Sharp, painful, but mercifully short in the finish. A sip of Ile Maurice was all I needed yesterday to remember why I dislike flavored teas. It is not so much because many of them taste oily and artificial. Cheap teabags do, but this loose-leaf package, from Le Palais des Thes, had honest aromas. Itâ??s because you canâ??t get so much of a whiff of tea.

A blend of Mauritius tea with vanilla and citrus fruit, Ile Maurice had citrus and the nose and vanilla and citrus in the mouth. The tea lent a beautiful dark red color to the cup, but thatâ??s the extent of its contribution. Despite brewing it to instructionsâ??steeping 2.5g in 7oz water for five minutesâ??I simply couldnâ??t find any trace of leaf in the mouth. Which, of course, defies the whole point of drinking tea for me.

I might as well have a citrus tisane and be done with it. Which, incidentally, I did, later in the evening. It was by Celestial Seasonings and used hibiscus for color. In all honesty, it wasnâ??t that different from the Ile Maurice, except this one had no vanilla and came across as more lemony.

What a difference with the Kenya Marynin FBOP I had today. Now that is a tea with muscle. Marynin is one of the few estates in Kenya that still produces tea by the orthodox method when most have switched to CTC, a process where leaves are cut, torn and curled by machine. Steeping 2.5g in 7oz boiling water for 4 minutes gave a rich red cup with a strong flavor with a hint of nutmeg.

It was not as sophisticated as an Assam, but it was good breakfast material. Like a Jackson Pollock canvas, it was bold and energetic. And mercifully long.