What do you drink with your breakfast? If you’re looking for a tea to kickstart your day, Ahmad English Breakfast tea could be a contender. This simple, affordable black tea is tasty with a splash of milk and designed to complement your fry-up, muesli, or jam on toast. I’m reviewing the tea bag version, but you can also find this tea as loose leaf if you fancy brewing up a whole pot.
In my full review, I’ll cover the flavour of this tea, the best way to brew it, and a few interesting facts about Ahmad Tea London and where they source their black tea blends.
Ahmad English Breakfast Tea at a Glance
- Blend: Black tea from Assam (India), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Kenya
- Flavour: Strong, warm and smooth but lacking complexity
In a word? Nice. This tea is nice – not great, not amazing, and not spectacular. Drink this tea as an everyday blend but find something better for your Sunday morning fry-up (perhaps off my Best English Breakfast Tea list?).
Full Review – English Breakfast Tea Bags
- Type: Tagged paper filter teabag
- Tea: Black tea
- Origin: Assam (India), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Kenya
- Flavour Notes: Dull, strong, bitter, well-blended
- Aroma: Malty, fresh, warm, smooth, slightly sweet
- Milk or Lemon: Milk, or dairy alternative
- Where to Buy: Amazon
With an English Breakfast blend, you’re looking for warmth, smoothness, and a hearty black tea flavour. Notes of malt, sweetness and overall richness are typical too. The dry aroma of Ahmad English Breakfast tea fits this trend. It’s fresh, warm and slightly malty, although it lacks depth at this point.
It brews into an extremely dark mahogany brown colour that is almost black! If you didn’t know that English Breakfast tea is best with a splash of milk, this is your first hint.
The aroma of the tea is softer and smoother now, with a slight sweetness to it. Unfortunately, the flavour does not match up. I took a few sips to judge the flavour notes without milk but found it far too bitter and strong to continue.
Even though the overall flavour and sensation of the tea is bold, it’s actually quite dull. There are no distinct flavour notes to pull out, black or with milk. If anything, this tea has been over-blended.
At the end of the day, this is a perfectly fine tea. It’s smooth and warm, which is what you want from an English Breakfast blend… but it’s just too dull and lifeless to be a great cuppa. A one-dimensional tea.
How to Brew Ahmad Tea English Breakfast
Brew this black tea in freshly boiled water from the kettle. I let my Ahmad English Breakfast tea brew for 4 minutes before adding a good splash of soy milk – you can add any dairy substitute or dairy milk itself.
I tasted this tea without milk for the purposes of this review, but I don’t recommend it. It’s bitter and drying without milk. Add some sugar too, if you have a sweet tooth.
Obviously, breakfast is a great time to drink this tea! It goes really well with food, whether you prefer cereal, toast, or even cake. I enjoyed reviewing it with a slice of birthday cake. The fabulous “I eat my cake in my pants” plate is by Jimbobart.
Why Ahmad Tea London?
Ahmad Tea can be hit and miss. Their Darjeeling tea, for example, was very nice indeed. This English Breakfast blend, however, falls short.
Each tea bag contains a blend of black tea from Assam (a region in India known for malty teas), Ceylon (also known as Sri Lanka), and Kenya. This is nothing unusual. I’ve found that most English Breakfast blends contain tea from these three locations, and sometimes China too.
As for the packaging… not bad! Foil wrapping the teabags may not be great for the environment, but it is certainly great for freshness and flavour. If you get the foil-wrapped option (they sell paper-wrapped and loose leaf too) they will keep for years – although keep an eye on the best before date.
Summary
If you stumble across this tea when it’s discounted or offered free at your hotel, give it a try. It’s smooth and pleasant with milk. But I don’t recommend you go out of your way to buy this tea – it’s just not good enough.
I’ve supplied a link to this tea on Amazon so you can decide for yourself.
Tea Recommendation
There are two black tea blends that I always think are quintessentially British. The first is English Breakfast tea (duh) and the other is Earl Grey. Check out my full selection of Earl Grey tea reviews to find something a bit fresher to drink at breakfast time.