This very full-bodied organic tea is even stronger than its English counterpart. Preferring a cup of organic black tea so strong that one can stand a spoon up in it, the Irish are among the highest tea consumers per capita in the world. The strength and quality of this organic, Fair Trade Certified Irish Breakfast is achieved by blending smaller leaf grade tea from the Assam region of India with tea from Vietnam. Takes milk well.
Ingredients: organic and Fair Trade Certified Indian and Vietnamese black tea
Our delicious blended teas use the same top-quality organic teas and/or botanicals offered in our single origin varieties, but are comprised of teas, herbs, fruit, and/or flowers of multiple origins and/or varieties. When blending our teas, our goal is to create a cup with a specific flavor profile in mind. Unlike single origin teas, which can vary from harvest to harvest (just like wine!), blended teas trade seasonal variation for year-to-year consistency. As a result, the formula and/or appearance of our blends may change over time, but you can rest assured that you’ll always receive an organic cup of tea with consistent flavor.
At Arbor Teas, we believe tea should be brewed to suit your personal taste. We’re happy to make recommendations to get you started, but don’t hesitate to experiment! When brewing your tea, your main considerations are tea quantity, water temperature, and steeping time. We recommend black teas to be steeped for 3 to 5 minutes in water heated to a full, rolling boil. For the best flavor, use fresh water whenever possible, and avoid overboiling. Try not to steep your tea longer than necessary, as you’ll extract undesirable bitterness from the leaves. If you want a stronger brew, don’t steep longer, just use more tea. And don’t forget to re-steep your tea leaves to get the most out of your leaf!
Looking for more info? Check out our How-To Guides and Eco-Brewing Tips!
"This is a strong cup of tea! Especially if you let it steep a little longer. It's really good with a little milk and brown sugar."
"Brew this one long enough and you actually could stand a spoon upright in it!"
"I don't typically prefer milk in my tea and, fortunately, this Irish Breakfast tastes so good (despite its strength) that I can enjoy it without."
I have been searching for "clean" tea and believe I have found the best one. Quality is outstanding, taste is truly delightful. I am a tried and true, old school, tea in a bag from Thompson's. No more. Love the Irish breakfast. Purchased a few others and will review as I use them.
I've been sampling various tea from Arbor Tea for about a year and I always end up going back to this one. With a splash of milk and some honey, it's so rich and delicious.
When it comes to British style breakfast teas, I really crave a maltier flavor than this Irish Breakfast tea. It's a delicious tea that tastes great with cream but if you're like me and are looking for a malty breakfast tea, then you will be as disappointed as I was.
I bought this tea when I was starting my zero-waste journey (and because I love a good cup of tea). It's now my absolute favorite! Great on its own, great with milk (and with sugar, and yes, I know I'm a heathen), and even great in a hot toddy! I will be ordering the bulk size soon, and hope to drink it with every rainy Saturday breakfast from now on!
This is my go-to tea on mornings when I just want to crawl back into bed. I appreciate its full body and vigorous flavor; this is an excellent, strong tea.
Solid black tea. I think I like this one more than the English breakfast.
I ordered the sampler to get an idea of the flavors and quality of your teas. I also ordered the Irish Breakfast based on your description. It just sounded good. We have now had all of the teas and I am ready to reorder. I am ordering the Irish Breakfast Tea. We enjoyed it more than any of the sampler teas. I will order the bulk size because I know that we will want to drink this tea for a long time. We drink it every morning with a heavy cream we get from the Amish Farmers in Pennsylvania. We live in San Diego so its a big commitment. This combination is so delicious. We have coffee from time to time but always return to ur tea ritual. It is the perfect start of any day. Thank you for your dedication to the quality and support of tea growers around the world.
It is so hard to find a decent breakfast cup of black tea that holds milk well. Rarely do I find a tea that pleases my English & Irish senses this well - but this tea hits the spot. Elegant and floral, yet bold, it’s a tea I plan to continue restocking going forward.
By far the best tasting Irish breakfast tea I have ever had. Can not wait to try other flavors, but this will be my everyday tea. Thank you so much.
Was really surprised how weak my tea was. I had to add a ton of leaves and left it to steep for ages but even then was disapointed. Love this company but not this tea. I hope I just had an off batch.
I usually drink Darjeeling 2nd Flush and English Breakfast. I decided it was time to branch out a little for variety and got this Irish Breakfast. It was a great choice. It's strong, sure. But it also has lots of layers in the flavor. I'm glad I got it and intend to add it to my regular rotation.
I grew up sipping on black tea along with every other member of my family. Black tea was preferred over coffee, and was sipped in the morning with breakfast, and as decaf in the evening as we chatted together. This tea was always grocery store bagged tea. When I began using higher quality loose leaf teas instead, I knew I had to find the perfect black tea to bring me the comforts of childhood in every sip. In order to find the very best black tea, I knew it had to be a strong brew, because in my family, we like to add a splash of milk to our cups. I also simply prefer stronger brews in general, anyway. After searching on Arbor Tea's site, it seemed clear this was the tea for me. It also seemed fitting as we are an Irish family! One sip, and I was reassured that this was the perfect black tea for me. It is indeed very strong, and takes milk superbly well! I ordered this as a sample, and now I am sure I will need to repurchase the larger size!
