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“since i’m trying to drink up some of my older teas (feb 2013!), i thought a cup of this one was in order. This tea has for sure grown on me as i’ve had it. Now it’s a delicious blend of fruit and...” Read full tasting note
“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...” Read full tasting note
“I’ve been under the weather, but well enough to still crave cookies! I wasn’t up to baking, so I purchased some of those little schoolboy biscuits. http://www.lubiscuitsna.com/ Mmmm! I thought this...” Read full tasting note
“Another generous sample from Sil gives me an excuse to hang out and get tea drunk. The dry leaf smells like candy. Almost like strawberry cotton candy, but juicier. I swear! It’s a little on the...” Read full tasting note
“Paul & Virginie” flavored black tea
A classic Dammann Freres creation.
Blend of black teas, flavoured with caramel, cherry, strawberry, raspberry redcurrant and vanilla.
Brewing time: 4 to 5 minutes
This is my first Dammann Fréres tea and I am quite impressed, this is delightful.
I noticed the other day and pointed in another tasting note that I had nothing less than 4 well know tea blends, from different blenders, all with the same notes – red fruits and caramel (and two of them added bergamot to it); and all those teas are among the most popular for each of their blenders. I am talking of Harney´s Paris, Kusmi´s St Petersbourg, Mariage Frères´ Marco Polo and this very one. And it´s easy to see why it´s so popular: it works, the caramel gives something to the red fruits and vice versa. The Fred and Ginger of taste pairings? He gives her class, she makes him sexy.
Of those 4 teas mentioned I like this better than Paris and St Petersbourg. It´s the fruitiest of those 4 with the most recognizable, juiciest fruit scents and for once I can detect clearly all the fruits mentioned – the raspberry, the cherry and even the strawberry. The vanilla is also quite noticeable in the scent, the caramel gives it an extra depth, and I found it particularly noticeable in the aftertaste of the tea. The tea base used is a mix of Chinese and Ceylon teas, and it´s very right for these flavours – it´s not too strong though or at least not as I brewed it (relatively cold (90C) for not too long (3-4 minutes) with a generous scoop of tea). I think this is definitely an afternoon tea. It was very quick to disappear!
This is one of the DF i didn’t taste yet. I can get it very easily at my tea shop around the corner.
I am soooooo soooo envious! Corner shop, ah, the envy is deep.
I got a shop which sells this and I think they are going to stop carrying it. And they got about 5 different flavours, only two where things I was finding interesting. I was considering Jardin Bleu as well but expiry date was this very month.
This PV is nice, though not an extraordinary tea – I think it might be a great tea to give or serve people which are not usually tea drinkers
having my last pot of this :(
Breville one-touch 4tsp tea, 800ml filtered water, 212F, 4 min
I’m drinking this on the room temperature / colder side
(i didn’t get out of bed on time)
fruity, smooth, vanilla after taste
more subtle than is my favorite teas, but a very delicious and enjoyable blen
thank you Doulton for arranging this mass tea co-op buying, i am sad to start seeing the ends of my teas
A generous sample given to me by Sil! Thank you so much!
Just got in the door from work and it was 25 degrees outside. I wanted to go straight to sleep but first I had to thaw out. With Dammann, of course. Because they are my new favorite thing lately.
Dry leaf smells of the a chemical/fakey caramel and red fruit. I’m sure it will settle out when the water hits it, but this wasn’t something I was too fond of smelling dry.
Steep notes: 2.4 g. leaf, 8 oz, water, no additives, below parameters.
There is still a kind of fake caramel note in the smell. The fruit seems more authentic, though I can’t pick out specifics. Mostly I want to say raspberry, which is unfortunate because I don’t like raspberry all that much.
The taste is a caramel (it does taste a little fake, which surprised me) and then a jammy fruit spread flavor. This has a very thick mouthfeel, it really reminds me a lot of preserves or something. Yep, raspberry jam and caramel in a nutshell.
I do really like how thick and chewy this is…it’s just a darn shame there wasn’t strawberry or cherry in the forefront. For a raspberry tea, though, it’s still pretty drinkable. And it helped warm me up.
Sigh. Now off to bed before going back to work again tonight.
Finally! My inaugural tea of the Doulton-engineered French buying extravaganza!
MmmmmmMMMMmmmmmMMmmmm.
And that’s just the smell of the dry leaves. Amazing raspberry. Reminds me of the filling in linzer tarts, which I used to get from a little pastry shop in Cambridge, MA. I can smell it from several feet away; if I stick my nose into the bag (that has an adorable little giraffe sticker on it :-)) it becomes extremely concentrated. Dark chocolate color leaves with flecks of lighter brown.
