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Chinese Emperor's Breakfast Loose Leaf Black Tea

31 reviews
£12.49
£12.49
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31p per cup

Style
ⓘYour precious tea really needs to be kept airtight and away from light once you open it - we'd strongly recommend one of our tins to keep it safe.
Do you need a tin to store your tea?

A rare China tea crafted by masters to produce an astonishingly sweet black loose leaf tea. Made from very young and tender spring leaves and golden buds that have been carefully kept whole during hand rolling.

Remarkably smooth with flavours of rich toffee, butterscotch and vanilla. Like White Silver Tips, these spring buds are full of the sugars stored by the tea plant over winter. These tender shoots give the tea an extraordinary sweetness, unlike any other black tea. The tannins in this black tea are very low and the mouthfeel is clean and silky.

31p per cup based on 2.5g of tea per 150ml of water and 2 infusions.

Fujian, China
Satemwa Estate, Shire Highlands, Malawi
Temi Tea Garden, Sikkim, India

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Recommended Infusion Guide

  • Quantity

    Use 2.5g of tea per 150ml of water.

  • Temperature

    For the optimum infusion use 80°C water.

  • Time

    Infuse for 1 - 2 minutes, tasting regularly. Best enjoyed without milk.

  • Infusions

    You can infuse this tea at least twice. With each careful infusion, different subtleties of flavour are revealed.

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How to infuse your tea is very personal, and these are just our recommendations based on experience. Please experiment with these variables to your heart's delight. These are our recommendations, not hard and fast rules. The most delicious tea is the one you love.

Our guide uses a standard tea cup size (150ml/5.5 oz) as a measure, please adjust the quantity of leaf accordingly for less or more water. Our whole loose leaves are of such a high quality that you can infuse our teas at least twice, and the second infusion is often better than the first, with different flavours revealed as the leaf softens. If you prefer your tea stronger, add more leaf, don’t leave it for longer (this will just make it bitter).

Golden Monkey Paw

Emperor's Breakfast is a truly epicurean black China tea originating in the Ming Dynasty. It comes from the mountains of Fujian, and is also known as ‘Golden Monkey Paw’. The varietal used has small golden buds, covered in elegant downy hair, like a catkin.

When the tea is fired and rolled, the buds curl, giving them a resemblance to the paws of capuchin monkeys.

Serving Suggestion

Normally, this tea would be drunk black and infused at a lower water temperature to enhance its innate sweetness. However, using boiling water and a longer extraction (3 - 4 minutes) will bring out a depth and richness that pairs wonderfully with a drop of milk.

You may notice the colour is a little lighter, but don’t let your eyes fool your taste buds. As long as you don’t over dilute your tea, you should get a lovely well balanced cup of tea with milk. Although if you do like your milky tea very strong – we recommend our Speedy Breakfast or Lost Malawi.

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Customer Reviews
4.9 Based on 31 Reviews
5 ★
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Filter Reviews:
DM
04 January 2025
Daniela M.
United Kingdom

A weak bland tea

A very weak tea and bland tea which has no colour and if too many leaves are used leaves a bitter and weird musty taste. Very disappointing

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FC
14 May 2024
Frank C.
United Kingdom

Emperor's Breakfast

I first met this on a Fred Olsen cruise. I enjoy leaf teas, and have a teapot with a metal container for the leaves. I enjoy the subtle range of flavours in "Emperor's Breakfast at any time of day: it deserves to be drunk slowly.

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07 January 2024
Alban D.
United Kingdom

amazing tea

This tea has a really special taste, deep and warm. I love it, it is the small luxury that I keep coming back to.

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KP
22 December 2023
Kevin P.
United States

My Morning Tea

I have ordered this several times. It is my go to morning tea. Well balanced, flavorful, and nicely drinkable without any accoutrements.

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FREE UK Tracked when you spend £30 or more

FREE UK Express - Next Day* when you spend £60 or more

UK Tracked - Two Day Tracked £3.99

UK Express - Next Day* Tracked £5.49

UK Express - Next Day* Courier from £8.49

*Subject to next day cutoff and postcode location. Availability of rates depends on location and order weight. For a complete overview of our shipping rates please see our delivery page.

All prices quoted in GBP and will be converted to your local currency if available.

The Rare Tea Lady believes that our teas are some of the greatest in the world, and that our range and service are second to none.

In the isolated case that you are not completely satisfied with any tea or teaware you purchase from our website, please get in contact with our customer services team to discuss returning your order.*

In most instances we will give you a full refund of the item’s cost excluding postage. We may ask you to return the item to us. Customers in the European Union have a statutory cooling-off period of fourteen days that is not affected by this guarantee, but any tea pouches much remained sealed for this to be in effect.

*We only accept returns/refunds for tea within two months of receipt, because it is impossible for us to know if the tea has been stored correctly.

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