Dammann Frères

Dammann Advent Calendar, Day 12

Mmmmmm, one of my favorites. I slurped this one down quickly. Of course, I used my loose leaf and saved my advent sachet for traveling. It’s always convenient because I spend a lot of time around the holidays at houses that are not my own, so the sachets are great to take a long and most of them are Christmas themed.

I love the lemon-cream-toffee flavors of this tea. Another example of Dammann’s caramel flavors and how I love them so.

One of my favorites for sure! I love the creamy lemon meringue flavor of this one. This is definitely one of those teas that I am always happy to reach for in my cupboard. Here my beloved Dammann base blend is nice and well-balanced, supporting the flavoring just so and generally making for a lovely cup of tea.

I was feeling a little off after an early class this morning, so I decided I wanted something lemony. This one popped out at me, haha. I just want to drink my DF teas all the time! Going through a phase I guess. Anyway, this tea made me feel better and was delicious to boot.

Well, since this morning’s (22) advent calendar tea was not a morning tea, I pulled one of the sachets from earlier in the calendar that I brought with me for the trip. The funny thing is I thought I was pulling Noël a Provence, but instead I pulled this one… I noticed it smelling way more caramelly than I expected!

I am, of course, not sad to be drinking this tea because it is delicious. Lemony, caramelly, creamy, yum!

Dammann advent calendar, day 12. Again, I used my current loose stock of this tea today instead of the sachet. I didn’t think about the fact that I will now have a pile of awesome wrapped sachets to take with me traveling around Christmas time, but that is one happy byproduct of already having some of the teas in the set.

Loving this one today! So lemony and creamy. I happily drank it up quickly. I’m glad I have plenty more of this in my cupboard still. :)

When I first got my pile of Dammann teas my boyfriend said I couldn’t drink this one (and another) because it’s not Christmas. What I have to say to that is :P. Also there is nothing particularly Christmassy about lemon meringue and toffee too me, but I have never spent Christmas in Venice.

I could immediately smell the lemon meringue and the toffee from the dry leaf. Brewed, this definitely reminded me of another tea I’ve had. It took me a minute, but then I realized that the flavor combo was very similar to Harney’s Indian Nimbu: lemon and caramel. At one point I loved that one but then darjeelings fell out of favor with me. This, however, has no darjeeling, so I am optimistic.

Yeah, I’m pleased with this one. It’s lemony and caramelly, and I like the base on it. I wouldn’t say I get a distinct lemon meringue, but the whole thing has a creamy flavor that I guess fits with that idea. All in all a tasty tea, although I would agree that it doesn’t quite “pop” for me for some reason. I mean, it’s delicious, but I’m not swooning. Still, I will happily be drinking the rest of this tea.

Perhaps I steeped it wrong but this is such a letdown. This oolong has barely a hint of chestnuts – it’s more like a taste of something a bit sweet you can’t quite describe. The overall tea is very woody and would match an autumn weather (I’m drinking this in August like the rebel I am). I was expecting a lot more complexity and a lot more flavour so I’d ordered two bags of 100g which means the disappointment I feel is now closely tied to the frustration and slight guilt one feels at having been ripped off. Not a bad tea but perhaps it would be more enjoyed by those of us who can appreciate subtle flavours. As for me, my palate is only fond of those teas which feel like drinking perfume.

This is actually a sipdown as well as a chronology note. I flew through this one because I cold brewed it like crazy. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy this tea well enough hot (which is how I had my last pot of it). The four red fruits flavors are nice, but I really wish there was more vanilla involved. I just knew it wasn’t a tea that I would reach for often because it turned out to be not that special, so I cold brewed it and enjoyed the lovely red fruitiness with my lunches. My last pot of this tea was nice, and even had a touch more vanilla present. Still, I wasn’t too sad to say goodbye to this one.

