Pomme d'Amour

Today the weather is cloudy, rainy in Paris. Rain is the Automn’s side I don’t like. I was looking for some solace…

I found Pomme d’amour…Toffee apple in English ? The kind of sweet things we can buy in carnival. Let’s go for joy !
On the other hand, each time I see a Pomme d’amour…I think about Snow-White and the very red apple…as attractive as poisoned…

So verdict : Pomme d’amour is a joyful poison (addictive poison !)

To me this tea is closer to oven-baked caramelized apples than Toffee apples – it is really fruity and sweet but natural.

The dry leaf is amazing : very very dry and shinning.
Dammann is generous, a lot of petals and big pieces of apples are mixed with it. The smell is just fantastic.

The color of the infusion is really beautiful and the mix of the 2 black teas (Ceylan + china) is a perfect base to reveal all the flavours , so sweet but always natural.

I love it ! Sure it is a great antidote to the gloom of the Rain.

Thank you so much Ysaurella for this surprise sample!

Once upon a time, there was a Fairy who had given up on Apple tea… She thought she could never find an apple tea that could meet her requirements and expectations.

What she had always longed for, was a tea that could reproduce the juicy and delicious taste of apples, without the company of the harmful Wicked Army of Additives! The WAA had terrorized the world of tea for centuries and was the main cause of discord between tea and flavour.

What she wanted seemed so simple: an apple tea that would simply taste like… APPLES!

Just as the Fairy had finally resigned on the idea, Princess Ysaurella from the heights of her French Kingdom, decided it would be otherwise. The injustice had to stop!

Apple tea should take its place in the wonderful world of Fairies and no longer be a forbidden tea!

From the other side of the ocean, she did everything possible to arrange safe transportation for Pomme d’Amour, and it quickly reached destination to the Fairy.

When the Fairy examined the offering, she remained skeptical: how could a spell that was there for so long could be lifted so easily? How could the WAA be defeated so easily?

As she had nothing to lose, she focused her attention on the infused elixir’s aroma…Oh, the scent of fresh apples! Was it possible? She cautiously moved to the next step and tasted.

Awww … divine potion that finally valued the Apple as the Queen of fruit she really was, allowing her to shine in her beautiful black China-Ceylon robe, without any unnecessary garments such as cinnamon, cake or pie flavours! Just the right amount of sweet and juicy apple taste!

It goes to say that without Princess Ysaurella reconciliation could not have taken place! The WAA was put to rest, and all the Fairies lived happily ever after, sipping their Apple tea.

The End. Thank you Princess :-)

This sounds so irresistible. French caramel apples in tea. I never had any caramel apple, ever, but that just made it much more appealing – it was the idea of it, caramel and apple, oh yay. It really was something I wanted to try, particularly since I have recently been impressed by the first Dammann tea I tried (Paul et Virginie, that was). So when Ysaurella so kindly shared this with me, yay, thank you so much again Ysaurella!

I could not resist trying this before getting really better from the cold I had, so my first teapot was not really a fair trial (a waste, but could not resist). And here goes my second attempt – I was distracted by something else and brew it just a smidgeon too long. No harm done, still extremely drinkable, just adding the data point that it´s probably much better with shorter steep times.

The dry leaf smells totally divine – not like apple nor caramel, but some indescritable blend, fruity and spicy and yes caramelley. The liquor smells and tastes differently. Like apples yes, and this tea left me quite baffled. I think part of the problem is that never having any caramel apple I did not know what to expect. For example, yesterday I tried another marvelous sample from Ysaurella, Rouge d´Automne which tastes wonderfully of marrons glacés – which taste very differently from any other dish of chestnuts! If I had never had had marrons glacés I think I would not have known what to make of that taste. And I get this feeling from Pomme D´Amour, like I can not recognize what it is about. It is very nice indeed, but a stranger somehow!

I didn’t select this tea specifically for today, as I chose it randomly from the teas that I have from Dammann Freres (thank you Doulton!), but it is perfect for today, as it is cloudy/overcast, and may actually rain! It’s definitely telling me that autumn is on its way. YAY! (For autumn IS my favorite season)

The flavor here is apple – much like baked apples. Sweet! Delicious. I like this tea very much. The black tea base is smooth and rich but not particularly brisk. A very relaxing black tea.

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp
Water: 2 zarafina cups filtered
Tool: Zarafina black-loose-medium
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: apple, spice, black tea, sweetness
Steeped Tea Smell: caramel, apple, spice, maybe cherry
Flavor: black tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: bitter
Liquor: translucent dark reddish-brown

I did something wrong, the tea smells fabulous, but is weak and a bit bitter. I think I need more leaf, and less time?

On the other hand both the tea and leaf smell so fabulous I am happy to just sit here and sniff….

Post-Steep Additives: none

Resteep: zarafina 1 c, same 2 tsp, black-loose-medium
stronger body, astringent, less bitter, black tea, hints of apple and spice

Next time 2 tsp / cup and some sugar

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/dammann-freres-loose-leaf-black-tea.html

My second tasting from the nice samples provided by Ysaurella…
The weather is hot and sunny; the clouds and rain should only come later in the day. However I felt like having comfort food today to make up for my almost gone cold and for the absence of Hubby.
Pomme d’Amour smelled like the perfect antidote to any gloominess.
I was afraid to have left it steeping a bit too long, as I’m not sure I was not on the wrong side of 5 minutes, and that I had put too much of it, as it had really swelled inside my strainer. The little apple pieces in particular had especially filled out.
The color was a nice caramel honey; the smell very sweet and candy-like.
Then I sipped and was relieved not to find any hint of bitterness. My first surprise was that the caramel taste was lighter than I expected, but fortunately tasted like home-made caramel and not like the fake-caramel flavor which is often used in industrial foods and beverages, especially herbal-dust in bags heavily laden with artificial coloring and flavoring that is sold in most supermarkets.
The tea base seems really nice. Pomme d’Amour tea has the very natural taste of real fruit heavily dipped and cooked in sugar. This is undeniably a very high quality product.
I have to confess that I have only one bit of a toffee apple once in my life, many many years ago. My cousin who had shared a part of her delicacy with me was not very happy when I told her I did not like it very much, as it was too sweet and sugary; and that’s about the only recollection I have of it.
I am not the biggest fan of desserts, especially cakes, and am really quite picky about those; however a good Tarte Tatin is among my favorites. So I tried to find out what differences there were between Pomme d’Amour tea with what I love about apple cakes and Tarte Tatin. I came out with those findings:
- I usually like the apples to be a bit tangy, as the fruit tanginess complements the sugar-butter caramel better;
- I also much prefer when the cake is prepared with salted butter, especially crystal salt. To my opinion, the twist added by the salt make all the flavors stand out.
Of course, this tea did not promise to be “Tarte Tatin” flavored, but Pomme d’Amour and I believe the promise to be perfectly met.
If you have a very sweet-tooth, it should be a bullseye hit.
If you have more of a sweet and sour tooth, it might not be so convincing.

I’ll drink a second batch of this tea with great pleasure (and the first one did not linger long in my pot), however I know that I will not buy it, as I probably would not finish the batch, and that I have to be careful selecting candy-sweet flavored teas.