Scottish Breakfast vs English Breakfast tea: what is the difference?
Both are strong black tea blends built for the first cup of the day, and both are made from the same handful of leaf origins. The difference is in the balance. Scottish Breakfast is the bolder, maltier one. English Breakfast is a touch brighter and lighter. Here is what that means in the cup.
What goes into a breakfast blend
A breakfast tea is not one tea. It is a blend of black teas chosen to be strong enough to stand up to milk. The usual building blocks are Assam from north east India, which brings malt and body, Ceylon from Sri Lanka, which brings brightness, and Kenyan tea, which brings colour and a brisk, punchy strength.
Every blender uses a different ratio, which is why one English Breakfast can taste quite different from another. The name tells you the style, not the recipe.
Scottish Breakfast: the strong one
Scottish Breakfast leans on Assam and Kenyan leaf. The story behind it is water. Much of Scotland has soft water, which pulls flavour out of tea leaf more gently than the hard water of London or the south east, so Scottish blends were made heavier to compensate. The result is a deep amber cup with a malty, almost bready weight that takes milk without fading.
Ours is a blend of Assam, Kenyan and Ceylon black tea, mixed by hand in Glasgow. If you take milk and sugar, this is the one.
English Breakfast: the brighter one
English Breakfast usually carries more Ceylon, which gives a brighter, slightly lighter cup with a cleaner finish. It still takes milk well, but it is a shade less heavy. If you find Scottish Breakfast too much before 9am, English Breakfast is the easier drink. Irish Breakfast, for the record, sits at the strong end with Scottish, sometimes stronger, and is usually almost all Assam.
How to brew either one
Use freshly boiled water at 100°C. One heaped teaspoon of leaf, about 2.5g, per 200ml mug. Steep 3 to 5 minutes, 3 for lighter and 5 for stronger. Add milk, sugar, honey or lemon to taste. If you want a stronger cup, add a minute rather than more leaf, and never boil the leaf.
Loose leaf is cheaper than most people think here. A 100g pouch of our Scottish Breakfast makes around 40 mugs, which works out at about 30p a cup.
Which should you pick
Take milk and like a proper strong brew: Scottish Breakfast. Prefer it a little lighter, or sometimes drink it black: English Breakfast. Not sure: try a 99p single cup sample of Scottish Breakfast first, since it is the one most of our customers start with.