Assumedly named after the merry old soul of the familiar nursery rhyme, King Cole Orage Pekoe tea hails from Atlantic Canada. Unlike most Canadian tea brands (such as Red Rose and Salada), this one hasn’t changed ownership since its inception over 100 years ago.
King Cole tea presented itself one day as an Amazon suggestion with mostly glowing reviews promising a full and robust cuppa. Also, I imagine the residents of The Maritimes—having to endure frigid winters—are somewhat discerning when it comes to strong, black tea.
The tea mostly lives up to my expectations. It has a full, malty body from the Assam tea as well as a sweet, chocolatey aroma. The African tea in the blend adds some citrus sweetness and possibly a trace of earthy bitterness. It handles milk well.
On a scale of one to ten—compared to other black ‘breakfast’ teas—I give it a seven. At its most potent (brew it longer for more strength), King Cole delivers a healthy cuppa. If you want a more tannic bite in your black tea, consider brands from the UK and Ireland.
Video Transcript
Today I’m going to try a new tea that I haven’t tried before. It’s just a black tea from Canada
called King Cole. Here it is. I’m going to open the package. Actually, this is a tea from Canada.
I think it’s from Eastern Canada. New Brunswick. Sussex, New Brunswick.
Popular tea in that region it seems. [Narrator reads from the packages] Carefully crafted by one
of Canada’s most trusted tea masters, King Cole’s unique blend of Indian and African teas — so I’m
guessing it’s an Assam and Kenyan tea blend which is pretty standard — can be best enjoyed by
steeping to your desired color aroma and flavor. Here’s the box. Here’s how you prepare it. The
way I’m going to do it is I’m going to use boiling water, and I’m going to steep it for four minutes,
and then I will come back and review. I am back! I want to show you what the tea bags look like.
They are square, tagless and they do contain quite a bit of tea. This brand has a reputation
of being pretty strong for a black tea, and we’ll put it to the test. So I used boiling water,
I brewed it for four minutes, and I added a small amount of milk. I like a little bit of
milk in my tea — not too much. I want to taste the tea when I sip it. Here’s the first sip.
Pretty good.
Definitely get a malty vibe from the Assam and a little bit of brightness,
I think, from the African tea. Smells kind of chocolatey a little bit citrusy,
nothing too exceptional but definitely good enough to drink. I mean
I have black tea every day, and I don’t..it’s not like I drink
fancy tea as black tea in the morning. It’s usually like Tetley British Blend. So
it’s got a bit of a..kind of a..
a little bit of a tannic bite. Not too much.
Not quite as much as I like. Just for context my favorite kind of standard black tea is
probably Tetley Original, the kind they have in the UK. When i started on my tea journey,
I drank PG Tips and then kind of tried a bunch of different things. Thompson’s Irish Breakfast,
that was a favorite for a while, and then I just kind of settled on Tetley Original
which i have to order on Amazon and have it imported from the UK to here.
But when I’m really lazy, I just drink the US, uh, Tetley British Blend. But this is I
would say a little bit better than that. So, I mean, on a scale of one to ten I would — you
know for just standard black tea — I would probably rate this a seven. It’s pretty good.
If you like Tetley British Blend,
and you want just a little bit of, you know, a little bit more bite, a little bit more kick, a
little bit more zing, this is probably a good tea to try. And I’m going to enjoy it with my Kedem
Tea Biscuits that I bought in the kosher aisle of the grocery store because they didn’t have
my McVities Digestives that I usually like. So yeah, I’m gonna enjoy this cup, and I think you
will too. If you like kind of a reasonably strong black tea — but not too strong —
King cole is the way to go.
If you’re in the states you can order it on Amazon. If you’re in Canada, you can order it on
Amazon. Probably you can order on Amazon anywhere in the world. So cheers. Thanks for hanging out.
