Dammann Frères

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92

Ummmmm I was a little skeptical of this one at first because of my love/hate relationship with non-masala chai spiced blends. However, as soon as I smelt this tea in the mug I was in LOVE! It was the perfect mix of spice and syrupy baked apple for me and my tastes!

Flavors: Apple, Cinnamon, Clove, Honey, Pastries, Syrupy

gmathis

That sounds wonderful. Apple is my favorite tea fruit, when it is done properly.

Cameron B.

I might have to trouble you for a sample of this at some point, apparently it’s been 9 years since I last tried it LOL.

thereadersteacup

@Cameron B. On it!!!
and
@ gmathis It’s super delish!

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drank Rooibos de Noël by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

24th and final day of the Dammann Freres advent calendar, finishing only nine months late! I appreciate that they wanted to end with one that’s on theme, and I appreciate that it’s an herbal so I didn’t have to worry about what time of day I drank it or whether I’d already had caffeine. As for the taste itself, though… I don’t know why but it didn’t taste like what it’s supposed to for me. I tasted the woodsy rooibos, a touch of bite from the ginger, and oddly enough cherry and marzipan reminiscent of the Christmas Tea Blanc. But there’s not actually any almond flavor in here, and I didn’t get any of the pepper or orange in the taste. I did get the orange in the dry leaf aroma, but somehow it didn’t transfer into the mug. Overall a bit of an uneventful blend to end on. I didn’t hate it, I just wasn’t too enthused about it.

I’m glad that I tried this calendar but I won’t be ordering it again. The packaging is absolutely gorgeous; I’m definitely going to turn it into gift tags for this year’s holidays. But the teas themselves lean heavily on a black tea base that I don’t love and they tend to favor bergamot, which I also don’t love. I noticed when I was posting tasting notes that a lot of these blends reappear in the advent calendar every year, which makes sense but is also a good indicator that I can expect the same pattern to repeat in the future. So this one is lovely but just not for me. I did really like a lot of the herbal blends, though, so I’ll be filing that info away.

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90

Day 23 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar. This one is so fun! It’s an herbal, but with a relatively unusual oat base. I would happily drink more of this, hot or cold. The oat is really cozy, the raspberry is sweet and gently tart, and there’s just an overall softness to the flavor that makes it go down oh-so-smoothly. I’d say this is one of the highlights of the whole calendar and easily one of my favorites.

Cameron B.

The caramel version is also delicious!

Kaylee

Ooh that sounds wonderful!

Cameron B.

I can send you a sample if you want! :)

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74
drank Tourbillon by Dammann Frères
2279 tasting notes

Thanks to Cameron B for sharing this tea! I didn’t know what flavor it was supposed to be, and I would have guessed grape? Apparently it’s actually supposed to be chestnut/caramel? The black tea is pretty smooth, just not my favorite sort of flavor profile.

Cameron B.

This one had such a strong orange blossom flavor to me!

AJRimmer

That makes sense too! It was something floral-ish!

Cameron B.

It made me so sad because I was expecting chestnut, biscuit, and caramel. :|

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drank Pomme d'Amour by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

Day 22 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar. This doesn’t taste bad, per se, but the dry leaf definitely smells better (or at least more interesting) than the brewed tea tastes. The dry leaf smells very clearly of candy apple and maraschino cherry. I so wish that those flavors had translated more clearly into the brew itself! This uses the same black tea base as so many of the other flavored black teas in this advent calendar. It’s a bit dry, a bit malty, and rather reminds me of black bread. It also dominates the sip. The caramel apple and maraschino cherry flavors show up delicately, mostly at the end of the sip. I know that’s the thing with a lot of French teas, for the flavoring to be very delicate, but I find that frustrating when the base tea being used is the same one over and over again. Maybe if it was a base that I really loved, I’d be more open to it, but DF’s standard black tea base unfortunately just isn’t that.

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drank Cassis Menthe by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

Day 21 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar. An herbal, yay! I’m getting plenty of sweet, juicy, tart hibiscus and berry, but not any of the titular mint. Which is fine, it’s still tasty. And it’s good hot and cold. I added seltzer to the last bit of it and it made for a nice tea soda, so bonus points there.

