Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

It pains me to remove this tea from my cupboard. Made the last of it for my husband’s morning pot. I know that freshness-wise, it’s a good thing, but oh! I just have not found such a smooth bready malty raisiny wonder like Thomas. I’m also a little nostalgic because it is one of the first teas I fell in love with directly because of my involvement in Steepster – I don’t know if I would have found out about Andrews & Dunham on my own.

Sniff sniff – I love you Thomas, I love you Andrews & Dunham, and I love you Steepsterites!!!

On a chilly, rainy day at home, there is absolutely no replacement for an Indian tea with milk and sugar. I am enjoying this tea so much this afternoon. Malty and raisiny and exactly what I was in the mood for. I believe I’ve said this before, but I imagine the teas in 19th century English novels to taste exactly like this.

Home with a bad stomach today :( Thomas is a delicious comfort. Strong but not harsh. So good with milk and sugar. What I imagine the tea tastes like in all of the olde English novels I read :) I’m glad he’s still in my cupboard!!!

Between having a very, ah, spirited dinner party Saturday night, and the whole Daylight Savings Time Losing an Hour thing, we had a verrrrrrrrrrrrrry sleepy Sunday. So, after dinner, I did something I never do! I made an Assam!

We had a special treat in store for us because I broke open a brand new tin of Thomas Sampson! It smelled very fresh and wonderful! When I brewed it, it had all the bready, malty wonderfulness I am used to, but also that delicious raisiny quality that I almost forgot about! It was really fantastic, and completely hit the spot. I loved every single sip of it. I am so glad that I have yet ANOTHER tin squirreled away :)

I love you Thomas Sampson!

Putting my feet up for a bit and sharing a pot of dear Thomas Sampson with my husband. Look how nice- I am sharing :) :) :) Malty, bready, invigorating! He loves it too – all the robust A+D teas appeal to him. I love hearing his opinion because he never knows what I am serving him! I usually ask “caffeine or no” and “flavored or no?” and I pick from there based on my mood and what we are having with it, if anything. I love hearing the extra opinion – not unbiased – everyone has biases (for example he can’t stand anything berry even though I love it!!) – but free of the knowledge I have about the different tea companies. Anyway! That was a long winded way of saying that I really enjoy sharing tea with my husband – EVEN Thomas! :)

I am in bed with Thomas Sampson and Charlotte Bronte! What a great way to spend friday night!!!

;)

Seriously – I’m CRAVING black tea, and so tired. I really want to stay up to read Villette so I am breaking my no caffeine after 5 rule. Mmmmmm. So good and malty. Sweet and strong. Reviving. Totally worth breaking my rule for!

After reading chrine’s tasting notes, I had a wildly uncontrollable desire for Thomas Sampson! I knew he had to be my afternoon tea. I even was willing to share him with my husband. That sounds wrong, but you know how stingy I usually am about sharing Thomas!

Malty, bready, honeyed, classic Assam goodness. Assam tea just doesn’t get better than this, in my opinion! I am almost done my tin – but thankfully I have squirreled away two more!

In 2011 I vow to be more liberal is sharing Thomas as he is now getting on (you know how 1 dog year is approximately 7 human years? What would you say one tea year is? Perhaps 35 human years? So Thomas is almost a year old (almost 35 human years), and if I have him yet another year after that he will be almost 70 (almost at The End?!?!).

Home to study (TEST TONIGHT!!) and having a second breakfast of this tea with toast. OH CUP OF HONEY! Golden sweetness mixed with malty heaviness. A little extra leaf and 4 minute steep = perfect, perfect, perfect. Milk and sugar. Ahhhhhhh, I love you Thomas!! I am hoping you will be my good luck charm for tonight!!! I will kiss your limited edition print before leaving for my test!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackiemania/4761033234/in/set-72157624294962481/

My poor husband has to work today :( so I am taking this opportunity to have a huge mug of Thomas Sampson with a good deal of sugar crystals – I’ve been obsessed with these lately – I LOVE them:

http://www.wholesomesweeteners.com/brands/Billington_s/Billington_s_Sugar_Crystals/billington.html

and half and half! Pure comfort in a cup as far as I’m concerned :) A malty, honeyed (and even more honeyed with these sugar crystals with the molasses intact!) bready almost meal! I cut a minute on the steep time, and used a touch more leaf, and it made for a perfect cup.

I associate this style of tea – and tea with cream and sugar – to be so supremely homey that I think I would curl up and built a fort with my coat under my desk if I had it at work! I’m so glad I developed a taste for plain Chinese teas for work, because it makes my cream and sugar filled Indian teas that much more cozy for home.

