Back when I moved to the US and had not much to do, I started writing this tea blog in 2013 but also watching a lot of Youtube. I had subscribed to Buzzfeed’s many channels and over the years watched four guys eventually form a team, The Try Guys, and become successful internet celebrities.
I always had a smile seeing Try Guy’s Zach drinking tea – he even has the Tea Spot’s Urban Tea Tumbler, one of my favorite tea bottles.
Recently, Try Guy Zach launched his own tea company, Zadiko Tea Co, with 2 teas. He also made a number of videos through his process of creating his tea company. I immediately purchased his black tea, Zach’s Breakfast.
This tea arrived in a plastic bag mailer, resulting in my package looking like it needs ironing.
Leaf and Steeping Method
Zach’s Breakfast is a blend of Assam black tea, turmeric, ginger, sarsaparilla, and a dash of love. I am surprised there is no black pepper as usually that and turmeric are the active pair for anti-inflammatory claims. The leaves smell mostly of dried ginger.
I used 5 grams of leaf in a stainless steel basket infuser, 10oz/300ml mug, 200F/ 93c for 3.5 minutes.
Tasting of Zadiko Tea Co’s Zach’s Breakfast Black Tea
This tea has a rooty medicinal herbal scent and steeps up a beautiful golden ruby.
The first impression is this tea is quite medicinal. Zach’s Breakfast sips in smooth in texture, leaving a buttery feeling on the lips. The flavor is of the malty Assam, zippy tickling ginger, and turmeric spice with the aftertaste of root beer sarsparilla. It has a touch of bitterness from the spice intensity, as well as some astringency leaving the top of my tongue dry. After drinking, the spices of the tea lingers in the mouth. The more I drink, the more astringent this tea is making my whole mouth dry and gritty.
A splash of light agave syrup removes the bitter edge of the spice and pulls the sasparilla out, edging closer to a spicy dry ginger rootbeer, but still medicinal in taste.
Latte
Zach’s Breakfast is missing something to me, and I think it is vanilla. I made it an iced latte, double leaf, with oat milk and agave sweetener.
This is the best way to make this tea – the milk smooths out the harshness of the medicinal root notes and settles to a creamy root beer with a spicy ginger zing. The aftertaste again is the sasparilla, which is tasty.
Comments
If you enjoy chais or teas with a moderate to a high amount of spice, Zach’s Breakfast is generous with the ginger and turmeric. The sasparilla adds a lot of fun to the tea. As is, it drinks medicinal and astringent, most will want to add milk and sugar to adjust the tea experience.
I myself am one who rarely adds milk/sugar to my tea, even drinking LaoManE young bitter sheng nightmares, but I was dying to have some milk in Zach’s Breakfast to help out the Assam and bitter spices.
The con with Zadiko Tea Co is the price. Zach’s Breakfast is $20 for 1.5oz / 42.5grams, clocking in $13oz/$0.48 a gram, not including shipping.
Most US based, organic, small vendor hand-blended teas cost around $5-$10 an oz. $3-$6oz is the going rate for big tea companies, including Art of Tea, which I am guessing the wholesaler, based on the making of Zadiko videos. If you aren’t a regular reader, I am no stranger to buying expensive teas, frequently I’m in the $14oz/$0.50 to $28oz/ $1gram tea land. That said, I wish I got more than 1.5oz of Zach’s Breakfast. Fingers crossed, with a successful launch and more product, we can get more tea.
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