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Irish breakfast tea is a blend of several black teas, most often a combination of Assam teas and Ceylon teas. [1] [2] Irish tea brands, notably Barry's, Bewley's, [3] Lyons and Robert Roberts in the Republic and Nambarrie's and Thompson's Punjana in Northern Ireland are heavily weighted towards Assam. It is one of the most popular blended teas, common in tea culture in Ireland. [4] When tea was first transported from China to Ireland in the mid-18th century, it was mainly introduced to the wealthy as a result of its high cost and low demand. [5] [6] However, throughout the mid-19th century, Irish breakfast tea became readily available to those of both lower and higher socioeconomic classes. [7]
Due to its strength, [8] Irish breakfast tea is commonly served with milk, but may also be consumed black, with sugar or even with honey. [9] Irish breakfast tea has a robust taste, and is red in colour. [10] [11] As dairy products are a major part of the Irish economy, [12] most people drink tea with milk. [13] Being a black tea, it has a strong flavour and higher caffeine content [14] than green, oolong, or white teas. The tea is virtually never referred to as "breakfast tea" (except as the name of specific blends produced by Barry's, Bewley's, Thompson's and the British brand Twinings) and is drunk throughout the day. [15] Irish breakfast tea leaves are sought from India, Rwanda, and Kenya.
The Irish breakfast tea blend has no standard formula for its manufacture. However, most blends share common traits that collectively define "Irish breakfast" as opposed to British tea blends. The base of the Irish tea blend is a strong black Assam tea from India that is well known for its dark colour, strong flavour and malty aroma. [16] [17] The Assam is usually blended with one other, softer tea to bring out different flavours and to support the Assam. These additional teas are usually sourced from Kenya, with a popular choice being Kenyan Broken Pekoe. [18] The proportion of Assam tea to the ancillary leaves is what gives Irish breakfast tea its defining flavour. The strength of the tea blend not only comes from the type of tea leaves used in the preparation, but also from the processing of the leaves before packaging. Irish breakfast tea tends to be made with leaves that have been broken, meaning leaves that have been dried and then lightly crushed before packaging. This process allows the tea to steep more rapidly and release more flavour per leaf than an unbroken leaf. [16]
The majority of tea is sold as boxes of tea bags, [19] but all of the major brands are available in loose leaf form, allowing the consumer to inspect the proportion of hand-picked buds and whole tea leaves as against broken fannings of indeterminate origin. When brewed, the tea varies in colour from very dark red to brown.
Oolong is a traditional semi-oxidized Chinese tea produced through a process including withering the plant under strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. Most oolong teas, especially those of fine quality, involve unique tea plant cultivars that are exclusively used for particular varieties. The degree of oxidation, which varies according to the chosen duration of time before firing, can range from 8 to 85%, depending on the variety and production style. Oolong is especially popular in south China and among Chinese expatriates in Southeast Asia as is the Fujian preparation process known as the Gongfu tea ceremony.
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to China and East Asia. After water, it is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many different types of tea; some, like Chinese greens and Darjeeling, have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have vastly different profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes. Tea has a stimulating effect in humans primarily due to its caffeine content.
Herbal teas also known as herbal infusions and—less commonly called tisanes —are beverages made from the infusion or decoction of herbs, spices, or other plant material in hot water. Oftentimes herb tea, or the plain term tea is used as a reference to all sorts of herbal teas. Some herbal blends contain actual tea.
Earl Grey tea is a tea blend which has been flavoured with oil of bergamot. The rind's fragrant oil is added to black tea to give Earl Grey its unique taste. Traditionally, Earl Grey was made from black teas such as Chinese keemun, and therefore intended to be drunk without milk. However, tea companies have since begun to offer Earl Grey made from stronger teas such as Ceylons, which are better suited to the addition of milk or cream. Other varieties have been introduced as well, such as green or oolong.
Glengettie is a blend of tea aimed at Welsh consumers. It was first marketed in 1952.
