Dammann Frères

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85

Dammann Frères Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 14

Ooh, I love this one!

The bergamot is gentle, the base is soft and smooth, and the lime is zesty and bright. Such a lovely citrusy black tea, to me the finger lime tastes like a combination of lemon and lime. I owned a tin of this at once point, and I may need to reorder some next time… My one nitpick would be, I think the bergamot could stand to be just a little bit stronger, but I’m also perfectly happy with it as-is. :)

Flavors: Bergamot, Citrus, Citrus Zest, Earthy, Lemon, Lime, Smooth, Woody

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 8 OZ / 236 ML
Inkling

Ooo, I don’t think I’ve ever had bergamot and lime together! That sounds delicious.

Cameron B.

Definitely recommend it! The bergamot is quite mellow though, it’s mostly lime. :P

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85

Dammann Frères Advent Calendar – Day 20 (from November backlog)

This is one that I enjoy and have in my cupboard, but it’s a few years old so it’ll be nice to try a fresh sample and compare.

Yummy, the lime is quite strong here, which I love. It’s definitely the dominant flavor, with the bergamot in more of a supporting role, adding some nice depth to the citrus profile. The base is very smooth, with earthy and mineral notes and a hint of smoke. There’s a bit of woodiness here as well. I think the more rustic notes in the base tea add a lovely contrast against the brighter lime.

Honestly I’m surprised this isn’t rated better, but it looks like there aren’t many ratings and a few of them are people who admittedly don’t like bergamot, so I suppose that doesn’t help. Or maybe I’m just in the minority, as I quite like this one. :P

Flavors: Bergamot, Citrus, Earth, Lime, Mineral, Smoke, Wood

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 8 OZ / 236 ML

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85

365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 22

Earl Grey time! :D

This one is simple but lovely. The base has at least some Chinese black tea in it, as it has a nice smooth and mellow earthy flavor. I would guess that there’s Ceylon here as well, as it has a subtly astringent coppery note. It’s acidic enough that it’s a bit rough on my empty stomach.

The bergamot is restrained, and it’s in perfect balance with the black tea. The two complement each other well without either overpowering the other. It’s a lovely citrusy bergamot, and the added finger lime flavor really brings out the citrus notes, while also adding a nice brightness to the blend.

It’s really a good one, and a slightly more demure Earl Grey blend that would be perfect for the afternoon (or a lazy weekend morning!). Plus that gold tin is stunning! ❤

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs8SFXPlCo-/

Flavors: Astringent, Bergamot, Citrus, Earth, Lime, Malt, Mineral, Smooth

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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85

Hello again! It’s been a while since I’ve been around these parts. Hope everyone is well, though a few years older!

I have been drinking mostly cold-brewed tea lately, as I now live in Austin, TX, where it’s basically summer for 9 months of the year. But now that it’s fall elsewhere, I’m feeling the urge for some hot tea. I guess I’ll crank up the AC! ;)

We will have a houseguest this weekend, a friend who is thinking of moving to the area from New Jersey. He’s originally from England, so naturally I have been digging through my stash (some of which is still in boxes from last year’s move) to find any and all possible Eary Grey-ish options for him to sample. He’s an Earl Grey aficionado of course, how could any Brit not be? So now after seeing all these lovely previously-buried treasures, I think I may be on a Earl Grey kick for the new few days…

Believe it or not, I actually got this tea in France. The company that I work for has an office in Nîmes (a smallish city in the South of France, west of Marseilles and Nice). The downtown area is very ancient and lovely, centered around an arena that was built in 70 AD (!). (It really becomes very comical to consider how young the United States is when traveling in Europe, where anything built in the 1700’s seems almost new)

Anyway, there’s a Dammann Frères shop downtown, near the hotel where we stayed. The shopkeep was nice enough and seemed quite amused by my, shall we say, “tea enthusiasm”. So naturally, I came home with no fewer than ten 100g tins in my suitcase. Nope, nothing unusual about that at all…

This one is quite mild, as Earl Greys go, which is fine by me. I really like the addition of lime, though it is somewhat subtle. It adds a nice brightness and lifts the overall flavor a bit. And what a lovely gold tin! I always give bonus points for irresistible packaging, because a tea in a cute box always seems to taste a bit better. …Right? ❤

Flavors: Bergamot, Citrus, Lime, Malt, Wood

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML
Sil

welcome back! :)

Cameron B.

