20 Best Loose Leaf English Breakfast Tea (2023 Updated)

I should have read the ingredients before purchasing bc I inferred from the name that this was going to be my usual earl grey except better. So I never realized until the day I made it that it was different.

This tea is black tea mixed with oolong and white tea (silver needle). Immediately, after you taste you’ll notice it’s more subdued compared to regular earl grey, but the aroma and taste are nice just different.

I think this would have been great if it had not been called earl grey supreme at all. If anything it is another tea and should have it’s own name.

Ahh English Breakfast. An essential in every household. A classic blend dated back to the 13th century. History says it was made for the distinct social class made up of the ‘high born’. T2 didn’t try to reinvent the wheel here, they have stayed true to the origins of this almighty classic.

My favourite breakfast is accompanied by an English Breakfast from T2.

Bought this for first time recently – very well worth it. I normally have the larger leaf Melbourne Breakfast but wanted to bring some variety into the cupboard. A lovely brew – with a much smaller leaf.

Quite a perky flavour – i have this first then later i have a Melbourne. I notice a change to the clear pack in which the tea comes, it is slightly more flexible so you can retain the tea in the pack (and the tin) with a clip on it to keep it even more fresh.

The older style was brittle so a bit likely to tear on you. I also invested some time ago in the standard tea measure spoon – and that helps enormously with consistency.

Can’t go wrong with this tea. A strong brew that’s enough to kick off your day. T2 English Breakfast tea is one of the best brews I’ve had. It’s strong, rich, and full-bodied tea that goes really well with a hearty breakfast.

It perfectly carries both the sweetness and bitterness that nicely linger on with subtle floral undertones, leaving you with a very soothing and pleasant aftertaste. One downside to this tea is the fine powder that escapes the infuser.

So my tip would be to sift however much you add in the infuser while it’s dry before brewing, unless you don’t mind the powder at the bottom of your cup.

I purchased the pack of 25 tea bags to try after my local store stopped stocking my usual brand of Melbourne Breakfast tea. I got it home tried it out, and sure, it’s a nice tea, but looking further at the ingredients list, I found that this product contains Artificial Vanilla Flavouring.

I compared this to my usual brand and found that not only do they list the location the tea came from, but it contains Natural Vanilla Flavouring and actual Vanilla Bean. This competitor is $7 for 40 tea bags, while T2 is more than double the price for significantly less product.

Incredibly disappointed with the poor quality of ingredients from T2, will not be repurchasing.

This is such a wonderful, aromatic tea! I love to pour my hot water over it and just spend several minutes breathing it in while it steeps. Some peppermint teas can be a bit sharp or even bitter, but I decided to try a sample and FELL IN LOVE! Just Peppermint is so smooth and aromatic! The sweet, minty fragrance awakens all the senses, opens up the bronchi, and gets the digestive juices flowing.

This is the perfect tea any time, but I especially love it in the morning. It has pretty much replaced my morning cup of coffee. and with NO JITTERS!!.

Totally over powered by peppermint, so could barely taste the liquorice root or fennel. But worse is that everything in this tea seems to have been sprayed with an artificial sweetener. I started drinking tea because I was tired of every ‘sugar free’ drink that I buy being sickly sweet with sweeteners.

It would be nice if you stated artificial sweetener in the ingredients. Anyway, the tea was horrible, 98% peppermint flavor, terrible aftertaste thanks to the sweetener, couldn’t even give it away for free so had to throw it out.

Not impressed at all.

Ok, I gave in and got Pumpkin Spice black tea. The 3 minute brew recommendation is right on the money. High caffeine, oops. So as an afternoon tea for me, watch out. But with steamed milk for breakfast, it’s great.

Or just plain. The marigold petals are beautiful in the mix. A touch of sugar brings out the spice flavor. If you have pumpkin spice nut-friends, this is a great gift with a loaf of Pumpkin Bread and a couple of pretty mugs in a napkin-lined basket.

It is delicious.

I drink my coffee black and teas straight. This tea, or the black tea base, were so metallic it was undrinkable to everyone I had try it. I tried lower temps, higher water ratios, mixing it with other known black teas, brewing in coffee to just render the pumpkin spice.

Nothing worked. This is the first tea I’ve ever thrown out. Other loose leaf teas from FRC have ranged from acceptable to stellar (Very Berry is A+). I’m not sure if I got a bad batch of the pumpkin spice or what.

