Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

Last night I stayed up late so I could watch Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester on PBS:

http://www.palastorchester.de/en/biographie/max-raabe/

♥

but there was a soul music program on beforehand, and guess what I saw?! LaBelle singing Lady Marmalade (in silver space suits no less!!!)! You might remember that A+D’s Jasmine Green tin makes me think of this song. Well, the reverse is true too! Now, when I hear Lady Marmalade, I want to drink Jasmine Green! So that is exactly what I’m doing :) I wanted to wait til the afternoon – she is not a morning tea (since she is up all night gitchy gitchy ya ya ya-ing)!

Mmmmmmmmm. Floral and fruity. Happy! I can literally feel the happiness flowing through my body :) Sweet and light. Utterly delicious! Why in the world have I not had this tea in so long!?!?

Super yummy second steep, too!

Has anyone heard anything about if A+D are going to be releasing any more teas?

Every time I see the tin for this tea, it makes me want to sing Lady Marmalade (original Labelle one, s’il vous plaît!)

http://videosift.com/video/LaBelle-Lady-Marmalade-original

Mmmmmm these tea leaves smell good!!!!

1st steep: Hellooooooo Gorgeous! Floral, fruity and sweet. Maybe I’m crazy but I taste something like banana or some other sweet tropical fruit!!! It’s different from any of the green jasmines I’ve so far tasted, and I really like it. I lowered the temp and steeping time slightly based on what others have said and I think it was a good way to go.

2nd steep: (3min) A lighter sweet and floral cup. I really can’t get over the natural sweetness!

Also – magical mood lifting properties in full effect!

Gitchi Gitchi Ya Ya Da Da!!!!

Oh my goodness. When you first open the tin, the scent that hits you is incredible. It reminded me of the Jasmine Dragon Pearls that I’m rather fond of, strong and sweet without being cloying. The tea itself is much sweeter and smoother than the pearls, with a bold jasmine flavour that springs up in a unitard and says “JASMINE!” with jazz hands. Even the second steep managed to be a sheer delight by tasting exactly like a silver needle jasmine!
Standing ovation Jasmine Green, now let us throw roses at your feet and demand another encore.

As an earl grey connoisseur, I’m incredibly hard to please when it comes to that classic combination of black tea with bergamot.
The aroma of the leaves is citrusy, very sweet and… interesting? Honestly, it smells like no earl grey I’ve ever tried, which was concerning at first. But the bergamot in this is so fresh, distinct and different, its as if I’ve discovered an entirely new drink! This is even delicious with milk, which I know is a cardinal sin but at least its only a splash of trim.
I’m really loving working my way through this series, I suspect by the time I hit the third one I’ll be offering these guys my first born or something. Love you long time Andrews & Dunham xoxo

Sorry Yunnan Golden Tips, I am officially casting you aside like yesterdays jam.
The aroma of Caravan’s leaves are overwhelmingly smokey, but the flavour rounds out to that perfect balance of tea and woodsmoke with a faint hint of sweetness… I’m completely in love. Smooth enough to drink plain, plus it held almost all of its kick for a second steep – you should order some now before its gone for good.

I’m so cute-ed out by this company, you have no idea. And not just for entertaining my tea gang idea/reality on twitter. Prompt international delivery, rad packaging, awesome wee extras. Can’t wait to patch up and roll through town with my gang, terrorizing people who drink bad tea…

I love this tea. The dry aroma seems to arise from the dead ashes of last nights campfire with the assorted drippings of the barbeque’s mixed grill and even the s’mores.
The taste is smoky deliciously deep.

This is one of those teas that make me want to expand and expound like Walter Pater did in his study of the Renaissance period. He wrote: “A counted number of pulses only is given to us of a variegated, dramatic life. How may we see in them all that is to seen in them by the finest senses? How shall we pass most swiftly from point to point, and be present always at the focus where the greatest number of vital forces unite in their purest energy? To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life. In a sense it might even be said that our failure is to form habits: for, after all, habit is relative to a stereotyped world, and meantime it is only the roughness of the eye that makes any two persons, things, situations, seem alike.”

For me, this tea burns with Pater’s gemlike flame. It seems ancient and wise as if it had witnessed the lichen growing on the rocks and the mosses forming around the firs.

