Dammann Frères

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.

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.

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

And it’s a Belatedly posted sipdown!

#long time ago internet hiatus sipdown

The 8-year-old kid next door had a birthday this week. Hence, the adults surrounding the kid had to get wasted and party through the night.

And now there is more joy. They’ve set up some sort of video game with various repeated pings, dings, and doorbell sounds alongside my living and dining space, so just yay! And then, there are the considerate joy cries of the whole family when the kid scores a goal or hit or whatever the aim is. Hurray for considerate neighbours. Gee, thanks.

Tomorrrow is Family Day here, so I expect more of the same. And then after that, for quite some time. What are the chances that this kid is going to be enjoying this quietly while wearing headphones? I am doubtful.

This tea is a comfort though. The scent while steeping was black currant with hints of caramel. I really hoped that these scents would translate into flavours in my cup. And they did. Black currant and various red fruit and jam flavours, such as red currant, perhaps a bit of strawberry tartness.

Delicious.

Thank you, VariaTEA, for the sample. It is making my day far more pleasant.

Got this at one of those “OMG! Home Goods has Dammann Freres teas!” situations that I read about here on Steepster, but never experirenced IRL. That particular run was so fruitful I was positively glowing after checkout, carrying all that tea loot back home. Never thought I’d get lucky enough to actually find them in the wild, so to speak.

Although not a huge fan of Darjeelings – always found them to be a bit subtle for my tastes – I took this as an opportunity to try one. Tasty enough, good for when I want something straightforward and simple. There was some sweetness to it, very smooth and gentle, but more flavor than I’ve detected when drinking Darjeelings in the past. Could be that previously the water was too hot, or the steep time not long enough. Anyway, I really like it, and am happy I gave it a shot!

I picked this up years ago during Anna’s stash sale but somehow haven’t drunk it much over the years. I do like it, though. Today I paired it with some galette des rois to complement the frangipane (https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd3oUrhla5d/). It was a good match! The floral violet flavor works really well with flaky almond pastry. I couldn’t taste the macaron note but it might have just been drowned out by the actual almond in the cake or have faded with age. In the second steep, the blackcurrant note comes to dominate the cup.

Another good way to enjoy this blend is to make a tea soda with it! Brew with double leaf, add a little sugar, allow to cool and/or add ice, top with seltzer. This brings out the floral and fruit notes and results in a vibrant, refreshing beverage.

There are still quite a few teas from the awesome DF group order that I have not yet written tasting notes for. The keemun base is perfect here, perfect with these flavors: chocolate! almond! The chocolate flavor blends seamlessly with the chocolate notes of the base tea and I can’t tell where each begins or ends. It’s a lovely cocoa, dark chocolate flavor. The toasty almond flavor makes it even more delicious. Definitely a winner from DF and a tea I’d definitely order again. I’d love to try more chocolate flavored Keemun and I’m surprised I don’t find more of them out there in the tea world.
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for a full mug// 10 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

TBH I am not really sure why I picked this up. Between the cherry and the almond, this is marzipan and medicinal and basically not what I look for in a tea. However, I feel like I should have seen that coming with this flavor profile. I am wondering if I confused this with one of the other Noel teas.

Looking through my cupboard I was shocked that I had never reviewed this one. It is one of my new favorites! Rectifying that now.

This tea, amazingly, fills the hole left by the dear, departed Bergamot Rose Laoshan Black from Verdant, since they no longer blend their teas. No, the base tea isn’t as good as Laoshan Black, but it is distinctly different than DF’s normal black tea bases and does seem to be a high quality Chinese black with long wiry leaves. It is so fluffy it didn’t fit in one of my standard 100g tins that all other DF teas fit in, I had to use an extra large tin. The flavors are chocolate, rose, and bergamot, which is pretty much heaven for me. In the end, this tea may be BETTER than BRLB because I taste more of the bergamot and rose, which is always something I had problems with. There is really not much more I could ask of this tea, and I hope they never stop carrying it.

Fruity McFruiterson. I’m not an herbal tea person, but I’m happy this does not have the full punch of rose hips that usually come across as really sour to me. It’s sweet, somewhat jammy, totally orchard fruits. Brews up a lovely warm pink/red and smells great. Again, I’m not an herbal tea fan but will definitely hold the rest of this tin for when I have herbal tea drinkers over because I think it would be a hit with herbal fans. I also could see myself maybe reaching for this one in the summer to make iced tea, I think it would lend itself very well on a hot summer day. It has a richness and depth to it that I usually don’t experience with herbals…….a bit velvety and very smooth.

I realized I never reviewed this tea, and yet I recently drank it down. I used it for cold steeping, which is how I do pretty much all of my green teas these days. I really enjoyed the orange blossom flavors: a little bit of citrus, a little bit of floral. Would probably purchase this one again for cold steeps.

The caramel here came off a bit astringent. Sour isn’t the right word but it did carry aspects of what I associate with it. May have let it sit too long in the cupboard although I made a small cup of this ages ago and it was more of the same. The oolong part was rather soft as well. Definitely done in more of the traditional way than the “green” oolong style… which isn’t my favourite (really gotta be in the mood to enjoy).
Overall, rather tasty, all considering. Might have done better as a latte?
Thanks for the sample Sil!!

Sipdown (331)!

Just finished this one off as a midday cuppa. It’s not really anything fancy or extravagant; just your run of the mill green tea with sweet spearmint notes. Just the tiniest step up from the even more common/run of the mill green tea and peppermint pairing. I will say, for whatever reason, this read as especially sweet to me when I drank it – not that spearmint isn’t already pretty sweet.

Like usual I’m maintaining my position that, while this was a good tea, if you ARE going to shell out the money for some Dammann Freres it’s much more worthwhile to go for something more unique to the company. You can find a recreation of this at more than a dozen places…

Finally writing a tasting note for this one, as it is a puzzle to me. I love the list of ingredients but the result to my tastebuds is just this rum sort of flavor that is unique but odd considering the ingredients. Rum rum rum on a black tea. Maybe like a hint of fruitcake? That has rum in it.