A caffeinated drink, or caffeinated beverage, is a drink that contains caffeine, a stimulant that is legal and popular in most developed countries.
Camellia sinensis is a species of evergreen shrubs or small trees in the flowering plant family Theaceae whose leaves and leaf buds are used to produce tea. Common names include "tea plant", "tea shrub", and "tea tree".
Decaffeination is the removal of caffeine from coffee beans, cocoa, tea leaves, and other caffeine-containing materials. Decaffeinated drinks contain typically 1–2% of the original caffeine content, and sometimes as much as 20%. Decaffeinated products are commonly termed decaf.
Assam tea is a black tea named after the region of its production, Assam, India. Assam tea is manufactured specifically from the plant Camellia sinensis var. assamica (Masters). Assam tea is indigenous to Assam. Initial efforts of planting Chinese varieties in Assam soil did not succeed. Although Assam tea is now mostly grown at or near sea level and is known for its body, briskness, malty flavour, and strong, bright colour. Assam teas, or blends containing Assam, are often sold as "breakfast" teas. For instance, Irish breakfast tea, a maltier and stronger breakfast tea, consists of small-sized Assam tea leaves.
Tea culture is defined by the way tea is made and consumed, by the way the people interact with tea, and by the aesthetics surrounding tea drinking.
Tea blending is the blending of different teas together to produce a final product. This occurs chiefly with black tea that is blended to make most tea bags but can also occur with such teas as Pu-erh, where leaves are blended from different regions before being compressed. The aim of blending is to create a well-balanced flavour using different origins and characters. This also allows for variations in tea leaf quality and differences from season to season to be smoothed out. The one golden rule of blending is this: Every blend must taste the same as the previous one, so a consumer will not be able to detect a difference in flavour from one purchase to the next.
English breakfast tea or simply breakfast tea is a traditional blend of black teas originating from Assam, Ceylon and Kenya. It is one of the most popular blended teas, common in British and Irish tea culture.
Tea tasting is the process in which a trained taster determines the quality of a particular tea. Due to climatic conditions, topography, manufacturing process, and different cultivars of the Camellia sinensis plant (tea), the final product may have vastly differing flavours and appearance. These differences can be tasted by a trained taster in order to ascertain the quality prior to sale or possibly blending tea.
Matcha is finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves, traditionally consumed in East Asia. The green tea plants used for matcha are shade-grown for three to four weeks before harvest; the stems and veins are removed during processing. During shaded growth, the plant Camellia sinensis produces more theanine and caffeine. The powdered form of matcha is consumed differently from tea leaves or tea bags, as it is suspended in a liquid, typically water or milk.
Sencha is a type of Japanese ryokucha which is prepared by infusing the processed whole tea leaves in hot water. This is as opposed to matcha, powdered Japanese green tea, where the green tea powder is mixed with hot water and therefore the leaf itself is included in the beverage. Sencha is the most popular tea in Japan.
Noon chai, also called shir chai, gulabi chai, Kashmiri tea or pink tea, is a traditional tea beverage, originating from the Kashmir Valley, made with gunpowder tea, milk and baking soda.
Masala chai is a tea beverage made by boiling black tea in milk and water with a mixture of aromatic herbs and spices. Originating in India, the beverage has gained worldwide popularity, becoming a feature in many coffee and tea houses. Although traditionally prepared as a decoction of green cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, ground cloves, ground ginger, and black peppercorn together with black tea leaves, retail versions include tea bags for infusion, instant powdered mixtures, and concentrates.
Black tea, also translated to Red tea in various Asian languages, is a type of tea that is more oxidized than oolong, yellow, white and green teas. Black tea is generally stronger in flavor than other teas. All five types are made from leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis.
Madame Flavour is a tea and tisane company based in Australia. It was established by Corinne Noyes in 2007 after she found a market gap for high-quality loose leaf tea.