Just delicious when paired with a durian sponge cake from the local Vietnamese bakery. I think the smoky, vaguely meaty flavor of the tea balances out the “unique” , slightly fermented, custardy vanilla flavor of the durian cake.

two thumbs up

I have so many tea samples to log that I feel overwhelmed and find myself just reaching for my favorites.

So, Caravan is one of my new “favorites”—I am its biggest fan.

Caravan goes perfect with pizza! :) All that smoky, woodsy goodness—it’s just sooo yummy, I can’t stand it!! And that hint of sweetness at the back of throat just seals the deal.

I love Caravan and will follow it to the ends of the earth! I just wish it were sold on its own.

Mmmm…smoky! Like the purifying incense of bitter herbs, resins and charred woods. I envision the thick, beefy smoke weaving its way throughout some obscured Gnostic temple. Then, through an open glass window, high above, the clean, sweet breeze from a spring-laden forest wafts in.

The leaves brew up slowly into a rich, heady liquid the color of an ancient redwood. The taste is very much like its scent! Just a bit “grittier”, down to earth….and with a side of bacon (wrapped in butter lettuce). Yum!

I love this tea! It’s my first “official” smoky tea—my first “Russian Caravan” blend and my first Lapsang Souchong! I need to seek out more of this type. I’m hooked.

From today onwards, I am a Caravan groupie. And proud of it! :)

Wow, I was hesitant to try this tea but i’m glad I did! It isn’t too smoky, as there is a sweetness that rounds the smoky flavor out. I’m really diggin’ this one, a lot. As usual, i’m not surprised by the quality of Damn Fine Tea, they are awesome!

This opportunity to try Andrews & Dunham’s Series 1 Nepal is brought to you by – Ricky! Which is great, because that was the one tea I really wanted to try out of series 1.

Others have described the leaves well – large, multicolored – but the liqueur is a lovely shade of amber gold. The aroma is fruity, spicy, and definitely reminding me of last night’s darjeeling blend. My first thought on tasting is – citrus? Orange? Not what I expected from a plain black tea. The “black tea” taste, in fact, is quite faint. There’s a tiny bit of astringency, but certainly not enough to be offputting; it’s growing as the tea cools, though. I think this was better hot.

I didn’t mean to brew this at such a low temp (I just didn’t warm the pot well) but it came out pretty nicely. I would NOT add milk to this one, though honey or a squeeze of citrus would likely go well.

Normally I like green teas better than black. But this is seriously good enough to override that. It’s smoky and warm and lovely and says “WAKE UP!” when I drink it.

Another tea I’m at the end of. I really appreciate it that Ricky was willing to part with some of his stash when I missed out on ordering this limited edition tea. Thanks man! :D

I had this tea with milk – maybe a bit too much milk as if took away some of the spicy notes. It did lessen the bitterness that comes with most black teas and it sweetened the flavour a little bit. I got a rather mild resteep out of the leaves (@5:30) that tasted more like a light Ceylon than a Yunnan, so I’d only call this tea ‘okay’ for multiple steeps.

I experimenting with steeping this tea a little more than normal and the result is a strong, stiff cuppa. My brain keeps describing it as a ‘dense’ tea. There’s a cocoa-like bitterness, that’s just on the verge of being unpleasent, so steeping this tea any longer would probably have nasty consequences.

I made two cups of this tea – the second steeping turned out to be rather tanic, but still good. I agree with my previous post that state that I thought there were spicy notes but not peppery notes. The spice is a sweet spice, not a savory spice – so the mysterious pepper notes elude me yet again! ;)

Thank you so much for sending me this from your stash Ricky! *cyberhug *

Yeah, it wasn’t a bomb after all – whew! ;P

Wow, this tea is strong and fierce, just like the tiger on the tin suggests. It’s as dark as the pu-erh I had a few days go and the mouth-feel is almost as stiff. It’s got that smoky-tannin scent that I tasted in Adagio’s Yunana Jig – now that I think about it, what it reminds me of is the scent of green willow twigs being burned.

This tea has a smoother, more pleasent consistancy than its counterpart though. I’m also picking up a bit of spiciness after the intital rush of smokiness, not pepper though – it actually reminds me more of cloves.

Anyway, it’s a very nice tea and it makes me even more of a sad puppy that I missed out on getting a tin.

By the power of Sampson, give me strength, Thomas!