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drank Joli Cœur by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

Day 20 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar and it’s more bergamot! If you like bergamot, oh boy, is the Dammann Freres catalogue for you. I, alas, generally do not. I was happy to see another green tea, but the hopefulness that struck in me was significantly dampened by the strong aroma of bergamot as soon as I opened the packet. The bergamot definitely translates to the flavor, but thankfully there are also some other, pleasant notes: peach or apricot, and maybe a hint of cream or vanilla. But really that bergamot is overwhelming.

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Wrote this up a couple of months ago but never posted it!

Day 19 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar. One nice thing about finishing this advent calendar so late is that I feel like a lot of these fruity teas are better suited for hot weather. This one, for example, begs to be tried iced, but I wouldn’t have done that in December. The dry leaf smells like fruit salad! Kiwi, apricot (or possibly the combo of mango and bergamot if experience with DF’s Bella Blanca is any guide), and something else I can’t place. Looking at the ingredients list, it’s kiwi, orange blossom, violet, bergamot, and peach. So my sense of smell clearly still isn’t 100% where it was before this latest bout of covid, and/or has trouble distinguishing between their yellow/orange stone fruit flavorings. Nonetheless, onwards to the tasting!

Mostly I taste kiwi, stone fruit, and bergamot. As it cools, the bergamot gets even stronger, which… why?! Either the bergamot is too heavy-handed or I’m really sensitive to it. I keep thinking the base tea is chun mee, but I don’t really know that or have any specific basis for believing it, just some little signal in my brain that keeps wanting to label it that – even though I haven’t had chun mee in years!

Courtney

Hopefully your smell is back at 100% soon!

Kaylee

Thanks! It’s doing much better now – when I wrote this, I was just a couple of months after my second bout with covid. It took a while for my sense of smell to recover and it’s probably still not FULLY back to the sensitive baseline it had been before but it’s pretty close now!

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80
drank Bella Blanca by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

Day 18 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar. I was excited to see a white tea in here! This brews up a nice amber color. The dry leaf smells clearly of apricot, bergamot, and almond. The apricot and bergamot flavors are both pretty strong and balance each other nicely, though the overall impression is a touch more tart than I’d like. I think I’d be ok with it if it wasn’t also so drying; tart plus drying doesn’t leave the most delightful after-sensation. No idea where that almond went to!

I’m looking at the ingredients list now and it shows mango, not apricot. I had apricots for breakfast this morning (several hours ago), so that flavor is very fresh in my mind, and this still reads closer to apricot than mango for me. If I had to guess, I’d guess that my brain is reading the combination of the sweetness of the mango flavoring and the tartness of the bergamot flavoring as a tarter stone fruit. 

I iced the second steep and had it a couple of days later. When I came back to this tasting note to add details from that steep before posting, I was surprised to see how consistent the experience was. That iced steep also had a tart stone fruit flavor. Not overly sweet, but definitely fruity. What did come through in the second steep that I didn’t find much in the first was a slight floral note.

Disappointingly, I didn’t get much from the base tea here, besides that drying sensation and light-to-medium body. To the blend’s credit, the base doesn’t clash with the flavorings, and perhaps is supporting them so seamlessly that I just can’t tell. But after so so many black tea blends, I was hoping for a white tea that would really wow me. This is tasty enough but I’m not floored, you know?

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drank Earl Grey Fleurs by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

Day 17 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar and it’s yet. another. bergamot blend on the same. black. base. Even though I am generally not a fan of Earl Grey and was dreading this one, I actually found it pretty enjoyable today. THIS bergamot with THIS base, today, is working for me. Possibly because it also isn’t muddled with a bunch of other flavors, so I don’t feel resentful that the bergamot is stealing the show. Here, I can appreciate the balance between the bergamot and the base, and that the bergamot doesn’t have that weird chemical-y taste that it sometimes can. 

ETA: Since it was late in the day, I had to stick half this mug in the fridge for the next day. Surprisingly, this is really good cold! 