This morning my steeping basket still smelled like rose from the tisane last night, which made me want a rosy tea for breakfast. But I have no rosy black teas at home! Tragedy! I really need to bring Paris Mon Amour home since it is best as a milky tea. If I couldn’t have rose I would at least have French, so I grabbed this one instead.

Again, I wish this one had more creamy vanilla to it, but its a pretty nice red fruits tea nonetheless. It’s just pretty much only berries, and the promised vanilla is MIA. Still, I happily drank this one up this morning.

I brought this tea home because I planned to do some cold steeping with it… I do enjoy this tea, but I don’t LOVE it, which means I won’t reach for it as much and it will sit around longer. I figured it would probably be really tasty cold brewed and that way it will move through my stash faster. However, this morning I really wanted a black tea I could have without milk and sugar, and I have so few of those at home, so I reached for this one!

And it was quite tasty this morning. Lots of red fruits, a hint of vanilla. It will be good to have at home for drinking on the weekends as well, it seems!

Backlog from this morning. I like the four red fruits combo of flavors, but it’s not one of those flavors I have to keep around. I’m not sure if I’ve had Dammann’s regular four red fruits (note: it appears that I have not), but I decided to throw 50g of this into my Instant Thé order to help get me up to free shipping. It’s actually red fruits plus vanilla.

This one smelled nicely of red fruits and perhaps a hint of vanilla. The flavor was very similar… this was a nice red fruits tea, but I didn’t get a ton of vanilla from it. Of course it is still delicious, but not super special. Still I won’t have any problem drinking this one up, it just likely will not be a repurchase.

This is the other one that I had last week, but am re-having now (#14). This combo of hazelnut and vanilla is awesome; creamy, nutty, delicious. YUM.

Yup, this tea. Sooooo glad it’s back in my cupboard as well, and that I have a huge tin of it. It’s actually a tea where the dry smell doesn’t really make my mouth water or call to me (basically just kind of nutty), but once it’s brewed, hold the phone. SO amazingly sweet and vanilla-y. Love it!

Waaaaaahhhh. This is a sipdown. Not sure if I’ve ever drank through 50g faster than I did this 50 g, which is kind of sad because I bought this a year ago. I am a slow tea drinker. That said, this will not remain out of my cupboard for too long, because it is definitely getting restocked in my September order. Besides sipdowns, I really need to work on getting some large tins freed up for 100g amounts. Unfortunately those two goals are not really compatible!

I quick note on this before I pass out from exhaustion. I was thinking about the fact that I have pretty much no time for tea drinking with my current schedule, and how I want to do some sipdowns. I figured that I probably have enough time between getting up and starting teaching to drink a cup of tea (I don’t leave a ton of time in the morning; not a morning person). So I made a cup of this in my ceramic “travel” mug (it has a silicone lid). I ran into two issues with this plan:

1. There is a hairline crack in the mug which was hissing during the making of the tea, although it doesn’t seem to have allowed much if any liquid in between the double walls. Ugh I need a new travel mug, but can never find the perfect one (99% ceramic or glass on the inside).

2. I forgot that midway between waking up and getting to work I brush my teeth (after breakfast). I ended up drinking the tea rather quickly pre-toothbrushing, and I guess I will keep trying that for now, but otherwise I don’t know if I have enough time.

Ugh, two more weeks of this heinous schedule. Is it September yet?

It’s exam day, yay! I get to say yay because I give the exam, I don’t take it. Also, that means that my day is not made up by solid teaching, and I had enough time for a cup of tea this afternoon before we start grading (yaayyyy… not.)

My tin of this tea is getting distressingly low. As in, there is only enough for one more cup here at the office. I did take some home with me, so I will have to see how much is there, but it has to be less than 10g all together. Justification for a DF order in the near future? I can’t be without my hazelnutty, vanilla-y, creamy goodness.

