Dammann Frères

Day 19. Same as last year.

I think my taste buds have changed a bit from last year. I actually don’t find this one too bad.

I am getting strong vanilla. Slight fruity flavours, like apricot. Getting no citrus and absolutely no chocolate. I am not getting the smokey base tea this year that I complained about last year. I don’t necessarily think it is my tastes buds that have changed so much but it is that these are tea sachets which I know are not always consistent. Especially when they are made from normally loose leaf tea.

Getting a bit bored with this calendar this year unfortunately. I just wish they would have at least mixed up the order of the teas this year as compared to last year.

Still love Dammann tea though.

Day 19!

I think it is ok to say I was not a fan of this one. It is not a bad blend, but I am just finding the tastes are not working for me. There is definitely a really strong smokey black tea. I am getting a bit of chocolate taste but it tastes quite watered down. This one is reminding me of those chocolate oranges that you can get around Christmas time. I am also getting hints of vanilla.

I definitely got hints of hazelnuts with this one in taste and smell.

Advent calendar day 18.

Rooibos. We meet again.

I have learned that I’m just not much of a fan of herbals. I’ll try them, sure, but I don’t go out of my way to buy them anymore. They just taste off to me now.

This is no exception. The dry leaf smells mostly of orange and clove but it also doesn’t definitively smell of tea. It has a medicinal smell that gets stronger when brewed (I’m thinking this may be due to the cherry.)

The taste (served with no additives) is okay – mostly orange. The mouthfeel is fine. I just really don’t like that medicinal note – I have to breathe through my mouth in order to take a sip.

Yeah, not wowed, but then I didn’t expect to be, really.

Dammann Advent Calendar, Day 19

I am not super familiar with this tea, although I knew I had it last year, and I drank it this morning without looking it up at all. As I’m drinking, I’m thinking, ah, a hazelnut tea, very similar to Mélange de Chérubins. Probably also with chocolate and orange. Tasty, although like most hazelnut teas (Fleurilege excepted), not my favorite.

Then I came on Steepster to look at the list of ingredients and my tasting note from last year. First ingredients: no hazelnut at all. Very curious. Then, my tasting note, in which I said:

“So I drank this tea without knowing what was in it at all… and wow were my taste buds off! To me it was very hazelnutty, which is not an ingredient at all. I didn’t really get fruitiness from the apricot or orange. Makes me want to have it again to properly wrap my head around it. Weird!”

… Well I have had it again now, and I still feel the same way about it. So I’m rating it this year, because it was tasty, even though it apparently tastes like something totally different than it should (to me).

Dammann advent calendar, day 19. I skipped 18 because I am not drinnking rooibos anymore, so it will have to get passed on to another person. Thankfully there has only been one rooibos tea in the advent calendar so far!

So I drank this tea without knowing what was in it at all… and wow were my taste buds off! To me it was very hazelnutty, which is not an ingredient at all. I didn’t really get fruitiness from the apricot or orange. Makes me want to have it again to properly wrap my head around it. Weird!

Advent calendar, day 19 (though I’m having it today because I got mixed up.)

Another Christmas tea! These are so fun. I like imagining the different cities and why they picked the flavors they did. I’m assuming this was based on the Sachertorte (chocolate cake) and Marillenkuchen (apricot cake) that are traditional Austrian desserts.

Steep notes: no additives, below parameters.

Dry leaf smelled mostly like chocolate and caramel (I’m pretty sure the vanilla is responsible for this). I don’t mind chocolate in tea but it feels like they put it in every blend, practically. Luckily they do it well. Once steeped the aroma has transformed into a sweet milk chocolate. This, again, is pretty standard Dammann…I imagine the apricot is waiting for me in the taste.

Mmm…it was! I get the fruity apricot followed by creamy vanilla and a muted chocolate. As the liquor has cooled the apricot is more evident in the scent as well. I like this! It’s probably my second favorite after the Venice Christmas one. I’ll keep this on the reorder list for sure…

Advent Calendar, Day 20 (EEP: I had this on yesterday accidentally! Sorry to spoil the surprise). Getting close to the end now – I can’t even believe it’s Christmas next Wednesday.

