Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

Two cups of this lovely blend today on a cool, grey day. Perfect start to my week!

I just finished off the last bit of this tea – and based on everyone else having finished it a year ago, I would suspect that this tea is no more (anywhere).

It was so wonderfully rich and sweet, with nutty and caramel flavors and a really rich aroma. It was wonderful with milk and sugar, or just with milk, or with just some sugar, or just by itself – basically any possible combination you could do was perfect.

Alas, it’s gone now, but I’ll be keeping my eye on A&D from now on.

I’m a sucker for good packaging and creative marketing, so I’m prefacing this by saying that I’m already majorly biased. I mean, how can you NOT love tea that’s called Captain Assam’s High Seas Elixir? And comes in a shipper box from which the usps label can be peeled off, and the box can literally be turned inside out to become a very decent gift box? And comes with temporary tatoos that say “Brewed ’n Tattooed”?

However, with that preface, I’m also a fanatical tea drinker who appreciates a good cuppa. So that being said, I’m happy to report that the tea itself is very good as well! I prefer my Assams light and sweet (no milk or sugar please), and this hits the spot.

Brew it with 180 degree water (yes, you heard me correctly), 1-2 tsp. in a 8oz gaiwan, for 5-10 mins, and it yields a honey-sweet cup with floral notes and a wonderful, clean flavor.

I’ve also used this tea to make excellent Tea Eggs. Boil eggs for 10 mins, then crack them all over and put them back in the hot water. Add 2 tablespoons assam tea, plus 1 tablespoon Davids Tea Coco Chai Rooibos, and simmer for another hour. Eat along with a cup of this Assam, and it’s the perfect mid-morning snack.

I would score this tea a 92, but it gets +10 bonus points for the packaging!

First time for this one. I completely missed out on A&D series 1, but later decided that it didn’t really matter since I wasn’t a very big fan of any of the teas in it. Dragonwell has a funny mushy fishy flavour that I only in rare occassions can appreciate, the Himalayans don’t really produce tea at all that suits my particular taste, it’s all rather too Darjeeling-y and I hadn’t had all that good luck with Ceylons either.

In the recent box of hugeness, however, there was a Kenilworth Ceylon from SBS that to my surprise I’ve discovered is really very nice. Fruity and interesting and not at all like the somewhat astringent and stuffy Ceylons I new from before. Bit like an Uva Highlands I had once in the days of yore. I think it was from Chaplon. It was lovely, but no Uva Highlands sample I’ve had since have been able to live up to that. It must have been a remarkably good year that particular year.

So yeah, my interest in Ceylons, which previously occupied the smallest of places, has been poked and prodded by that Kenilworth from SBS, and now I’m thinking if I should perhaps explore it a bit further. Nothing But Tea definitely have a wide Ceylon selection, I’ve had samples from them, but I’m thinking I should possibly do another Ceylon sample set with my next order and have a closer look.

This particular one, I have good expectations of. It’s hard not to considering the company, which is one I’ve had some very good experiences with. And the name of said company.

The dry leaves have a rich aroma with leathery tobacco-y notes and a little fruity and wooden as well. After steeping it’s very sweet and malty, but also a bit spicy and with a somewhat grassy note that took me by surprise. What’s that doing in here?

The flavour, at very first sip, strikes me as unremarkable. Second sip is much the same. Several sips later, nothing has changed. There isn’t really anything in here, it’s just tea-flavoured tea. I can’t find anything special about, nothing even semi-unique.

It’s just tea.

This is the tea for when you don’t really have much time to pay attention to it. It’s the tea to sustain yourself while doing some sort of mindlessly dull chore. It’s for when you have to get up at silly o’clock and can’t taste anything anyway.

I’m ambivalent about this. On the one hand it just goes to show that I was right not to bother being annoyed that I missed out on S1. On the other hand I’m feeling quite let down by my own expectations. It’s not a bad tea at all. It’s just interesting how remarkably uninteresting it is.

This is a really pleasant, staple green tea!

You give some away, you get much more in return……

This is the end of my sample of this tea from Batrachoid. I found it in the bottom of my sample bin (which is really three shoebox sized plastic bins) while doing some kind of Spring cleaning (really, let’s be honest that it is more of a Spring ‘shuffling things around’ than actual cleaning!) Some of these samples were purchased, and some were from swaps. If I tried one every day from now until the end of the year, I am not sure I could get through all of them. I think we might call my next sample-palooza A Sample (or three…) A Day Keeps the Stash at Bay, unless you out there can think of something better. How about Climb Sample Mountain……

The mixture of the generosity of my Steepster friends and my obsession with trying just a few more teas has me buried in samples and a few new ones to try. I think I even have a few more samples and certainly some new teas in transit as I type this. Really, it is getting out of hand. I did finally start purchasing most teas in smaller amounts which seems to help a little. I really have to get a handle on my tea. I am to the point where I have to categorize….ones I will finish as iced tea, ones that will be replaced when gone, ones that will be good blenders for my Franken-Breakfast tin, ones that are packaged for travel, etc……. and then the mountain of samples.