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Day 16 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar. I’m afraid my notes on this one are a little sparse, unfortunately. Hot, the most prominent notes were cherry and cranberry. I couldn’t taste the lemon so much as feel an acidic citrus juiciness at the end of the sip. I quickly decided that this would be better iced and let it cool/stuck it in the fridge. But then I drank it during a busy workday and forgot to take notes! I remember enjoying it. I definitely thought it was better iced than hot. But nothing sticks out in my memory as to particular tasting notes, or thinking “wow this is really good,” or even “wow this is really bad.” It did the trick, it was kinda different than what I normally drink which made it fun, but it ultimately just wasn’t super memorable.

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95
drank Tisane de Noël by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

Yay, Steepster is back!

Day 15 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar, and one of my favorites so far! Not because I can make out all of the ingredients in the brew, but because the overall effect is pitch-perfect. It’s got a strong cocoa flavor, like a robust cacao tea. The cinnamon here is dialed in at just the right ratio: definitely present and noticeable, thereby making the brew more robust, but still playing a supporting role and not overwhelming the whole thing. I got two good steeps out of this blend. This is one of the few days in this advent I’ve really wished for more of the blend.

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drank Grand Goût Russe by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

Day 14 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar. This is… fine? It’s an Earl Grey with a lime twist. I’m not a big fan of Earl Grey generally, which means I don’t have a great sense for what differentiates a mediocre Earl Grey from an exceptional one. The bergamot and lime citrus are assertive but don’t totally overwhelm the brisk base. There’s nothing in here that tastes off or alcoholic to me. The bergamot hits first, followed by the lime, but the lime is definitely present and works well with the other flavors. I just fundamentally don’t enjoy the bergamot + black tea combo inherent to most Earl Grey blends, so it’s hard to enjoy this one.

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85
drank Camomille Sauge by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

I’m already a bit behind on Sipdown September, but going to do my best to catch up. My goal for the month includes finishing off everything I have left from last year’s advent calendars! I definitely ordered way too many and won’t make that mistake again this year.
This is Day 13 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar. For some reason I thought this was their regular chamomile tea, which I quite enjoy. Looking at it in my steeper, it’s actually a blend, which I would have realized if I had paid attention to the whole name and not just the first word. The chamomile in this is beautiful: big, plump, bright yellow flowers to make you think of spring and happiness. The dry leaf smells of sweet chamomile and an earthy note. In the brew, that translates to a floral chamomile, a hint of sharpness, and an earthy herbal note. It’s interesting to me that apple pieces are literally an ingredient here, but I’m still finding this to be a more floral than apple-y chamomile. Overall, one of my favorites from this advent calendar so far.

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70

Sipdown! (27 | 388)

So lately I’ve been panicking and trying to get in more sipdowns, because of the amount of tea that has come in lately… Oops? Been on a bit of an Old Barrel Tea Co kick, and then there was the 700g of tea that I got with my Compagnie & Co advent. XP

I purchased this one from Dammann without trying it, and found it quite underwhelming. I love maté, and that part of it is tasty enough, quite smooth with a subtle sweetness and mellow earthy-grassy flavor. But the clementine actually tastes a bit like a Vitamin C chewable to me, it has that very sharp sort of tart orange-y flavor to it. And I guess to me, the two flavors just don’t meld together all that well? It’s not bad per se, just meh?

A shame, because I found out shortly after, in the advent last year, that I actually really love their Maté Citron Cerise, and should’ve gotten that one instead. Oops ha ha. Next time!

Flavors: Acidic, Artificial, Candy, Dry Grass, Earthy, Honey, Orange, Smooth, Sweet, Tangerine, Tangy, Tart

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML
Michelle

Old Barrel is good stuff, they all sound delicious, and most live up to the hype. I wish they had sample sizes though.

Cameron B.

Yeah, it is a bit of an investment, and I find it weird that they don’t even offer refills for the tins. But I’ve loved many of their teas!

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70

ashmanra’s Sipdown Challenge – “A tea with orange flavor”

A new month brings a new set of sipdown challenges! Going to try to use these prompts to steep up some teas that I either haven’t tried, haven’t written about, or just haven’t sipped in a long time.