Thank you! ❤

Glad to be back.

tea-sipper

Welcome back!

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83
drank 4 Fruits Rouges by Dammann Frères
2955 tasting notes

Another sachet I picked up from a breakfast buffet on my trip. I had this with unsweetened soy milk, so I didn’t pick up on all of the minor notes, however I did enjoy the creamy mouthfeel.

There is a light sweetness here, similar to dried fruit. I get notes of cherry, dried fig, cranberry, and raspberry.

Flavors: Berry, Cherry, Dried Fruit, Fig, Malt, Raspberry, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 30 sec

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78
drank Elégie Pourpre by Dammann Frères
2955 tasting notes

A lightly bitter but fairly milk puerh base with some blackberry and rose flavours. This is a unique blend, but I feel it could benefit from more blackberry flavour.

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61

Hardly been reviewing, I am trying to drink through my stash, so nothing new interesting to talk about.(just been followed a lot by spammers on steepster. Steepster and spammers of all things). But this is a rare new purchase and worth writing down my opinion.

It smells fantastic (which was what sold me), like boozey chocolate mousse. It is priced extremely surprising (17.50 euros for 100 grams!), but I was in a Thé du Loup craving mood and I risked buying 50 grams. And it is nice but can’t help feeling how “thin” the Dammann teas taste, how the scent is not there and can end up a bit like drinking scented tannin water…

This is not bad, just a bit disappointing. Particularly for the price!

Flavors: Dark Chocolate

Ysaurella

Hiya Teresa, the price is due to the tea base which is a keemun. Which temperature did you brew it ? Normally it is a quite a nice flavoured tea but it doesn’t react very well hoter than 90°c

cteresa

How nice to hear from you, hello, and happy holidays!

I did brew it boiling, will try again a bit lower and with more leaf, to give it a fair trial! It smells lovely.

I did break down in my craving for Thé du Loup and bought some things from Thé-o-Dor, Thé du Loup did not disappoint on its return (good because I got 250 grams in 2 125 grams packages), and I do love their Laponic Christmas teas – the black was a rebuy, the green I am now crazy in love with it!

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88

The last tea of the long weekend.

I have consumed much more caffeine over the course of the past three days than I typically do, so pysched was I to taste and write notes on a number of new teas, and sip down a few as well. I almost didn’t have that much today because it’s been affecting my sleep. Or rather, it’s been affecting my muscles’ ability to relax. I’ve awakened feeling quite clenched up the past couple of mornings.

But I decided to power through because I don’t often get this kind of time to devote to writing of any kind, including note writing, these days. In fact, I actually fell a bit short. I had hoped to try another matcha and some pu-erh. I briefly considered resurrecting project chai sipdown this weekend just because I found an American Tea Room masala chai sample.

But instead, I stuck to whites and oolongs, with a black tea in the mix.

I have a new project, not that it’s of interest to anyone but me. I want to make tasting everything in my Steepster cupboard at least once and writing a note on it a priority. I feel like I have all these things I don’t even remember I have, and this is one way to remind myself. But I’m so close to 100 sipdowns for the year, I don’t want to fall off the pace on those either.

As I was going through my cupboard, I discovered I had never tried this. And since I drink green/yellow tea during the week when I have less note-writing time, I also try to make it a priority to do my initial tastings of these on a weekend.

I steeped this like a green tea for my initial try. I also had some crackers to cleanse my palate after the Todd & Holland Citrus Sanctuary.

In the tin, it smells a bit grassy for a Chinese tea with a sort of a dark oolong-like sharp note.

I know I’ve been describing a lot of liquors as pale yellow and clear lately. But if the shoe fits…

I am having a very hard time describing the taste and smell of this tea. I cheated and looked at the previous notes. It’s funny, I never would have thought of cigars — but now that I see it mentioned, I can understand that. Though I have to say, it’s not the first thing I thought when I smelled or tasted this tea. Pine nuts? Not really that either. Nutty at all? Not my first impression.

