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Irish breakfast tea is a blend of several black teas, most often Assam teas.

Many tea producers make Irish breakfast tea blends specifically for the United States market. Irish brands Lyons, Barry's, Nambarrie's, and Punjana are heavily weighted toward Assam. Because of its strength, Irish breakfast tea is commonly served with milk, but may also be consumed plain or with lemon or sugar. In Ireland, where milk and dairy products are traditionally a major part of the diet, most people drink tea with milk. Irish breakfast tea is often drunk in the morning as a result of its strong flavour and caffeine content, which is higher than green, oolong, or white teas. It is also taken throughout the day and evening due to its smooth and sweet texture.

Generally, the best Irish breakfast tea is in loose leaf form because such teas are taken from the best parts of the tea plant. When brewed, the loose leaves slowly unfold to release flavour. Ideally, the tea should be brewed loosely in a pot which will allow the tea to expand completely in the water. The colour of the tea varies from very dark red to brown. Irish breakfast tea can also be bought in tea bags but with more variation in quality. Generally, such tea should be steeped for 3-5 minutes. A longer period causes a more bitter taste. This tea can be drunk hot or cold.

References[link]

• Pratt, James Norwood (1999). New Tea Lover's Treasury. Publishing Technology Associates. ISBN 978-0-9741486-0-1. 

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A full breakfast, especially in the British Isles and some other English-speaking cultures, is a substantial breakfast meal of several courses including a cooked main course, a starter such as fruit juice, prunes, grapefruit, or cereal, and a beverage such as coffee or tea or, in a pub, an alcoholic drink.

The phrase is used to differentiate it from the European continental breakfast traditionally consisting of tea, milk or coffee and fruit juices with croissants or pastries. It is often considered the best of traditional English food. W. Somerset Maugham stated, "To eat well in England you should have breakfast three times a day."^[1] Many British cafés and pubs serve the meal at any time as an "all-day breakfast".

"Full breakfast" may also refer to the main dish itself,^[2], which traditionally includes meat and eggs. Other common names for the dish include bacon and eggs, or the fry-up. Variants include the full English, full Scottish, full Welsh and full Irish breakfasts and the Ulster fry.

The name "bacon and eggs" was popularised by Edward Bernays in the 1920s. To promote sales of bacon, he conducted a survey of physicians and reported their recommendations that people eat hearty breakfasts. He sent the results of the survey to 5000 physicians, along with publicity touting bacon and eggs as a hearty breakfast.^[3]

Common foods and dishes[link]

A full English breakfast with scrambled eggs, sausage, black pudding, bacon, mushrooms, baked beans, hash browns, and half a tomato.

The ingredients of a full breakfast vary according to region and taste. They are often served with condiments such as brown sauce or ketchup.

Some of the foods that may be included in a full breakfast are:

Regional variants[link]

Full English breakfast[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Full English breakfast with bubble and squeak, sausage, bacon, grilled tomatoes and eggs.

A traditional full English breakfast includes bacon (traditionally back bacon), poached or fried eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried bread or toast with butter, sausages and baked beans, usually served with a mug of tea. As nearly everything is fried in this meal, it is commonly called a "fry-up".

Black pudding is added in some regions, as are fried leftover mashed potatoes (called potato cakes) or hash browns. Originally a way to use up leftover vegetables from the main meal of the day before, bubble and squeak, shallow-fried leftover vegetables with potato, has become a breakfast feature in its own right. Onions, either fried or in rings, occasionally appear. In the North Midlands, fried or grilled oatcakes sometimes replace fried bread. When an English breakfast is ordered to contain everything available it is often referred to as a Full English, or a Full Monty.

Full Irish breakfast[link]

An Irish breakfast consisting of sausage, black and white pudding, bacon and fried eggs.