When I first smelled this I got red fruit/berries, specifically strawberry, and even kind of a caramelly scent. Reading the description turned the berry note into apple+peach. Don’t know where I got caramel unless it was the pear (I think it can sometimes have a sugary sweet scent like that).

Steeped at the below parameters, with no additives.

Apple and plum both have that astringence with their skin that I am wary of in tea form. I like eating them both but I’ve had apple teas before and they tend to carry that astringence over. This is the case here – between the plum and the apple it is very astringent and tart, albeit fruity. This is only the second of the Dammann teas I’ve tried so far (the other being their Earl Grey) that I think would benefit from some sugar.

I was so close to the end of the cup before determining this that I didn’t bother with the sugar – and as it was only the one teabag, I doubt I will order it again to try this out. So far I still think that Noël a Venise is my favorite Christmas tea of theirs.

Day 18.

This one reminds me of cola flavouring for some reason. I think it is probably the ginger and cloves. I am not finding much black cherry flavour this year. I found the rooibos to be the predominate plavour this time. It was ok. It was hard to enjoy this one because I just wasn’t looking forward to a rooibos today.

Day 18!

Darn you steepster!! Making it super difficult to find a tea. Most people would give up after it wouldn’t come up in the find a tea search box. The rest would give up after manually searching through all of Dammann’s teas on the site. But no… I am a tea addict (and proud to say it). I will attempt to add the tea, only to find out there is already a tea that exists by the same name that doesn’t come up anywhere else on the site. Whew!

Anyway, this tea is super delish. It quite reminds me of flocon d’epices. I think Dammann must have shares in hubba bubba gum because that is what all of their teas taste like for me. I get minimal rooibos taste. I definitely taste the black cherry and red fruits. I am not getting much ginger bread but the liquor is quite thick. I am getting a bit of clove but it is not too spicey and pleasantly sweet.

Day 17!

I can’t believe I am 17 days in already. I feel like I have travelled through France with all of these Noël teas.

This one smells deliciously, caramel and chocolate, very sweet.

In the brewed tea I am not getting any chocolate or cocoa taste at all. I do get dark caramel. I am unfortunately not getting any vodka taste. I would have liked to have added vodka to this tea but I am at work. There is a slight prune taste but it does not have the sweetness a prune has. I get a candied orange peel taste at the end of the sip. This tea liquor is very thick. We are back to the thick and luxurious Dammann tea again, yumm!

Sipdown!! (164)

Thank you OMGsrsly for sharing this with me!! It will be missed now that it is gone but I don’t think I loved it enough to pay the shipping to get more. However, if I saw this in a store or someone were to offer me a cup of this vanilla, caramel, berry goodness, I would definitely not turn it down.

Mmmmmm…caramel fruity goodness :) Thank you OMGsrsly!!

I was planning on making a tea from the swap package Veronica had sent but when I got to my tea stash, the envelope from OMGsrsly caught my eye. Since that packaged arrived first, I decided to grab samples from there instead. I looked for the teas that could be brewed as close to boiling as possible given that I am in the midst of studying for my last final of the semester (tonight at 6 pm) and did not want to wait for the water to cool. That meant I ended up with this one and Zhena’s Coconut Chai.

Interestingly enough, despite having a cup of spicy chai in one hand, all I could smell was the sweet raspberry coming from the cup in my other hand. I thought this tea would be flavor explosion but like so many other French teas that I have tried, it is more subtle. This is not to say that it is not flavorful, rather there are many flavors that slowly come to light throughout the sip. The first is the gentle sweetness of the raspberry that slowly turns into a more strawberry type flavor, followed again by the caramel sweetness to end off the sip. It is a very nice cup and I am sure I will have no problem getting through this sample. Thanks OMGsrsly for sharing some of this with me :)

Mmmm, time for an order of DF teas. And I get to start with one of my favorites (#40). I love the blend of caramel and fruit and general deliciousness here. Not sure why these flavors go with Prague (I will always think of the almond-cinnamon-sugar spit-roasted pastries called trdelnik), but I had a great time in Prague so it’s nice to have a yummy tea to remind me of it.

I have drank teas lately, but I have not felt inspired to write about them. Finished off some WP samples (that I had reviewed before) but they were so unmemorable (possibly not their faults) that I didn’t feel like writing notes that didn’t say anything about them.