I love my Sumatran coffee in the morning but I also like a cup of tea now and then. This one makes great iced tea and I made a lot of that this last summer. But it’s also good when you’re snuggled up near the wood stove.

The Juicy Peach is also very good. Both of them are similar and have a subtle fruit flavor.

I have bought Lapsang Souchong from Stash for several years and have always enjoyed the strong, smokey flavor typical of this tea. Sadly, the most recent batch that I purchased is so weak and insipid tasting that it is actually unrecognizable as Lapsang Souchong.

One can simply smell the tea and realize that something is sorely missing. I hope Stash will restock with true, traditional Lapsang Souchong but I must agree with several other reviewers that something is terribly amiss with the current source.

If, like me, you are a devotee of traditional Lapsang Souchong this current product is not for you.

This version of Lapsang Souchong has moderate to strong smokiness that is bold, but does not fully overpower the black tea flavor notes. It is very fragrant. You can smell the smokiness throughout the room when it is being made and consumed.

The steeped water is reddish brown. I also have lots of tasting experience with the Twinings brand of bagged Lapsang Souchong, which I think is still good in taste, but second to this offering by Stash in loose tea.

My tea did not appear very fresh, although I made this tea the same day I received it, and the next couple of days after. I did as I always do with tea: I make sure my water is at the perfect temperature for the type of tea and I make sure the steeping time is appropriate for the type of tea.

Nope! Did it several time, at several moment during the day. Same results. For a tea connaisseur, who drinks tea every single day, this tea does not do it. Plus, the leaves ate not whole, rather they are chopped, making the tea much more prone to oxidation.

Not better than bags. I won’t buy again.

If you love cinnamon, this tea is for you. I don’t taste black tea, only cinnamon, like drinking straight cinnamon bark. It’s so warm and cozy feeling. It doesn’t blend well with other teas as the cinnamon overpowers other flavors.

I think it could benefit from some cinnamon oil but if all natural is your thing, buy this tea.

The Cinna-Vanilla is very mild, but my mom found it works great mixed her favorite tea, Spiced Apple. So, if you have a tea that would taste good with cinnamon-vanilla, I would recommend trying it out.

Might just become your new mixed favorite!.

I am sitting here looking at the bottom of my empty cup, thinking, “there’s no more?”. I brewed one cup on this, at 190 degrees, steeped for 3 minutes. The tea itself was beautiful , just scooping it out of the packet.

The packet say green tea, but it IS an oolong, not truly a green. It does have a beautiful, pale green-straw color, and if you like floral, it doesn’t get any better than this. I had to keep checking to make sure this wasn’t a flavored tea.

I thought that I had run my hands over my gardenias, and then brought that beautiful fragrance to my nose on my fingers, when I inhaled the steam from this tea. To me is was the most beautiful, pure gardenia scent, could have been a perfume.

The taste was the same, a beautiful gardenia floral forward, with a little, cleansing astringent finish on the end. Honestly, one of the most enjoyable cups of tea that I have ever had. If you are an oolong, and floral aficionado, try this one.

The Organic French Breakfast Black Tea is our family’s favorite breakfast tea. We tried the English Breakfast and Irish Breakfast teas as well. Both were good but the French Breakfast is our absolute favorite.

It has a smooth taste with a hint of vanilla. We enjoy this tea during breakfast as well as an afternoon treat. This tea will be one that we purchase again and again.

One of the staples of my tea collection. This is an excellent breakfast tea with a good hit of caffeine and just a hint of vanilla to take the edge off. I dislike most vanilla-flavoured things, but this is where it’s used correctly and in the perfect amount.

It’s also a great tea for anyone who swears they only drink coffee. Stands up well to milk and sugar.

So wonderful! My children love coming home from school and me making them a cup of Chai. If I try any other brand, my kids will tell me. Mommy, it doesn’t taste the same. This Chai has become part of our after school tradition.

As a picky tea drinker, this is the most delicious English Breakfast tea I have ever had in my entire life. It is so fragrent and well made. You can tell so much love and care put into the tea making process.

I drink a super hot cup every single day. I’m planning to buy more once my canister is empty.

I love this chai tea! I have tried several types including teavana, trader joe’s and local. coffee shops that use organic and sustainably sourced ingredients. I am not even sure how to explain the flavor because it is so different than all the others but I really like it.

It doesnt need milk or sweeteners; I like it just plain. It is a very soothing tea for me! The fragrance is amazing!.

