Christmas Tea Vert

This was the first tea (other than the advent calendar) that I cracked from my recent Dammann Freres/Vendomme Cadeau order. A huge thanks to yyz for letting me know about this optional way of purchasing DF teas! (Note: shipping was only 8 euros to Canada, and it got here in a week. Beautifully packaged as well).

So why did I pick this tea? Because it’s the only one I’m not sharing with others in some fashion, and because it’s such a small amount (cute 30g tin). Plus I love greens, and haven’t had a lot of late.

For some reason, I’m getting spicy in this blend. Cinnamon perhaps? Which is odd considering there’s zero cinnamon, just variations of orange (orange, orange peel). I definitely get orange though, and a touch of vanilla. It’s quite a lovely tea, although much better with a touch of Truvia. Light, refreshing, pleasant. I might order more if I could find a better price for a larger amount…. $20 for 30g including shipping seems a bit pricey for me, if only compared to the other teas I grabbed that were in the $11/100g range. Or maybe I’m just spoiled.

Again, one of those Dammann teas that exploded with tasting notes after I added it to the database. It’s been a lot of fun reading reviews of teas I acquired completely blindly.

In the bag, I get a strong, well-balanced cherry-orange. Definitely a nice combination for a Christmas tea, but, as always, the Dammann Frères tea smells like something very-tasty-but-not-for-me. It’s like most Italian pastries. Everyone goes crazy over all these cakes and cannoli and Sicilian anything, but I honestly wouldn’t get out of bed for any ricotta filling. This country is the country of the worst croissants (or, you know, ‘cornetti’) ever. I get better croissants in the Midwest, for crying out loud. No. French pastries, though? I don’t even want to imagine a world without them. (This is my bible, available in English now, too: https://amzn.to/3icoeEt)

So when I go to my favourite bakery here, to get some unassuming, basic almond cookies, and I’m surrounded by all these tourists devouring cannoli and more cannoli, loudly expressing their delight, I feel exactly the same way I do when fellow Swedes get really into soccer, or when friends get together for a Lost marathon, or when I read reviews of these Dammann Frères teas. I’m glad everyone is pleased, but I’ll be over here in my corner, eating my pain aux raisins, wearing my 49ers tee, watching Veronica Mars, and sipping something that isn’t a Dammann Frères tea.

It tastes nice enough – with some cherry and some orange and a little cinnamon, but we just fail to connect, this tea and me.

[From my epic Instant-Thé order to Rome, October 2013.]

Day 7!

This one dry, smelled like a Christmas tea. There was sweet cinnamon and a fruity flavor I thought was cherry.

The green tea is smooth and creamy, but not buttery. It is a bit more dry than what I would have assumed from the smell. There is a definite fruity taste. Not necessarily orange or apple, but it is sweet and tart at the same time. I am getting a definite cinnamon taste. There seems to be other spices as well, maybe some nutmeg but I am having a hard time putting a name to the taste, the best I come up with was kind of chai but not really. There is a very light vanilla-y taste. Maybe this tea is kind of like some kind of Christmas cake taste.

This tea tastes good, but it is not as good as the other Dammann teas I have tried so far. I am having trouble distinguishing the tastes of this one. Maybe I am trying to hard…

Dammann Freres advent calendar. Day… 4ish? Though I’m actually having it on the 11th of December, so whoops.

On the plus side though I have gone through the backlog and am (mostly) keeping up. This advent calendar stuff is hard when you work nights and the days change up on you mid shift.

Dry this really smelled a lot like cherry candy flavoring. Once steeped I get what resembles apple cinnamon. It’s so fun how these things change with nothing but the addition of hot water. Though there is orange in the ingredient list, I don’t get any here. Just mostly that cinnamon with apple and then a vague creaminesss that I will assume is from the vanilla.

What a cozy Christmas tea! I was worried about liking it since greens usually aren’t the first tea I reach for, but it is surprisingly full bodied and comforting – I don’t normally think of greens as a winter tea but it works here.

A refreshing break from the citrus, really. And quite good plain – I will have to keep this in mind if I do place a Dammann freres order in the future.

Dammann advent calendar, day 7. Christmas tea, on the day we went to get our Christmas tree! Perfect!

When I opened the sachet of this one it smelled like orange candy and spices. Brewed up the spices come out much more, with the orange blending well with them. It really reminds me of the holidays, that orangey spicienss. As usual, I find this one quite tasty. It’s a bit simpler than some of their other blends, but nice and well-balanced. Neither the orange nor the spices really overwhelms the other. The vanilla is subtle and basically provides a nice smoothness. I could take or leave the green tea base, as it isn’t as interesting (to me) as their black base, but it’s pretty nice and not astringent or grassy. A tasty blend for this evening but not something I would restock.

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

Day 7 of the advent calendar.
I was surprised when I opened this bag of tea. I really didn’t smell anything. I hope it isn’t my sore throat morphing into a head cold and ruining my sense of smell and taste! When it is brewed I can smell a little more, cinnamon mostly, but it is very subtle. I can taste cinnamon and a little fruit, but that is it. As always, the tea from DM is very smooth, but I don’t even taste the tea in this one. I wish I could amp it up a little. I’m starting to think the flavors of DM teas are far to delicate for my taste. Still, this calendar is a fun and great way to try out a company’s teas!

No. Just no. This is day 7 of the Dammann Freres advent calendar (I’m suuuuper behind but hoping to finish it off in the next month or so). I just really didn’t like this one. It smells and tastes like Bazooka Joe bubble gum, which is not a profile that I ever expected, wanted, or, as it turns out, enjoyed in a tea. One of the rare teas I couldn’t even bring myself to finish.

This was another meh but still good blend from the Advent calendar. I enjoyed it but it was pretty light on all of the flavors I planned on tasting based on the scent of the loose tea.

Dammann Frères Advent 2021 – Day 22

This tastes like a buttery baked cinnamon apple to me! I like my super candied, over the top version from DavidsTea a bit more but I wouldn’t pass up a cup of this either (despite not loving cinnamon or apple as leading flavours).

Apparently citrus is supposed to lead this tea but I didn’t get that this time around. Maybe next year.