English Breakfast tea and Irish Breakfast are some of the most famous traditional blended teas.
How are the tea blends made?
Teas from different regions with different characters can be mixed to achieve new, dimensional flavors. The art and the challenge of tea blending is to get a consistent result with every batch. Once the tea master successfully created a new tea blend, he would need to reproduce it, again and again, so the loyal customer would get the same cup of their favorite English Breakfast every morning.
Black tea is a great starting point for tea producers to get creative with blends and flavors. Some blends are made with additional flavoring agents like fruits and spices; others only include different types of Camellia Sinensis leaves.
What is the difference between English Breakfast and afternoon teas? 
There are two main types of traditional black tea blends – morning blends (English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, Yorkshire Tea) and afternoon teas.
Afternoon blends are the lighter, refreshing types of tea, such as Darjeelings or Chinese Oolongs.
Mornings blends are full-bodied, rich, and robust, usually based on Assam, Ceylon, and Keemun teas. Whether to have them with milk and sugar is up to you. However, that’s a longstanding British custom.
Why is it called English Breakfast tea?
It’s easy to see why once you’ve sampled the tea. English Breakfast tea will hold up to a traditional, protein-rich English breakfast. But here’s the fun part – the tea didn’t get its name in England. New York City was the first to hear of it, thanks to some clever marketing by a British immigrant named Roger Davies. In 1834, Davies created a strong black tea blend using Chinese and Indian black teas. Once NYC retailers started selling this blend, it became so popular that letters were sent to London enquiring about its origins. And that was how England came to hear about English Breakfast tea. Up until then, the strong black teas consumed there had simply been known as ‘morning teas’ (as opposed to lighter, gentler afternoon teas).
What does English Breakfast tea taste like?
When tasting a good English Breakfast tea, you may appreciate the earthy scents and smokey undertones. The bull-bodies, rich teas are perfectly suited to a bit of cream and won’t fail to wake you up and get you going. The strong flavor will hold up to the heartiest of breakfasts and coldest of mornings.
Where to buy the best English Breakfast tea online?
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Isabelle is a freelance writer, self-taught tea nerd, and tea blending enthusiast. She is a herbalist with a strong interest in Ayurveda. Each year Isabelle travels extensively, returning with tea samples from around the world. She is a big fan of handmade teaware and Japanese green teas.