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2020 Advent Calendar – Day 5. After Ginger Magic, it was lovely to go back to a ginger tea that’s refreshing and delightful! I need to remember to drink this one in the summer. It’s my husband’s favorite so he hides it in his tea drawer so I forget about it during the year :p I might never be a ginger tea person but I really like the combination of lemon ginger and passion fruit. It’s probably the passion fruit that changes the game for me. This tea is fresh and delicate, ad lightly fruity. It’s a delicious cup of tea. I added a squeeze of lemon juice because it’s supposed to helps preserve catechins in green tea, it works beautifully in this tea. Miss Dammann was very much a win.

Advent Calendar – Day 11. Continuing in my attempt to catch up on my advent calendar… I actually own this one and I have been making my way through it for the past year when I went on a green tea rampage in an attempt to switch loving green tea instead of black. It didn’t happen. I still love black tea. But I did find several green teas I fell in love with. I want to love this tea. I do. And every time I reach for it, I hope with all my heart that I will fall in love with it. It just sounds so fun. Apples, bananas, pineapple and lime… what’s not to love? (banana actually :p but let’s forget about that. I don’t mind the banana at all in California) But somehow this combination never works for me. I get green apple and lime in terms of smell, but the tastes are just blah when they’re all blended together. It taste maybe too flat for me. Way less fun than it sounded. Too "green apple’ and less “exotic cocktail” than I keep hoping for. It’s a pass for me, but funnily enough my daughter loves that one.

Advent Calendar – Day 14 Argh, I’m all over the place with this advent calendar. But miraculously, I drank Day 14 on day 14. I liked this one, I just didn’t love it. The toasted wheat and the maple sweetness was still there and maybe a little dried raisins, but barely. All in all, it was a lovely cup so I wouldn’t change my rating, but this time I got more of a slight roasted grain hugged in sweetness. I didn’t get much popcorn this time. Glad I got to taste it again even if it’s won’t make it to my wish list this year.

Advent Calendar – Day 9 Yep, it’s all about the ginger here. And I don’t know if it’s because I add a little stevia to all my tea but this one was also very sweet. Could be the honey; could be the stevia. Either way, it’s just too sweet for me (that’s a first!) and I can recognize that if I liked ginger, I might like it. But alas, I do not so this one is not for me. It’s not “bad” but definitely not something I would ever reach for.

2020 Advent Calendar, Day 3 This is another tea I picked up on my last trip to Paris. It sounded so good with its apples, pears, and mirabelle plums. And it promised some hazelnuts and chestnuts too. But I have been a little back and forth with this one. It is definitely very good, but it’s now “WOW” for me. I love the pears and mirabelles (which I miss so much), but I don’t get much chestnuts, hazelnuts or peach. It’s a little muted maybe? Especially compared to Noel a Venise which is very extroverted (can a tea be extroverted???). And that might be due to the nature of pears and plums, versus lemons. Ultimately, I didn’t end up rebuying it the last time I ordered because there were so many others I wanted to try out. But the calendar prompted me to give it another chance and it was better than I remembered. It’s all about those mirabelles…

2020 Advent Calendar, Day 10 – Oh how I love this one! The lemon, the caramel, the vanilla custard, the pastry… All of it is totally up my alley. Such a delicious dessert tea. Initially, I had bought it for my husband who loves Lemon Meringue Pie. Little did I know that a few months later, I would be one drinking it most of the time. After a few cups, it grew on me and it has become a staple in my stash. That’s one tea that is so easy to give as a gift to anyone with a sweet tooth. A bit like Coquelicot Gourmand or Paul and Virginie. Yum!

Dammann Freres Advent Calendar Day 4 I liked this one! That was my first time trying mate and it was a fun discovery. Loved the almondy cocoa and sort of liked the vegetal part. I couldn’t quite decide how I felt about it to be honest. I’m assuming it was the mate and it worked with the cocoa. But it was definitely present and surprised me at every sip. I definitely enjoyed my cup and would love to try it again but because I love chocolate teas, so I suspect it might not be the one I run to. But on its own, if I don’t compare it to other chocolate options, it was very good.

Our annual Mother Daughter Tea with National Charity League was held virtually this year so we received a little package which included this tea, a honey stick and a few other goodies. The theme of the Tea ceremony this year was “Enchanted Forest” so I can see why this tea made sense. I went in with very low expectations, figuring that if we hated it we could enjoy a second cup along the same theme with Dammann Freres’ 3 Fruits Noirs or 4 Fruits Rouges. But I was wrong! I enjoyed this tea. We both did! We joined the zoom call, tea at the ready and it went down soooo easily that it was gone 15 minutes in. It didn’t resteep well, but it was very good the first time around. The berries came through and I didn’t find it too chemical tasting. The creamy vanilla rounded the flavor nicely. It was like the inside of a raspberry tart you can get in france: fruit forward and a little vanilla from the creme patissieres afterwards.

Day 2 of the 2020 Dammann Freres Advent Calendar. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I want to love it because it looks so pretty and it sounds delicate and lovely, but I can’t make myself fall in love with it. The peach blossom and cherry blossoms are nice, but maybe the whole thing is too light for me. I think it’s one that my daughter who loves floral tea is going to love though as will my husband who loves MF’s Sakura white tea.