Today I had an eye appointment where they dilate your eyes, so my eyes are not at their best. I thought what could possibly be better than to go home, sit in the semi-dark, and enjoy a big cup of tea? So that is what I’m doing. Since I’m alone, I thought I’d bring out the Thomas. You know how stingy I am about sharing him!!

Today he is very bready and has a wonderfully full mouth feel. Strong, malty goodness. I feel sooooo much better now. Gosh I love Thomas Sampson!

Stressful work week, capped off with the craziest day yet yesterday. Oooooh I needed some Thomas! I made a nice pot to share with my husband :) We had digestive biscuits topped with chocolate, this honeyed, malty, bready wonder tea, and an engaging film to take our minds off the mundane. Just what I needed. Thank you Thomas!

Also – fascinating. I saw this article because it was a link on Arts & Letters Daily (http://www.aldaily.com/) best website after Steepster – tied with Cute Overload ;) Anyway – here’s the article:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1007.gravois.html

Look, it’s Arunachal Pradesh! That’s where the Simple Leaf’s Dawn comes from!

Doulton was the kindest most generous Steepsterite in creation – she sent me a tin of Thomas Sampson!!!! I can now start being a little more generous myself – I actually offered to share Thomas with my husband today! I will admit that I poured more into my cup than his, but c’mon. Baby steps!!! I also was able to be a little more generous with the leaf. I used 20 oz water, 3 teaspoons of tea for 4 minutes. I didn’t think Thomas could get any better, but people!! Thomas is even MORE of a HONEY like this!!! So sweet and malty. ♥

What a strange morning! I went to the train station only to find it completely black! No power! I waited around for a half hour, but no trains and no plans for shuttle buses. Well, I guess I’ll go back home! I called work to tell them what was up, and walked home through the park, thinking about what tea I would make when I got home.

I knew I wanted a good plain black tea…and Thomas came to mind! What could be better on a totally unplanned day off than some time spent with your main (tea) man?!? So biscuty bready malty good. This is another tea that is filling, but filling like a meal, not a dessert. Is it terribly selfish that I tend to make Thomas only when I’m alone?

It was sooooo hot in my office today that I couldn’t make any tea! It was so bad that I even gave up eating half way into my breakfast, and only took a few half hearted bites of my lunch. Even the quiet people that I work with who never complain were complaining!!

After I went to class (where there is air conditioning!!) I started to perk up, and by the time I was walking home I was staggering like a zombie looking for brains and yelling “Thooooooooooooomas!!! Thoooooooooooooomas!!” (in my head ;) I fixed the quickest dinner possible so that I could plop on the sofa and have a big mug of my main man.

He is so delicious. Strong and sweet. Tonight the liquid almost feels thicker than tea – it’s so full bodied and the maltiness is very pronounced.

Ahhhh, I am human again!

Ohhhhhh my day only got worse! Work was insane, my lady time arrived, and in the afternoon my mother called me hysterical – they were rushing her to the hospital because she was passing kidney stones. I knew I needed a cup of tea as soon as I could sit at home, but in my sick state nothing seemed appealing…until I came upon Thomas!!

I brewed up a big mug and if this is not the most delicious, hearty, robust cup of tea I don’t know what is. It is a meal in a cup, not only because of the malty bready goodness, but because I can’t bear to eat food yet. I never really saw Thomas as a nurturer until tonight! I like this side of him :) Thank you Thomas for helping me keep calm and carry on!

My husband is out taking photographs, so tonight it’s me and 12 ounces of Thomas. Scandalous (amount of caffeine for evening tea!)! ;)

In all seriousness – so malty and delicious. Assam perfection.

Oh Thomas, your presence is getting scarcer yet my love for you grows with every pot…with every sip!!! You are PERFECT for me! I think I am going to put a little plea on Discussions to see if anyone does not love you as much as me- I am willing to trade Jackee Muntz or Caravan for you!!! (I’m serious! If you are reading this and are not so crazy for my darling, yet love Jackee or Caravan, let’s trade!!!

Oh Thomas…dreamy sigh…I love you!!!!

What else can I say but you are my perfect Assam! I wish you could be by my side forever, but I think the fact that you will be out of my life after this tin is only making me want you more. I try and leave you (in the cupboard), but I keep coming back for more! I bet my husband will not be able to sleep all night because of you!!!!

I needed something REALLY GOOD after my Rose Tea debacle – and I chose this guy :) Perfect. Malty, strong, delicious. I’m going to nudge him up to 100 because he is my favorite black tea of the moment!