Origin has come up with a great blend of spices and good black tea. Bring back the teapot and leaf tea I say. (and hats) I especially like the chewy ginger kibble. It’s a good substitute for fresh ginger when it’s not available.

I usually make my own chai from whole spices ground in a mortar and pestle, but in my country town they’ve become hard to get and expensive. A big mug of hot Origin chai tea is just what I need to pep me up all day.

I’m sipping one right now.

By far the best black chai loose leaf tea! Good robust flavour, gorgeous scent! Highly recommend and a bonus…really good value for money.

Nice smooth all day tea. Quite enjoyable although the Earl Grey is my preference so far. If Origin did a French Earl Grey, that could be absolutely amazing, smooth with a punch.

This tea is so flavorful that it makes Lipton taste like cardboard.

This blend produces a good, strong cup of morning tea with just the right level of astringency and a pleasant aroma. The price is very reasonable, especially for an organic tea.

Sadly while Teabox touts the fact that one can add milk to a cup of this tea – that’s really not the case. No matter how perfectly one steeps the tea, or varies the drops of milk – all one gets is an insipid, dull looking cup of tea.

Have ordered English Breakfast blends from other estates which have been superlative. Give this one a miss, in case like me, you too like to add milk to your cup of tea.

The tea leaves are good but some of the boxes got opened and their leaves got mixed and there is no way to separate them. I am assuming this happened during transportation but packaging should be proper as it is a gift and the boxes are small so if they get mixed the gift looks messy and those tea leaves become unusable.

The taste is fine but the flavor of English breakfast is missing, does not feel that this is English breakfast which we had been drinking for quite sometime, bought from you a number of times earlier.

Learning how much plastic is in tea bagsl, we made the decision to switch exclusively to loose leaf. Being originally from Melbourne, Melbourne Breakfast has always been my favourite, and I’ve drunk it for years, but my partner is a dyed in the wool, British, builder’s tea drinker and was not sure that loose leaf tea would be the same.

What can I say? It’s not the same. It’s better. After placeing a bulk tea order to keep us going for at least six months here in Cyprus, he’s a complete convert. T2 always offers extraordinary quality.

Unfortunately this packet didn’t live up to our expectations from our previous packet. This packaged tea had no flavour, and double the amount had to be used before you could taste half the general flavour of this tea.

Disappointed that there isn’t more quality control. You expect a little variance, but this was significant.

First time to try a chocolate flavored black tea and it was a real pleasure to drink; the combination of orange with white chocolate and a hint of vanilla was superb. The first cup I made I didn’t add enough tea and it came out a bit bland; the next cup I added a little more tea (a tbsp) and a touch of organic sugar with a couple drops of honey.

That cup was delicious and the reason for this favorable review.

This was a very pleasant and timely additional surprise. As an avid coffee drinker, th I tea was light and refreshing with a lovely zing to it. As teas go, this ticks all the boxes for me= even if I did have to Google Lemon mettle.

I’m glad I did tho, as this tea has the added bonus of medicinal properties that actually DID work!.

I’m drinking a cuppa right now. The vanilla flavor is a background note and the tea is good, black tea. The price is right and the flavor doesn’t overwhelm the tea. Win-win!

This is a high quality English breakfast tea, though I am not the biggest fan of English breakfast. As teas go, English breakfast is generally bitter and does not have a broad enough flavor profile for my taste.

If you like simple black tea, this is a must have, but I highly recommend Keemun Panda, Assam, and Kanbaa teas over English breakfast for your black tea enjoyer.

This was my favourite tea. Not any more! It used to have a vibrant and strong taste with no bitterness, and had large leaves. Now the tea is bland and weak, with a leaf size of less than half of the previous batches.

Other reviews had similar comments, so I asked about any changes before my last purchase. I was assured that problems had been rectified. Not so. I am now stuck with five pounds of useless product that doesn’t deserve to be called “tea”.

DON’T BUY IT!.

This is our all-time favorite breakfast tea, light and flavorful for first morning cup. Makes wonderful iced tea!

My husband and I love black tea but only have time to drink it before bed. We both have caffeine sensitivities and so when we found this decaf loose leaf tea we gave it a try. We LOVE this tea. We drink it nightly.

It has a bold but smooth flavor. Everything a breakfast tea should be and we love that we can enjoy it caffeine free. Highly recommend!.