It always amazes me when I have this tea. I ordered this tea because I thought it sounded reasonably tasty but I didn’t have super high hopes. See, I haven’t had the best luck with hazelnut teas for some reason. I think there’s something about hazelnuts themselves in tea that put me off at times.

Then I tried this tea and was blown away. Sweet, creamy and hazelnutty without whatever weirdness I didn’t like. I totally love this tea! Apparently all I need is some vanilla with my hazelnut to smooth it out, or something. And every time I come back to it I am reminded about how much I love it. Another essential tea for me!

This has been a fairly bad tea weekend, just in that I haven’t drank hardly any at all, and I forgot the bag of teas that I was planning on bringing home to continue my chronological cupboard tasting. I did have some genmaicha yesterday at a Korean restaurant, and this morning I decided to just have this tea.

Good decision, as this tea is delicious and comforting. Even after it has gone stone cold (distracted by vacuuming… see what I mean about bad tea weekend?) it is quite tasty. Hazelnut and vanilla is a wonderous combination!

Nom nom nom. Funny how I often don’t care for hazelnut in teas (I love it in candy, liquor, spreads) but that is absolutely not the case here. Creamy hazelnut-vanilla goodness. And that’s about all I have to say about this right now.

I had (amazing) butter pecan ice cream not long ago, and so when choosing a tea I was in the mood for something sweet and desserty. I opened one of the drawers and saw this one and immediately wanted it. Then I thought I really should drink something older, or something closer to a sipdown, but nothing else was right. Finally I said screw it, I am going to have a cup of this tea even though I just drank it the other day.

Mmm, so delicious. I am bumping my already high score of this one because it is just that good. Creamy and nutty and sweet, this is totally dessert in a cup. So glad I got this one, and I forsee a permanent place for it in my stash.

Backlog from this morning. I love hazelnut spreads and liqueur, and even though I’ve fallen out of love with Harney’s Florence and have had only mediocre luck with nutty teas lately, I ordered some of this because it sounded so tasty. Unlike the typical pairing of chocolate and hazelnut, this is vanilla and hazelnut!

Man, I’m glad I ordere some because this is delicious. The hazelnut really reminds me of Frangelico, and these awesome hazelnut creme candies I made with Frangelico last Christmas. The vanilla is sweet and creamy and a tiny bit caramelized-tasting. And the tea base on this one really complements the nuttiness. Definitely very pleased with this one!

Mmm sipdown for this one. I’ve been cold brewing it because it covers a multitude of sins in the base tea, and for black teas it uses a lot of tea so I go through meh teas faster.

It was pretty decent cold brewed, but I’ve had better almond teas cold brewed too! In the final cup I had one perfect teaspoon less tea than I would usually use so I threw a scoop of Fauchon’s La Rose in with it, and it was quite delish. Almond and rose is one of my favorite combos!

Steepster seems to be up for the moment, so here are some quick notes.

I brought this one home to cold brew and try to use up since it isn’t one of my favorites from Dammann. I had it this morning as a pre-work tea, and I remembered why. It falls a little flat for some reason; it isn’t a great representative of Dammann’s good stuff. Of course I am sending a sample of this to Cameron B… thankfully also a sample of Figue Fraiche, which I believe is a better example. Don’t judge them all on this one, Cameron! :)

It seems like I can never truly find my perfect almond black tea. Just almond and black tea, nothing else. This one is pretty good, but it still falls short. What it does right is mainly in the aftertaste, which is super almondy in a marzipan/extract/amaretto way. But for some reason, the base for this tea seems thinner and less awesome than usual. Dammann uses the same base for almost all their flavored teas, and it is a base that I usually love, but on this one it doesn’t seem to have as much body or richness as it usually does. What I want is a rich almond flavor during the sip too, not just afterwards. To be fair, once you are drinking the cup for a little bit there is so much almond in your mouth that it becomes part of the sip as well, but it doesn’t quite pan out for me. Guess I’ll just have to be satisfied with my almond being party to other flavors for the most part.