Robert Drysdale, a Scottish tea master, once presented Queen Victoria with a blend he called Scottish Breakfast Tea. As the story goes, she persuaded him to rename it to suit her English roots, and that renaming is often credited as the origin of the term English Breakfast Tea. The Queen Victoria Blend carries that same close association with the Monarch, tracing its lineage back to that meeting at Balmoral.
It was first put together for the Grand Hotel in Brighton and has since spread well beyond it, turning up as often at afternoon tea as at breakfast. The tea is graded Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe: the "FOP" part means it's made from the top bud and first two leaves of each new shoot, while "golden" points to a generous share of golden tips running through the leaf.
Behind that grade sits a three-part blend: Assam from the Tinsukia district, Darjeeling loose tea, and Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka's Uva Province. Together they make for a cup that's bold without tipping into harshness, and well-rounded from first sip to last. Tea & Coffee packs it fresh to order at its factory in Kent.
Brew it loose, in a filter or infuser, with freshly boiled water, and let it sit for three to five minutes. The cup carries notes of lemon, orange, honey and milk, which happens to match what suits it as an add-in: milk, sugar, honey or lemon, or nothing at all if you like it black. Black teas of this kind have long been credited with a good share of antioxidants, and some drinkers keep a cup in rotation on the theory that it supports digestion and general wellbeing, though that owes more to tradition than to settled science.
