Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

So happy to have this back in my cupboard, along with a new tin of Tiger Assam, & more Caravan.
So, I drank this hours ago, before I left the house to play 3 church services. The first 2 services were at one of those congregations that are televised. There were 3 tv cameras, 2 guys running sound (one for the recording, one for the audience to hear), 2 guys running lights, etc. On stage there was a band with 2 guitars, bass & drums, one of the pastors played keyboard & sang, the other one talked, there was an awesome choir, amazing soloists, etc. The highlight was “Do you hear what I hear”, which included 3 guys playing african drums, the entire band & choir, various soloists, & even a rapper! Something for everybody, right?. I played before & after the service, did my jazzy new agey rendition of ‘O Come o come Emmanuel’ as a solo, accompanied a guy who sang ‘the first noel’, & played some pieces at the end.

Then I drove across town to a scottish Episcopal church, where I played for a meditative celtic service. They wanted soft medieval & scottish tunes, a few carols. All done very quietly. No glitz, no glammer.

I’m not a church goer, myself. Nothing against it. It’s just not part of my spiritual practice. But I’m always available for hire.
Now I’m home. I feel that I didn’t get to drink enough tea today. But I did enjoy this one earlier, rich & delicious with just enough smokiness. It was just what I needed, before heading out into the cold (24F or so).

Harpy HoliDaze, everyone!

Sipdown!
It’s hard to believe this one is officially gone from my cupboard!
I’m also very low on Tiger Assam & Caravan. It’s been 29 days since I ordered tea, & I’m sure I’ll restock all three of these. Mount Gray, on the other hand, just isn’t doing it for me.

I also steeped this one, filling my insulated go cup so I could sip on hot tea during my gig.

Good morning! I worked on a pot of this nicely bold & lightly smokey brew while fixing breakfast. I’m getting a little low, on this & my other Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Teas. I’ll probably run out just in time for Black Friday!

Little terri & I are staging a rebellion this morning, just thought you’d like to know. We spent the last 2 weeks (under Ms Theresa’s orders) drinking an endless number of sipdowns. Now admittedly, some of them were quite delicious, especially those coming from our awesome trade with NofarS. That project ended last friday, just in time for the Here’s Hoping TTB box to arrive, followed by the BBB box on Saturday.

According to Ms. Theresa, we have to sample ALL THE TEAS in the HHBox. We already sampled ALL THE TEAS in the BBB Box first (she thought we should do the HHBox first…control freak!). So Ms. Theresa is saying things like:
“You might never get a chance to sample these again! I thought you said we had to try ALL THE TEAS?”
“I might like one of these. I won’t know if we don’t sample it!”
“BLAH BLAH BLAH…”
Ms. Theresa yells a lot! If you don’t know her, she is the critical office lady in my head, the residing adult in there too, & even though she is sometimes mean, she has mad skills as an office lady, designing my website, my wordpress, all the forms I use, paying bills, balancing the budget. She’s just not much fun.

So me & little terri are rebelling. We don’t want to drink ALL THE TEAS, we just want to drink OUR teas, because they are awesome! That’s why we are drinking this cup of tea. Shhhhhhh…don’t tell Ms. Theresa!

One of the things I love about having a large collection of teas is drinking something different every day. I think if you drink the same tea every day, after awhile monotony sets in & you don’t really taste (or maybe even remember) what made that tea so special to you to begin with. I noticed a long time ago that when eating sweets, I actually only tasted the first 2 or 3 bites, & then it was Cone Head Mode, “Consume Massive Quantities”, mindlessly cramming it down my throat, tasting nothing. It can be the same with other foods, beverages, & all aspects of life.

I want to be present & savor the moment. Drinking a variety of teas help me to be here now, to sip & savor, & to love the variety/creativity that is life!

I like this tea. It is bold & manly, even a little smokey, but there is also a sweetness to it, a little brightness as well. Good Morning!

As a counterpoint, I decided to have a cup of this.
This one is all malty & light smoke, & even a little fruity too.
I love drinking tea!
It’s amazing how these leaves can take on so many tastes & aromas, & each be delicious in their own right. Are you with me?

My first tea of the day, & I love the bold, sweet, & mildly smokey & malty character of this deliciously smooth cup!

