Portsmouth Loose Tea is a broken-pekoe Assam blend, and it drinks like classic Assam should: malty, brisk, with a coppery, light-toned liquor in the cup. The tasting profile runs through lemon, date and honey notes alongside a milkier, almost coffee-like depth on the finish, which is why it holds up well with milk, sugar, honey or lemon if you want to dress it, though it's balanced enough to take black too.
Assam itself is worth knowing a bit about. It's India's biggest tea-growing state, tucked between the northern Himalayas, the Brahmaputra plains and the Deccan plateau, and the combination of heavy rainfall (2,500-3,000mm a year) and constant humidity gives the region ideal growing conditions. Commercial tea growing there only goes back to 1823, when a Scottish merchant named Robert Bruce found tea growing wild in Assam during the British Raj era, which is a comparatively recent start next to China's tea history.
Tea & Coffee packs this one fresh to order at their Kent factory. To brew it, use freshly boiled water and steep for three to five minutes — Assam's sturdier leaf takes a longer infusion well without turning harsh, which is part of what gives it that dependable maltiness cup after cup.
Black tea in general has long been drunk with an eye to health, credited in folk and some preliminary research with antioxidant properties that may support cardiovascular health, though the evidence here is early and shouldn't be read as a guarantee of any specific benefit.