Okay, technically this tea has clementine flavor, but I’m calling that close enough. :P This one is a bit disappointing to me, if I’m honest. It’s from my last Dammann order, which was in the fall of last year sometime, mostly made to get their advent calendar, but of course several teas tagged along. I wanted to try one of their flavored yerba matés (and by “try”, I mean order 100 grams because that’s the only option with Dammann), so I waffled between this one and Citron Cerise, and ended up deciding on this tea. Of course, I ended up trying and loving Citron Cerise in the advent…

Anyway, it’s not that this is a bad tea. It has a very prominent green yerba maté flavor to it, herbaceous and woody and slightly smoky. And I like yerba maté, so I do enjoy it. I just feel like the clementine takes such a backseat that it ends up being in more of a supporting role, rather than the star flavor. It does add a nice sweet, citrusy brightness to the blend, I’m just left wanting more of it.

Maybe next time I’ll try a shorter steep, or even try this cold steeped to see if it brings out more clementine zing.

P.S. – Dammann’s new website is gorgeous! And love the changes like displaying a short description of each tea’s flavors in the grid, and showing the ingredients on the product pages.

Flavors: Citrus, Citrus Zest, Hay, Herbaceous, Mandarin, Mineral, Raisins, Smoke, Smooth, Sweet, Tangerine, Woody

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML
ashmanra

That’s a good idea! I wanted to try a new advent this year and that would be a good way to justify it – add in some old favorites. I actually put “orange”, backspaced and put “any citrus” and went back to “orange.”

Courtney

I’ve never actually used these prompts, but I think it would be a good idea for me to get through some teas I never/rarely reach for!

ashmanra

I didn’t think I had any teas with orange left and found two tonight, so the prompts help me to rediscover blends that don’t have as much attention.

Courtney

I love that! I really try to keep 60 teas or less, but one can still lose teas with that number, so this is very helpful!

Cameron B.

I’m in a perpetual state of sipdown, which sort of narrows the range of teas I let myself drink. So this is a nice way to step outside that range every so often! :)

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Dammann Freres advent calendar day 12. After the terrible experience I had with Christmas Tea Vert, I was filled with dread about this one. Opening it up, though, I was encouraged to find that the dry leaf didn’t smell like bubblegum. Instead, it smells like sweet cherry, marzipan, and a hint of ginger. So, ok, maybe the brew won’t taste horrible!

It’s better than the vert, for sure, but I can’t say that I really like it. It doesn’t taste like bubblegum, which is a massive point in its favor. But it has a very strong maraschino cherry flavor, with a hint of marzipan in the background and a gentle whisper of ginger coming in on the back end. Somehow the mix of the cherry and marzipan also makes me think there’s orange in here, even though the ingredients say there isn’t. Somehow, I just don’t like this. I can’t quite place my finger on why, even – I don’t like cherries but I do like maraschino cherries and Shirley Temples. This just super isn’t working for me as a hot drink. I’m letting it cool to see if it’s more enjoyable cold.

[hours later]
I let this cool and topped it off with seltzer for a tea soda, which definitely made it more palatable for me – enjoyable, even. The sweetness of this particular cherry flavoring makes for a good soda flavoring, and works well for a cool refresher. Very much the opposite of a northern hemisphere Christmas vibe, but c’est la vie. I’m going to cold brew the second steep of this for another tea soda.

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55

Dammann Freres advent calendar day 11. Day 10 has gone missing! I have searched high and low to no avail. I don’t know whether I drank it and forgot to take notes, moved the teabag for some reason, or the bag has gotten lost inside the calendar. It definitely makes the part of my brain that needs to do things in order feel itchy, but I’m trying to just accept that I might never find it and move on. 

As soon as I opened the packet for this blend, Day 11, there was a strong whiff of almond-y alcohol. The teabag itself smelled nicely of almond and soft vanilla, so I still had high hopes for this when I brewed it up in a spacious mug. It does taste like almond, with a nice lingering vanilla note. However, there’s a jarring alcohol aspect with that almond that just throws the whole thing off for me. Which is a bummer. because these are flavors I really enjoy otherwise.

