Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

One of my daughter’s friends showed up this morning to pick up my grandson to keep him for the day while my daughter is at work. Ari was already gone, & Ky was still asleep, so we had tea. Turns out Ari’s friend is a tea lover! Yay! Her son went up to wake up Ky, & we sipped on this Assam while the boys had some breakfast, & off they went. I sent a care package of tea samples with her, basically samples of all of the A & D teas. I told her when those were gone, come back & I’ll give her samples of another brand. I love sharing tea!

This morning my 3 adult live-at-home kids & I fixed a nice breakfast to share. We don’t really celebrate xmas in the traditional sense, but it’s nice to have a family brekkie. On New Year’s Day we’ll have our family celebration to ring in the new year, with my other daughter, Tony & his daughter, my grandkids, etc. Lots of food, a few presents (although we keep that pretty minimal), & lots of laughter, cuz that’s what we’re all about here! There will be the annual family photo by the stairs, which will show up on FB, & a good time will be had by all.

I’m glad to have this robust assam back in my collection. I’m also glad the bitter taste is out of my mouth, because although I don’t mind a little bitterness (to remind me of how sweet life really is), I hate it when everything tastes that way.

Sipdown? Where did all this tea go?
I guess I drank it & shared it with friends. That is, after all, what we do with tea, right? Still, it’s hard to believe that my tin of Tiger is empty! I wish they sold a refill, that would be perfect. Maybe I’ll send them an email about it. If not, their tins are awesome & can be filled with something else, with a homemade paper label added. My shelves are full of such things!

A wonderfully substantial Assam, with a growl & a bite! I will miss you…at least for now!

I ran into a friend at the Farmer’s Market a few weeks ago. I’ve known her for 27 years, our kids knew each other growing up, but we rarely find time to hang out, so she came over for breakfast today. Almond flour pancakes, berries, homemade sausage patties, & Tiger Assam!! Bold & beautiful! :)
It was nice to have a little time to relax with a friend, even if I had to get up a little earlier than usual to do so (she was here at 9am!)

First cup of the day, bold, sweet, slightly astringent.
Delicious.

This is such an awesome cup of goodness, so deliciously bold & malty.
After spending all day yesterday sampling teas that were mostly blah,
I’m really taking great pleasure in this cup.
Remember the movie, “When Harry met Sally?”
I’m like Sally right now, during the famous scene where she’s talking about women faking orgasms (am I allowed to say that word here?).
“Yes!! Oh God Yes!!….”

First tea of the day, a nice bold cup of Assaaaaaam (said with a growl in my throat, pretending to be a tiger). I thought I had to be at the salt room at 9 this morning, so I slurped through my breakfast soup, & poured this cup of tea back & forth through a couple of ceramic cups to bring it down to sipping temp quicker so I could drink it before I go. About half-way through the cup, I realize my appointment at the salt room is tomorrow at 9, so I sat back down, sipped the last couple of sips, & I suddenly I don’t have to do anything until my students begin to arrive at 11:00. Bubble bath!!

What’s the salt room, you ask? It’s a place near my home where you can relax for an hour & breath in microfinely salted air. It’s like gargling with salt water with your whole body (minus the water, nobody wants to drown!). It’s especially helpful for people with respiratory issues, which is why I go from time to time, but has also been shown to help skin problems, etc. There are salt rooms in Australia, Toronto, Dallas, Detroit, Knoxville, Cleveland and Chicago. Anyway, there’s a ton of info about salt therapy on their website,
http://mysaltspa.com/

This is currently one of my favorite Assams, along with #49 & Premium Taiwanese. All 3 of them are very different from one another, but all delicious.

It appears that my allergies are back. I haven’t been drinking my Nettles, & grass & weed levels are rising now that we’ve had so much rain!
Note to self: Start drinking Nettles again!

Backtracking from earlier in the day. There is only one thing more for me to say regarding this tea (having already written about it several times).
“I LOVE IT”
:D

Is there any doubt that this is Damn Fine Tea?
Pleasantly Malty & bold & even a little sweet. It’s perfect to kick my butt into gear this morning.
Guess I’d better go do something!

I’m having a quiet morning at Tony’s house. He just left for the country with his best friend, they’re going to start an old tractor for the friend’s dad, & having a guy day. I’m relaxing with this tea, contemplating breakfast, & just chilling. I plan to leap into action soon, as I want to spend the day in my garden with my son Leif.

This is one of my favorite teas right now. Of course, I have several favorites, LOL, but this one is definitely among the elite overall, & as far as Assams go for sure. It’s bold, malty, earthy. The flavor is very full, & very tasty. I’m down to a quarter of a tin, I drink this way more than any of the other A&D teas I have, because it’s the best!

Getting ready to load up to go play a wedding, & the tin this tea comes in caught my eye.
Exactly what I needed.
To me, this Assam is like comfort food.

First Tea of the Day. YUM!
Enough said!

I’m cheating, sort of…
I have this list & I’m suppose to drink each tea on the list before I can start over. Those are Ms Theresa’s rules, of course, which we try to follow, but today I said, “hell no”.

I’m leaving to play a wedding, I’m really tired, I’ve had some nice tea, but nothing that’s substantial enough to kick me into high gear, & I know that THIS one is just what I need, so I’m drinking it!

