Tea and Food: What to drink with breakfast

I don't really have a single tea that I could say is my 'breakfast' tea. I tend to drink something different each day depending on what I'm having for breakfast. The other morning my husband decided that we needed French toast with maple syrup and bacon - not perhaps the wisest decision on a weekday morning when (as it turned out) he had a relatively early meeting to get to work for, but that's as may be - which set me hunting through my pantry for an appropriate tea to go with such a hearty, savoury yet also sweet, breakfast.

It's common for Western-style breakfasts to be accompanied by powerful, wakey-uppy type teas, typically blends involving Assam and other brisk black teas that take milk and sugar well. See for example this brief Wikipedia article on English Breakfast tea, and for my thoughts on some common breakfast blends, have a peek here and here. If I'm going for one of these kinds of teas, Irish Breakfast would be my pick. However, I actually opted for some genmaicha to have alongside our impromptu fancy breakfast.

Genmaicha is a Japanese tea blend containing green tea and roasted rice kernels; perhaps a slightly perverse choice for morning drinking as the lower proportion of tea leaves means that it is significantly lower in caffeine content. It's not something that I drink on a very regular basis; it's an intensely savoury tea that tastes predominantly of the roasted rice with little green tea flavour (at least this is the case with the brand that I have, which is made by Ujinotsuyu). It is an excellent partner with many kinds of savoury food though, and went quite well with the smoky, sweet flavours of the maple syrup and bacon.

Other teas that you might like to consider with a substantial savoury breakfast include Lapsang Souchong (or add a little pinch to your regular plain black tea) or a darker-roasted wulong (oolong) like Da Hong Pao. Chinese gunpowder green could be good too, and plain or vanilla-flavoured rooibos would also be a great herbal option. I'd definitely steer clear of anything very flowery or too light.

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Relax

My Relax blend was created at the request of my friend Melanie, who wanted to know if I could make something similar to a herbal blend that she loved, but wasn't able to get hold of easily where she lived. I thought this would be an interesting challenge... and luckily Melanie, I and many of my other customers have been very happy with the result!

This has definitely become one of my most popular teas. I love the look of the variegated green leaves, and I also love drinking it myself... in fact I think I need to go and divert some of my bulk stock to my pantry right now.

Relax contains a beautiful array of calming, soothing herbs - lemon balm, passionflower, skullcap, limeflowers - and a bit of spearmint and stevia (a naturally sweet herb) for added flavour. Everything organic! The stevia makes it sweet enough that you shouldn't need to add any honey or anything. However, Melanie likes to drink hers mixed with her favourite black tea... a combination I have also tried and can heartily recommend! I am wondering whether I should actually offer such a blend, pre-mixed, it's so nice!

Just as a word of warning, because of the passionflower and skullcap, I wouldn't recommend drinking this tea during pregnancy without at least consulting with your health professionals first.

Next week: Chai Masala

Battle of the Breakfast Blends - Part One

I have recently become consumed with a desire to apprentice myself to a master tea blender and learn oodles of exciting tea-blending secrets... well, that's easier said than done (master tea blenders apparently being thin on the ground in Melbourne - but if you happen to be one, and are reading this, please get in touch), so in the meantime I have decided to do a bit of D.I.Y. blend-tasting and experimentation.

Blends seem to divide tea enthusiasts. By their very nature, branded/named blends are designed to be consistent in flavour across the years. This has advantages for consumers who like consistency in their cup; they can be pretty confident that they're getting what they like (or avoiding what they don't) and not have to worry about the potential variations in quality and flavour that can affect tea harvests.

To some, this consistency goes against the spirit of tea, denying the natural mutability of the tea experience. To others, however, the skill required to combine teas of different grade and origin in order to produce the required result is a cause for celebration. I think there's room for both these views (and, unsurprisingly, that the quality of the teas involved is of paramount importance).

Where to start?

English Breakfast and Irish Breakfast are two classic and popular blends that I have not given much thought to in the past - but I think they deserve a bit of closer attention. And who knew - there's a Scottish Breakfast blend as well. So in a bonanza of UK-tea-orientation I ordered up a small quantity of these three from The Tea Centre.
I've been drinking a bit of each over the last couple of weeks, but I'll save the tasting notes for another time. Today we'll start with a comparison of the dry leaf. [At the time of writing The Tea Centre's website is down... I will update hyperlinks to each of the blends when I can]

Close inspection reveals that each looks quite different...

English Breakfast: mainly very very fine brownish-red particles but with a good proportion of slightly longer, black, finely twisted leaf. The aroma of the dry leaves is light and a little lemony.

Irish Breakfast: mostly dark brown CTC leaf (see the tiny little clumpy balls - looks like the Assam Dimakusi BOP that I've had in the past) mixed with some longer twisty black leaf and a scattering of golden tips. The aroma is warm and slightly spicy.

Scottish Breakfast: full orthodox-style finely twisted leaf, dark browny-black in colour, no tips. The leaves smell fruity and rich.

Stay tuned for the tasting notes. I'll hopefully get a couple done today, before the cold I've been battling fully stuffs up my nose and I can't taste anything, let alone tea...