Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea
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I don’t know why I don’t drink my smokey teas more often.
I mean, initially some of them kind of freaked me out a little, but that is no longer the case, and I really enjoy the smokey element.
This one has a thick body, an almost syrupy sweetness, and just enough smoke to curl up into my sinuses :)
It’s been awhile since I drank a smokey tea. No real reason, just not that into them lately. But today I realized a pot of this would be nice with lunch, and so there it was. When I first tried smokey teas, they kind of freaked me out, but now I enjoy them. Not something I want every day, but today it seemed right.
Still watering the garden. I planted 5 different varieties of Sweet Potatoes this year. Some of them are showing great signed on productivity! Others don’t appear to be all that robust. No matter, I’ll enjoy whatever I get. I’m hoping the first frost takes it’s sweet time, to give them as long as possible to grow. This is the biggest sweet potato crop I’ve ever planted, & I’ve been thinking recently that I really need to figure out where I’m going to store them all this winter, because I could really end up with ALOT of sweet potatoes (which is a good thing, I eat one almost every day, they are SO good).
Breakfast was leftover fajitas from last night, with an egg on top, & a pot of this tea. It seemed like a good pairing for something spicy, & it was! Rich & smokey, a little sweet, & rather bold. A very big contrast from the purple tea gongfu session. I will say that it is tasting kind of woody to me today, but I probably over-tea-ed a bit, while I’m doing all this multi-tasking.
My first cooking project of the day is well underway: slow roasted tomatoes. I’m using a mix of Italian paste, & my beloved San Marzanos, drizzled with olive oil & salt. They’ll be in the over at 300 for about the next 3 hours or so. Now back to the garden.
heh. ALOT of sweet potatoes. http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html
LOL, cute!
bet you never spell it wrong again.
Talk about a sweet potato extravaganza haha. I wonder how much they differ from each other.
Starfevre, don’t count on it, cuz I don’t really care if it offends anybody. That’s their problem, not mine. I know it’s actually spelled ‘a lot’, but when I’m typing I don’t really care. Sometimes my spell checker fixes it, sometimes it doesn’t.
Fjellrev, some are sweeter, some are starchier. There’s the japanese kind that are almost purple outside & white inside, I think there’s a cuban one that is yellow on the inside, there’s a white sweet potato (really more of a cream color), an orange one, & a darker orange one, I think. The lighter they are, the more starchy they are, but they are still way sweeter than white potatoes. I’m excited :)
Ooh, I love the Japanese ones. I can get them fairly inexpensively here, and when I see them I make sure and buy a bunch!
That’s awesome that you’re going to have such variety like that! I’ve been meaning to try the purple ones but keep wimping out.
The japanese ones are especially nice diced up for hash browns as a sub for regular taters, and really awesome diced up, fried in coconut oil, & sprinkled with cinnamon…yum yum yum!
Yeah Baby!
I made an 8oz cup, unsweet, to enjoy with breakfast, & a 16oz pot, sweetened with Maple, to enjoy for dessert! Now this tin is polished off, & it would be a sipdown, except I actually have another tin waiting in the wings. Oh well, at least now there is a little more room in the smoky teas box.
Oh yeah!
What a great contrast to the Irish Breakfast & Malty Irish Breakfast. Sure, it’s another bold tea blend, but this one features a decent level of smokiness, which at one point would have made me feel panicky, but now I really enjoy. Adding a little sweetener of some kind (sigh…Maple syrup) really brings out the caramel notes of the smoke, but I really enjoyed it today just plain, & it really is a nice sweet blend!
So of course, I looked up “A Passage to Bankok” on youtube, posted it on my FB, & drank a cup of this while watching the video a couple of times. LOL, it seemed like the appropriate tea.
It’s been awhile since I drank a cup of this, & although I used to avoid smokey teas, I’ve begun to develop a taste for them. I drank this while cooking breakfast, so no analysis or anything, but I can say without a doubt that this is damn fine tea!
I fall in and out of love with smokey teas. Right now I’m just starting to like them again
I’m the same way! I have about 2oz of Russian Caravan to drink up so it’s a good thing I’d getting more into smokey teas again!
