Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

This mugged me. It’s so smoky for me that it reminds me of a barbecued pig, i finished the cup I made, but since, it’s been sitting on the shelf collecting dust, perhaps I will try it again someday…

A little rough so I added milk. Reminds me a bit of an Irish Breakfast because of the stoutness.

I’m trying to like you, Earl Grey from A&D. I really am. But it’s just not working out.

You may have an excellent pedigree, but I’m afraid your charms are lost on me. You seem too soft and soapy for my tastes. Please try not to be bitter.

It’s not you, it’s me.

It’s gonna be a long day at work (drama-llama-ding-dong) so I needed something smoky with oomph. This fit the bill nicely (not so heavy on the oomph, but it’s still so good). Hooray for Doulton who gave me a large sample of this in the Shakespeare box! The second “commuter steep” was quite yummy (I don’t know how long it steeped since I “pulled an Ewa” and was running around like a headless chicken. I’m guessing 9 minutes). Homicidal tendencies have been curbed and I’m as ready for today as I’m gonna get. NE

I thought I’d treat myself tonight to a super-nummy tea from Doulton. Mmm…mmm Iago. Besides the nom-factor I was also curious to see how this compared to the Culinary Tea’s Russian Caravan that I had the other day.

The overall feeling I have is that this tea is much more of an afternoon/evening tea. It’s mellow, subtle, nummy, and just gives you the warm fuzzies. The CT’s Russian Caravan on the other hand is a breakfast tea with the “Kapow!” for the AM wakeup. It’s bold, it says “screw you” to nuanced, but it is still very nummy. I’m having one of those “I love tea” moments. Ahhhh… TG

Doulton’s Shakespeare: a Tasting Note in 5 Acts
Act I scene 1

For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In complement extern, ’tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.
Othello Act I, scene 1, 61-65

Today my Shakespeare prize that Doutlon created arrived to a standing ovation. I am rather overwhelmed by her generosity and will definitely “pay it forward” in the future as soon as I can put together something even half as lovely as what she did. There’s even a lovely handmade knitted tea cozy included – I’ll create a flickr account just so I can post a picture. It’s so perfect for my teapot Tim! There’s a beautiful block print card featuring a scene from Julius Caesar with a handwritten note. Thank you so much Doulton!

Now, to the toughest part: choosing the very first tea. After oohing, aahing, and squeeing over all the samples I knew the one that would persuade me. The one that I’d been avoiding because I knew my heart might break once this series was sold out. Caravan by A&D.

Throughout these “Shakespeare” tasting notes I’m hoping to label each tea either a comedy, tragedy, history, sonnet, or character. This one’s a character and one of my favorites: Iago. Here’s the persuasive bad boy whom I love to hate (and vice versa). I really didn’t think I’d find him so soon into this box if ever. This is different than any smoky tea that I’ve had so far. Most smoky teas remind me of campfires. This is not a campfire. This is the remains of a forest fire that happened at least a year ago. It’s rugged and masculine and it makes me jealous. I do not want to share this tea with anyone. There’s so little of it for such a short period of time and it brings out the irrational MINE feeling.

I think that I won’t fall into the same trap that Othello did. Or at least I hope that I won’t. I feel like I’ve finally made peace with all “limited edition” teas and am willing to have my heart broken when they’re gone. I shall openly wear my heart on my sleeve and be willing to have the jackdaws peck away. No ulterior motive. No jealousy. I just want wonderful tea while it lasts. TG

Very very interesting. I’ve never had an Earl Grey that was sweet.

I was given the opportunity to try this limited edition tea thanks to Takgoti’s generosity. For more information, see my tealog from yesterday.

I have high expectations for this one. The reviews here have all been positive, I love unflavored black tea, and I really need a swift kick you-know-where to help me along with studying for finals. I took this without milk or sugar; there’s no time for messing around today.

