Higgins & Burke Roaring Black Tea

I always keep a stash of tea in places where I spend a lot of time. It is not unusual for me to be the only tea drinker and the British in me is too polite to throw away that cuppa made with stale cheap bagged tea.  A friend recently bought a pack of Higgins and Burke Roaring Black single serve Real Cups for her Keurig after her box of old orange pekoe finally ran out and she noticed me bringing over tea.

With a few exceptions, because they are (stupidly) only available in Canada in single serve format, I really do not see the point in making tea in kcups.  Decent bagged tea has more room to breath and you can choose how long to steep it rather than the water just running through it and you can get the hot water for tea from your Keurig or Tassimo.  That being said, I was quite surprised that for possibly the first time in her life, she made me a decent cuppa.  It is not her fault, she has coffee in place of blood and tea just wouldn’t replace her much needed caffeine levels.  Don’t worry, she knows despite my teasing that I love her even if she hates tea.

I snagged one to take home and dissect to see how much tea was in it and if it was all dust like many tea bags.  I could see lots of bigger loose leaf through the little window but we have all been fooled by appearances before.  Thankfully not this time.

Roaring Black blends the power of malty second flush Assams and floral, slightly pointy Autumnal Darjeelings.  With an amber tone, it is robust and savory.  Topped off with milk, it is the perfect way to get up get to the gym – or the newspaper – you decide.

Since I use a DavidsTea perfect spoon for almost every cup of loose leaf tea, I decided to compare the Roaring Black tea included the in RealCup to my regular serving.  While those little cups do not seem like a lot, there was more than enough to fill my spoon.  Probably 3 teaspoons of tea, maybe a little more – fairly impressive except it is all stuck in that little package with no room to expand while steeping.

The dust was fairly minimal and not an issue when made in the eco-cup, but I shook it out to steep so I wouldn’t get a mouthful of tea leaves if it was particularly dusty.  Thankfully it was not, but I feel like the dust was the flavourful colourful bits.

It certainly did expand.  This is the entire contents of the cup in my little steeping basket, minus the dust I shook out, and it was fuller than most of my teas would make it.  In fairness, I do use a little less tea regularly but this Roaring Black loose leaf was happy for the extra space to steep.  I can’t imagine all that tea stuck in the tiny eco cup, just crying out for room.  You would think it would be ready to burst, especially since the top peels away on these eco-cups once warm to let you recycle the container.

Now, steeping Higgins and Burke Roaring Black this way meant I left the tea in longer than a k-cup would and it was stronger, but even the cuppa from the Keurig was fairly strong.  It has a nice robust taste as promised with some definite malty Assam flavour.  It does have a dry aftertaste which was more obvious when steeped this way.  A nice mix of Assam and Darjeeling though and certainly impressive for a single serve cuppa.

Since they recommended having it with milk, I did!  I know, I know, you should drink tea as it comes, but they said I could have it with milk and I do love milk in my black tea when I get up or before bed.