This tea is like the younger brother to Tiger Assam.
Tiger gets most of the attention because Tiger is so awesome, & older brothers usually do, but DK (that’s Double Knit’s nickname around the house) is also awesome, he’s just overshadowed a bit.
Right now we’re having a wonderful breakfast together, & he’s a little bit of a hipster, but he’s actually kind of hot. I heard him singing, “space cowboy” a little while ago, “I’m a joker, I’m a smoker…” ;)

I enjoy straight varieties of tea, as they each have their strengths & occasional weaknesses, but a good blend is nice too, & this one is especially good. I’m not gonna sit here & try to analyze the genetic pedegree, although there is Keemun in there to be sure.
I’m just gonna enjoy his company, & maybe sing along.

Hey Sil, remember when I first got this tea & dropped the cannister & some of it spilled out onto the floor? Remember that I scooped it up & put it into a recycled Ahmad tea cannister (because I didn’t want to put it back into the real cannister, which I was going to send you a sample from)… Well, today I finally finished the spilled tea from the Ahmad can, of course, I can’t really count it as a sipdown, since I still have plenty left in the original can. But I knew that you’d like to know! Hahaha!

I like this tea. I like the Tiger Assam better, but this is damn fine tea (sorry, I love saying that) too. Its a nice full tasting brew, with a hint of smoke. Very satisfying! I made a 16 oz in my stainless & ceramic sippy cup to drink en route to a concert I played today over in Illinois. It was perfect.

A nice way to bring my Keemun drinking day to a close, at least for now. Of course, this isn’t a straight Keemun, but there’s enough in this blend to lend the gentle smokiness & sweetness. I love Andrew’s & Dunhams Damn Fine Teas!

The bills are paid!
I fixed myself some lunch & a cup of this tea, which is bold & manly, & then I checked my mail & I have a package from Canada! YAY!!!
I didn’t expect it to come so soon. While I’ve been enjoying this cup of damn fine tea, I’ve been playing with all the samples Sil sent to me. I’m SO excited! Thanks for trading with me, Sil!

Now I’m keeping my fingers crossed & holding my breath until the box I sent arrives…

(To be chanted by a group of cheerleaders, shaking pompoms…or maybe a rapper?)

“Guess who finished their taxes??
Me, myself, & I!
Guess who gets a refund
Terri, Theresa, & Me
We rocked it!
We rolled it!
We slapped that ℬÎ✞₵Ḧ & owned it!
YEAH!”

Hopefully I haven’t offended anyone with the above rhyme :D
This is what happens when I suffer from sleep deprivation.
Tony will tell you to never take a road trip with me, as I have a variety of rock album lyrics memorized & like to sing them in the car, sometimes changing the words to fit my mood. The last time we went to chicago I sang pretty much all the way home.

So my taxes are done. I drank 2 more cups of Tiger Assam, the final cup with Stevia & creamer, & it was oh, so good! I usually drink my blacks straight, but there are exceptions to all rules.

Double knit is also quite tasty with stevia & creamer, it really brings out the caramel flavors that come with the hint of smoke.
I’m going to celebrate with Second Breakfast! And more tea!

So here’s the story:
I spent the weekend at Tony’s, bringing all of my newly arrived Damn Fine Teas with me, which I thoroughly enjoyed sampling. As I was packing my bag to make the 5 minute drive back home (yes, we each own our own homes, 5 minutes away from each other), I dropped the tin of this tea, the lid popped off, & roughly 1/4 cup spilled out onto the floor.

At my house we have what is called the ‘5 second rule’, meaning if you pick it up quickly & dust it off, no harm done. At Tony’s house, the floors are immaculate & you could probably leave it there for a week, & still pick it up clean & drink it. BUT because I’m doing a trade with Sil, I put the ‘floor tea’ in a separate container (Tony had an empty Ahmad tin). So Sil, you can rest assured that the tea I am sending you did not come off the floor.
This also means I can drink the tea from the Ahmad container with wild abandon until it’s gone.
I made a whole pot to drink while teaching this morning. It’s pretty nice! :)

This is some Damn Fine Tea!
Bold, malty, slightly sweet with a hint of smoke & a ray of sunshine!

