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No. 1

English Breakfast - Loose Leaf Tea

Ceylon Black Tea

A premium blend of black teas, our award-winning English Breakfast tea balances strength with caramel smoothness in a classic brew that can be enjoyed all day.

From: Dimbula, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

LOOSE LEAF TEA
Delivery Info

Shipping policy

 

 UK Deliveries

Method

Cost

Carrier

Transit time

Standard

£3.50, Free - over £35

Royal Mail

2-5 days, Tracked

Tracked

£6.50, Free - over £100

DPD

1-3 days, Tracked

Next-Working-Day

£9.95

DPD

Orders placed before 2pm, Delivered Monday - Friday, Tracked

Saturday

£15.00

DPD

Orders placed before 2pm, Saturday delivery, Tracked

 *Most deliveries will be made within the usual time frame, but some areas and services may experience delays.

 

European Deliveries


Currently, there are some delays with sending parcels to EU countries from the UK. This is due to the UK leaving the European Union. We will keep you updated with any notifications as they happen.

Please note that a tracking number is not provided for EU Standard deliveries. 

CUSTOMS CHARGES: All commercial goods arriving from the UK are subject to VAT, Import Duty and a handling fee in the country receiving the goods.

Method

Cost

Carrier

Transit time

Standard

From £5.50

Royal Mail

3-7 days, up to 21*, Not Tracked (Offered for orders less than £50 only)

Economy

From £5.50

Royal Mail

3-7 days, up to 21*, Not Tracked (Offered for orders less than £50 only)

Tracked

From £15.95

Fedex

3-5 days, up to 8*, Tracked

*Most deliveries will be made within the usual time-frame, but some areas and services may experience delays.

Customers Ordering From Ireland - Please Note: Due to recent restrictions we are unable to ship Chinese teas to Ireland at this present time.

 

Rest of the World

 

Method

Cost

Carrier

Transit time

Standard

From £4.00

Royal Mail

8-15 days, up to 30*, Not Tracked (Offered for orders less than £50 only)

USA tracked

From £15.00

Fedex

2-3 days, up to 7*, Tracked

ROW Tracked

From £18.95

Fedex

1-5 days, up to 5*, Tracked

 *Most deliveries will be made within the usual time frame, but some areas and services may experience delays.

 

International Buyers (Including EU) – Please Note:


Import duties, taxes, and charges are not included in the item price or shipping cost. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be before buying.

Customers Ordering From Ireland - Please Note: Due to recent restrictions we are unable to ship Chinese teas to Ireland at this present time.

If you have any questions, please contact us via sales@theteamakers.co.uk | 01322284923

*We aim to dispatch all orders within 1-2 days of receiving your request. However, this can vary during peak times and other conditions outside of our control. Therefore, the below estimates of shipping times have been provided by our couriers.

The origins of our English Breakfast Ceylon Black Tea


Sourced from the high-altitude tea gardens of Sri Lanka, our premium English Breakfast Ceylon Black Tea is a classic loose-leaf blend boasting a smooth flavour, tantalising amber colour and rich, astringent mouthfeel. With dark, wiry leaves and toasted caramel notes, it has all the brisk, full-bodied characters that have made English breakfast tea a classic breakfast brew.

The leaves for our Great Taste award-winning Ceylon breakfast tea are harvested all year round in Sri Lanka's celebrated Dimbula and Nuwara Eliya tea regions, located at 1,448m and 1,868m above sea level, respectively. This is where artisan producers have farmed the plantations for more than 150 years, taking advantage of the mountainous terrain and monsoon-affected climate. Here, cool blustery blasts blow through the valleys, rainfall is high and frosts can be seen in winter, which places a measure of stress on the tea plants.

English breakfast tea is typically made from a blend of robust black teas that hail from either Sri Lanka or Assam, in India's north-east. To create an unrivalled taste experience for ours, we carefully select the finest Ceylon BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe) and larger FBOP (Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe) grades of loose-leaf teas. We choose 100% pure orthodox Ceylon teas for their strength and well-rounded character, which makes them the perfect ingredients for this blend.

Learn about how this tea is made


How Orthodox English Breakfast tea is made


Tea making begins with picking carefully selected succulent leaves and buds from the Camellia Sinensis plant. Once plucked, the leaves go through the time-honoured orthodox production process: withering, to dry them out, then rolling, which transforms them into the familiar thin, wiry shape. This is followed by oxidation, sometimes referred to in the tea industry as 'fermentation', when the broken, rolled leaves are laid out and exposed to the air for a set period of time, usually several hours. Here's where the magic happens, as the leaves darken and the chemical processes kick in, contributing to the tea's distinctive aroma, colour, strength and briskness – in essence, its character. Next, the tea is dried again, this time in a chamber with hot, conditioned air – a process that further desiccates the leaves, intensifies their colour and helps maintain quality for storage. Finally, they are sorted by hand, ready for shipment and delivery.

