91

I try to live my life with no regrets, that being said, I regret not having purchased this tea. I love this tea! Ricky thank you so much! I have experimented with a few different infusion times, so bare with me.

The tea leaves smell delicious, slightly sweetened, smokey, with a slight earthy note. The first time I had it I did a strong brew. Hot, no additives, five minutes. The liquor is very dark, brassy color. The tea tasted smokey and earthy up front, which mellowed into a sweeter, richer tea. Absolutely delicious.

I was able to get three more infusions out of this spoonful of tea. Brew times lessened to keep similar flavor without a burnt, overdone flavor. 4 minutes. 3 minutes. 3 minutes. 2.5 minutes. The liquor color remained roughly the same, the flavors did not intensify or stifle out, each infusion had a new balance of flavor. There was shifting in the front-runner flavor between the smokey and the earthy, but it was always followed by the sweet, strong mouth-feel of the caramel note.

I decided I would write my rating today, so one more spoonful, three more infusions.

First infusion, hot, no additives, 3 minutes. Though the tea is still rich, the earthy flavor is lesser and the smokey flavor is a little more prevalent with a lesser brew time. This alteration in flavor does not hinder the sweet caramel flavor that this tea follows up with. The second infusion (3 minutes) I think added a little more of the earthy-ness and less of the smokey (in comparison to the previous infusion of these leaves). The final infusion (3 minutes) yielded a taste sensation similar to the first time I had it with a five minute infusion: balanced smokey and earthy notes with a sweet rich tea with a stronger mouth-feel than expected.

I have one more spoonful left, I am saving it for a special occasion. Again, Ricky, I cannot fully express my gratitude, thank you, this tea was fantastic!

Preparation
3 min, 0 sec
Ricky

Welcome! There will always be next year for some delicious Andrews & Dunham tea =]

The problem with tea is that you can’t hold on to it forever :(

Cinoi

I know :(

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Ricky

Welcome! There will always be next year for some delicious Andrews & Dunham tea =]

The problem with tea is that you can’t hold on to it forever :(

Cinoi

I know :(

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Bio

I am a sarcastic perfectionist, a computer nerd, a game geek, an avid reader, a gadget guru, a wine (and tea) enthusiast, and (in my spare time) a chemist.

As I mentioned, I am a chemist, research and development to be exact, so when evaluating tea, it is much like evaluating my products: I will find the flaws and do my very best to fix them because it is what I love to do. Along those lines, nothing is perfect, but can have perfect qualities, I will highlight those also.

I made a preliminary guide to my rating scale:
0-19 – Did not like anything about the tea, feel it cannot be saved without being reformulated.
20-40 – Did not like the tea, it can be saved with extreme amounts of tweaking (i.e., sugar, milk, honey and or blending with another tea)
41-60 – Neutral about the tea, it can be helped or hurt by additives or blends, varied temperatures and steep times
61-70 – Decent tea, needs a little bit of help to get it in the place I like it, but definitely not out of reach
71-80 – Quality tea, liked it, will try again
81-90 – Really enjoyed the tea, high quality, will continue to drink the tea, not looking for something better
91-100 – Loved the tea, will continue to brew and drink and spread the word about the tea to everyone

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NJ

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