Dune d'Épices

Day 10!

I feel like with every Dammann tea I review, I find myself thinking this smells/tastes like bubble gum. That’s the scent I get from this one. Delicious fruity, juicy, bubble gum.

This tea tastes like candied oranges. I was expecting it to be more tart based on the description on the tea. I am tasting sweet candied oranges and cream. There may also be a bit of candied ginger flavour in here too, but I do not get gingerbread at all. The sencha is buttery and creamy, but does not overshadow the flavouring. It is blended perfectly. This one is definitely a great fruity tea.

Dammann Advent Calendar, Day 10

I remember this one from last year, and I remember wishing it was a black base. Fortunately for me, I don’t really get a bubblegum scent to this one. Maybe a whif of bubblegum from a distance, but when I really smell it I smell the orange and spices and a bit of cream.

I still enjoy this one, and I still wish it was on a black base. I think the creamy orangey gingerbready-ness of it would be so well complemented by a hearty black. Ah well, one less tea to have to stock. :)

Haha, I added this tea to the database a few months back, and now BOOM! A whole slew of tasting notes! That Dammann calendar has really been getting around, and I enjoy seeing so many people try their teas.

I want to emphasize that translating ‘pain d’épices’ straight to ‘gingerbread’ is wrong – this is absolutely not supposed to taste like gingerbread, it’s supposed to taste like pain d’épices, which has a completely different flavour base. Sloppy, DM, very sloppy.

Reading about this tea, I didn’t love the idea of it, but I was still curious about the bitter orange note. In the bag, that’s mostly all I get, and it doesn’t disappoint at all, even if it threatens to maybe turn a little overly pungent. In the cup, though, it mellows out considerably.

Flavour wise, I’m equally surprised; I really wasn’t planning on liking this one, but I do. The orange comes through so well – something I’m not accustomed to in terms of DF; I think they mostly drop the ball on citrus altogether.

It’s a great Christmas tea – it would be perfect with actual pain d’épices (http://www.gustave.com/recettes/265/pain-epices.html) and right now, I will confess, I am eating a piece of candied orange dipped in dark chocolate, the final dregs of our pre-Christmas Dagnino shopping spree… and it goes insanely well together with this tea.

I’m very happy to have tried it, but as impressed as I am with its orangeity, this is not one I would feel a need to keep around.

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

Day 10 on the advent calendar.

I think this will be the first green tea of theirs I tried. Still haven’t gotten around to the Christmas tea vert from day 5-ish. I also wasn’t as careful with the water temperature as I should have been. These teas don’t seem to be too fussy about that though (maybe because they are higher quality leaf?).

Dammann loves them some orange flavoring. Fortunately I think they do it really well. This one is no exception, and may even be that much better with the vegetal green base. The spices (mostly cinnamon) are confined to the smell for me but I kind of like the duality there. It’s fun to drink something and smell something totally different (albeit complimentary).

So yes, a variation on a theme, well done, and I’m glad to have tried it.

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.

Advent Calendar Day 22

I enjoyed this nice cup of green tea. I thought it was pretty straight forward: orange and gingerbread. Maybe candied orange? I didn’t get much else, but I liked the lack of grassiness and it was quite light. Another fun try.

Advent Calendar Day Ten

Hmm; don’t know that I like this one a whole lot. I’m drinking it currently, after having now gotten home from my DAVIDsTEA shift; I didn’t bring anything from home in with me today because I knew it would be really busy this weekend and it would just be easier to drink my own teas at home…

A lot of aspects of this blend aren’t working for me though, to be honest. The biggest is just that it’s quite bitter though – even with 80 degree water and a short three minute infusion. I mean, that’s pretty safe parameters for greens typically and just, no. However, aside from that I just don’t enjoy the sencha base and for whatever reason the orange tastes rather artificial/perfumey which is especially odd given that I’ve never had an issue with any of DF’s other orange teas.

The aspect that does work is the gingerbread though; it’s sweet while still having a bit of that spicy kick in the finish, and there are these nice well rounded molasses and brown sugar notes wrapped up in the overall gingerbread flavour. So that part does come out nicely. It’s just a shame I don’t love it as a whole.

This one smells weird right out of its package. I’m not sure exactly how to describe it… faintly smells of green tea, orange, spices and something doughy? Luckily it doesn’t smell like Play-Doh, but it still smells strange.

Sipping… I taste a light orange flavor and the mild green tea base. The spices/doughy bits hide behind everything and really just contribute a strange flavor. It’s not terrible, but it’s very weird. If I gulp down this tea, I do get more of a sweet fruit flavor and something that reminds me of bubblegum.

I wouldn’t purchase this tea in the future, but it’s nice to try something interesting.

December 10 – Advent 2014

Dammann Frères Advent Calendar – December 10th

Ooh, it’s a green tea today! I must say, I really do appreciate the distribution of teas in this calendar – it’s at least half black teas, which I love, but there are also green, white, and red teas to keep it interesting (not that I would complain about a 100% black version either!). So thanks, Dammann, for making an awesome calendar so far. :D

Any, on to this tea! Based on the description, it seems like the green version of Flocons d’Épices, which I had earlier in the calendar. The tea inside the sachet actually look exactly like the picture, which is pretty rare! It smells very happy and orange-y with perhaps a hint of spice.

Hah, the steeped tea smells and tastes like bubblegum to me! I remember that being a thing with the black version, but to nowhere near this extent. I feel like I’m drinking a cup of lightly orange-flavored Bubblicious. It’s not horrible, just strange. And I don’t taste any spice! I guess maybe it’s combining with the orange to make that weird bubble gum flavor?

Day 10 of the advent calendar.
Smells like more citrus. Taste a little like mango. It is very light on the sip, but has an almost dirt like after taste. I give it a meh.