Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

this + maple syrup = good times for getting over thursday. I was done with this week yesterday, so now i just need to get through one more day. Still loving this tea – glad i’ve got lots left :)

had a wonderful cup of this the other day. Really trying to get through my older teas AND figure out which damn fine teas will be a permanent fixture in the house before June haha

pulled this one out today – part of my effort to drink up some of my damn fine teas. Really enjoying the briskness of this one today – no additions today and it’s perfect.

i didn’t to drink a lot of tea yesterday (or likely today) but next week should make up for it. I took this one with us on our adventure out to oakville to visit a tea shop YYZ had mentioned. Best part about it? not only was this tea totally satisfying (with a splash of maple syrup of course) but i bought my first tea tray!!! YAAAY!

this was a tea from last night/this morning… added a little maple syrup and brought it with me to work for the overnight. not much to say beyond – delicious!

sipdown! but it will be back…soon :) i had this in the morning as my wake up tea with my everything bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese. Perfect start to the morning! I love this tea. Today i drank one cup normally – this is smokey with a bit of brightness to it, some hints of cedar… soo good. Added a splash of maple syrup to a second cup and it was even more delicious. I do love my smokey teas with a splash of maple! thanks again for sharing this one lala! happy to return the favour anytime!

lala sent this one my way so i could get in a taste before comitting to ANOTHER tin of damn fine tea – i think this will bring me to 6? in the house because yes, that’s right…i bought this after having it today. So good. I am immensely happy that lala was kinda enough to send this my way because i would have passed on this for sure, simply because 4.4oz is a LOT of tea…especially when you’ve got 4? other damn fine tea tins that are mostly full. lol this was just the right balance of smokey and not bitter and yes. yum. that is all.

Final Count: 81 (thank you lala!!!!)

Bold and robust, drinking this tea makes me feel like I’m sitting around a bonfire. This is as German and manly as it gets. Tobacco and cedar are prevalent on the tongue, while the smoky note on the dry leaves does not overpower the steeped leaves. This is quite delicious and interesting blend that compliments the season perfectly

This is another sample from boychik. Thank you!

Keemun might just be my favorite type of breakfast tea. It is usually deep and chocolate or slightly woody. This is another awesome offering from A & D. I think all of these samples have turned me into an A & D fan girl. I might just have to try EVERYTHING from them:) Some keemuns have fruity flavor at the end of the sip, some have a smoke. This is just right in the middle. It doesn’t have much fruity, but more of a deep bread flavor. I am rocking the 2nd steep already and this is definitely making my morning. Thanks again boychik for allowing me to try this one.

In Celebration of the upcoming A&D order I am drinking a cup of this. It also fits the dreary weather we are having here in KC today. This cup always amazes me. and always reminds me to never judge a tea 100% by the sent of the leaf. This is so much sweeter than the sniffer lets on.

In other news, my hot water spout at work was replaced. I have really come to like a lot of my black teas at a lower than normal temp….. now the water is coming out damn near boiling. I am going to have to readjust a tad bit.

After coming back from entire summer of traveling and not drinking much tea I decided I wouldn’t purchase anymore tea until my stash was half of what it was currently sitting at. Yep that lasted all of 6 weeks. I blame this tea and QTT. I decided to treat myself for my birthday with a tin of this. The tin arrived at the beginning of November and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get the lid off. I took a knife to it, I took my keys to it. I even went out to my work bench at work and grabbed pliers and a screw driver. It turns out I was trying to pry the wrong portion of the lid off. Ooops.

This tea is sooo yummy. The smell always scares me until I take the first sip. The mixture of savory and sweat is perfect. You smell the tea thinking you are going to get this really smokey leathery tea, and then you taste it and the sweetness of it makes all those notes you were sniffing pop in the taste of the tea. I debated getting a 3 pack when I purchased this tin, due to the amount of tea I am glad that I didn’t but this really makes me long for another cup of the Red Tailed Hawk. If anyone out there ever wants to split A&D tins I am your gal. I love all their teas, but 4.4 ouces is always a lot.

1 Year on Steepster! Woot! Who would have thunk. 418 tasting notes…. 170ish teas in cupboard, many fun swaps and tea friends. It has been quite the year. I have enjoyed getting to try so many wonderful cups and tea vendors. Hopefully Steepster fully recovers from its illness and it is exploding with liveliness again soon. My tastes have definitely changed. I like many on here started out with the mostly food teas from Teaavana. Quickly found Butiki and fell in love with so many teas there, found oolongs, roasted and milk oolongs, discovered flavored blacks, then straight black. Now, I am starting to explore whites, greens and pur-eh. I think my favorites are the darker side of oolongs, the Fijian blacks, and french flavored teas. There are so many teas I still want to try and orders I want to place. It is fun that after spending a year trying “everything” there is still so much more to try.

I am trying to make a decision on whether to purchase this tea or not. I believe it is only available until the end of October. This morning at work this cup is offering all the same, smoke, tart fruity, leather if you will, but there is almost a spice to to the tea. It is lovely, but will it be a cup I like 4.4oz of? Thank you again boychik for this sample

This is a sample from boychik. Thank you!

Damn! I thought by trying this tea I would rule out having to purchase this one. No such luck. This is good. How does Damn Fine Teas do it? This tea has a little smoke, it has some woody accents, then there is a little bit of tart fruit, and smooth astringency. Are those last two things even possible in a blend? Sure seems to be what I am tasting. This is another wonderful fall cup. Now to buy or not to buy the tin……

Thank you for the sample boychik! :D

This is a bold and tasty blend! Extremely masculine tasting. Reminds me of leather and tobacco and woodsmoke. It isn’t really smokey or anything. Just brings campfire to mind somehow. I really like this kind of kick-in-the-pants bold breakfast black tea! Quite enjoyable :)

Backlog:

I love this Keemun. I think that this may be the best Keemun I’ve ever tasted. So good. Rich, smooth, delicious. Very little astringency, just a slight dryness toward the tail. Honeyed caramel drizzled over tree-ripened plums. Mmm!

I love this.

Another Damn Fine Tea in my cup this morning!

I think this is the only straight Indian black tea I own, just because I tend to favor Chinese and Taiwanese varieties. In my experience, Indian teas have a tendency to be more bitter and astringent, whereas Chinese ones take steeping abuse quite well with nary a peep.

But this is one yummy tea! So malty with lovely raisin and tobacco notes, just what I would hope for from an Assam tea. There’s some lovely baked bread and oak here as well, giving a nice bottom note to the flavor. I do get a bit of astringency, but it’s fairly mild, and there is no bitterness at all.

Did I mention the leaf is gorgeous? Dark and twisty with little pops of bright gold, sort of like a reverse tiger if you will. And don’t even get me started on the tin…

I got this one in a swap with TeaTiff. I’m always willing to try another Damn Fine Tea! The leaves of this one are long and thin, and mostly dark with a few golden spots. I didn’t get much of a dry scent off of it, which I find is rather common with straight blacks.

Once steeped, it has a lovely raisin aroma with some bread and caramelized brown sugar notes. The taste is also strongly raisin, which I love. There’s also a rich caramelized brown sugar note that blends beautifully with the raisin. Near the end of the sip, there’s the slightest hint of an earthy flavor, but it’s mild enough to be inoffensive. Overall, this one is very tasty and not what I expected!