What I get from this is more like pine needles, though very faint. I used to chew pine needles as a kid, and this reminds me a little of that.

As the tea cools, I get more of the nuttiness. For me, it’s a sort of cashew-like smell and taste.

Different, and interesting. It gets props for that.

Flavors: Nuts, Pine

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 17 OZ / 500 ML
ashmanra

Great goals! My cupboard is out of control. I do not enter samples or really small amounts of tea. I have so much tea that I just haven’t bothered to add to my cupboard. I did a nice straightening of the main tin display area today. Now to get the number of teas under control…Best of luck with your endeavors!

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82

Sipdown no. 7 of 2019 (no. 79 of 2019 total, no. 567 grand total).

Sipdowns have gone slowly since the weather got warmer, and in search of one I could get to rather easily, I decided to make this my take it to work tea as a transition between the last green I finished and the next one. As it happened, it became a sort of a straddle tea. Day before yesterday it was the second spoon when I finished the Premium Steap Red Hoot, and today it was the first with Canton Mi Lan Dan Cong as the second to make my Timolino’s worth.

I find myself lately saying “not much to add” to the original note, which is probably boring to read for anyone but me — but is rather satisfying to me as it means that my tastes are more consistent than I would have thought. And also that my old teas are holding up better than I would have thought. That was true here.

Kittenna

Your notes are for you; say what you want!! I find it interesting to see how different people record things :)

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82

Very likely the last tea of the morning. I was hoping to get a pu-erh in, but given the time, I don’t think that’ll be happening. There’s always tomorrow (holiday! more tea notes!).

Like the Dammann Freres of yesterday, I can find nothing about this tea on the web. There are many 8 Immortals teas, but I find the information about them somewhat confusing. Most of them are referred to as Dan Cong, and most of those as Ba Xian Dan Cong. I know that Dan Cong means single bush, and I glean from the interwebs that Ba Xian is 8 Immortals in Chinese. But this doesn’t help me much as it appears that this type of tea can come from different places in China. The Yunnan Sourcing web site says that they all come from several different villages around Wu Dong. I’ve also seen this type of tea referred to as a rock Oolong that comes from Wu Yi.

Bottom line, this tea seems destined to be forever a bit of a mystery.

What I can say is that it’s a dark oolong. The leaves are long, twisty, and a dark chocolate color. Dry, they smell like rocks. (Maybe it’s a rock oolong after all?)

Steeped in the gaiwan after a rinse starting at 15 seconds and adding 5, at 195F.

In the first steep, the aroma has an interesting floral quality that’s somewhat unexpected given the darkness of the leaves. I expected more roastiness than I’m getting, though there is some. The liquor is medium amber-gold. The flavor is not floral, however. It’s more a stone fruit, mineral flavor.

Steep the second is more stone fruit, apricot maybe, with something that reminds me a little of coffee. Less mineral than the first steep. The aroma maintains the nice floral note. I got a bit of astringency, a grab in the back of the throat with this steep.

Third steep. The leaves have pretty much unfurled. I expected more volume at this point. I think I may not have used enough tea. I usually fill the gaiwan to just under halfway. This time I did a little less because I thought I’d get more volume. This steep is more wet rocks than stonefruits. I’m still getting the unexpected coffee-like note.

Fourth steep. (This one went a bit longer than planned because I had to stop for a bio break while steeping.) It’s starting to lose something — the taste is flattening, with no distinct elements.

I enjoyed this, though I have no other 8 Immortals to compare it to. I’m still tasting a sort of espresso note in the aftertaste. The tea leaves a pleasant freshness in the mouth, like a really, really weak menthol.

I have so many oolongs and I’ve tasted them over so many years, I have reason to doubt the consistency of my ratings over time. So I’ll just muddle through here with what seems right for now.

Flavors: Espresso, Floral, Mineral, Roasted, Stonefruit, Wet Rocks

ashmanra

Interesting! I will keep an eye open for Dan Cong and 8 Immortals and see if the mystery unravels a bit. I never knew what Dan Cong meant.

