Attempting to wean myself from coffee completely in the mornings, I am
trying to find a good breakfast tea. I cannot abide Twinings English
Breakfast, I have given thought to Taylors of Harrogate's Scottish
Breakfast (which certainly appeals to my Scottish heritage!) What is
the difference between a Scottish Breakfast and an English Breakfast?
Should I not even bother with the Scottish Breakfast and try a Oolong?

My current tastes are as follows:

Hu-Kwa Lapsang Souchong by Mark T. Wendell (my favorite blend).

Republic of Tea Moroccan Mint

Prince of Wales Keemun by Twinings

I used to have Twinings Earl Grey...but I found that the bergamot was
giving me migraines.

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 21:56:18 -0700, Mike Fulton wrote:

> Attempting to wean myself from coffee completely in the mornings, I am
> trying to find a good breakfast tea.


Try a very simple Kenian BOP, it is strong, full of flavour, and takes
milk very well.
JB

On breakfast teas, different brands have different blends, so you have
to do some experimenting. I read somewhere that Scottish breakfast was
blended to go with Scotland's soft water. I like it better than the
English breakfast or Irish breakfast that I have tried, but I don't
really know what I was drinking in any of these cases. Toci

What is the difference between a Scottish Breakfast and an English
Breakfast?

The English Breakfast is a blend of several black teas from India, Sri
Lanka, China and Kenya, of the flowery pekoe grade. The English
Breakfast was actually invented in Edinburgh, Scotland. A tea master by
the name of Drysdale came up with the idea of marketing his blend as
"Breakfast Tea". The concept soon spread to England where tea had
become enormously popular. The English of the 19th Century were crazy
for anything even remotely Chinese, where tea in its most purest form
originated. Tea houses in London began adding "English" to the name,
and the tea became and remains one of the most popular teas in England.


Hot tea brewing preparation of the English Breakfast: Scoop 2-4
teaspoons of tea into the teapot. Pour in boiling water that has been
freshly drawn (previously boiled water has lost most if its oxygen and
therefore tends to be flat tasting), steep for 2-4 minutes (to taste),
stir (virtually all the leaves will sink), pour into your cup, add milk
(do not use cream) and sugar to taste. When you are making a pot of tea
- using loose tea of course - you will see the tea leaves uncurl and
expand dramatically.


The Scottish Breakfast is like a proper Highlander - robust, malty
(not unlike a good Scotch) and full of life and vigor. Highlanders
liked their tea very strong and insisted on hints of cask oak to remind
them of their clan's own special elixir - single malt Scotch. The
Scottish blend consists of 2nd Flush Assam tea (thick, robust with
hints of malt); January production South Indian tea (high mountain
grown that has flavour which accentuates the Assam; Keemun Panda #1
which has a winy character further enhancing the stout malty character
of the blend; and finally a Chingwo County Orange Pekoe which gives the
distinct oaky character. This tea is usually taken with milk which
further lends a malty and reddish character to the tea.

Hot tea brewing preparation of the Scottish: Bring freshly drawn cold
water to a rolling boil. Place 1 teaspoon of tea for each cup into the
teapot. Pour the boiling water into the teapot. Cover and let steep for
3-7 minutes according to taste (the longer the steeping time the
stronger the tea). Add milk and sugar to taste.

- Athooya
http://www.niftea.com
your cup of tea to the healthy lifestyle

Mike Fulton wrote:
> Attempting to wean myself from coffee completely in the mornings, I am
> trying to find a good breakfast tea. I cannot abide Twinings English
> Breakfast, I have given thought to Taylors of Harrogate's Scottish
> Breakfast (which certainly appeals to my Scottish heritage!) What is
> the difference between a Scottish Breakfast and an English Breakfast?
> Should I not even bother with the Scottish Breakfast and try a Oolong?
>
> My current tastes are as follows:
>
> Hu-Kwa Lapsang Souchong by Mark T. Wendell (my favorite blend).
>
> Republic of Tea Moroccan Mint
>
> Prince of Wales Keemun by Twinings
>
> I used to have Twinings Earl Grey...but I found that the bergamot was
> giving me migraines.

"Mike Fulton" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Attempting to wean myself from coffee completely in the mornings, I am
> trying to find a good breakfast tea.

Mike, I make my own blend of black (or red, to be precise) "breakfast" tea
from roughly equal parts of Assam, Nilgiri, Ceylon and Yunnan. Upton has a
good selection of all these teas; I choose BOP organic types by preference.
You can vary the mix to suit your taste - I've added Kenya, Darjeeling and
Keemun at various times, depending on what I had on hand and my mood. Three
minutes in boiling water seems to be about right for my taste, and its
versatile: I drink it plain, with milk and/or sugar and iced. Good stuff,
not expensive, and I think it's fun to experiment with the way the flavors
of the different teas interplay with one another.