Its a stronger, full-bodied breakfast tea that doesn’t punch you in the face with tannins, bitter, or astringent flavors. I personally like it because I can drink 2-4 cups in the afternoon or evening and not worry about the normally high caffeine levels.

Overall its a great tea that I’ve enjoyed over several orders from FRC. Cheers!.

It’s hard to find a good decaf tea that is also not chemically decaffeinated. I decided to try this loose leaf, and it’s been delightful! I like to make a pot and save the leftovers for ice tea the next tea.

The tea has good body and nice, crisp flavor. Yum!.

English Tea Store’s own brand, namely their English Breakfast Tea No. 1 is as good as any other name brand, and better than most. If you’ve had Twinings or PG Tips and enjoyed them then you’ll appreciate the full-bodied flavor of No.

1. At home we usually brew a full pot of tea each morning so we can have more than one cup each. We also add a teaspoon of a Ahmad Special Blend to the pot to add just a touch of extra zing to the flavor.

We’ve been ordering tea from English Tea Store for about eight years now, and they are good people to deal with. Our most recent order arrived in new style bags labeled No. 1 but, when we opened the first bag we discovered it contained the larger leaf No.

2. The No. 2 is the large-leaf version of No. 1, and it has very similar taste except that it’s milder, less full-bodied. I scooped some onto a dish beside the bag and took a photo with my phone. Then I emailed Online Stores.

They handle communications for several merchants including English Tea Store. They responded the next day and asked if we wanted a refund or wanted them to send No. 1 as originally requested. We said send the tea, of course! It arrived in about a week, and this time it was the correct fine-grain No.

1. We made a fresh pot this morning and confirmed it’s exactly right. Nice tea, nice company. Mistakes happen; they fixed it.

I love the English, Irish, and Scottish breakfast teas from ETS. I buy them alternately. The English is robust, dark colored tea that takes milk and various methods of sweetening very well. Malty flavor, maybe a bit like porter.

Great with honey and a little lemon, especially for a sore throat or bad voice day. I have never really taken to milk in my tea, though I try it periodically. I really prefer the flavor of the tea black, maybe with just a touch of sugar, just enough to take off any bitter edge.

If I’m stressed or sick, I make it strong and sweet. That seems to be the recommendation in many English mysteries, which also go well with the tea, by the way. Also, If you don’t want to use a real tea strainer with a fine mesh, get the English breakfast tea II.

If you want to make real tea, you need a real tea strainer, not a coarse mesh ball style or hole-pricked screw together affair. Unless you want to read the leaves instead of Agatha Christie.

Tea is so fine that it sifts through a standard ball infuser. I can’t imagine what kind of infuser would contain it, except the individual papery ones (extra cost). If you don’t mind straining tiny tea bits through your teeth, & having the mess of trying to clean them all out of the infuser, go ahead and order this one.

I ordered it because my preferred type was out of stock, and this one was advertised as their strongest cup of tea. What a shock after enjoying the Irish Breakfast loose tea.

The little tea stairner and tea bags you include with your tea is an amazing jesture. Loved the tea and the little extras that were sent with it. Will definitely be ordering again as long as you keep the green plum and pear stocked!.

I love this tea. It doesn’t have that overwhelming “pumpkin spice” taste that everything else seems to be laden with at this time of year but it has a light pumpkin and orange flavor with a subtle spice twist.

I use all the teas I purchase from Fresh Roast Coffee for iced tea. We enjoy a rich, black tea as opposed to herbal, for our tea beverages. Your English Breakfast makes a superb iced tea. I mix teas for variety.

Currently I am using the English Breakfast with Ceylon. The other combination we love is Ceylon with Irish Breakfast. Your teas are exceptional and I have tried others including British brands. I think Positively tea is wonderfully delicious! It certainly tastes fresher than many others!.

This is one of the best simple , straightforward teas I have ever had. It is mild and flavorful but not weak. I am a huge coffee drinker early in the day and sometimes need an early afternoon pick me up and this gently does the trick.

I will definitely buy again. I even got the decaf version for later in the day so I don’t overload on caffeine.

Compared side-by side with English Breakfast tea purchased directly from the source in India, I can’t tell the difference. The price difference equaled the cost of shipping of the tea from the Indian company, so about $7.

95 on a pound of tea. I like that this company deals in fine coffee as well as teas, so one can more easily get the free shipping on the $50 minimum order offer.