Thé des Poètes

What went wrong? I loved the first Dammann Freres teas that I tried but I am pouring this one out! Life is too short to drink bad tea. This tastes like a badly brewed astringent tea with bad lemon added. Is it because it came from Summit Tea Company instead of straight from Dammann Freres? We bought this sampler hoping to find a US source for their tea, or at least to find a variety of teas we could order all at once from France. This one will NOT be on my list. I am getting no apple or caramel flavor at all.

This is very different from what I’ve had before. Delicious black tea base merges with very subtle caramel and apple flavors. It is very unlike other flavored blacks that I know, VERY unlike those. The flavoring mostly just emphasizes the base, tweaks it slightly so that you notice more things about it… I guess it would mean this flavoring to tea is like poetry to reality – in very indirect ways it shows you what you normally wouldn’t be able to see.

Thank you, MissB, for letting me try this one. I don’t know when I would get around to these famous French teas myself as they can be pricey and the sample sizes are not really offered anywhere. Now I have an idea of how wonderful they can be!

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.

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.

CelebriTea, I will forever be thankful for this tea. I generally don’t LOVE a lot of fruity black teas. Sure, I’ll like them and drink them, but so often the flavors mask the tea itself. Especially when it has cinnamon in it. Not so here. The flavors of this tea mix and swirl and come together perfectly. Really, it has made me very happy today.

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.

This is my first Dammann Freres tea! Oh what a treat it was! Thank you so much CelebriTEA for all the effort you put into getting this for Day #3 of the 12 Days of Christmas Tea Swap 2013. It smelled heavenly, tasted just the same, and was an all around delight to experience. I added sugar, but not milk. The flavors really seem to blend well together, when after reading them, I honestly wondered if they would. Thanks so much again.

You can’t go wrong with caramel, apple and cinnamon. I don’t really get much of the lemon, but I think that would make it a bit too much anyway. It comes across more like a naturally citrusy base tea has been used, which I don’t mind. I really enjoyed this when I had it, but I don’t think I like it enough that I would actively look to buy more.

Got a sample of this one from Miss B!

I didn’t find the flavours super strong, they didn’t punch me in the face or anything, but I realize that is probably typical of “scented” french teas.

I have this mission to try as many French teas as possible. Though I can’t afford to buy online and I don’t seem to be able to find them at my local Winners or Homesense stores like some other lucky people.

Perhaps someday France will be on my travel menu!

I found this relaxing and enjoyable to drink. Not my favourite one so far, but nice. It kind of ended up like a random blend of unnameable fruits to me. Ah well :) Glad to have tried it!!

I liked Velours Nacre better though!

This tea was too perfume-y for me. I got the apple, lemon, and even a little of the caramel flavor, but the floral perfume note really overshadowed everything else. That said, I did finish my cup, so there’s that.