The variety and complexity in the aroma becomes more apparent after steeping. I can smell some vanilla, and berry, but I’m also getting a note that seems lemon or orange. Some citrus in any case.
The taste has wonderful berry things going on. It’s not the Kool Aid of some berry teas I have tried, it’s more of the kind of berry note you’d find in a nice wine. It adds a tiny bit of tartness to the tail of the sip. Vanilla is there, but not a strong presence. I’m trying to figure out what berry I’m tasting and I think it’s mostly raspberry and strawberry, but what a contrast to the strawberry of other flavored teas. It’s subtle, but deep and smooth. Apart from the tart berry-tail, the tea is medium-sweet. Not sugary like some blacks. I can see what they mean when they say caramel, though it isn’t the sweet caramel of the Sugar Caramel Oolong. It isn’t bitter either, it’s just a number of notches down from carmelized-sugar sweet. There’s a fresh note to the finish which strikes me as floral.
Note to self: try more leaf next time. I used about 1.5 tsp in about 8 oz water. I think it could go stronger and perhaps unfold even more.
Ooh, do you remember the name of the pastry shop?
Unfortunately no, and I have no idea if it is still there as I haven’t been back since the mid 80s, but I remember where it was. It was in a shopping center in Harvard Square that also had a Souper Salad and Pizzeria Uno, among other things. The little pastry shop was right next to the Souper Salad. It really wasn’t a lot more than a counter with cookies and pastries in a window, but I remember it being a great temptation after having tried to be virtuous by eating at Souper Salad!
Oh, sad, I don’t think it’s there anymore :( and neither is Souper Salad, although Uno’s still is!
Like most French teas, the DF advertises a multitude of flavors for this blend: chocolate! vanilla! cherry! strawberry! And like most French teas, they magically blend into a subtle /sophisticated flavor like a classical symphony and certainly not a rock concert…..
One more mystery: these French tea blends are typically leaf only w/a smattering of flower petals. No chucks of cocoa nibs, chocolate chips, caramel squares, vanilla bean chunks or dried fruit are present. Do they flavor these teas with a French-patented flavor oils?This is the first DF tea I have tried from Doulton’s order and phew I have many more to sample…
Lori: I don’t know what oils they flavor Dammann’s teas with, however, I do know that the petals, bits, and chunks generally found in most blends are there for aesthetic value more than for flavor’s sake. It is the oil that is responsible for the tea’s flavoring.
Liberteas- yes the flavors are definitely in the oils…
i generally love all the Dammann teas i’ve had.
this one isn’t at the tippy top of the list, but it still falls under the ’i’d smash that’ category.
maybe it’s the cherry notes? ever so slightly too tart is all. for me at least. if it was just a tad more subtle it would be on my buy list i bet.
still love it.
thank you bunches Sil for the beautiful sample!!
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i just wanna put this song here cuz i’m really into it today.
this one goes out to Capsicle.
http://grooveshark.com/s/Help+I+m+Alive+Style+Dubstep+Remix/3n2Vmb?src=5
If you’re still alive, My regrets are few
If my life is mine, What shouldn’t I do?
I get wherever I’m going, I get whatever I need
While my blood’s still flowing, And my heart still beats…
Beating like a hammer
Help, I’m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Hard to be soft
Tough to be tender
Sipdown #47
The dry leaf aroma is sweet and fruity. The brewed tea aroma is distinctly cherry. I’ve had a few cherry-flavored teas before, but this one has the most spot on, authentic cherry flavor. It is pretty good plain, but I did add a little Truvia to ramp up the sweetness. I let the cup cool and enjoy this much better as an iced tea. Overall, a very enjoyable cuppa! Thanks Sil for the sample!
I thank cteresa for sending a generous sample of Paul et Virginie.
Of course, the flavour, as the tea name is somehow very romantic : berries, caramel and vanilla.
No berries nor chunk of caramel in this tea, every flavour comes from essential oils here.
So different from St Pétersbourg from Kusmi teas with the same flavours…I am not a fan of St Petersbourg.
The tea base has a hint of astringency to me. It’s not an in your face flavoured black and the berries are the main flavour here – raspberry is very detectable as well as strawberry, less evident for cherry to me.
Caramel is far behind even if pleasantly present.
Not bad even quite nice but I think these kind od mix between fruits and caramel or fruits and chocolate are rarely for me.
Quite strange as a big fan of the cake “forêt noire”, I’m not seduced by the same with tea.