__Morgana__

Would love to hear what you think!

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79

Sipdown no. 16 of February 2019 (no. 34 of 2019 total, no. 522 grand total).

It was good while it lasted and made a nice take it to work tea. One of the better Sri Lankan oolongs I’ve had. Though I find I’m generally more partial to oolongs from China.

I wrote the original note not long ago and can’t improve upon it.

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79

Ending my tea tasting day with another oolong.

I’ve had this for a long time. Such is the case with many of my teas, but it’s unfortunate in the case of this one because I can find no information about it anywhere. I don’t see it on the Dammann Freres web site, and I can’t find anything about a Dammann version anywhere.

However, there does appear to be another company that sold this once upon a time (Herman teas), and there is information about the Handunugoda estate on the internet.

If I’m distilling this all correctly, this is a Sri Lankan oolong. That’s not a first for me (the LeafSpa comes to mind), but it is a rarity.

The dry leaves on this one are brown and twiggy. Dark oolong leaves. They have an interesting smell. I wouldn’t call it roasty, like a dark oolong, but it is a darker smell as opposed to a floral, green oolong smell. It’s more like a barky, woody smell.

After rinsing, I steeped in the gaiwan for my first tasting, starting at 15 seconds and adding increments of 5 seconds in 195F water.

The liquor on the first steep is a pretty gorgeous, coppery amber. The aroma has a strong brown sugar/honey note and something I couldn’t identify until I happened across someone else’s blog about this tea: sweet potato. Yep, that’s there as well. The flavor has those notes but it also has a bitterness that is sort of espresso-like. In the past I wouldn’t have enjoyed that, but after my trip to Italy last summer I’ve developed a taste for espresso. So it’s all good.

The next steep has less of the bitterness except in the finish and aftertaste but still an espresso cast, and I definitely taste the sweet potato more. There’s an Assam-like throat grab at the end. After the tea is gone, the cup has a very lovely floral (!) aroma.

The third and subsequent steeps were similar to the second, but became progressively less “dark” tasting. As they lightened up, the flavors morphed into really interesting variations on themselves. I didn’t really taste anything new or different, just variations on the general theme.

It’s a really nice tea. I won’t try it in a yixing because I don’t have any dedicated to Sri Lankan oolongs, but I will enjoy trying it other ways while it lasts.

Flavors: Bark, Brown Sugar, Espresso, Honey, Sweet Potatoes, Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C

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81
drank Bali by Dammann Frères
2955 tasting notes

This is a sample I brought back from France. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to go to any tea shops in Paris, but I found this at a breakfast buffet and smuggled a few pouches to try at home.

The flower petals do a good job of accenting the floral green base (I actually thought it was a jade oolong until I read the product description). There are some definite lemon, orange, and rose notes that linger as an aftertaste. It tastes tropical (mango and lychee), but also a bit perfume-y because the rose is so intense. I find the jasmine is more in the smell of the dry leaf and the brew, but somewhat hidden once the rose makes itself known. The orange might be mixed with grapefruit, or it might be blood orange I’m tasting. Either way, it made a nice iced tea.

Flavors: Citrus Fruits, Floral, Jasmine, Lemon, Orange, Orange Blossom, Rose

Preparation
Iced 4 min, 0 sec

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90

Another one I’ve owned for quite some time and haven’t had in a while. I remember the first time I had a cup of it though, I liked it a lot. Wasn’t big into tea at that time though. It was pleasing to drink but I had nothing to compare it with.
The loose leaves smell a bit like an old confiserie, because of the bergamote. The brewed tea has a beautiful bright orange colour, and a smooth and subtle taste, while still tasting somewhat like your classic Earl Grey. This might not satisfy everyone, as it leads to the tea having less complexity and depth than other, more full-bodied teas.
It also has a very floral side, a bit like the smell you first get when you enter a flower shop. The bergamot is perfectly balanced and brings out the tea very well. You taste the black tea, but you don’t feel it in the texture. Again, I love it, but it might not please everyone.
This tea also opens up as it gets cooler, and that’s something I love in my tea.
Definitely a favorite!