I haven’t been drinking as many Assam teas lately. I tend to be more focused on Chinese teas, as I love their flavor profiles, but I do also enjoy a good assam, & this is one. A little bit tart & tangy, with a fair amount of malt, it is smooth, bold, & delicious.

One of the pleasures of having adult children who live with you (if you’ve raised them right) is getting them to cook breakfast, & knowing that it will be tasty! In my house, everybody knows how to cook! So while I’ve been balancing checkbooks, cleaning off my desk, printing out my boarding pass, paying bills, etc, my 2 sons have been fixing breakfast.
Pretty sweet deal, eh?
Now I’m enjoying a short break, with brekkie & a pot of Tiger, which is a tasty go-to for when I want something robust, and don’t want to fuss with things. Quick, easy, & satisfying. That’s my mode right now. I’d like to spend the day in gongfu sessions, but there’s too much to do. Next stop: The boys (they are actually men, at this point) & I are heading out into the garden for the pop-quiz: making sure they know what to pick, where & how to water, & some weeding would be nice to, eh?

I made a pot of this earlier to share with my guitar player friend during our rehearsal. I think maybe it was too strong for him, as he only drank half of his cup. I drank the other 2 (that pot holds 3). One time when he came I served him some Sheng, which he totally loved.

We’re playing a gig next thurs night. We’ll start with a duet he wrote, then each play 3 original instrumentals or something, then another duet or 2. That’s the first set.
The 2nd set we’ll start with an Irish medley, then a couple jazz solos each, then we’ll play some latin jazz together. It should be an interesting gig!

The tea? Bold & black. For a more in depth review, visit one of my previous posts on it :)
Sorry, I’m a lamer…

I drank a pot of this with breakfast this morning. I only had one pot of tea, & then left the house to play a wedding. it was a really fun wedding. The bride had selected all mostly classic rock tunes for the prelude. The family was seated to Crash Into Me, the Bridesmaids entered to Just Breath, the Bride walked in to Here Comes the Sun. Other songs I enjoyed playing: To Make You Feel My Love, Free Falling, Don’t Stop Believing, How Sweet it is to be Loved By You, & a bunch of other fun tunes, some which I already knew, some which I learned this week.

So, I thoroughly enjoyed this malty Assam, & my only regret was that the pot was empty far too soon.

I made a nice sized pot of this to drink with breakfast, & as always, it’s such a substantial Assam, so nicely balanced.

Uh…is Steepster acting weird for anyone besides me? I’ve started to log this twice now, & both times in the middle of typing the screen suddenly shifted back to my review of Lord Petersham. Whatever…

So I actually drank this yesterday in commemoration of ordering a tin of A & D’s new tea, Spring. This Assam blend is always reliable for it malty taste & bold kick in the butt!

I get my vanilla from Penzey’s, & when you get to the bottom of the vanilla bottle, there is harp of a vanilla bean in there. The main thing I used vanilla for is almond flour pancakes, so I usually squeeze out the seeds into the batter. Today I dropped the bean into my cup of this tea, just for fun.

At first I thought it might be a fail: I could smell the remaining alcohol from the vanilla, but I let it sit for a few, added a little sweetening, & it was damn right tasty! We had pancakes, so this made for an after breakfast treat.

I’ve been drinking almost all black teas lately. This sometimes results in my taste buds being jaded, not allowing for the full appreciation of teas. I need to take time to include some green teas back into my life, for variety at least.

Having said all that, it was still nice to drink a potent cup of this :)

Why do I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything today?
I woke up at 7, wrote in my journal, did my blend of Qigong, Taichi, & Yoga.
I made myself a good breakfast.
I met with clients at 10:00, played for them, booked their wedding, & got their music setup.
I set up this year’s annual Harp Society Recital, making arrangements with the church who hosts it, & sending announcements to our google group & facebook page (I’m president).
I answered emails & booked another wedding, sending the contract.
I returned a few phone calls.
I finished doing my laundry & put it away.
So…sigh…why do I feel like I haven’t done enough? Probably because there is still a never ending list of things to do.
I drank a pot of this tea while I was doing some of them. It’s a great stand by for when I want something satisfying, but uncomplicated. A rich malty assam that is very balanced & fool proof.
“Now back to work”, Ms Theresa said…somewhere in my head.