Dammann Frères

Day 8 of the advent calendar.
I was a little worried watching this brew because the water started turning pink… hibiscus. It smells nice and lemony when dry, but once brewed I’m getting an odd smell. Candied orange peels like you get in Asian grocery stores, which is coming through in the taste as well. There is some lemon taste, certainly not an atomic level and I get that hibiscus bite too. It isn’t over the top hibiscus, but it isn’t really a back ground or supporting roll (the only way I can stand it) either. The aftertaste is kind of dirty and dry. I recently read a tasting note where someone described a tea tasting like burnt ash and this tea makes me think of that. Definitely an ashy taste here. Well, time to toss the cup and pick a different tea!

Yikes. Poor ingredient list here. Started drinking it, and immediately had a reaction. Strawberries. Must be. Searched my calendar (where this came from) for ingredients: nope. Just that it’s “lemon meringue and toffee” flavored black tea. Went online and searched, and the French description mentions fruit pieces (just general “fruit”) and red rose petals. Sigh. Dumped.

i barely remember this tea. and it turned my water a funny color.
i must have been so peaceful and serene while drinking it that it slipped my mind.

Another one of the wonderful samples from Dammann Freres’ advent calendar.

Smells really odd out of the package – like chocolate prunes? Then I looked at the ingredient list. Okay! This smells as it should. Steeped, I actually get the texture of prunes (interesting) and dark, bitter cocoa. A little bit of sweetness brings out the orange/clementine a bit more. Missing all of the caramel, however it’s still really yummy. Steeped for only three minutes, and I think that’s what I’ll do for the rest of these instead of the recommended 4-5 minutes.

Day 22 of the Advent calendar. I’m now drinking them in whatever order I feel like and this evening I wanted something non caffeinated. This really does have quite the mix of flavors! I get mostly cardamon on the sip and cacao on the aftertaste with maybe a little ginger heat. I might be able to pick out some light licorice too. It is very well done and I’m surprised at how much I am enjoying it. I don’t know that I like it enough to purchase it, but it will be resteeped for all it is worth.

bleck spices. no nope.
i’m glad the black version of these taste better to me.

Yay dammann!

I’m attending a potluck tonight and I’m bringing donuts and tea. I just spent a good hr organizing my tea and then deciding what to bring and packing it up.

I watched ‘please vote for me’ and ‘waiting for Armageddon’, two documentaries. And now I started ‘roman holiday’ but I think I’m gonna finish it later.

If I focus and stay determined, I will be able to reach 600 different teas tasted by the end of tomorrow. I think that’s a nice goal. Fun to try at least. :)

This tea is not really my thing. I’m not a green lover and not a fan of cinnamon and though the description doesn’t say cinnamon it’s the scent and flavor that I’m getting most. It overrides the ginger and orange for me. Too bad.

The beginning of Roman Holiday is real cute btw.
And Gregory Peck is a total hunk.

Finally getting back to the advent calendar! I think this is day 9? This is a really enjoyable cup of Earl Grey in what I’m guessing is the really well balanced soft black tea base of theirs that I have tasted before. It is just so smooth! The bergamot is present, but not biting. Nothing is overpowering anything else. I’m not a huge EG fan, but this may be the nicest I have had.

Finally getting back to the advent calendar! I think this is day 9? This is a really enjoyable cup of Earl Grey in what I’m guessing is the really well balanced soft black tea base of theirs that I have tasted before. It is just so smooth! The bergamot is present, but not biting. Nothing is overpowering anything else. I’m not a huge EG fan, but this may be the nicest I have had. I must resteep!

This one really does benefit from a longer steep time and from being allowed to cool to get the full benefit of its flavours. I steeped it for around 6 minutes this time with no ill effects. The tea has a thick slightly chalky texture on the tongue from the cocoa and the prune. At short steeps I find the flavour is dominated by the prune and clementine which reference some of the flavours found in really fruity ceylon with the citrus notes thinning out the plum/prune flavour. At longer steeps the flavours balance each other better. Caramel adds a richness to the tea and softens and dulls the fruit a little and the cocoa becomes more present in the blend. I do taste the vodka, but not as an alcohol/liquor taste but more as coolness added to the taste and a slight mineral note. I don’t find this to be an over the top sweet dessert tea, but a comforting, soft, sweet, sweet and slightly fruity tea. The Clementine note intensifies as it cools with the caramel being the second most dominant note underneath with the cocoa adding texture and depth. This tea grows on me every time I drink it.

I received this as a free sample from Dammann with my advent calendar purchase.

It looked interesting, but after opening the package and smelling the tea = hibiscus. Hibiscus is not a fruit OK, just saying.

The brewed tea tastes strongly of tart hibiscus. But I also get some creamy, sweet strawberry. I also get tart rhubarb. There is a slight apple taste, also sweet. There is a mix of sweet and tart in this tea, but it is much more tart than it is sweet.

This one is ok, but I am not the hugest hibiscus fan, and that is what I would call this tea.

Mmm. Almond. I do love you, almond.
This smells lovely, once brewed up. Light, with that warm scent of almonds wafting gently from my cup.
It sips like this too, light and sweet and vaugly nutty. Not the most almond intense tea I’ve ever drunk, but there is something undeniably French about it (which fits, after all, its French tea) and as a Francophile, this is great news.
Thank you to JustJames, who continues to make my day with the tasty teas.

I think this is a perfect late afternoon tea. It’s very gentle with a strong perfume scent. There’s a lot of whimsy in how this cup feels to me. It would probably also be fun for a fine linen and bone china kind of tea party.

The floral perfumed notes come out less in the final cup (but still a dominant flavor), but leave the steeped leaf smelling strongly like potpourri in my steeper. I really like the burnt sugar/caramel elements here.