I haven’t had this tea in a while and thought I would revisit. Definitely one of my faves. Anything with DF’s caramel flavoring (and the cute little caramel/toffee blocks that come in the tea) is a hit with me. Also I’m going to be visiting Prague this November, although unfortunately too early for the Christmas market. Can’t wait!

Yesterday I drank this one and I was originally not going to log it, but I want to be better about logging the teas I drink since I do like the idea of my “most drank” teas to be accurate.

Originally I was thinking about drinking an older tea, or even another cup of Caramel-Toffee to drink what’s left of it down before I order 100g of it, but this one called to me. Delicious, delicious cup of caramel, chocolate, stewed-fruits goodness. I am also excited that this year I’ll be visting Prague in the fall! Not quite Noël in Prague, though.

I have some block against writing tasting notes lately. I drank a cup of this tea two days ago (and then another yesterday to, uh, remind me about it) and I still haven’t written a note yet. Well, here it is. I had a small order of DF teas at the beginning of this year, and this tea (along with the next two) is from that.

I did not expect to be in love with this tea when I first tried it, but it just hits all the right notes for me. Caramel, chocolate, fruity in a really good way… Just smelling it makes me happy. Bumping my rating because of that fact.

All I have to say about this one today is: YUM. And I think I get a bit more of a boozy “vodka” sensation from the loose leaf than I did with the sachet.

Dammann advent calendar, day 17.

YUM. I guess they didn’t stock this one at Instant Thé, because I would have ordered it if they did. I love their caramel flavoring and it is prominent here. I did get a fruity flavor, presumably from the prune, but no “vodka” flavoring, which whatever, I didn’t really need. To me all the flavors really blended well and made for a delicious, caramelly-fruity cup. I would so pick up more of this one.

Day 17 of the Advent calendar. Confession: I gave day 16 to my mom when she was in town because she LOVES figs. Given how spot on the flavorings have been I really wanted her to have a chance to try it. So, no note from me for that one.

With THIS tea, I actually was able to identify a smell before looking at the description! And it was a weird smell to get, too. But the dry tea bag really did smell JUST like prunes. Kind of grapey, kind of raisiny, the boyfriend is convinced it’s fig, but NOPE. It is definitely prunes. I am super proud of myself. :)

Steeped at the below parameters with no additives.

The steeped tea still smells pruney, but there is a sugary sweetness in there, too – most likely the caramel. Caramel and prunes are a weird combination, I won’t lie. I would never in a million years have put them together.

Flavoring is chocolate/caramel first and then…prune. There is a citrusy note to it, though, kind of like stewed prunes that my mom makes (and incidentally, are really good). The ingredients also said something about vodka flavoring, but I didn’t think vodka had any flavor, and I’m not picking up on whatever that supposed flavor may be.

This was pretty good – I still can’t reconcile why chocolate and caramel and prune were put together, but if anyone can do that kind of blend, and do it well, Dammann can. I’m going to be so bummed when I don’t have a new tea from them each morning!

Day 16.

I was again disappointed in this one, as I was last year. I feel like I am getting strong black licorice flavours, but I aam wondering if that is supposed to be the fig. I am definitely getting a creamy texture, but not so much strawberry. The black tea base is extremely bold. I only intended to steep for a few minutes but I am wondering if I lost track of time.

Day 16!

I quite like rooibos de Provence, so I was expecting this one to be similar, but it isn’t really. In saying that, every company, I am sure, will have a slightly different blend.

This one is definitely a more smokey tea base, the smoke is subtle but present. I feel that this black base is a bit more bold than some of the other Dammann teas I have tried but it is not bitter or astringent or overpowering. I am getting notes of ripe strawberries and the cornflower petals. Not so much fig but the liquor feels quite thick and I equate that with how a fig tastes. It tastes and feels creamy as well. I do not get any lavender at all. Which is ok becuase I am not a huge lavender fan but I would have liked just a bit more lavender flavour for the Provence feel. There was a taste I was having a hard time putting a name to, but after reading the description, it is the honey.

SPOILER: Day 15 of Dammann Freres Advent Calendar.

I’m unsure what to make of this. It smells like an herbally green tea to me, and tastes little of anything orange until wwwaaaayyyy after the sip. Definitely a chamomile blend. I mean, it’s okay, but I just don’t get it at all.