The tea smells rich. However, the taste is much lighter than I was expecting. I’d describe this as being medium-bodied at most. I’ve never wanted to describe a tea as “fluffy” before, but I can’t think of another word. It’s leaving my tongue slightly tingly. This is earthy and not necessarily sweet, but there’s a hint of something that my small vocabulary can’t describe. Auggy said bake-y. I think that would be the perfect description for this. Bake-y. This is a fascinating tea, really.

Thank you again, Takgoti!

Count me in, I am now in Thomas’ corner! Coppery-colored infusion with the cocoa-y, bake-y, malty flavors as others have described. Thomas arrives with a slow, smooth swagger, but leaves with a bit of a punch of astringent finish just to remind you that he was here. I look forward to spending time with him again!

I’m actually drinking a mix of Andrew & Dunham’s Jasmine Green and Adagio Teas’s Jasmine #5, because there wasn’t enough of the Jasmine #5 left to make a full cup. It’s really hard to go wrong with jasmine tea with me, since jasmine is my absolute favorite flavor. <3

Jasmine teas have always been my absolute favorite. (This is probably has a lot to do with jasmine teas being was the only kind of tea I enjoyed drinking at Vietnamese/Chinese restaurants when I was a kid.)

When I first got my jasmine green tea from Andrews & Dunham, I marveled on the beautiful design on tin and then quickly opened it up to get a good whiff of it. Heavenly (as the scent of jasmine always is). And when I brewed my first cup of this — it was obviously a damn fine cup of tea.

And thus we bid His Lordship farewell.

I am THIS CLOSE to giving up on the spoiler prevention about the 52teas christmas box! I haven’t got it yet. Iirc there was some delay in shipping around the time when I placed my order due to illness and that’s just too bad and can’t be helped. I’m not complaining about that. I just miss checking the dashboard and hearing from you lot.
(And to be honest, right now I’m rather more concerned about my Kusmi package which according to tracking has been delivered, so that must be the one that was misdelivered to a package pick-up place in Copenhagen (other side of the country from me) and is now apparently caught in limbo somewhere between Copenhagen and here, likely due to the very icy weather we’ve been having lately)

On top of that I’ve run into some annoyance just now. It’s recurring sort of annoyance and I ought to know by now to steer clear of it, because I know it’s going to be there. But I DO wish that some people could just let go of that unhealthy obsession instead of coming after anybody who supposedly ‘does it wrong’ all the time. It’s called ‘nagging’ and it’s not a positive thing to do. grump

So to cheer myself up and hopefully stave off the temptation to go through the dashboard, throwing myself in the arms of spoilers galore, I decided to make me a cup of tea. This also put me in a bit of a pickle because I was in a citrus mood, but not an oolong (Lemon Oolong from Nothing But Tea) or a pu-erh (Orange Pu-erh also from NBT) mood, and that just about concluded my current citrus-y choice.

Apart of course from this one. Well, it’s bergamot, so it’s citrus. But it’s totally not what I had in mind. Me thinks I should put some thought into researching my perfect orange flavoured black, or alternatively dark oolong. Leave me a comment with your favourite orange flavoured black or dark oolong (or other interesting citrus flavoured things), please!

In the meantime, however, His Lordship is a very satisfying cup this afternoon. He turned out a bit too dusty and floral this time, but at the same time providing all the things that I was really looking for. Except the orange, but I shall eat one later instead.

A&D ARE IN DA HOUSE!!! Sorry JacquelineM we’ll have to wait a little bitty while longer for your package.

Anyway, this is a company with very reasonable international shipping rates (about $11 world-wide flat rate) and I just WISH I’d found out about that sooner. It took Auggy sharing a sample of the awesome Caravan with me to make me desperate enough to go have a look. Now I’m sad that I missed out on the others series. Jackee Muntz and Thomas Sampson in particular. Oh well. I guess we can’t have everything.

This is going to be interesting. I have high expectations of this company, maybe to the point of foolishness considering that I have only tried the Caravan and since that was a smoky, I was predisposed to love it.