Regards,
Dean

Mike Fulton wrote:

> Attempting to wean myself from coffee completely in the mornings, I am
> trying to find a good breakfast tea. I cannot abide Twinings English
> Breakfast, I have given thought to Taylors of Harrogate's Scottish
> Breakfast (which certainly appeals to my Scottish heritage!) What is
> the difference between a Scottish Breakfast and an English Breakfast?
> Should I not even bother with the Scottish Breakfast and try a Oolong?
>
> My current tastes are as follows:
>
> Hu-Kwa Lapsang Souchong by Mark T. Wendell (my favorite blend).
> Republic of Tea Moroccan Mint
> Prince of Wales Keemun by Twinings

My guess is you might like a Yunnan. A nice, flavorful Yunnan
for breakfast is Upton's Yunnan GFOP (ZY40 in their catalog
numbering system). It is also very modestly priced.

As you have a Keemun on your list, you could also try their
Keemun Mao Feng (ZK98), which is an absolutely superb tea,
about twice the price of the ZY40, but still less than 10
cents per gram.


Randy

>Attempting to wean myself from coffee completely in the mornings, I am
>trying to find a good breakfast tea. I cannot abide Twinings English
>Breakfast, I have given thought to Taylors of Harrogate's Scottish
>Breakfast (which certainly appeals to my Scottish heritage!) What is
>the difference between a Scottish Breakfast and an English Breakfast?
>Should I not even bother with the Scottish Breakfast and try a Oolong?
>
>My current tastes are as follows:
>
>Hu-Kwa Lapsang Souchong by Mark T. Wendell (my favorite blend).
>
>Republic of Tea Moroccan Mint
>
>Prince of Wales Keemun by Twinings

What is wrong with Prince of Wales or Lapsang Souchong in the morning?
I would think that an oolong would be a little bit too light for something
early in the morning, but then here it is 9:30 and I am having a
tikuanyin right now.

Most of the "breakfast" teas are very robust and often heavily charged
with Uva-grown Ceylon teas. Either you like that or you don't. If you
don't, keemun in the morning sounds just fine to me.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article <9urDe.7823$N91.5608@trnddc08>, DPM > wrote:
>"Mike Fulton" > wrote in message
>> Attempting to wean myself from coffee completely in the mornings, I am
>> trying to find a good breakfast tea.
>
>Mike, I make my own blend of black (or red, to be precise) "breakfast" tea
>from roughly equal parts of Assam, Nilgiri, Ceylon and Yunnan. Upton has a
>good selection of all these teas; I choose BOP organic types by preference.
>You can vary the mix to suit your taste - I've added Kenya, Darjeeling and
>Keemun at various times, depending on what I had on hand and my mood. Three
>minutes in boiling water seems to be about right for my taste, and its
>versatile: I drink it plain, with milk and/or sugar and iced. Good stuff,
>not expensive, and I think it's fun to experiment with the way the flavors
>of the different teas interplay with one another.

I will say that if you like something really heavy and robust that does
not get bitter, Upton's _Malawi BOP_ is excellent and cheap. And it
would be a good choice to make a morning blend like this with.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

You can try some of Adagio's black teas. They have nice sampler sizes,
so you can try a bunch of different ones. I'm very impressed with the
quality of the leaf for the price. The keemuns, in particular, are
very good. Keemun Mao Feng is nice sweeter and somewhat chocolaty. Or
Keemun Hao Ya, if you like a more smoky, somewhat pine-like flavor.
Also, you can try Golden Monkey -- a bit more full-bodied, more
chocolaty and less smoky than a keemun.


>
> My current tastes are as follows:
>
> Hu-Kwa Lapsang Souchong by Mark T. Wendell (my favorite blend).
>
> Republic of Tea Moroccan Mint
>
> Prince of Wales Keemun by Twinings
>
> I used to have Twinings Earl Grey...but I found that the bergamot was
> giving me migraines.

Scottish Breakfast and Irish Breakfast blends typically are
Assam-based, more so than English Breakfast blends. I don't think I've
ever had a Scottish Breakfast tea and I am not sure how it would
compare to Irish Breakfast. A lot depends on the vendor or brand, so
you really have to experiment a bit to find what you like and not get
too hung up on the names.

Twinings English Breakfast is one of my favorites. Since you don't
like it, do you want to try something stronger or mellower? Jackson's
Irish Morning is an excellent morning eye-opener. Very strong and very
smooth. If you want something mellower, try Twinings Ceylon Breakfast,
which is the lightest of their "breakfast" blends.

Rob