Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

I don’t always like jasmine green teas because of the tea base use – most Chinese greens are pretty briny to me. This one seems to have more of a sweet Chinese green taste than a salty one. The jasmine taste is softer than I expected. The jasmine surrounds the edges of the tea taste on all sides but the center flavor is still sweet Chinese green.

Typically, I prefer my jasmine teas to be softer, more delicate – jasmine with hints of soft, light, sweet tea. This is more evenly balanced and, while not stout like an Assam or anything, stronger than what could be considered delicate. But even though it’s not my preference, it’s still nice. Quite tasty.
7.7g/14oz

No more. This is it. I will savour this cup. Will I ever find a smoky tea I enjoy half as much? I find others too sharp, and tippy gold in Caravan and Lapsang seems rare.

I’ll persevere, though. It will be a delicious quest. There was a lapsang I saw—I can’t recall which company right now, but I think I will start there.

I opened this tin today to find that there was not even enough to provide a proper layer to the bottom of the tin. I let out a pathetic little sound at this. I’ve practically been rationing this since I got it. That’s quite a while ago, now—it’s getting on in age, and I really should finish it.

How will I go on once it’s done? With it’s perfect tippy golden leaves and precise ratio of smoke to tea-taste, and no charcoal, just deliciousness. I’ll have to branch out after this and find my next smoky tea. I’d like to try the rest of The O Dor’s, but I doubt I’ll find my plain perfect smoky tea there—they’ve just got a lot of interesting smoky blends with fruit.

Black Dragon?

I’m still trying to find a good tarry lapsang to taste too.

At any rate, this hit the spot this morning. Still delicious.

Happy Birthday to me.

The Tea Randomizer recommended this for the occasion. I think it is an apt choice.

I don’t know what I will do when I run out of this tea. I suppose I will go on a great Hunt for my next favourite smoky tea. I have read so many great reviews, especially by Rabs. I need to look more into Black Dragon and other teas.

Mm, this is coming out as sweet and smoky today. Makes you think of barbecue sauce. …In a good way?

Still delicious. I wish I could just stay here and enjoy it all day, but you’re still expected to attend class on your birthday.

Drinking this with my very late-night dinner (two hours ‘til midnight) of baked potato, perogies, and yorkshire pudding sans the gravy. Very starchy indeed. But I love my starchy foods. Maybe I’ll try to down a few strawberries and a banana afterwards to even it out.

I wanted something savoury and dinnery to go with it. I didn’t go for the lapsang because although I was craving good smokyness, I also wanted a good strong black tea taste as well. This isn’t filling that spot as well as I thought it would, I don’t think (maybe I should have mixed it with some Assam), but it is still quite good, and definitely fits in with starchy foods (and the mysterious, unknown spices on my potato).

Also, there seems to be something wrong with my NEW kettle. Although the water was CLEARLY BOILING (and had been for SOME TIME—I know, I sat and watched it do so for a while), the kettle itself refused to whistle.

The smell is VERY salty and smoky. Like campfire (or bacon). I allowed a few members of my family to take a smell, but non were very impressed (in fact, most were a little weirded out). I had to give up on my explanation that it’s meant to smell smokey because of how it’s made, and no it was NOT a Bacon Flavoured Tea (although I do plan on ordering that from 52 teas one day).

Once brewed, the smoky smell is lessoned, and slightly more tea-scented (slightly!). The colour is nice and dark, reddish.

TASTES smoky. A little too hot to tell, but the smoke does trail off into the aftertaste. It’s like drinking campfire. I think this is a Camping Tea. The sort of thing I would drink around the fire after a day of hiking, to replace hot chocolate. I thought this would be something that I would find too strong and would require milk with, but it’s not. I think milk would ruin the savoury flavour.

Continued: The second steep (6 minutes, no-longer-boiling water) was about as flavourful as the first. I’m sure I could have gotten one or two more steeps out of this, but I have to go to work, sadly.

Pretty typical Jasmine aromas. I don’t (generally) care for Jasmine teas. While the nose turns me off, the flavor is great. Slightly sweet—not at all bitter. Really impressed. Only A & D could make me like a Jasmine.

One minor gripe, the dry leaf is small with lots of broken pieces.

I’ve been spoiling myself all day…first Dawn, now Jackee…

By the way, if anyone has any recommendations for Keemuns or Yunnans that are smokey and delicious like Jackee, let me know! I’m already dreading the day my tin runs out…

You know how there’s that whole anti-woman b-s stereotype of women always trying to change their partners? Well, I think I’ve been acting out that stereotype—yikes. Because Jackee ain’t no dessert man—-he’s pure smoke, pine, savory velvet. And I don’t know why I spent so long trying to change him to some kind of caramelized wimp, because he is pretty awesome as he is. Giving him a huge ratings bump.

I measured up 11 ounces of water. I heated the water to around 194 degrees. I added a little less than 1.5 teaspoons of dry leaf to my teapot. I timed it for 3:45. I tried it plain. With Splenda. With milk. But the result was always the same—no caramel!

This tea is yummy on its own, as a smoky, non-bitter, savory tea. The texture is like silk, and it goes down easily. I won’t have any trouble finishing it off. But I wanted caramel, damn it!

Sadness! I’ve tried this twice so far using my Zarafina, and I never got the caramel taste. Instead, I got smokiness—almost like the black tea version of Shanti by The Simple Leaf. The cup I made at the “green” Zarafina setting was not bitter at all and went down easily without sugar or milk—a rarity for me. I didn’t get to taste the tea made at “Oolong” setting until 5-6 hours after it had been brewed, and it was cold and super bitter (there was a lone tea leaf in my mug, so maybe it kept steeping).

Sigh. I need a thermometer, I guess.

Backlogging.

Tiger, did you think I’d forgotten about you for Thomas? I actually drank this later in the day cause I really needed to wake up.

2nd steep: 5 min 30 sec.

Backlogging.

Tiger. Again.

Thus completes my backlog.

2nd steep: 5 min 30 sec.

Backlogging.

Tiger. ROAR.

2nd steep: 5 min.

Backlogging.

What? Again? Yeah. Again.

2nd steep: 5 min.

Backlogging.

Added to my second steep of EG and Ceylon to give it some oomph.