I am reading a book called How We Lived Then which is about life in Britain during WWII (what, you mean you don’t all read nonfiction books about war to relax on a Sunday evening!?!!) and I just finished a chapter about food rationing.

To quote, “In July rationing really began, to use an appropriate word, to bite, when it was extended to tea, for the two ounces a week allowed were not enough for most families. Women now began to tear open their empty tea packets in search of a few hidden grains, or followed the Minister of Food’s advice to use one spoonful for each person and none for the pot.”

Now, while my own predicament is NOTHING near what people experienced during WWII, I now have a little bit of a first hand idea of this rationing business because my tin of Thomas Sampson is 2.5oz, and Andrews and Dunham are like the Minister of Food because they produced ONLY 400 sets of this series, so I will have to RATION the 2.5 oz of my favorite black tea ever, and I will certainly need to whip out my magnifying glass when I come to the end of the tin to make sure not a single leaf remains!

All I will say is at least I don’t have to eat grilled whale (supposedly even the dogs wouldn’t eat it!! …and I complain of the fishiness of Japanese Sencha!!)!!

I actually gasped when I first tasted this tea! It is so completely delicious to me! Thomas is sweet and strong, malty and earthy…and what a body! Some milk and sugar bring out his best qualities. What a fine example of a black tea from India!!

P.S. Excellent customer service from Andrews and Dunham Damn Fine Teas. I ordered series 2 in the middle of all the snow the East Coast was getting, and I got an email from Erik Dunham explaining about the insane amounts of snow and how it was hard to get to the post office. Seeing that my area was hit almost as hard and we missed 2 days of mail delivery ourselves I of course assured him that it was just fine, but how nice is that?!?!

P.P.S The labels are fantastic! The shipping boxes are even fantastic!

P.P.P.S I am about to go to bed and leave him and Jackee Muntz in my tea cupboard. I could have sworn I heard Jackee called Marco Polo “fruity” and I think Thomas tried to pinch Florence!!! Who knows what I will wake up to tomorrow!

P.P.P.P.S I am absolutely sick that series 4 sold out so fast – I think I would have loved that tea!

Tried this for the 2nd time yesterday and didn’t enjoy it much. I had some problems… I used a pretty large scoop for a fairly small cup and steeped it for a bit too long. I just wasn’t feeling it and only made it through half of a cup. I was really in the mood for a good cup of earl grey and this unfortunately wasn’t it. Next time I’ll watch the amount and the steep time more closely.

Tried this for the first time this morning. I was a little busy and didn’t give it the proper attention it deserved, so I won’t write too much about it in this post. I brewed a spoonful’s worth of leaves for just about 4-5 minutes and was worried about oversteeping, so I was surprised when it wasn’t very strong in flavour. I will definitely try more tea or a longer brewing time the next time I try this. It was very smooth and pleasant to drink but I was hoping for something a tad stronger. I’ll see how it goes next time!

I am officially OUT of this tea. I hate a few dustings left in the can that I couldn’t bare to part with, but they’re gone now. Wasn’t even enough for a full cup. I should have just poured the fannings into my LAST cup.

Quite nice. I’ve had good days and bad days with this earl grey. I don’t always love it, but sometimes I make a cup of earl grey and realize I’m not in the mood for it. And I find that bergamot is oddly sensitive to temperatures and steep times, like the tea itself. So I have days where the bergamot just seems unenjoyably bitter on its own.

I never liked this earl grey as much as Hazo’s, but I do like the two for very different reasons. This is certainly a very nice, fruity grey. Today’s cup turned out perfect.

I don’t know what I am going to do with the tin now. Obviously I could still use it for other teas—it’s a perfect little tin—but I can’t bring myself to rip off the tag, and I certainly wouldn’t put ANOTHER company’s earl grey in there. I want to keep the tins as a set. Hum.

I am under the impression that the image on the front of the tin is Jupiter with lips to replace it’s great red spot.

Oh, this has a wonderful smell, and a very dark, rich colour brewed. I can smell the black tea a bit more in this than in Hazo’s, which I like. Hmm, five minutes (I followed the label) might have been oversteeping it. It’s okay with a bit of honey though. I think I might like Hazo’s better, still, but it’s good. I nice earl grey. Nice tea flavour, with a bit of bergamot citrus smell/after taste.

Edit: Hmm, the second cup (but of the same pot!) is much better, somehow. Doesn’t taste oversteeped, and didn’t require any honey. Mmm.

However, on that note, this tea is fairly broken up, and my mesh tea ball is no match for it. I think I’d need something finer. Because I went to pour the rest of the pot, and a thick layer of tea-grit settled onto the bottom of my cup. More than usual.