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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.

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.

Lest you think that I am just a Dammann fan girl who loves all of their teas without reservation (which, to be honest, I almost am), there is this tea. I do like some chestnut teas (Lupicia’s Chauds le Marrons!) but this one falls a little flat for me. I think it’s the addition of the orange/orange blossom. It just becomes too floral for me, and a little too much overall. This is one of Dammann’s more powerfully flavored blends, and it bowls me over a bit. Probably I should mix it 50/50 with something unflavored to tame it a bit!

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!

Speaking of simple teas that do one flavor and do it well, next we have this tea. I’m in love with many of DF’s fig-based teas, and this one is no exception. I love that it’s nice and figgy, smooth, well-balanced base tea, not too much going on. It would probably be fabulous iced but it’s also one of those teas that I don’t necessarily want to use it up that fast! But perhaps I will try it at some point. I would certainly consider keeping this tea around despite the fact I have many other figgy DF teas in my cupboard already!

It is happy day when I get to drink this tea. And what do you know, it’s next on my chronology! Granted, all these Dammann teas were acquired at once and could thus be drunk in any order, but I’m just drinking them as I added them to my cupboard.

Why did I only rate this a 93 originally? Into the high nineties with you! It’s one of those teas that I just come back to again and again, and it’s always delicious, and I crave it, and if that doesn’t deserve a high 90s rating I don’t know what does. Sometimes you just want a simple tea that does one flavor and does it well, and that is this tea for me. Love you, Caramel-Toffee, and will always have to keep you stocked.

Merry Christmas! Or something. It was snowing today, does that count?

This marks the start of a long line of Dammann teas that I ordered through Instant-Thé in 50g quantities. What a great way to try a ton of DF teas and decide which ones are reorders for me. Although I do enjoy this one a lot, I don’t think it’s a reorder. Mainly because I like it for it’s figginess, and I have others that I love more for their figginess. But this is a lovely fig-berry jam flavor, with a hint of florals. I do appreciate that the lavendar isn’t overwhelming.

A lovely flavored green, just the way I like my flavored greens: light, fruity, and floral. To me, lychee is like a fruity rose flavor already, so adding the rose just really ups the floral notes already present. It also means that the two flavors are not quite distinguishable to me… it’s just one big cup of rosey, lychee goodness.

I didn’t rate this one last time I had it but I’m happy to rate it now: delicious! I have to tread lightly with flavored greens these days as so many of them are off-putting for some reason, but not this one. I bet this would be delicious iced as well!

It’s been a while. I’ve been crazy busy with no time for tea (gasp!), which is sad. I also haven’t been reading tasting notes, so do let me know if I’ve missed anything (I won’t have time to go back through them all, you lot are prolific!).

Continuing my cupboard chronology? I bet you forgot about it! I’m still mid-French tea boom, though, so I’m more than happy to keep going.

Ahh, Paris. Since I first purchased and tasted this tea I have grown a lot fonder of traditional TGYs and their roasty toasty notes. So while it was surprising to me that I enjoyed this one as much as I did when I first tried it, this time is no shock. Delish! Unlike many Fauchon teas, I find the flavoring on this one to be more subtle. Light citrusy orange blossom, and a rich almond that comes out more in the aftertaste but lingers like you just ate some marzipan. Definite yum.

Also I realized that I have just been boiling all of my TGYs now. I used to think that they needed lower temps, like 195°F, since they were green oolongs and delicate or something, but not true! I find it harder to mess up an oolong than a black tea these days.

Mariage Frères and I have not had the best of relationships, so I’m not really sure what compelled me to pick up a 100g tin of this one at a café in Pittsburgh. Perhaps the lure of almond and rose, and perhaps because I remembered Ysaurella’s notes on this one. Although they don’t always agree, our tastes tend to be fairly similar in many cases, so if she liked this one, I wanted to try it.

I have to say that I didn’t realize that this was spiced as well, and initially it was a little disconcerting because the dry leaf almost smelled like Christmas (clove, cinnamon), and I have had little success with teas spiced this way (from any company). However, I should not have worried. This is without a doubt the smoothest, sweetest tea I’ve ever had from MF. And so almondy! That’s what really won me over. The almond is strong and rich, in a slightly marzipan-y way (and not just nutty). The vanilla is creamy and sweet, and combined with the spices it really reminds me of a spiced almond cookie. The spices themselves don’t overtake the rest of the blend (like they so often do). And here we have found a base tea that I truly enjoy (wish I knew what it was, haha!). Smooth, with good body and nicely balanced.

Very glad that I picked this one up (and apparently got it for a steal at $24 when it retails for 25€ on their website).

ETA: I meant to mention that I don’t really get a distinct rose flavor here, which is a little disappointing but the rest of it is so delicious that it doesn’t bother me. I still have Fauchon’s La Naissance for when I want an almond-rose blend.