Breakfast tea is probably the least glamorous tea on most menus, but it is also one of the most important.
For many cafés, it will be the biggest-selling traditional tea by quite some distance, which makes choosing the right one far more important than people sometimes realise.
A good breakfast tea needs body and enough strength to stand up to milk, but it shouldn’t simply taste harsh or over-brewed. This is where the blend really matters.
Different black teas bring different characteristics. Assam can add richness and maltiness, Ceylon can bring brightness and structure, and other origins can help add softness, depth and balance.
The real skill is creating a tea that tastes good black but still has enough character to work with milk. That sounds simple, but plenty of breakfast teas only really work one way.
Brewing is another important consideration.
Cafés are busy places. Staff get interrupted, customers get distracted and not every pot of tea is going to be timed to the second. A good breakfast tea should be forgiving enough to still taste great if it brews a little longer than planned.
Then there is presentation.
If a customer is paying café prices for tea, it should feel like something better than they could quickly make at home. That doesn’t mean creating theatre for the sake of it. It simply means using good tea, the right water temperature, a sensible brewing time and, ideally, giving the customer a little information about what they are drinking.
At Jeeves & Jericho, we blend our breakfast teas with café service very much in mind, because that is where the reality of tea really matters.
It needs to taste just as good during a quiet Tuesday morning as it does in the middle of a chaotic Saturday lunch rush.
For me, that is the real test of a great breakfast tea.