…Erm, I mean, my order from A&D DAMN FINE TEA came in this week. Everyone and their mother has been ranting about these fine folks, and I’ve been hesitant to say a word all week because I’ve just been too busy sipping the tea. As I’ve been testing the others, I’m building up to best for last: Thomas Sampson versus Jackee Muntz!

First: Yummy whiff. Basic at first, and then I realized how many light, fluffy, and airy – almost salty (?) – scents I was picking up from the leaves alone, which does carry over into taste, I think. Accidentally may’ve over-brewed poor Thommy as I was cleaning out another mug, trapped in conversation with a friend, and my Teavana iPhone timer was started a wee bit late.

That being said, despite bitterness, Thomas has got a strong, rich, smooth body that I would quite happily relinquish my own to! In my mind, he’s a burly bloke who enjoys a cuppa every couple of hours. Something like a Monty Python lumberjack, but a tad more serious, because he knows how to bake proper biscuits to go with the tea. He comes home smelling like freshly baked bread, and knows how to satisfy a woman. Gentle softy on the inside; and what woman doesn’t fall for that every now and then?

More tasting thoughts to come, but first: who wants to start trading?

Goodmorning Steepsterites,

This is a super-strength brew this morning. There were really too much leaf left for one pot and in no way enough for two, so I opted for the former. I’d rather have super-strength than weak and watery.

It’s been a while since I had it. This particular tin seems to have had a tendency to hide underneath the others and only come out when one is having a closer look at the collection.

Strong and smooth on the aroma, with a fair layer of smoke on top. There’s a very fruity-sweet note to it, almost sticky-smelling. Or really, if it wasn’t for the smoke it would be sticky smelling. As it is, it’s rather rescued by the smoke.

The tea itself doesn’t seem, at first sip, to have been too damaged by the +50% leaf. I can definitely tell that it’s stronger, but it hasn’t transformed into a cupful of tar or similar. It has a side-note of astringency that wasn’t really there before and I find it a little distracting, but that’s the only real difference I can tell. Or the only difference that I think I can tell, considering it’s been a good while since I had it the last time. I do, however, remember the fruity sweetness in combination with the fruit, and those are still there as they should be.

So goodbye, my Caravan. I really enjoyed both tins I’ve had of you and extend my sincere gratitude to Auggy who first shared a sample of it with me, which prompted me to check out whether or not A&D was actually a company within my reach. (They are, obviously)

Today, I just can’t be bothered. Therefore I’m in a weird situation where I’ve got a sample of Dawn from JacquelineM lying around that I haven’t tried yet, in spite of having (and still do) looked forward to trying it far AAAAAGES since she first offered me a sample. It just deserves more energy and attention than I’m currently capable of giving it.

So obviously I’m in need of tea. Good tea. Awesome tea. Tried, tested and true tea. When in doubt, go smoky.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I should go and do something else.

I hope everything went through properly with A&D because this is the last of the sample Auggy sent me.

It’s yummy, now that I’ve figured out where the funny strawberry-y side-flavour came from. Cup not rinsed properly after having been used for something else. It kind of worked, but I do prefer it ‘pure’.

Didn’t do anything for my headache though. Can this hectic month of constant socialness be over soon, please?

The start of my Easter holiday.
Payday.
Having a minimum amount of bills in april.
Lexitus informing me that the AC Perch’s order has arrived, and I can get my tea on friday.
Caravan in my pot.

Plenty of things to celebrate.

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

Since Steepster is featuring Andrews & Dunham today, I thought maybe it was time for yet another debut for me. Because their Caravan is the third of the smokies that Auggy shared with me. I can’t actually remember what anybody has said about this one, which makes it a brand new experience for me. I’m expecting something Russian Caravan-ish.

Lovely smoky smell, but there is also a very sweet note here. Like syrup-y sweet. And something vaguely spicy.

As for the taste, OMG!

Oh! Em! Gee! o.O

So smoky! So sweet! SO GOOD!

It’s primarily sweet, as if it had sugar in it, and then the smoke is just rounding it off and preventing it from being too sweet. This is like SO seriously good. I’m all…

Excuse me, Steepsterites. I can’t finish this post. This tea and me, we would like to spend some time alone…

Thank you Auggy!!! (Again)

ETA: If I give it a double-lenght steep, I can get two good steeps out of these leaves. A bit thinner the second time around, but definitely still very nice. Little bit of cane sugar added to enhance the sweetness.

I do seem to have contracted a case of the mini-burps which is quite annoying, but hopefully not tea related…