Boulder Breakfast Blend

Even if you are not familiar with tea you have most likely heard of breakfast blend teas, most notably English Breakfast Blend. Scottish Breakfast, Russian Breakfast, Irish Breakfast and French Breakfast are other popular variations while tea producers and retailers very often offer their own specific blends such as our Boulder Breakfast Tea. Incredibly popular, breakfast tea blends have one thing in common, they are all rich, full bodied black teas that are designed to pair well with milk and sugar.

So, how did we end up with breakfast blends and so many variations at that? To answer that question we need to look at two things. One, why we have tea blends in the first place and two, who then created the English Breakfast Blend, historically the first breakfast blend. For centuries tea was highly sought after, rare and very expensive and it was primarily consumed in the afternoon by nobility. During the mid 19th century tea was becoming widely available in England, grown on larger and larger tea plantations. With the wider availability, tea became relatively inexpensive and the general public now had access to enjoy this prized beverage. And with access, the general public came to expect a certain taste and wanted the same tea each time they drank it. The only problem is that each harvest of the same tea had flavor variations from the one before, primarily due to ever changing growing conditions, and it was impossible to recreate the same tea with each batch. To find a way to provide a consistent tea for the masses, producers created blends of multiple teas to meet a specific flavor profile and then adjusted that blend each season to keep the customer happy with the tea they know and love.

Now we know why we have blends so let’s look at how the breakfast blend came to be. As it was becoming so prevalent, tea was no longer only consumed in the afternoon and it quickly became a staple at the breakfast table. That we know, but who created the first English Breakfast Blend? Like any good origin story, there are many variations with no consensus, though there are two tale that are the most popular. Some say Richard Davies created the first English Breakfast tea in the 1840s in America, proclaiming that it was the most popular tea in England. Others say Robert Drysdale created the first breakfast blend in Scotland and Queen Victoria, during a visit to Balmoral, loved the tea so much that she took a supply back to England and proclaimed it as English Breakfast. Whatever is the true story, the why is widely agreed upon. There was such a glut of sugar at this time that a hearty black tea was needed to help sell this over abundance of sweet.

Our contribution to this family of storied tea blends is the Boulder Breakfast Blend. Specially created by Sara Martinelli, our in house tea blender and certified herbalist, for her own tastes of a rich, malty morning tea that holds up to the addition of milk and honey. She still drinks this every morning to start her day.
It starts with a base of China Keemun, a dark, tightly rolled, small leaf tea from the Anhui province that is known for its chocolatey and winey like flavors.  Keemun offers a distinctive top note to the blend and brews a bold cup with a deeply red hue. 
The next ingredient is a classic Assam, grown in India’s Brahmaputra valley.  The Assam tea bushes have larger leaves, and brew a malty cup with a well known bold, and slightly creamy flavor. 
Lastly, there is an addition of high-grade, golden tippy Yunnan, from the Southwest Yunnan province of China.  Although many teas that are produced in Yunnan are destined to be processed as Puerh tea, the Golden Tippy Yunnan is a harvest of young, early season leaves that have a golden hue when processed.  These delicious young leaves add a brightness to the blend that is both subtle, yet noticeable.  It’s similar to adding lemon to a sauce – it brightens the blend and alerts the taste buds.

For over 25 years, the Boulder Breakfast Blend has been the top selling tea at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse.