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Rare English Breakfast Loose Leaf Black Tea

18 reviews
£10.49
£10.49
£0.26 per cup
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Style

Blended in the style of the original 19th century English Breakfast from only the finest leaf. A combination of some of our most sublime single estate black loose leaf teas to create something even greater than the sum of its parts.

Tasting Notes

It has a unique depth of flavour that combines the power of a Breakfast Tea with an elegant complexity. A rich and aromatic honey nose with a deep malty finish.

Origin

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

Cost Per Cup

£0.26 per cup based on 2.5g of tea per 150ml of water and 2 infusions.
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🍃 HIGH IMPACT TEA

While all of our teas are the best available from around the world, this tea makes a vital socioeconomic impact on the community that grows and crafts it.

With these high-impact teas, we are shining a light on the people who most need our support.

A prosperous nation like Japan, with a long history and strong domestic market, commands great prices for great tea. Land, labour and expertise are highly valued. Demand for the most famous teas often outstrips supply and buyers compete to get their hands on the best.

For less fortunate economies, where even safe drinking water is not a given, tea is an export. Origins are obscured. Terroirs hidden. If all we are shown is a packet and a brand with no connection to the people and place it comes from, we remain ignorant of its impact.

Many people do not know that much of the tea they drink comes from places like Malawi in East Africa. They are unaware that land, labour and expertise are given little value; that their tea is traded as a commodity by giant multinational agribusinesses, bought for low cost and high quantity over quality; that the farmer has no control of the price. Nor do they know that people in tea communities often do not live beyond their 50s.

It is our business to change that, to establish a value market for their incredible craft and amazing terroirs, much like fine wine.

Recommended Infusion Guide

  • Quantity

    Use 2.5g of tea per 150ml of water.

  • Temperature

    For the optimum infusion use 80°C water. If drinking with milk, raise to 90°C.

  • Time

    Infuse for 1 - 2 minutes, tasting regularly.

  • Infusions

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

1 3

More infusion tips

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).

Origin & Craft

The term English Breakfast was invented in New York City in around 1901 to describe what English people drank for breakfast; a blend of black teas. Never before had tea been blended - this is what the British brought to tea. Up until this point teas had been sold and drunk much like single malt whisky. Keemun came from Qimen, Anhui, China. Darjeeling from the slopes of the Indian Himalayas. It was a profound breakthrough in the evolution of teas to begin to blend teas from such diverse terroirs.

The result was so fantastic it sealed the fate for many of us - we are hooked and enslaved to this most wonderous of drinks.

The point was never to make something cheap and bland - like modern, industrial, dusty blends hiding in tea bags - but to make something GREATER than the sum of its parts. This beautiful blend combines the finest Chinese black tea – a beautiful spring flush full of golden buds that give sweet caramel notes, with the bright aromas of an elegant Himalayan tea from the fully organic state of Sikkim.

The deep malty base is an Assamica leaf from the Shire Hills of Malawi. This is the bedrock of the tea. From this delicious base the top notes of honey, caramel and mountain fresh aromas sing.

Serving Suggestions

This tea was designed to be drunk with and without milk – depending on your preferred morning ritual and what you're having for breakfast. You might want to try it with milk if you're having a traditional English Breakfast fry up – but if you're having marmalade on toast, we recommend it black.

There are no rules. The most important thing is your personal pleasure. It's also just as delicious in the afternoon, quite frankly we believe it's always tea time.

Shipping, delivery & more...

UK Shipping Information

FREE UK Tracked Delivery when you spend £40 or more

FREE UK Express Delivery - Next Day* when you spend £50 or more

UK Tracked Delivery - Two Day Tracked £3.99

UK Express Delivery - Next Day* Tracked £4.49

UK Express Courier Delivery - Next Day* Courier from £6.99

*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.

Returns

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 product 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 UK & European Union have statutory rights not affected by this guarantee, but any bags of tea must remained sealed for this to be in effect.

*We only accept returns/refunds for tea within 30 days of receipt, because it is impossible for us to know if the tea has been stored correctly.

**We will endeavour to ask for pictures where possible - but if you have changed your mind and are outside of any statutory rights time period, return postage is payable by you.

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