Dammann Frères

it’s back in my cupboard happy dance

mmmm samplr from VariaTea. This doesn’t beat out my favourite vanilla tea but it was a pretty tasty cup. This might, though it’s been a long time since i’ve had others, be my favourite vanilla from DF…there’ s a creaminess here that enhances the vanilla and makes this a tasty cup. Glad i tried it, though happy it doesn’t beat out my other vanilla fav :)

VariaTEA sample from yesterday. I’ve had this one before, or thought i have. On the whole i can do without “noel” teas from france. there has been maybe 1 that i’ve really enjoyed and the rest sit in that grey area of sure…i guess i can drink this, if you haven’t got anything else that i’d prefer. lol It’s not that the tea is bad – great base tea, lovely blends. but the combination of flavours is rarely what i want :) cherry and almond aren’t really my favourite. Still, enjoyed the cup, happy to have a good tea yesterday, but not sad it’s all gone :)

Sample from VariaTea i’ve had a few noel a…. from DF. This isn’t one i’d have picked out for myself but it’s actually not half bad. The cherry flavouring is actually quite nice and made for an enjoyable treat this afternoon.

I’ve had this one for a while and been cold brewing it. It is reasonably tasty, but I think on the whole I prefer fruitier cold brews to ones that are all floral. There is something very thick and rich about this tea, and I think I would love it on a black base, but on a green it neither works great as a hot or a cold tea for me.

ETA: I looked at the ingredients again and it’s actually supposed to be pretty fruity (strawberry, rhubarb, raspberry), but I get almost no distinct notes of those. I could almost see dates, but they are not listed. Would have been awesome with a sharper tart rhubarb note.

Sample from VariaTEA I didn’t look this one up so had no idea what the flavouring was. It was a good cup but i had a lot of trouble figuring out what was i was drinking besides “fruity” On seeing the flavlouring, maaaybe i was picking up on the apricot since it wasn’t “red fruit” taste..but i couldn’t say for sure. Fun to try anyway!

sample from VariaTEA a decent cup for earlier this afternoon – black cherry, subtle like most of DF’s teas…brewed it at low temps for longer as i’ve found much success with most of their teas that way.

This tea is…interesting. I’ve had it 3 or 4 times now and just can’t make up my mind what I think of it! The flavor is rather muddled: lots of floral and fruity notes with nothing specific standing out. The base is smooth and unobtrusive. There’s no bitterness, astringency, or artificial flavor that I’m picking up on, so nothing to hate…but nothing to love either.

I have realized recently that I’ve never reviewed most of the green teas that I use for cold brewing nearly every day, and that it would probably be a good idea to note which are my favorites so that I can reorder. So a series of tasting notes!

This tea is green apple, and it is quite tasty. It is crisp and a little appley, although the green tea does make it edge toward grassy and almost too vegetal. I’m not sure whether this one is a reorder for me, and I think it somewhat middle-of-the-road when it comes to my cold brew teas; I reach for it more than some but less than others.

Received my portion of the Dammann Freres group order on national popcorn day. Luckily I had the perfect tea to celebrate with! http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/02/21/pop-corn-from-dammann-freres/

The dry leaf smells of perfume and orange. Bergamot is the dominant flavor and it’s not exactly subtle. I add just a pinch of this tea to regular green tea which balances the flavor just right. Along with the bergamot there is lots of violet and citrus. I don’t really taste any of the fruit flavorings, namely peach and kiwi.

This is the best of the DF teas I bought, but I’m not sure whether I would go out of my way to purchase it again from France. I like subtly flavored teas and I’m finding theirs to be too perfumey. The blends are unique for sure, they just need to be toned down a little. Lupicia does this well. I may check them out or maybe Mariage Frères for flavored tea in the future.

Bought this through the 2016 Dammann Freres group buy. All of my DF teas were pretty perfumey but the smell of this alone was enough to trigger a migraine. It tasted like Herbal Essences shampoo or a bath bomb. I couldn’t taste the underlying oolong nor any of the flavorings because one cloying note – aloe, I think – overwhelmed everything. I ended up giving it away as the potpourri smell was too much for me. A shame it didn’t work out because the melange of flowers in this blend – plum blossoms, acacia, jasmine, hawthorn, etc – sounded so interesting and unique.

Another sample from greenteafairy! She sent me both the black and rooibos versions of Dammann Freres Pecan Pie. Of the two, this one is my favorite! The rooibos isn’t overly medicinal and the tea has a nice smooth, creamy mouth feel. The flavor is definitely nutty (more almond than pecan) and has a honeyed aftertaste that just hints at the syrupy sweetness of a pecan pie. While this isn’t pecan pie in a cup, it is a very nice caffeine-free nutty dessert tea. I would totally drink it again!

This had an interesting scent when I first took a whiff when I received the DF order. Then the first time I had it about a month ago, the flavor was just a hint of popcorn, but this time around, it just tasted like weak Ceylon. Maybe my steeping of the leaves was different this time. But anyway, the Ceylon here is not enough for me to keep this one around.

I’ve sipped this one twice now and I could swear there isn’t any additional flavor to the pu-erh. That was before I looked at the description though. To me, this doesn’t warrant an 84 Steepster rating, but possibly the flavors meld so well and seamlessly with the flavors of a ripened puerh that you can’t really taste the difference. I’m tasting possibly a little of a marzipan type flavor (this seems to be a theme with DF teas, but I’m glad I like marzipan.) Otherwise, much of the flavor goes missing in the second steep that was barely there in the first cup. It’s a solid ripe pu-erh though, so I like it.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// few minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // few minutes after boiling // 3-4 minute steep

Sipdown

I went to add this to the Sororitea Sisters TTB only to realize I have never actually tasted this myself. At least not that I could recall. I also noticed the package this was in had a tear so I decided to just brew it up and turns out I only had enough for one cup.

This is typical Parisian red fruit flavoring though perhaps sweeter than it usually is. I guess that’s why people get pastry notes since the flavor is almost jammy or like pie filling. That coupled with the thick black base is leaving me underwhelmed. With that in mind, this is a welcome sipdown as I am not loving this.

Looseleaf: Smells strongly of caramel, butter, vanilla, and cream, but in an artificial way.

Brew: Strong flavours of cream, it actually tastes like I put milk in my tea. Very buttery, strong flavours of buttersctoch and vanilla. Slightly nutty, but not toasted. A nice balance of buttery, umami oolong with plenty of tea flavour and tannins and a strong butterscotch flavour.