So THERE, Ms TherEsa! ;)

Good morning Steepster! I should be sleeping, but I have a gig at noon, so I’m starting my day with a cup of Damn Fine Tea. Bold, Beautiful, & I’ll be taking the resteep to the bubble bath (because I drank the first cup too fast)

Headed out to a rehearsal in a few minutes.
I actually started with Qu Hao Silk by the Teaspot, but I’ll have to ‘add a tea’ & tell you about it later.

This will be a busy day, rehearsal 10 to 12, a few errands, students 3 – 5, sound check 7:00, concert at 8:00. More info on my FB, for those who want to hear a sample of the style of stuff we’re doing.

I love this Tiger!! I need a good Assam to get me going today, as I stayed up practicing until 2:00, again!!

Update: I’m at the rehearsal. I’m not playing during this number, so I’m sipping my Assam & reading reviews on my iPad. I just realized that THIS was my 666th review!
There must be something auspicious about THAT, right? :D

I will finish my taxes!
Taxes are a bitch when you’re self-employed!
My office looks like a cross between a hoarders episode & a game show that requires you to balance random things in precarious piles, we’ll call it, “How High can you stack it?”. My filing methods will probably end up in the Smithsonian some day as a display of “most insane filing system ever”.
Amazingly, I do have a system for keeping track of my receipts & such. I’ve been doing my own taxes for a long time, & although some years have been rather traumatic (mainly because I didn’t know what I was doing), this isn’t one of them.
The hard part is just getting myself to sit at my desk & do it.
I worked last night from 10 til 4am, & probably would have finished, but I needed a form from my son’s college, which luckily he had.
I got up at 8:30, got the form, & I’m almost done. Just taking a breakfast break (cooked by my other son), & drinking my 2nd cup of awesome boldness.

First cup of the Day!
Tony just left for the gym, I’m suppose to be making breakfast:
paleo pancakes, maple syrup, bacon, eggs, & more tea, of course!
I gotta time it so it isn’t ready too soon…

My Damn Fine Tea order arrived yesterday evening! YEAH!
I got home from my gig at 9:00 or so to find the box awaiting me!
Before I even took my harp out of the car & changed out of my gig-clothes, I was heating water. I knew this Tiger Assam was the first one I wanted to try. LiberTEAS had written favorably about it monthes ago, & I kept visiting the A&D website, but for some reason I kept putting it off (could it be because I already have way more tea than any one woman should be allowed to own?)

Anyways, I used to drink alot of Assam, but lately I’ve been really heavy into the Yunnans. A few weeks ago I started craving Assam teas again, & wanted to build my collection back up. This is the start, & this one does NOT disappoint! It’s delightfully bold, smooth, & malty, with a little sweetness as well. I had another cup this morning, & just drank the resteep of those leaves, which was still suitably potent!

Thanks LiberTEAS for the great review. Thanks Andrews & Dunham for the Damn Fine Tea!

All done :( I thoroughly enjoyed this Earl. What I especially liked about it was that it was a “morning” Earl — bold and good for a wake-up. Even the bergamot was extra fruity (but not perfumey or soapy in the least).

I’m still on a tea buying ban, but I would re-buy this one in a second! One of my loopholes is that I can buy tea if it’s of a type I love and I completely run out of that type. I have a little Earl Grey Supreme in my cupboard, but I think when I’m done it, I will get this Earl again!

I’ve been a reeeeeealy boring tea drinker lately! This one and my dragon pearls have been on heavy rotation.

BUT

…if you are going to be boring, this is the way to do it :)

Strong, strong tea, heavy bergamot flavor, and loads of resteeps make this a great constant-rain-and-unbearable-humidity friend. It just cuts through the misery!

This has been my best friend during these busy end (of semester) times. Delicious, staunch, invigorating, and eminently resteepable. The strong bergamot makes me smile. I can’t believe I’m half way through the tin already! This tea has allowed me to mostly skip the iced coffee IV that I usually self-administer around this time of the year — I’ve only had two!

<3 <3 <3

It’s dreary, rainy, and cold, but what do I care?! I’m on Mount Gray!

As soon as I saw this offered, I knew I had to jump on it — I’m am Earl Grey Fiend and I loved what A&D did with their last Earl. As always, it came lickety-split (with an AWESOME Mount Gray magnet. Thank you! I love the little clever extras A&D include with their teas!).

I think this might be my favorite A&D tin yet. The hand catching the plane! The bear on the top! The wood grain! The color (or mostly lack thereof) scheme! Well done, well done.

Ok, the tea. It’s supremely bergamot-y. The tea base is good and robust. I wanted to take it plain, so I only steeped it for three minutes. Perfect. I can see this one at 4 minutes with milk and sugar if I was in the mood for that, but I wouldn’t take it over three minutes if you are going to drink it plain. It resteeps beautifully. Lighter on the bergamot, but the tea is still completely flavorful and similar to many teas first steeps.

I don’t want to get embroiled in gender politics, but this is a manly Earl Gray if I ever tasted one. I love my delicate Earls, but for those times that you want to cut through exhaustion and fog — this is your man. This is an Earl at 11 :) Great for work, great for school. Love, love, love.

This is a good cup of tea!! I wish I were drinking it a few years back, when I really could tell a lot about teas just from sipping. It’s not clear to me all that’s blended in it, but it’s good!

There’s definitely a bit of assam. And I love that particular flavor. This cup stands up as a strong tea. I highly recommend it.