In Ireland, as elsewhere, the exact constituents of a full breakfast vary, depending on geographical area, personal taste and cultural affiliation. Traditionally, the most common ingredients are bacon rashers, sausages, fried eggs, white pudding, black pudding, toast and fried tomato.^[4] Sauteed mushrooms are also sometimes included,^[5] as well as baked beans, liver (although popularity has declined in recent years), and brown soda bread.^{[citation needed]} A full Irish breakfast may be accompanied by a strong Irish breakfast tea such as Barry's Tea, Lyons Tea, or Bewley's breakfast blend served with milk. Fried potato farl, boxty or toast is often served as an alternative to brown soda bread.

Ulster Fry[link]

A full Ulster Fry served in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

An Ulster Fry is a dish similar to the Irish breakfast and is popular throughout Ulster.

A traditional Ulster Fry consists of bacon rashers, eggs, sausages (either pork or beef), vegetable roll, the farl form of soda bread (the farl is split in half crossways to expose the inner bread and then fried with the exposed side down), boxty or potato bread^[6] and wheaten farl.

Other common components may be added but don't constitute as being a traditional Ulster Fry. They may include mushrooms, white or black pudding, fried tomato, pancake and/or beans. All this is traditionally fried; however, in recent decades, people have taken to grilling the ingredients instead.

The Ulster Fry is often served for breakfast, lunch and dinner in households and cafés around the province. Emigrants have also popularised the serving of an Ulster Fry outside Ulster.

The usual accompaniment is strong tea, typically a blend with a high proportion of Assam leaves, i.e. Nambarrie, Lyon's, Barry's or Punjana served with milk.

Between 2001 and 2007 the television channel BBC Two Northern Ireland used a station ID during local opt-outs from national UK programming which featured the BBC Two logo eating an Ulster Fry.

Full Scottish breakfast[link]

A similar Scottish alternative

In Scotland the full breakfast; as with others contains eggs, back bacon, link sausage, buttered toast, baked beans and tea or coffee. The breakfast is made Scottish by the addition of Scottish style black pudding, sliced sausage and tattie scones. It commonly also includes fried or grilled tomato and/or mushrooms and occasionally haggis, white pudding, fruit pudding or oatcakes. As with other breakfasts it has become more common, especially within the home, to grill the meats, puddings and tomatoes and to only fry the eggs and tattie scones. Another more historical Scottish breakfast is porridge and may occasionally be served as a starter in smaller portions.

More broadly, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable refers to a Scotch breakfast as "a substantial breakfast of sundry sorts of good things to eat and drink".^[7]

Full Welsh breakfast[link]

The traditional Welsh breakfast includes laverbread, a seaweed purée which is then mixed with oatmeal, formed into patties and fried in bacon fat. Cockles are also often eaten.^[8]

North America[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Bacon and eggs

The style of breakfast has carried over to the United States and Canada as those countries have traditionally derived much of their culture from Britain, though continental breakfast foods are also popular. A full breakfast in these countries often consists of eggs, meat such as bacon, ham, sausage, scrapple, pork roll, spam, steak or country fried steak, and grits or fried potatoes such as hash browns or home fries. Accompanying the meal might be toasted white, wheat or rye bread, English muffins, bagels, waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, cinnamon rolls, biscuits, muffins, fruit or fruit juice and coffee or tea.

It is often referred to as a "country breakfast" "Sunday breakfast," or a "big breakfast" in many areas of the Midwestern or Southern United States.

In Canada the meal may be known as a lumberjack breakfast. In Quebec, the meal may include regional variants like crêpes, buckwheat galettes, boudin, cretons pommes persillade and baked beans.

See also[link]

Food portal

• Builder's tea
• Greasy spoon
• English breakfast tea
• Irish breakfast tea

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up full breakfast in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on English Breakfast

• Stress-free full English breakfast
• Ulster Fry and Eggs recipe
• Why the great British breakfast is a killer
• In-depth site covering Irish Breakfasts in Ireland and elsewhere
• Site listing local fry-ups around the United Kingdom