Dammann Frères

October Sipdown Challenge – a tea that makes you feel posh

This is one of the first teas I ever got in a swap, and is probably the first French tea I ever tried. The flavoring was also the most exotic I had tried at that point. When I raved about it all those years ago, Superanna was quietly taking notes and ordered a tin and a few others from Dammann as a surprise for me, probably at Christmas.

This batch came from Youngest who went to Paris a few months ago and offered to pick up tea for me! This is one I specifically asked for but there were several others as well added to my cupboard as a gift, too. Oh, I think I also requested Miss Dammann by name and have already finished all of that one. In fact, this is probably the only tea I have left from that batch but that is because there was the most of it plus I am hoarding it.

This is as delicious and delightful as I remember from twelve years ago when I first had it. How, how, how do they get the “biscuit” flavor so perfect? This tea drips sophistication. There is no bitterness. The base is full bodied. The almond is perfection – not too sharp and candy-like but warm and lovely. I am enjoying it with toast accompanied by the forbidden Fortnum “Shingo Okada Blood Orange With Orange Liquer Marmalade – Medium Cut.”

As my dear father used to say…”That’s fittin’!”

Many thanks to Youngest!

Day Two of the birthday celebrations: fudge pie with fresh strawberries and this aromatic tea which was a Christmas gift from my oldest daughter. (Said daughter has advised me that my birthday gift from her will be two Dammann Freres teas that she selected, but I have to wait until she gets back from Europe. Eeeee!)

This is beautiful to look at, intoxicating to smell, and delicious to taste. There is definitely a biscuit aroma and taste, not biscuit as in sweet cookie, but biscuit as in bready, lovely, fresh baked biscuit.
The tea base is not as strong as the one they use for their chocolate tea, and I love that they have matched their bases to the flavorings better than many companies do.

This was our third tea at tea time today with my friend and daughters. What a heavenly aroma! I chose this special tea to celebrate the end of JURY DUTY! Hooray! I am not complaining that I got called up. I feel blessed to live in a country where trial by jury is our right. BUT, this week? Really? LOL! Three puppies getting fixed, daughter leaving for Europe, need to go out of town twice, and throw in a couple of days at the courthouse plus my music students. WOW!

So the end of my jury duty was call for celebration! Since I am done, I now get to go along to drive daughter to the airport, the daughter who bought me this tea and has more DF tea waiting for me in N. Ireland, to be brought home to me when she returns. EEEEE!

Delicious! Aromatic! Smooth and lovely base. Yum.

My oldest daughter bought me this tea for Christmas, along with Charlotte Au Chocolat. There were three samples in the box as well. I am not sure if they were ordered or are compliments of Dammann Freres. The bottom line…this tea was worth waiting for. It is smooth and delicious, refined and artfully blended.

The dry leaves are beautiful with the blue flower petals and poppies. The aroma is so nice. This is magnificent tea. It must be for me to break down and make a cup at two in the morning…

Oh, Meghann, what have you done, sending me another French tea to fall in love with?

I had a rough morning. Rough. I needed something special. Came home after lunch and made this. Ahhhhh. This is elegance in a cup. So much flavor, none of it overpowering. At first I thought, “BISCUIT FLAVOR? Are they kidding?” But this was sweet, good, had lovely body, and oh my the flavors are beautifully blended. I drank the whole 22 oz pot by myself. Sigh. I melt into a happy puddle. Thank you, Meghann. Thank you, Dammann Freres.

Thank you to Meghann for this one! I don’t usually drink tea this late at night unless it is decaf, but I couldn’t wait to try one of my new teas that arrived today.

First on my list was Nuit A Versailles. The aroma is heavenly. This is a lovely green tea, lightly buttery-flavored and oh! the goodies they have blended with it! I don’t taste the bergamot as bergamot – this tea is far too delicate for that. And having had lavender tea that tried to hurt me, and Parma Violets candy from Ireland that tasted like I was eating a WHOLE field of flowers, I could have been afraid to try this. But I know the French do flavored teas so well, and they didn’t let us down here.