Here I sit with this awesome cuppa. I do so appreciate the sharing of this particular tea as it is not available any longer. One day I will probably buy something from this company due to their meticulous attention to detail and awesome packaging. But, it is not this day…… I must press on to be a more efficient and responsible tea drinker and purchaser. It is hard to think of it going to waste, and if I give it away, I end up with more than I started. (You guys are wonderfully generous. Our community here always restores my faith in humanity. I raise this awesome cuppa to you!) :D

Usual mug method.

I was so pleased to have gotten a surprise sample of this in the package that Batrachoid sent. I have been drooling over Andrews & Dunham teas and their cool packaging. Thank you so much for sending me this…I imagine those who love Andrews & Dunham ration their tea, kind of like I do with my 52Teas limited blends.

This tea saved me from the East Friesian disaster of the morning, and restored my morning clarity. It is a great quality basic black that works for a holiday, or any day. It kind of reminds me of Queen Catherine, but maybe a little sweeter…and slightly smokier. The resteep was as good as the first cup.

absolutely delicious tea. it is mild, but it is very refreshing. This tea is smooth, slightly floral, slightly sweet in the back of my palate and even a tiny bit vegetal,too. This is a great tea to sip on on rainy mornings like today when it is hard to get started.

You know, maybe I should revise the score I gave this tea way back. I tend to compare all dragonwell teas to that wonderful one I regularly get from Specifically Tea and I’ve had the opportunity to try them side by side and I found that this tea was a bit lacking. Not a lot lacking mind you – it’s a good-quality tea in its own right. But I noticed that it didn’t have the same fullness of flavour and doesn’t resteep all that well. It’s also lacking that hint of smokiness I get from the Specifically Tea Dragonwell, but that’s more of personal preference, I think.

First of all, the art on the tin is awesome – I love dragons and the ‘get high on a pot’ bit made me laugh as well.

This is a really nice dragonwell, close to, if not as good as the one I get from my local tea shop. It’s a light, but full-bodied tea that tastes quite savory with the flavour of some sort of cooked green vegtable woven through it. It leave an interesting, almost salty aftertaste in my mouth that makes me think of miso soup.

This tea is best with something cinnamon-flavored or maybe orange-flavored, when hot. However, this morning I had some cold, and it was delicious by itself. Remember this in the summer when you’re making iced tea!

SIPDOWN #6 for today.

This is darned tasty. A pure delight! One of my fave stand-alone Bai Mu Dan’s!

2nd infusion…lighter in color but sweeter! I really like this!

“I’ll have what Batrachoid is having!”
Thanks for this gem!

This infuses darker than I expected. I’m told I have do try multiple infusions and I am going to put it to the test today!

As for the first one…this is quite nice. I, did, under infuse at about 4-5 minutes only because I am FREEZING and can’t get warm and have been wanting to try this one for quite some time…ok…since it was released!!

I agree with the other reviews that this is a wonderfully flavored plain white tea. It’s quite exceptional! It’s VERY fresh, very clean, slightly mouth watering and a hint of floral and even less hint of vegetal notes!

A pure delight!

I am a Jasmine Fiend! I love the smell and the taste of jasmine tea, so I am glad to have “found” this one…in a package from Meghann (thanks girly!)

The jasmine flavor and the green tea are in a terrific balance. I could drink this over and over and over and over…

2nd infusion is as flavorful as the first.

YUMMY!

I needed a tea to help me get through the remainder of my homework today so I reached for one of my new favorites – courtesy of the amazing JacquelineM! I have to admit I was a bit surprised that she decided to share a bit of her main man with me, but I am sure glad that she did. I am taking this pot without additions and Thomas is strong, yet smooth. I am enjoying the rich, honey covered biscuit flavor of Thomas today and I am still not finding any astringency. I wish I had got on board with Thomas earlier when I could have secured an entire tin for myself. But since that was not meant to be, I’ll be cherishing what is left of my sample on special occasions.

2nd infusion: Perhaps a bit less malty, but taste is more caramel and honey than before. There is a note of astringency that I didn’t notice earlier, but I also added a bit of milk to the previous cup. I am still really enjoying this tea.

Thomas is also really great with cookies! Perhaps it is a good thing that I don’t have a whole tin of this lying around….

For the last year that I’ve spent on Steepster, I have read numerous posts raving about Thomas Sampson. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to give him a try…until now! Many thanks to JacquelineM for sending me a generous package full of teas that I’ve been eying!
This tea has a gorgeous aroma and the taste is completely full-bodied and malty! This is definitely a tea worth waiting for. There is caramel, malt and honey all mixed with a hearty, balanced black tea. This has truly turned my day around. I love when tea packages come on days that you need them the most!

The scent and taste of this fine tea is inundated with florals, which I had known beforehand was magnolia, but probably wouldn’t have been able to identify on my own. Once these magical oolong pellets unfurled they brought with them the first glimpses of spring. This fragrant tea is a delight and already has me dreaming of that initial thaw and the onset of spring!!!!

De-cupboarding another one. In a way it’s a shame that these are limited edition teas, because I wouldn’t say no to more of this one. It’s been serving as my morning wake-up call for quite awhile so I’ll need to find something else to replace it with. Adios amigo.