On the (belated) Third Day of Christmas, CelebriTEA gave to me…

Of the Damman Freres teas I’ve tried, this one is the most florally perfumed, but still very good. There’s a warm caramel in the front of the sip, and cinnamon not fair behind. The apple and lemon kind of merge together creating a sweet-tart fruity note. The aftertaste is subtly burnt sugar and fragrantly floral. I can’t pinpoint the floral notes, though. It’s there, indescribable, but very good.

And of course, like (seemingly) all Damman Freres teas, this is beautifully blended and oh so romantic!

Thank you!

This smells delicious, like juicy oranges, and it came out of Dammann Freres’ advent calendar.

I wasn’t a huge fan of it plain, so I added sweetener almost immediately. Then it becomes a creamy orange with a hint of cherry. I get few spices, but again that’s likely from my oversteeping issues of late.

yes, glad the lavender is barely there. i’m not a lavender person but this tea is yummy.
lesson learned! happily.

Sipdown 6 of 2015. Received 4/2014 – Finished 12/2015.

I did some searching on the discussion boards yesterday and realized I missed out on a group buy from Dammann Freres last year while growing a human. :( In the same search I realized how crazy reasonable DF teas are priced. I am trying to lay out a purchasing plan for tea this year and I think a DF will be in that plan.

So maybe I will see you again soon The des Poetes.

To recap this tea. There is hints of cinnamon, fruit, and anise. I can never tell you what all is in here, but the mixture blends well to make a really nice cup.

Its Christmas. The first time I drank this tea was at Christmas time so I was thinking about this tea on my way in this morning. I am still madly in love with this tea. I still can’t tell you what it taste like, other than good. I see mention of a Damman Freres group buy. Count me in if anyone gets a wild hair again.

HHTTB #2/18

The des Poets we meet again!! I owe many thanks to both MzPriss and CelebriTEA for making this rendezvous possible. CelebriTEA sent this tea out to all of us for the 2013 12 Days of Christmas exchange and I fell madly in love. This was such a warm comforting cup. For me the flavors mingled so well. It is a tea that I can’t really pick out one flavor, but the melding together of all the flavors is what makes it perfect. For this particular cup I did note a bit of a licorice taste which worked well with the overall taste of the cup. After 6 months this tea is still a hit with me! I had to seriously restrain myself from snatching up the entire bag of this tea. I did take a nice helping but tried to leave enough for others to try.

This is the tea CelebriTEA gave for the 3rd Day of Christmas. Thank you CelebriTEA!

I usually like to read the description of a tea before tasting so that I know what I am getting into. When I first tried this tea I had left the notes about it at home, so I had no clue. What I did know is that as soon as I tasted it I wish I had a never ending bag of it. It was so nice and comforting on that cold morning. I am sipping another cup now, the last of the sample and I am so sad to see it go. The apple, the cinnamon, the lemon all blend so nicely together to get a really nice tea. Everything is balanced, no one flavor takes over. I am really enjoying this tea!

Day 3 of the 12 Days of Christmas exchange, my first Dammann Freres sample from CelebriTEA!

The loose leaf smells awesome and still does when brewed. This is quite a lovely blend: every thing works together quite beautifully, and I’m able to taste every flavor of the blend. Even the cinnamon, which I can personally find to be a bit overpowering a lot of the time, is harmonious with the other ingredients in this tea.

I’m also a fan of lemon, so I was happy to taste lemon in a tea blend that incorporates it well, instead of it making me think I’m drinking some kind of lemon cleaner.

Day 24!

Last one of the advent calendar.

This tea is not as good as it was before. For some reason this year it is not really reminding me of Christmas at all.

This one is a mild black base. There are strong pineapple notes, lots of citrus. Very light cherry flavour. It has that generic Dammann bubble gum flavour. Maybe it is the bacon and eggs I had before I had this tea. The flavours are just not screaming Christmas to me. It tastes good tho.

Overall I really enjoyed this advent calendar but not sure if I will order next year. After two years in a row I feel like I have tried most of dammanns Christmas teas. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to try their teas tho.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Day 24!

I am a bit behind as I was not doing my daily Christmas teas or Christmas, ha ha. But I think I will get caught up and finish pretty quick.

This one smells super delicious. Reminds me of Queen Anne’s chocolate cherry thingies. I don’t even like those, but they always smell so good.

To me the flavours in this one are a little bit lacklustre. Don’t get me wrong, it is super delicious, but IMO not as good as some of the other previous teas. I guess I was expecting the best for last, maybe my high expectations are really the problem.

This one tastes like maraschino cherries, lots of orange peel. Definitely feels like Christmas fruits. You can taste the black tea base under the flavours. I feel like I am getting a bit of almond or nuttiness as well. This might be due to the black tea base, as I got this flavour with some of the other Dammann teas as well. I am getting just the slightest hint of caramel in the aftertaste. It disappears pretty quick.

Overall, definitely impressed from the Dammann advent calendar. Would order again next year, the reminder is already in my calendar so I order in time to get for Christmas. The shipping from France is amazing though, faster for me to get something from France than to mail something across Canada.

okay! this is one of my top picks from the noel teas.
but duh chocolate and apricot of course it is.

i’m watching documentaries still.
yesterday i finished “56 up” and today i’m watching “into the Abyss”. i could easily watch all of Werner Herzog’s documentaries multiple times. i plan to watch all the ones available on netflix before the new year starts hah.

and what-the-hell how did i even end up crocheting and knitting again? i knew the super basics a long time ago, and this week i taught myself granny squares and the purl stitch and i’m getting used to doing them smoother.
oh wait
i know how that happened
it’s all your fault you amazing jerks.
i’m having fun!