Flavors: Candy, Floral

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 30 sec

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80
drank Darjeeling (sachet) by Dammann Frères
2955 tasting notes

This is a delicious Darjeeling with smooth honey notes and no bitterness or sourness.

I drank this with some unsweetened soy milk and 1/2 tsp of bumble bloom (a vegan honey alternative made from apple juice). The touch of sweetness and a dash of milk makes this a rich and delicious morning cup.

Flavors: Smooth, Sweet, Tannin

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 6 min, 0 sec

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80
drank Darjeeling (sachet) by Dammann Frères
2955 tasting notes

My hotel has individual sachets of teas in the breakfast room, so I had a lovely high-quality cup this morning (thank goodness, nobody deserves Lipton).

This is malty, lightly purfumed (fragrant and lightly floral like a very fresh Darjeeling). The leaf was intact small tippy leaves. Light sweetness (honey) and a thick mouthfeel. Really, this is just a delicious tea for breakfast and it does stand up as a straight black tea (also does well with milk).

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58
drank Cerise Noire by Dammann Frères
6444 tasting notes

As a plain tea, this was very typical french tea to me, more base than anything and red fruit flavors that maybe leaned to cherry.

As a chocolate milk latte, this was a huge miss. Too dark, bitter, and just heavy.

Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2018/08/14/cerise-noire-from-dammann-freres/

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80
drank Jardin Bleu by Dammann Frères
533 tasting notes

Sipdown.
I liked this one. Flavors are well done, not too overpowering. I wouldn’t mind getting this again.

Purchased from Emilie’s French Teas – KCMO @ Midwest TeaFest 2017.

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66

I bought this one a while ago, so I guess I’ve tried it enough to write a note. I guess I love fig so I’m always a little disappointed with how this one turns out. I’m surprised by the 85 Steepster rating. It just tastes like an uneventful black tea with mild sweet fruity notes, indistinguishable from fig. It’s fine, though the base is probably Ceylon, so not the tastiest. It’s not a matter of aging, because this tea always tasted the same to me. Hmm. I thought I’d love this one. I guess the name and the Steepster rating set me up for disappointment.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons // 12 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // couple minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

Mastress Alita

What would you say are some good fig teas?

tea-sipper

Sadly, I don’t think I’ve ever had a good fig tea. Ovation had a good one, but Ovation is long gone (even the fig tea from my cupboard). There was a good berry fig sencha that a few tea companies had but they are either gone or the flavor has completely changed, even if I buy it new. I had a Davidstea herbal blend the other day with a ton of tasty fig pieces in it, but the result is basically just sugar water. I bet I know who would make a great fig tea: 52Teas!

Orphia

Tea and Tins used to have a nice blend called Miss Figgy. Sadly, they’re closed now.

tea-sipper

It might be available on www.eastindiescoffeeandtea.com/tea/ ? I never tried that tea under any of the shops though. I’ll keep it in mind!

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63
drank Tourbillon by Dammann Frères
6444 tasting notes

Sipdown (274)

I opened the package for this teabag and then quickly regretted it because this was never really all that great to me and I realized I should have set it aside to send to my friend who might have appreciated it more than I do.

Anyways, the package was already open by the time I thought that so here I am drinking it and it’s fine. Just fine. It’s got apricot but it’s muddled up with other flavours which are distracting. I’ve had it several times now and while it’s an alright cup of tea, it’s nothing special.

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63
drank Tourbillon by Dammann Frères
6444 tasting notes

With my cold and funky tastebuds, I was sad to be starting my tea advent calendar today in fear that it would be a blend I want to try and things would be wonky. Thankfully, this is a blend I have had before and never truly cared for all that much so I am okay sipping on it, funky tastebuds and all.

With that said, something is really funky here b/c I am getting licorice. Licorice, which should NOT be here, and wafer, which should. Not loving it but then again, I never really did.

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63
drank Tourbillon by Dammann Frères
6444 tasting notes

I don’t love this one. The candied apricot and underlying chestnut is just not for me.

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