This is what I feel like a black tea should be - it's strong, but not too strong, does really well as iced tea, with a nice full flavor.
This tea is smooth, rich, and dark. It has a milder "Irish" flavor than Trader Joe's or Twinings' Irish breakfast tea but is still good. I love that it's Fair Trade!
This is a lovely, flavorful, delicious black tea, but it is not true to type. I gave it only 2 leaves to attract a little attention! If you are looking for a Lyons or Barry's sort of tea (or even the Trader Joe's Irish Breakfast) that steeps as dark as porter in 2 minutes, this one may disappoint. It does not seem to be produced using a CTC process and somewhat lacks the characteristic robust body. Jeremy, it would be so great if you could source a closer match! P.S. This review was written by an Irish-born tea lover!
I am a long time fan of Irish Breakfast tea, it is my favorite black tea. This version is especially wonderful. Has a rich aroma when you open the bag and pairs beautifully with milk. Will be a staple tea in my house.
I'm really pleased with this tea. I enjoy Twinings Irish Breakfast and it's certainly more convenient to buy, but I really wanted to start buying Fair Trade tea. This is a great substitute and in fact, the leaves look a million times better (you can actually tell that they are leaves!). As an added bonus, it's organic too! The taste is wonderful- nice and bold. A very classic black tea flavor. I brew it for about 4 or 5 minutes for what I consider a moderately strong tea and add a splash of whole milk to it. It's the perfect wake me up first thing in the morning!
My maternal grandfather's mother came from Ireland. Though my grandfather never visited "the old country" (Brooklyn, where he lived, doesn't really count), he inherited the Irish love of strong tea. As a kid, I watched him put three Lipton tea bags of common into an eight-ounce cup, pour in boiling water and steep it for ten minutes. I inherited his tea-gene, which enjoys my morning cup of Arbor Tea's Irish Breakfast Tea steeped for ten minutes, just like my grandfather did. However, I also enjoy knowing that my tea has not been sprayed with insecticide and that its growers and pickers have been fairly compensated for their efforts. Talk about a win/win!
I often use to term 'red' to describe Irish breakfast tea (especially when comparing it to English breakfast tea). While this Irish breakfast tea is not as 'red' as some I've had it still has a distinct Irish breakfast tea flavor and is one of the more sweet and floral Irish breakfast teas I've tried. Very good overall.
I'm from the South and we're very big coffee drinkers down here. When I was transitioning from coffee to tea, I was advised to pick a Pu-erh tea because the consistency was closer to that of coffee. I was very disappointed as it was terrible advice for me because I wasn't going as much for the texture of the way it felt in my mouth but rather the lingering taste afterwards. This is perfect for the coffee drinker transitioning to tea. When people talk about how strong this tea is remember they're talking about TEA. Not COFFEE. The strength is not even close to a black cup of coffee however it is perfect for the transition. This tea has a very good tea flavor and a bit of a bite compared to other teas I have tried. Get it! You'll like it!!
Irish Breakfast is easily bold enough to clear your morning fog, but don't let its name fool you! It's also a superb afternoon pick-me-up, whether you enjoy at "tea time" or just after lunch. I find that a few drops of organic honey rounds out the bold flavor without over-sweetening it.
This tea is my favorite morning tea from Arbor. It's flavorful, bold, and is the perfect way to start my day. Very satisfying!
This is a dark bold tea with a mild floral after taste that makes it deeply satisfying a great everyday tea for me.
I was surprised with the size of the dry leaf. Very small, mostly broken. Also many flashes of gold among the stubby brown leaves. But the scent of the leaves was inviting. Sweet. It brews up with a musty aroma, not off-putting. The taste is not very complex or brisk, but not bitter either. Peat, leather, a little smoke? Indeed, something charmingly "Irish" about it.
This tea has a fantastic, full flavor. It's my favorite black tea.
My favorite used to be Lipton--that is--until they started adding non-tea additives to their regular black tea (orange pekoe). They now add orange juice, cranberry juice, and/or broccoli! But now my favorite is Irish Breakfast. It's very rich. There's NO mistake that you are drinking 100% black tea! I have tried a few of the samplers, so I think I have all of the black teas covered, but the strong Irish is now my favorite!
This is my favorite tea. I enjoy it with or without honey or agave nectar. It is delightful with soy creamer.
So far I am not a major fan of the blacks but this is popular in my household and gets 4 stars because of my wife and older son (a three from me). Aubrey I think it is against some law not to have milk in your Irish tea! Now I will have to try that. This tea is quite versatile and you can make it however you want it. I have even used soy milk (I know that's another law right?) I have used flavored honey also. This is definitely a hearty tea to enjoy with a meal.