I was in Seattle for a convention not too long ago, and it’s pretty much a requirement that when one is in Seattle, one buys some of MarketSpice’s tea. I had been in Seattle before, and tried their most famous tea, the cinnamon-orange one, and to be honest, I’m not one of its big fans. So this time, I thought I’d try an unflavored tea.

This breakfast blend is a good choice! It’s similar to many other breakfast blends, having what we expect from such a tea: a dark color, a strong, robust flavor, an invigorating sensation.

Oddly enough, the hotel I was staying at was not serving teas from this or another local tea company, but instead was serving a national brand. Well, I always bring a few teabags of my own choosing with me when I travel, for just such an occurrence; buying more tea in a store a few blocks from the hotel meant that I came home with as much tea as I left with – win!

MarketSpice sells their teas locally all around Seattle, and for those not in Seattle, they sell through Amazon.com. Here’s the description of the tea from Amazon:

Product Features

* Our version of English Breakfast tea
* A blend of Darjeeling and Ceylon tea
* Robust blend for those who like their tea with milk
* Wonderful iced

The Darjeeling is definitely the main taste here. Although many breakfast blends have Assam in them, this one doesn’t, but it seems to be strong enough without it – the Darjeeling taste seems as though it’s probably a second-flush blend, stronger than first-flush, and the Ceylon tea blends quite seamlessly with the Darjeeling. (I’ve mentioned before that there are many good Ceylon teas that are indistinguishable from Darjeelings except to highly-trained experts.)

And it does make a good iced tea. Even though it’s November, and raining, as I write this, the years I spent in Texas have conditioned me to drink iced tea year-round, and I know that we have readers in the southern part of North America and in the Southern Hemisphere, so iced tea recommendations are still pertinent. This one tastes fine with lemon and/or mint. I like mine without any sweetener, but the strong breakfast blend black tea will also accept as much sweetener as you care to add.