Want to feel rich and pampered? Get out your favorite pretty cup, make this tea, and sniff sniff sniff. Then slowly sip and enjoy, but don’t stop letting this aroma work its wonders on you. This is a five star flavored green.

I made some of this to take to class tonight (thank you Doulton!). I used my new Liquid Solution travel tumbler, and…the brew basket is the worst! Leaves floating in my tea! I had to restrain it with my fine mesh strainer, and put it back in the tumbler. This will not bode well for keeping my tea hot, methinks.

I did take a little sip and I unfortunately did not use enough leaf. I taste some sweet, yummy flavors, but they are too faint. My tea is weak to boot. Oy – tea fail! I will update this log later once I drink my tea during my three hour class…stay tuned!

EDIT: When I started sipping my tea in class – it tasted like Scotch and water! How strange is that?! It was also lukewarm. I hate my travel tea tumbler – it does not keep things warm very long, the brew basket is a joke, and it is also so unpleasant to drink from with all the plastic :( I think I am going to host a giveaway on discussions since it was only used once. The tumbler and a few teas…

I made a small pot of this for breakfast today on my special day off from almost everything! It is very refined with a little bit of edge to make it super for breakfast and getting your eyes open, while still being very flavorful and satisfying without milk and sugar. I have fond memories of this tea, as it was one of my first really nice teas and the first time I drank it was my very first swap, which happened to be with teaequaksbliss, who sent me more tea than I knew existed.

I still love this one, but my friend who had tea with me today wasn’t crazy about it at first. It is a slightly more assertive, slightly dry base and she isn’t accustomed to that. I noticed how smooth and sweet this tasted when I had a bite of cream puff first, so I suggested that she add a wee bit of White Gold Honey and some milk to smooth out the base for her.

Once she did that, she warmed up to this tea and said that it now tasted like a delicious dessert. Next time, I will serve Coquelicot Gourmand with its smoother base so she can enjoy her tea without additions.

Her favorite tea of the day was Fruits d’Alsace, iced!

Having reviewed this tea three times already from the sample sent by JacquelineM long ago, I am delighted to click the “In My Cupboard” on this one! My daughter just got home from Europe and brought me LOTS of tea!

I steeped this at 195 F for 4 minutes. I didn’t pick up any bitterness. The aroma is like fine French perfume, but not in an off putting way. I don’t want soapy tasting tea! This is an elegant tasting tea. Truly pampering!

I was tres chic today at tea time in my new alpaca lace scarf gifted me by JacquelineM and made with her own two hands! She also furnished the best two teas at the table. Thank you! You are a wonder!
We were only supposed to have two teas today, but since we were still chatting and there were cookies and Aero chocolates left, I couldn’t stand it! We just had to make another pot of tea. The aroma is arresting. I read once that the French teas are so good because the French are master perfumers, and they use that blending expertise to make teas that make your mouth water. There was a lot of oohing and ahhing over this tea. The fresh fig gives a warm cozy feel while the orange peel gives a bright note and the nutmeg teases you from the background. Aaaaaah. I didn’t know if it would go well with food, but the pretzel sticks and chocolate covered cookies were not at all affronted. Delightful tea!

I had to wonder if this tea was really as good as I thought, or if it was just my imagination on that first cup, so tonight I had another. Not my imagination! This tea is so flavorful! It has depth and richness, with the fig lending warmth, the nutmeg adding interest, and the many other ingredients making your mouth SING! It is THAT good. I must get more! No additions – this one is too too good as is!

Thank you, JacquelineM! This was delightful! After having quite a day, I needed a good cuppa! There are so many flavors in here to experience, I can’t wait to drink it again. It is like meeting a really interesting person and knowing when you leave them that you haven’t heard even the half of it and you can’t wait to see them again. This one will tease me until I drink it a time or two more and really figure all those flavors. It doesn’t get muddy or dark, just so so smooth and flavorful. No additions – this was great plain.

