I’ve been getting into teas from Steeped Tea lately just to see what it was all about and today I’m sharing my experiences with you on English Breakfast Tea from Steeped Tea.
English Breakfast Tea from Steeped Tea is your standard but sturdy English Breakfast Tea. Traditionally served with milk – I rebel and drink it straight-up as I drink ALL of my teas.
This specific offering isn’t much for aroma once infused. It smells like your run-of-the-mill black tea. But I have to say if you are looking for a strong based black tea then English Breakfast Tea from Steeped Tea is one that may impress you! English Breakfast Tea from Steeped Tea is dark in color and strong in flavor once in your cup awaiting for you to sip. It’s has notes of dark cocoa powder underneath. It’s a bit astringent but I can handle it and actually prefer it in this specific tea. It does leave a dark lingering aftertaste but it’s welcomed.
I did like this dark cup of English Breakfast Tea from Steeped Tea and I’m looking forward to trying more from them. I have tried a few I really like and a few I probably wouldn’t order again but I’m sure that is why they have so many different offerings – to please the masses! That is what intrigues me about this specific company – some of their unique flavors.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Steeped Tea
Description: This classic breakfast tea is fresh, full and flavorful. Traditionally served with milk.
Ingredients: Black tea.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Pure Peppermint Herbal Tea from Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Description:
An exciting and invigorating herbal infusion of pure peppermint leaves to revitalise and refresh. Peppermint has been shown to aid digestion.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Peppermint is a classic herbal if ever there was one. It’s hard to go wrong with something so simple, and it’s a good stomach settler to boot. Rington’s pure peppermint is provided in a standard square paper tea bag, each one containing a generous amount of finely shredded peppermint leaves. I gave 1 bag approximately 3 minutes in boiling water for my cup. The liquor is a mediun golden brown, the scent mildly minty.
To taste, this is pretty much a standard peppermint tea. It’s exactly as you would expect – fresh tasting mint, with the wonderful hot water/cooling mint contrast that makes peppermint tea such a refreshing choice (and particularly suited to summer, if hot tea is your drink of choice when it’s 30 degrees out, as it is for me!) It’s a reasonably gentle mint, not too strong or reminiscent of toothpaste, but still identifiably mint. A well balanced choice.
There are so many similar peppermint teas available that it’s hard to make one stand out. Peppermint is an evergreen staple of the herbal tea world, after all. This one has no bells and whistles, but it’s clearly of quality – that much is evident in the drinking.
Everyday Green Tea from Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Ringtons
Tea Description:
Naturally easy to drink with a mild, mellow flavour. Very refreshing! From our ‘Speciality Teas’ family of teas. Gas-flushed. 2 x 50 tea bags. 200g/7oz.
Our modern version of green tea. The unfermented tea leaves are processed gently, encouraging the mellow tea flavours to come through to give a smoother flavour with no harshness. Ideal with or without milk!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Being a huge green tea fan, I thought for sure I would not love this tea. To be honest, I thought my tea snob would come out and say No- I will not like you. You are a tea bag. Mind you, I have been drinking tea bags from Paper Box Goodies all week but I still had that feeling.
Yep, my inner snob was shut up right quickly with one sip of this tea. I am surprised how good this is. Clean and refreshing green tea. No fuss. No mess. Just a solid smooth almost sweet green tea with a hint of vegetal going on here and there.
I prepped this tea up using just the water spout on our coffee maker at work and VIOLA! Green tea on the go and in a flash! This tea saved me in a meeting that I thought for sure I was going to fall asleep in. This tea is a great every day kind of tea. One that I could drink all day every day!
Nicely done Ringtons. This is the first tea I’ve had from them and I can say it won’t be the last. Tasty!
Lemon, Ginger & Ginseng Herbal Tisane from Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Description:
Naturally caffeine free, the Lemon, Ginger & Ginseng Herbal Tea is a refreshing and invigorating infusion that balances the lemon and ginger flavours.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Do you ever go through that moment when – as you’re brewing a cup of tea – you think to yourself: what was I thinking, choosing this tea? I actually go through that sort of moment more than I care to admit to.
And I experienced that moment as I was brewing this Lemon, Ginger & Ginseng Herbal Tisane from Rington’s Premium English Teas. I mean, I like lemon and I like ginger and I actually enjoy the two together quite a bit. But ginseng? I think I’ve mentioned more than once here on this blog that I’m not a fan of it. So, what possessed me to grab this tea to try it?
I don’t know. But, now that it’s brewed, I might as well try it, right?
I brewed one bag in 6 ounces of hot water (195°F) for 5 minutes.
The aroma offers a strong lemony note with hints of ginger. I also detect an earthy ginseng aroma. Ugh.
Fortunately, the ginseng smells stronger than it tastes! Happy day!
The lemon is the strongest flavor of the cup and it’s bright and invigorating. It’s not overly tart, it’s more of a sweet lemon note with hints of tangy. But I’m not puckering here.
The ginger is somewhat subdued, it’s not an overly peppered flavor from the spice of the ginger. It’s warm enough to offer some contrast to the zesty flavor of the lemon but not so spicy that it distracts from the lemon. This cup is really all about the lemon!
I can also taste the slightest hint of a cinnamon-y flavor to this. It’s very slight and it complements the ginger in a very enjoyable way.
What I don’t taste a lot of – thankfully – is ginseng. Even when I attempt to focus on the ginseng flavor to determine how much of it I actually do taste, I don’t taste a lot. A slight earthiness – that’s it! And the earthy notes meld favorably with the earthy notes of the ginger and cinnamon.
It really is as I said earlier, this tea is really all about the lemon. This would be something nice to keep on hand for those times when you’re feeling a bit under the weather and want something lively to sip. It would go nicely with a dollop of honey and would be soothing on a sore throat.
It’d also be nice if you’re cold-brewing some basic black tea – add one of these tea bags in along with the black tea and you’ll have a pleasant lemony flavor to your iced tea.
Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised by this tea!
Organic Tea from Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Description:
As you can imagine, organic tea cultivation is time consuming and requires careful attention. Over the last 10 years we have worked closely with selected organic tea gardens where careful crop husbandry and leaf quality is at the heart of everything they do. Our selected blend delivers a classic smooth flavour with a golden colour.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
After having tried several of Rington’s Premium English Teas offerings, I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed a few and there have been a few that I wasn’t too crazy about. And then there are some that I was kind of just ‘meh’ about. That is to say that while I didn’t dislike the tea, it wasn’t something that had me jumping out of my seat with excitement either.
This Organic Tea from Rington’s falls into the latter category. I don’t dislike it, but it’s not got me all giddy with joy either. I’m feeling just sort of ‘meh’ about this tea.
It’s got a rich flavor: earthy and robust. It has notes of leather and fruit. The finish is moderately astringent. Not overly so, but I notice that the dryness from the astringency seems to build as I continue to sip. On the down side, I can also taste the paper from the teabag. Not my favorite flavor profile.
The tea isn’t ‘bad’ or unpleasant. It’s just sort of boring. It tastes like a bag of tea fannings which is essentially what it is. The problem is, I’m not wild about a bag of fannings and generally, when I drink a bagged tea, I’m looking for something that doesn’t taste like a bagged tea. I want something that convinces me to think twice about bagged teas – but this one isn’t doing that. This is the kind of bagged tea that makes me feel like a tea snob because it makes me realize just how inferior a bagged tea can be.