Teatulia's Bengal Breakfast

Vendor: Teatulia
Website: http://www.teatulia.com
Twitter: @Teatulia

Tea: Bengal Breakfast
Type: Black in Bags

Description: "Teatulia's Boldest Black Tea. Excellent for a clear start to the day with a mighty palette that will transport you to the base of the Himalayas, ready to take on anything!

Brewing instructions: Steep tea for 1-2 minutes, or until brewed to your liking.

Opening the package: Teatulia was kind enough to send me a sample of this tea to try. When I opened the envelope, I found a plastic bag inside with a paper telling me all the information I just put for the description and brewing instructions inside. Also included were three teabags. The inside of the plastic bag was littered with black tea dust. Upon opened the bag to inspect the teabags, I found them to be silk pyramid style bags about the size of pyramid bags you can get from Lipton. The tea inside was broken up pretty badly. I'm not sure if this was due to transportation methods, or if all their teabags are this way. So far not looking too promising.

First Brew: I brewed a cup with one bag for 1 min. 45 sec. with boiling water. This produced a brew that was similar in color to Darjeelings I've had in the past. The smell also seemed reminiscent of this, but not too much so. The taste was good, not bitter. Nothing too exciting about it, but it would make a good everyday breakfast tea, which is what it is billed as. It wasn't very strong though. Typically for brews of this length I use more tea. The bag also left a residue of tea dust in my cup. The leaves did swell to take up most of the bag.

Resteep: Resteeped for 2:30 with boiling water. The produced a cup noticeable lighter then the last brew, so I won't even attempt a third brew. It smelled and tasted the same, except for much of the strength being gone. I did notice a bit of sweetness in the aftertaste with this brew though, which seemed strange.

Thoughts: I'd like to try out their loose leaf version of this sometime. I'll go ahead and use my remaining two tea bags, but I probably won't purchase any of this for a while, if at all. It was good, but plain. I'd suggest this as a tea to introduce someone to loose leaf. I'd also like to add that I thought it would produce a stronger brew. I suspect that it would with more leaf added, so I might brew my two remaining bags together. I've spent a bit of time on Teatulia's website, and it all sounds great, so I look forward to trying more of their products.

Has anyone else given this vendor (and more specifically, this tea) a try? Post your thoughts in the comments. I look forward to hearing them.

(I had some pictures that I took, but they didn't turn out well at all. I'll try and take some with my next brew and get them posted here. Need to work on my lighting...)

Welcome

Welcome to my site, "Pro at Tea." As you can see, I'm on a quest, and that is to become "pro." I'll be updating the progress on this quest here. I'll be posting reviews of teas, vendors, and other things along those lines, as well as other things that I think may interest readers.

I'd also like to start by saying this, by no means am I an expert on these topics. I'm just going to tell you straight up what my thoughts are on things and clue you in to new things you might be interested in. Tea drinking is something I've technically done for a while, albeit with low quality tea bags. In the last few months I've become enamored with higher quality loose leaf teas.

I've found tea to be an adventure. With each cup I learn something new, brewing has been something that I've learned the most about, and I learn more the more I continue to practice. There are so many different teas out there, and so much teaware, and I had no idea any of it existed until very recently. The door has only just been opened though, and I still have much to explore inside past this cursory glance I've taken.

I hope you'll join me and be patient with me as I learn and grow, both in tea and in my writing. Without support, this will be a failed effort. I hope it isn't though, because I can't wait to get to know more people who are passionate about the things I am.