Backlogging Thanks Teaequalsbliss for including this. This smells like black tea apple cinnamon and some lemon. I steeped this up and I can taste the black tea the apple the cinnamon and abit of lemon could not taste the caramel though. but I think this is a pretty good tea.

I can clearly see all of the ingredients. Dry it smells like passionfruit and green tea. I steeped it up. This tastes like passionfruit with abit of peach and green tea. This is good not too tart but natural tasting and the green tea is not hitting me too strongly luckily.

I can agree with Lori’s tasting notes. This tea is very light in flavor, the smell of the dry leaf mix is heavenly very soft like a potpourri smell but not like yucky potpourri like a peach potpourri. Which makes since because the ingredients read green tea, passion fruit, bush peach and wild strawberry, pineapple bits and cornflower petals. It’s quite beautiful to look at. The taste is mildly astringent and while I do pick up on the fruit I think I mostly pick up on the peach and passionfruit I will have to try making this a few more times to see if I pick up on the pineapple which is what I really want to taste in here. Not bad wouldn’t buy the again but I don’t totally hate it. I LOVE the tin though:)

sipdown! (239) Another one from my swap with shmiracles and i have to say this one has grown on me the second time around. Bumping up the rating a little as i’m enjoying it tonight. being oolong it’ll never be my favourite but this is another that i would drink from time to time when i was crazing that green taste :)

thank you shmiracles! this was a tea i wasn’t expecting to like, as it’s a green oolong. So i’ve been putting it off until today. I had the tea earlier today that had osmanthe in it…so i figured today was a good enough day to try this.

Overall impression? Not too shabby. It’s not overly floral, which is a plus for me and it doesn’t have that weird oolong-y taste that i don’t like. But there’s also nothing here to really entice me to come back to it. I’ll drink the rest of my sample but nothing to be wowed over…but it IS another tea off my “ALL THE TEAS” list! :)

This is also a tea i’m decupboarding. I know there are people out there who love this more than I do, so i’d rather it went to a home where it will be loved and sipped with pleasure. To those that i’ve swapped with before, i’m looking at you! send me a note if you are keep to have more.

I’m not sure how i feel about this tea. It’s strawberry, less so rhubarb but there’s a floral taste in the background that i’m not sure yet how i feel about. I’ll have to try this again ina few days and see if there’s any change in how i feel.

So… after much ado about nothing, I am decupboarding this tea. I had it again today and i find that it’s just not enjoyable for me, though i know a number steepster folks out there that i’ve swapped with have really enjoyed this. SO, for those that I’ve swapped with before, if this is of interest to you, send me a pm. I’m happy to send it off to a home that will enjoy it more than i do :)

You know… i think i like this? but it’s been another one of those days. serriously i want ONE fricken day in which i can do work instead of other people’s work with system issues. Sooo i remember this being citrusy and not too bergamotty. but that’s as far as it goes because it’s a long sucky day.

The dry leaf of Figue Fraîche strongly smells like dry fig to me.
It is very pleasant.It smells really like summer, Mediterranean countries.

4 minutes steeping later, I get the classic medium bodied black tea base of Dammann with a strong fig taste + a bakery taste.
Drinking it it reminds me some little biscuits we have here, the Figolu which is something similar to your newtons fig.
The fig is really natural and tasty, no doubt this is a greedy fruity fig tea.

Even if it reminds me the figolu biscuits, it is absolutely not an over-sweetened tea, it’s a perfect fig tea.

I’m very happy to finally have the opportunity to enjoy it, I had difficulties to find it (Dammann frères shops didn’t have it ! and the salesman even asked me if I was sure Figue Fraîche was one of their teas…you know with a stupid snobbish way to speak ! YES I was sure, grrrrrrr Working here, are you sure to know the teas of the brand ? hehehe). I managed it to find on line and now I have 50 g to enjoy. YES Figue Fraîche is typically a Dammann Frères Tea, natural with a smooth medium bodied black tea base from China and Ceylon.

The papaya bits are subtle and nicely done. The Sencha and jasmine shine, here. It’s a bit sweet and nice hot or cold – but I like cold even better!