Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

Tried with cream/sugar. I don’t like how the sugar enhances the tanginess. I’ll stick with this one straight up.

A nice, mild black tea blend. No bitterness or astringency. Wouldn’t be anything exciting, but has a very interesting tartness at the end—almost cranberries.

I was pleasantly surprised by the A&D Holiday Blend. At first sip my thought was “Fah! I already bought this tea. Damn you Andrews! Damn you Dunham! Damn your pretty labels!” It seemed much too much like their Yunnan. But! Much to my delight there is a kind of fruity twinkly finish that more than distinguishes the Holiday Blend. A very nice black holiday tea (not a tea for depressing morbid holidays, but a black tea for the holidays) for gray snowy afternoons.

Additionally, I’m experimenting with cream and sugar for the first time (successfully). It rounds out the bitterness nicely. I’ve tried in the past and always been disappointed, but I’ve always tried with non-fat milk and it seems that you need something a little thicker if you want a more robust flavor.

1.5 tsp for a 350mL mug, water somewhat off the boil, 5 minute steep.

The last of my Damn Fine Jasmine Green, gone. And loved. Lovely balance of green tea and jasmine flowers and a solid jasmine hit. I am keeping all my Damn Fine tins, labels intact, to hold … I dunno. I just want to keep the tins, because the labels are so well designed. Anyway, the tea … really, really good. Only Dragon Tears are better.

4tsp for a 3-cup pot, bare.

Spring! Snow is nearly gone here, though we might get another dump yet. Even so, leaf buids swell and birds sing and freckles pop. Jasmine is all about spring to me — even the darker aspects to its scent (the indoles, I guess), because spring is beautiful but rarely tidy.
Jasmine also calms me, settling jumpy nerves, and makes me feel beautiful.

Even crappy jasmine green tea from a mall food court teriyaki stand can do that.

So when I get excellent jasmine green, like the Dragon Pearls from my local teashop, or some of this limited edition Jasmine Green from Damn Fine, I go to new rooms of heaven. This one even pleases the tea gods.

Jasmine green tea can also relive some of my arrhtitis pain. It’s no cure-all, and I;m not saying it will help anyone else, but it does help me.

This jasmine green, when treated nicely with the right remperature of water, gives no bitterness, no soapiness, and no dusty old perfume scent. I think it’s under-priced, but don’t tell the Damn Fine guys that. I tend to hoard my green teas, usually preferring black or rooibos, but I need to drink this one off before it goes stale … oh, woe is me (hahahahaha).

Excellent jasmine green. A really good balance. LOVE.

1 TB for 500mL pot, bare.

A lovely jasmine green. No soap or perfume here. Use water off the boil, and the tea offers a clean taste with no astringency, bitterness, or grassiness. I’ve steeped it longer in the past to get a quicker jasmine hit, but my stomach is tetchy today, so I made the tea recommended strength. Highly recommend. Pity it’s a limited edition — damn you, Damn Fine!;)

BLEND: 1 TB Andews and Dunham Damn Fine Jasmine Green + 1 TB Boston Tea Company Dragonwell Green in a 600mL pot, bare, steeped two minutes.

A beautiful (not pretty) woman just sat down — intelligent eyes all stormy behind her glasses — and asked you something provocative about your favourite book. Now you know you’ll be up all night talking books and music and philosophy and comedy. You love this woman but don’t necessarily desire here. You feel no jealousy of this woman. You just want to be with her.

That’s how this blend tastes. Sweet and sharp greens and florals. Generous and gentle but no pushover. Slight smokiness from the Dragonwell; sunshine clean-ness from the Jasmine Green.

A simple blend of two complex teas.

1 rounded TB for 500mL water, drunk bare (nothing added).

As others have noted, jasmine does a cheery ‘Ta-da!’ when you open the tin. And that’s great.

I set the timer but couldn’t repond right away and ended up with more of a 4-minute steep. With that length of a steep, a new scent wafts up from the brew: line-dried white shirts. That incredibly clean scent you only get in summer when you, that’s right, hand white shirts on the line to dry in the sun and the wind. I love that.

The longer steep thickens the body a bit; any longer and it might get soapy. I’ll probably water this cuppa down a bit. But oh, that clean, irreplacable lovely jasmine. I can taste more of the green tea base today, too: a sweet green, as others have pointed out, thank goodnes, not grassy and not briny.

Jasmine fabness. One of the best I’ve tried. Up there with some of the jasmine pearls.