Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

Sipdown! I liked this one.

This will sound worse than the reality, but for your first world problems enjoyment: today I can’t sleep in because the cleaning lady is coming.

I know, I know. That sounds just awful. But let me temper it by saying I work from home, nights, weekends, holidays are all fair game, and most days I choose to sleep until 9 or so (although I get up at 6 to make breakfast for my daughter and go back to bed). Then I get up and work until…..? Whatever it takes. That doesn’t sound as bad does it? I haven’t had a vacation in 8 years that I didn’t work every day. It’s just my reality. It’s also why I have a cleaning lady. Since I am always working in my home, by the time I stop working, the last thing I want to do is work ON my home. I just want to BE. She’s inexpensive and comes every other week to do the heavy stuff.

I started a company quite by accident 8 years ago, and now have 35 people who work for me, all from home. The beauty of the job has been the absolute flexibility to be a mom to my kids since they were in middle school. I never had to miss anything, and I was always home with them after school.

Anyway, the cleaning lady comes early, so I can’t catch a little nap before starting the day today. This tea is waking me up! It’s nice. I like it. Not as much as Butuki’s Malty Irish Breakfast but it’s a nice bold kick in the pants nevertheless.

Thank you for a generous sample of this, Cavocorax! I am so happy to be able to sample the famous Damn Fine Teas!

I had this on a Saturday morning, when I was still in the woods, while sitting on the porch and listening to birds chirping. I decided to also have it this morning and right now I am sipping on the very last drops of the second steep of this.

I remember the time when black tea used to be just… black tea. Terroirs? Harvests? Blends? Single origins? Whaddya mean, my friend? Those times are long gone ;)

The first time I had it I recognized it as a kind of black tea I am usually less drawn to. It’s bold, noticingly astringent (although not unpleasantly so), even a tad bitter. But then, at the same time, it also appears to be mild, a little sweet and refreshing. The balance here is amazing because you can just go on saying “this tea is x but it’s also y” about most any quality of it. You’d think it makes it careful kind of boring? No way! This tea is taking some names with its bold uniqueness, it certainly takes mine. You just want to keep on drinking it even though it might not be entirely your thing, like in my case. It’s just DAMN GOOD.

The only complaint I would have is that this tea seems not to be able to go well beyond two steeps. And even with the second one you gotta make sure you add at least 2 minutes on the top of 4 minutes you wait for the first infusion. Also, the second steep comes out much more mild and docile anyway. Which is not a bad thing for a fan of sweeter blacks like myself.

Thank you so much for this sample, Cavocorax! I still have enough left for about 2 servings. Yum!

It’s strong, it’s dark, it’s punchy.

It will wake you, shake you, smack you….and then…it will sooth you, comfort you, love you.

Yes, this tea is kind of abusive. “Stay away” you’re gonna say…but I can’t…I loooove it!!!

It’a Damn Fine Tea.

And it knows how to treat a fairy on a Sunday morning in her tea nook.

Pic:

http://instagram.com/p/yj1CGUQh_T/

Wham! Bam! Thank you “Damn”!

That’s all.

(Oh and thanks Dexter3657 for sending more of this my way!)

Oh they know they are special, don’t they…I now understand why they don’t offer samples, why they only sell 4oz tins. Who’d want just a tiny little supply of this god damn fine tea?

I promise, you have a sip of this, and you want to curse like a lumberjack in action. %$&#&?!?&# this is good!!!

Full bodied, malty, just a little smoky, very assertive yet smooth, a Mr. Personality!

It’s not fancy, there are no poetic inspiration that comes to mind when I drink it…

It just pleases me in every possible way.

It’s as if I had spoken to my tea this morning and said something like this «TEA, I command you to taste like a slap in the face and satisfy my every desires like no other tea has ever done in the morning!» and this is what I would have gotten.

Thanks Dexter3657 for paying attention by adding this one for me, I understand why it’s her favourite blend. I was dying to try, but not willing to commit. Now it will be hard to stop me from placing an order.

My first impressions of this tea were of texture, even when thinking about flavour. I found it to be smooth and soft,with fruit and biscuit above malt and smoke, with a dense texture provided by tannins and a sharper aftertaste. It is pleasant and easily drinkable with a slight astringency on the tongue. There is a hint of cocoa but not really chocolate, a hint of apple blossom, leather, malt and biscuit with smoke in the aftertaste. The flavours all blend smoothly into each other. The tea smells of smoke,biscuit, leather, dried currants, apple and malt and the colour was a rich mahogany. I think I was expecting this tea to be a little more robust than it tasted but it is definitely well crafted. Thanks Dexter3657 for the opportunity to Try my first Andrews and Dunham tea!

I received this tea as part of the Steepsteristas’ Yarn and Tea Swap! So pumped to try this tea – I was on the verge of doing an order, but since A&D didn’t take paypal, plus the large tin sizes, it was enough for me to back off for now.

This is pure malty goodness. First sip was, “now that’s a black tea!” Very bold, smooth yet sharp. Malty, little raisin notes with a brisk finish. Slight creamyness too. Small amount of dryness at the end.

Yum! Now I need to sample more of A&Ds teas, or just cave in with an order!

I had this multiple times while in vacation and this morning i was finally able to finish off the last of it. Nice to be getting through some of my older teas. I enjoyed this one while i had it, but it’s not my favourite of the damn fine teas. If something like this one comes back, not sure if i’d pick it up again. just not interesting enough to be worth the price, and if i’m getting an every day sort of tea from DFT, i’d rather pick up double knit or one of the other larger tins.

yay for march! figured it was as good an excuse as any to drink this “spring” tea :) I’m getting to the end of it and it’s for sure better now that i’s older. When i initially had it, i didn’t enjoy this nearly as much.

I have the “pleasure” of doing a release this long weekend so i’m working from home for the next two days. The benefit of that is that i get to work on some samples, organise my tea cupboard and get the GCTTB out the door. I pulled this one out this morning since there was a request to add this one to the box. Nice to revisit this but imo this is one of A&D’s lesser offerings. Still a decent cup but i’m not sad to see it go?

first cup from this morning. Really trying to get through some of my older teas, even the limited edition ones so that i’ve got smaller quantities. While i enjoy this offering from Damn fine tea, especially as it aged, it’s not my favourite from them, so i often pull out others before this one. Nothing wrong with it, but i prefer the boldness of their other offerings to this one, which is a less bold tea.

pulled this out today – so many teas and now i’m going to see how long i can go without making a purchase. No trips planned and i just got my order in from bellocq, so i think i can do this. Ideally i’d like to get my cupboard down to the 50 that i wanted it to be at by the end of the year, though that isn’t going to happen anymore (i’ll be lucky if i can get to 75 which is what i started this year at). I like how this has changed since it came out. Much more delicious now that it’s a little older – smoother and maltier :)

pulled this one out today because i figure i should maybe get through drinking it before it’s spring again haha. Not much to say beyond the fact that i’m still enjoying this one.

guys i’m so tired. 2 days in a row of wandering and walking and running wedding errands. I am SO glad it’s along weekend and SO glad tomorrow is “winery” day. this kicked off my day and while it was a decent cup, it wasn’t quite what i wanted.

I brought this one out today in light of A&D bringing out a new tea that i desperately want but will have to wait until after the wedding to think about purchasing. Thankfully it’s not a limited edition. I am still enjoying this one, and am finding with my second tin, that the tea has gotten better with age, maybe it had more of a chance to dry out? Who knows. Either way, i still rather enjoy this one!