Irish Breakfast from Teavana

Scent in package: Malty & rich
Ratio: 1 tsp. to 12 oz. water
Steeped: 4 min. @ boiling (212 degrees)
This month I’m trying some of Teavana’s teas for the first time. And while some of them have been enjoyable (reviews to come), this one really isn’t. At all.

The scent in the package is pretty normal for an Irish Breakfast – malty and rich, like any good Assam blend. I got a little worried when I saw how small the tea leaves had been chopped up – not quite tea dust from a bag, but more like ground coffee. The scent of the brewed liquor warned me that it would be bitter – if you drink tea often, you’ll know what I mean when I say it smelled “burnt”. And I only steeped it 4 minutes, less than one would normally steep a black tea.

The taste – well, it was bitter, harsh, and very drying. None of the smooth malt and raisin taste that one normally expects from this type of tea blend. Strong and unpleasant, I only finished the cup because I was finishing it at work, and had nothing to replace it with for my morning caffeine fix.

Avoid this at all costs – there are much, much better Irish Breakfast blends out there at very reasonable prices. The rest of mine will end up in my compost pile.