gold, Orange Spice, etc.!