I am the same way too. I like them a lot when the weather is cold and rainy.
Yeah, I’m just like you guys. Sometimes I really like them, other times it’s, “no thank you”.
I have yet to find a smoky tea I like.
My piano tuner came today for his annual visit. It was 8am, we were both groggy, but he perked up nicely when I offered him a cup of tea. When I asked what time he preferred, his response was, “Oh, anything will do.” He started to lift the lid off my piano, then turned back, “but if you have anything smokey, I’ll be in Heaven!” He smiled.
How often do your guests ask for a smokey tea? Mine never do! I hooked him up with this Caravan, & he loved it!
Oh gee, I had the guy from whose shop I bought my piano come over to fix a sticky key and he declined my offer for tea. I was so sad! And this reminds me too, I really need to get the tuner in here soon (maybe he will want tea. haha)
It’s always exciting when guests ask for a specific tea!
But so, so sad when they just decline, or don’t touch the house tea. :c
What do your guests most often ask for?
A lot of people decline when I offer them tea, which is always disappointing. The ones who accept tend to ask for green tea most often.
I’ve been working at my desk all morning, answering phone calls & emails, booking gigs, etc. There is still a ton to do, always…
So it’s my lunch break, & I was trying to decide on a tea. Some part of my conscience keeps saying I should drink more green or white, or whatever, but really I just want another cup of black tea. Why not this?
Smokey teas are not my passion, but while drinking a cup of Keemun awhile back, I realized I do like a little smoke, as long as it doesn’t get to crazy! Also, drinking this tea, which is substantial through & through, not just a cup of smokiness, is making me want to BBQ something, or maybe use this tea as a marinade for something…
“Oh, I would love to love you…pigs might fly…”
I have not had a passion for smokey teas. The first few I tasted freaked me out. I’m still surprised that I bought this, to be quite honest. But I’ll try anything, at least once.
I DO like smoked foods: salmon, bacon, etc.
Anyway, I drank a cup of this while I was cooking breakfast. One thing I’ve discovered with smokey teas is that when they are sweet they take on a caramel-like flavor, or maybe its the taste of brown sugar that’s been given the flambe treatment. It wasn’t bad…
I didn’t really care much for this today.
It IS a nice bold earl, very flavorful. The base tea is nice, and it seemed like a good idea as an after breakfast cup, lightly sweetened.
It wasn’t.
It’s probably me. I probably used too much leaf.
Oh well, I am trying to drink everything once a month, & although I’m not really accomplishing that goal, I’m trying to get to the ones I didn’t drink last month, & most of them are flavored teas. I’ve noticed I don’t have trouble getting through the really nice full leaf teas.
This one will probably end up in the ‘Tony box’, since he loves the Earl.
I used to enjoy an occasional Earl Grey over ice.
Then I didn’t.
I didn’t really like it hot either.
The bergamot seemed acidic, I don’t know what happened, really.
For a long time I didn’t like any earls…maybe they were just crappy ones that I was sampling.
But Tony loves Earl Grey, so I started picking up samples for him to try, to support his addiction. I took a sip of them here & there.
Then I started maybe enjoying them a little.
It started with the Earl of Grey by The Tea Spot, which Tony didn’t like. It tasted like lemon bars (think lemon curd on a pastry crust…delicious).
Then it was Jubilee from London Tea Room, his favorite, which is heavily laced with Orange, as well as bergamot. I didn’t like this one at first, it seemed really harsh to me, but then I started kind of liking it a little.
Some of them I still don’t really like. Maybe the bergamot is artificial or something.
So that brings me to Mount Gray.
I wasn’t sure if I should buy it. There’s 3 oz or so in the tin it comes in, that’s a lot of tea for something I might not like.
I bought it for Tony to sample. If I didn’t like it, he could have the whole tin.
He doesn’t get to have it. This tea is delicious. I will share it with him, of course, but the truth is, I love it.
The tea base is sufficiently bold & worthy, the bergamot is strong but not acidic, and not fake tasting, & there is a lingering aftertaste that I haven’t quite identified yet, but I like it.
Yay!