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drank Lassi Mango by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

Another old note I haven’t posted, for Day 9 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar that I’m taking a very long time to finish. Yet another black tea from this advent. The dry leaf smells delectably like juicy mango, vanilla, and cream. It’s been a long time since I’ve had lassi so I can’t speak to how accurate the flavor is to its namesake. The beginning of the sip features the dry, woody, almost cinnamony base. A gently juicy mango flavor comes in mid-sip. Unfortunately, I can’t detect any vanilla or cream notes. I hoped that would change as the tea cooled, but it didn’t. The base stayed prominent, the mango got a little juicier, and I suppose if I thoroughly stretched the imagination I could find a creamy note, but not really. I had high hopes for this one based off the scent of the dry leaf, but it just didn’t carry over into the cup.

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95
drank Jardin Bleu by Dammann Frères
1145 tasting notes

This tasting note for Dammann Freres’ advent calendar day 8 has been sitting in my drafts for months but I never posted it. This blend is delicious! It tastes like wild strawberry jam, or a high quality strawberry gummy. I am getting tired of the Dammann Freres advent having so many black teas, but it’s a good base here since it seems to have a caramel or brown sugar aspect to it. I made the first steep hot and the second as an overnight cold steep. Both were fantastic.

AJRimmer

Ha I have 30+ notes in my drafts that I’m gradually editing and will eventually post…I should probably do that :P

ashmanra

I agree with you – this tea is so delicious!

Kaylee

Thanks for the validation AJ!

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No. Just no. This is day 7 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar (I’m suuuuper behind but hoping to finish it off in the next month or so). I just really didn’t like this one. It smells and tastes like Bazooka Joe bubble gum, which is not a profile that I ever expected, wanted, or, as it turns out, enjoyed in a tea. One of the rare teas I couldn’t even bring myself to finish.

Flavors: Bubblegum

ashmanra

Those are flavors I would never have expected in a Christmas tea!

Cameron B.

Lol a few of their teas taste like bubblegum to me too, and this is one of them. :P

Kaylee

So good to know I’m not alone! Day 10 has mysteriously disappeared from my advent calendar. Since that’s the black Christmas Tea though, I’m not sure I’m missing much? It’s bugging me because I don’t want to go out of order or have to skip a day, but I don’t feel especially distraught about the specific blend that I might not get to try.

Cameron B.

I actually like their regular Christmas Tea, it’s more fruity than anything which is unusual. I know with my advent last year, some of the sachets slipped out of their spots and I had to go hunting for them in lower slots. Does kind of spoil the surprise though lol.

Kaylee

Thanks for the tip, I’ll do some extra digging!

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drank Mangoustan by Dammann Frères
2170 tasting notes

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drank Pecan Pie by Dammann Frères
3219 tasting notes

This tea smells delightful. I have mainly had it at breakfast but I drank it all by its lonesome once. The black base is a little brisk, so really good with food. It has that nice raspiness I fond in a lot of Keemun tea.

This does not smell like pecan pie however. At least, not like a Southern pecan pie. Maybe in Europe they make an entirely different type but I have never had one with almond extract in it and that is what this tea is redolent of. It is nutty and delicious and I agree with those noted that it tastes a lot like marzipan. And I don’t even know if I have ever tasted marzipan…but I am sure this is what it would taste like. Now I need to go buy some marzipan.

Anyway, this is a sipdown. A good tea, I wouldn’t turn it down, but don’t know if it would be critical to repurchase. It would be a very pleasant visitor to the tea shelf now and then, even if not a shelf staple.

tea-sipper

I agree with your entire note about this tea!

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It was a hot day but all evening I have felt chilly in the air conditioning. I don’t want to change the setting since Ashman was working outside a great deal and no doubt was roasting. So I will have hot tea and put on thick socks instead!

It is late so I have to drink something without caffeine and I remembered I had this little sample. I don’t like hibiscus except with loooooooots of sugar, but I gave this a go without additions. I was eating a Milka Kuhflecken candy bar so that took a little of the tart edge off.

This smells pretty good, and the hibiscus is not the tartest I have ever had. The other ingredients must be reining it in a little. Although this is not something I would seek out for a hot tea, I bet it makes a really good sweet iced tea. And it did the job tonight because I am no longer shivering in my socks.

There is a bit of a tropical vibe here, and I like what I can summon of the apple flavor.

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