This Earl Grey business is another kettle of fish. I’m not really an Earl Grey fan. There are some that I have liked a lot (Kusmi’s Smoky Earl Grey is great for example), but it’s not a type I would generally go for myself. The Bergamot can easily become bitter and dusty for me. I did consider seeing if I could get someone to split a set with me so I got the Caravan and they got this one, but then I got greedy and wanted it all for myself.

The aroma of the dry leaves is very bergamot-y but not overwhelmingly so. This is a good thing. Clear bergamot, but not a promise of dusty bitterness. After steeping it’s the same. The bergamot aroma is very clear, but I can’t really pick up the tea. Just bergamot.

Hmmm… I’m in doubt, Steepsterites. Flavour here seems to be twofold. There is a fresh sort of sparkly flavour just at first. It’s familiar but I can’t really place it. Some kind of sweet citrus-y thing, I think. Without it being truly citrus-y at the same time. It just there for a brief, brief moment and then it’s all bergamot. Heavy, dusty and borderline bitter on the soft palate(*).

I like the little pang-flavour there at the beginning, although it because more and more difficult to find as I drink, as the heavy bergamot lingers in the aftertaste and drowns it out. The aftertaste is pleasant though. The heavyness goes away quickly and it leaves this citrus-y remnant that makes my mouth feel fresh and gives the tea a sort of summer-y image.

Considering the fact that I’m not an Earl Grey fan, I would say, “Yes, this is indeed a damn fine tea.”

(*) Note I said ‘palate’ there. Not palette, which is something a painter uses to mix paints on.

The August Tealog Catchup ! (Totally did not finish the August tealogging in August. Ofc things got busy!) [28 tealogs remaining]

This was the last of my Caravan. It’s not something I could drink every day, but when I wanted it, I wanted it. I’m sad to see it gone. But thankfully, there is a sequel (Caravan Resurrected), which I will be next trying out. Though, I may wait a month or so until the weather cools. This is not really a summery tea and as it’s very hot out here still, I’m not drinking a ton of tea period either.

Plus there is the dilemma of the A&D three packs. I do not need an Assam or a black blend at the moment, but you basically get the third tea for $8 instead of $20. I may be able to push it off until I finish Captain Assam then order the other three pack instead. I will not be finishing off my black blends or Earl Grey anytime remotely soon, despite the fact that I’ve been iced tea-ing the Earl Grey this summer. (Thanks mom for not understanding that 8oz is a lot of loose leaf tea! Though seriously, I love when she gifts me tea. I give her/her house tea too.)

Alright, so I’m still happy with my rating for this one ultimately. It was a great tea! And yes, as stated above, I want and will be buying more of this one.

2nd steep.

Backlogging. 11 days ago. Wednesday morning.

I’ve been reading about people blending two teas to create the smokey cowboy earl grey. But I’ve put off trying it even though I was intrigued. I did this as a half and half with Harney’s Earl Grey and this tea was all I could taste. The resteep was odd and not all that enjoyable.

2nd steep: 6 mins

Backlogging. 12 days ago. Early afternoon.

Needing some more caffeine, I reached for another black tea. Now every so often, I have this tea with a spoon of jam stirred in, which gives it a fruity tart flavor to go w/ the smokiness and I kind of like it like that. But I also like it plain too. But I’ve never had it with strawberry jam before. Omg so so good. Strawberry, smoke, a hint of tart, and black tea. Love it. And quickly consumed both steeps. I was not planning on getting the Caravan reissue at all once I finished this tin. Now I’m considering it, just to have with strawberry jam alone. I wake up in the morning wanting this tea this way now.

2nd steep: 8 mins 30 sec

Backlogging.

I used the wrong amount of leaf for the size mug that I used but it was still yum.

2nd steep: 5 min.

Backlogging. Last Friday.

I always think it’s been longer than it has since I last had Caravan. Guess I should drink more often. Smokey-sweet goodness.

2nd steep: 6 min.