In the humid Sri Lankan hills, the process of oxidation takes up to four hours, during which the leaves turn copper brown and the tea's unique fragrance starts to unfurl. This process also ensures that the steeping liquid is strong and flavourful. Our English Breakfast tea has a grade of BOP/FBOP.


Facts about this iconic tea


English breakfast tea's rich characters, invigorating flavour and high caffeine content are what have made it so historically popular. It was the first blend to become a commercial success, most notably in its namesake UK, where it has long been famous as the nation's favourite 'eye-opener'. It is often enjoyed hot or as an iced tea, or as the perfect companion to a Full English Breakfast.

In recent years, studies have also pointed to English breakfast tea's health benefits. Whether taken strong and black in the morning or with milk and sugar throughout the day, a cup of black tea is now known to pack in minerals such as magnesium and potassium while also being rich in antioxidants and vitamin B. It also may have an impact on blood pressure.

As for its popularity in times past, it was Catherine of Braganza, Portuguese wife of the English King Charles II, who started the habit of drinking tea in the morning. As a new arrival at the English royal court, Catherine was known to prefer tea to ale – at the time the customary breakfast drink of choice – and a new upper-class trend was set. But as the 17th century rolled into the 18th and 19th, tea transitioned from an upper-class luxury to a beverage enjoyed by British citizens of all stripes. By the time Scottish tea master Robert Drysdale introduced what would eventually become known as the English breakfast blend to Queen Victoria in the 1890s, almost everyone had a caddy in their kitchen.


Alternatives


For those who love the bold flavour of an English breakfast blend, our Assam Breakfast Tea packs a similar flavour punch, with a rich infusion and a lift from fruity notes. Other alternatives for a strong cup of tea include Irish Breakfast and Ceylon Breakfast. If you're after something brighter, with citrusy notes and floral undertones, try our best-selling Supreme Earl Grey.

Looking for more black teas? Why not sample a wider taste with our Classic Black Tea Discovery Collection. For the perfectly presented tea, browse our full Teaware collection.

Ingredients


Pure Sri Lankan black tea

Tasting notes


This tea offers a warm toasted caramel aroma and dark amber infusion. A full bodied, brisk cup with smooth caramel notes and richly astringent mouthfeel.

Region


Nuwara Eliya district, which surrounds the eponymous city, is located in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, about 25 miles south of Kandy. At the heart of the hill country, the terrain throughout the district is generally mountainous, with deep valleys, plateaus, basins, and vast rolling estates dotted with thick forested areas and jungles towards the North.

Learn more about the Dimbula, Nuwara Eliya District, Sri Lanka

The city itself sits at 1,868 m above sea level. North of the city, Sri Lanka’s tallest mountain, Pidurutalagala, peaks at 2,542 m, and the revered Adam’s Peak sits on the Southern edge of the district, peaking at 2,243 m above sea level. The area is famous for its cool, temperate climate (Cfb), which made it a popular hill station in the 19th century, and a much-loved resort and health spa in the present day. Temperatures remain steadily warm throughout the year. March and April are the warmest months with an average high of 22°C and low of 11°C. The coldest months, form November to January, range from 9°C to 20°C.

There is heavy cloud cover throughout the year, with slightly cleared skies from December until March. The district is part of the Wet Zone in South-Western Sri Lanka. Consequently, rain falls throughout the year, with the highest precipitation in October and November, combined with low wind and medium humidity. Spring and summer experience lower but consistent rainfall, with gentle wind and increased humidity in April and May.

Above 1,000m, the montane rain forests are known for their biodiversity and endemic species. They also harbour the endangered Sri Lanka leopard, numerous species of shrews, squirrels, civets and langurs. Soils throughout the island are generally suitable for agriculture, although some areas, particularly in the highlands, are eroded. In the Nuwara Eliya district, the elevation and cool climate offer ideal conditions for many European fruits and vegetables, as well as rubber and rice. But the hills really belong to tea, which was introduced in the 1860s after a devastating disease killed all the coffee plantations. The district is considered as the most important tea production hub in Sri Lanka, and Sri Lankan high-grown teas are known for their outstanding quality.

How to brew

3 - 4g

3 - 4g

100°C

100°C

200ml

200ml

3 - 5mins

3 - 5mins

English Breakfast - Loose Leaf Tea has a rating of 4.7 stars based on 254 reviews.