I feel like our swap is going to soon be “Terri sends a giant box of awesome teas to sil, who can’t find anything in her cupboard worthy of the awesomeness that Terri has sent that Terri hasn’t already got in her cupboard” lol
Naw! You got 300 teas in there! I suspect that any tea you love, I’ll love, & we’ll all love together, or something sappy like that. Plus, you have a lot of teas I haven’t tried.
Yep, just cruised your cupboard, & you have tons of amazing sounding items I’ve never tried from companies I’ve never ordered from!
It’s gonna be an awesome swap!
It’s gonna be the best swap ever!
We got this!
I should get to making a list…eesh good thing the other half isn’t up yet haha
I tried Earl Grey once, a very very long time ago. I don’t remember the brand, but it was a cheap tea bag of some sort. I was sooo excited to try it because a very old and wise-looking wiccan man said the Earl Grey was the only tea worth drinking. Tea of the Gods he said. I thought it was going to be something really spectacular. But it was the most nasty thing ever and I was so sad :( lol. I want to believe that it was just a bad bag of tea, but I’ve been to afraid to try any Earl Grey ever again.
Just stopping by for a minute to say good morning, while I enjoy a cup of double knit. It’s easy, & doesn’t require any thinking, which is handy this early in the morning when I’m trying to get out the door to play gig #4 of the Harpy HoliDaze!
And here I go…
Started the morning with one of my breakfast bowls, this one including some really pretty sweet potatoes (yellow orange almost tie die looking on the inside!) & multiplier onions, both from my garden, along with a pot of this one. I always enjoy a good breakfast blend.
Good morning my tea slurping darlings!!
I’m in a really mood today! I woke up early during a thunder storm, drifted back to sleep until 9ish, had a hot headache (I ate at Qdoba last night, so probably from some preservative or other chem in their salsa), did some yoga & deep breathing, & although I can still feel something in my head, I decided I wanted an awesome breakfast. Pancakes, berries, maple, & homemade turkey apple maple sausages (let me know if you want the recipe, piece of cake to make).
I wanted a simple pot of black to tea to drink while prepping food, so I went with this one. I love the boldness, the smoothness, & the light smokiness. Now for breakfast!
A good mood? ;)
LOL, yep, A really good mood! Just feeling really happy for some weird reason I have yet to figure out. Why bother trying? I’m just gonna enjoy the day!
Haha, that’s great – enjoy!!
You too! :)
I love being called a “tea slurping darling” ;-)
I knew you would! :)
Welcome to Day 1 of Little Terri’s Ultimate Sipdown Extravaganza!
My goal is to complete as many sipdowns as possible, while still enjoying the teas to the fullest, so it’s not like I plan to fly through 100 teas in a week, I’m just trying to drink up all of my small quantities that I’ve been tossing into a box. It might last a week, it might last a month, who knows? Feel free to join me as I free myself of various tea remnants from TTBS, TOMCs, & trades (mostly from Sil).
I don’t really have very many plain black teas to sipdown, so I’ve decided one of the parameters of this extravaganza is to enjoy a nice big pot or gongfu session with any black tea I choose, first thing in the morning. After that, let the sipdowns begin!
Today is was a pot of this blend, which I really enjoy. It’s rich & manly, & a great way to start the day!
This is one of those teas I like to drink by the pot, & I was in the mood for making a 16oz pot of tea when I woke up. So I did. Some people would find this tea to be smokey, & it is mildly smokey, & stylish, in it’s own way, like this one guy who used to come to my gigs about 20 years ago at this one coffee house. He had a style all has his own, some kind of french impressionist era/middle eastern/hippy fusion. He was very learned when it came to the arts, or at least fancied himself to be so, & he played the sitar. He’d sit there listening with his eyes closed, sipping tiny cups of expresso, twirling the corners of his mustache, & smoking kreteks (clove cigarettes). During my break he’d have pseudo-intellectual conversations with people, discussions regarding the virtues & failings of anything from the artwork on the wall, to books they had read, musicians they had heard, etc. There were a lot of interesting people that hung out at that coffee shop back in the day. When that place closed down, as most places along those lines eventually do, who knows where everyone went?
