Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

Whoa Tiger, was this tea GREAT today!

I wanted to use my pale blue pottery mug yesterday morning, which holds 12oz instead of 8oz, and I wanted more tea. I used 1.5 tsp of tea and steeped for 15 seconds longer, not wanting my tea to be weak. It was strongly Yunnan, crisply tannic, and finished smoky sweet.

As I was composing my tealog in my head while I drank (don’t laugh! I KNOW I’m not the only one on here who does that. In fact, I bet there are more than a few.), I used a complimentary word to describe how great the Tiger ending up being yesterday. And now I can’t remember the word and it’s bugging me. It was highly complimentary, more than something that would mean really good, and not a word I’d give lightly to a tea. Something around the level of stunning. It began with a D, possibly a DE, and for some reason I’m thinking reminded me of something British. It was not delicious, delightful, or divine. Argh! And my writing of the tealog got interrupted twice, by the husband and the phone respectively. Argh!

I brewed up some Tiger yesterday morning cause I wanted to see how he’d take to milk. The answer is well enough. He is good with milk but probably better without. This was not the surprising yum that Jackee was with milk. I drank the 2nd steep without milk.

2nd steep: 5 min, 200° F.

Yesterday afternoon I drank my 2nd steep of the Tiger. The Tiger tasted just like a nice black tea this time. He was good but not great with that usually Tiger magic. I think it may have been my stuffed up allergies.

2nd steep.

From getting up through my morning routine and feeding the cats to tea making time, I could not decided between Jackee, Thomas, and the Tiger. I opened my cupboard and the Tiger was dominating the forward teascape. So he went into my cup. Bold and enjoyable as usual. Lots of stuff going on so not as much an a sit-down-and-enjoy-the-tea-straight-though drinking experience.

Before tealogging the Tiger, I was skimming tealogs I hadn’t read on his page and came across takgoti’s on lower steeping times for blacks, which I tend to prefer too. She’s steeping her Tiger lower than I am so I intend to try lowering the steep time next time I have him. After the second steep of him this afternoon, that is.

Again, a cup of Yunnan around noon. I seem to be drinking my tea in pairs. I’ll drink the same tea for two days, then another tea for two days. Today’s Yunnan didn’t seem as smokey as it has previously. Am I getting used to the smokey? The smokey was still there but it wasn’t the okay-this-is-smokey it had been before.

I had a lovely cup of Yunnan at around noon today. It was just what I wanted and expect it to be. I had thought I’d have Thomas, but I changed my mind on the way to the cupboard. I am thinking about making the 2nd steep of the leaves with a bit of milk before bed.

Steeped my second cup of Yunnan with dinner (southwest chicken bake, broccoli, and couscous). Less smokey, less bite, less strong. More goodness continuing on to another cup. I hope to try one of the new bagged tisanes tonight.

Cravings for a specific tea don’t usually occur often for me. Normally, I’ll want a cup of tea, maybe I’ll have an idea of what type of tea, and then I’ll go to my tea cupboard, look at the teas, and pick one or peruse until one makes its need to be drank known. The past three days, not only did I want tea but I wanted a certain tea. First, the odd urge to try a jasmine tea despite my mistaken belief that I wouldn’t like a floral tea, then Dragonwell saying drink me now and lots of me, to today’s Yunnan calling. I could not resist. But who can, when such a handsome tea makes his intentions know?

I steeped for 15 sec less again today, making that 30 sec less than the recommended steep time, and I think I’ve found my ideal time for this tea. Smoky but not too smoky, strong but not bitter, and all around enjoyable, sure to lead to increased drinking.

On Saturday at Earth Fare, I splurged on some tea purchases looking to lay in some tisanes for evening consumption. I got two Earth Fare blends on sale, Cold Season Tea and Red Wellness, and a berry tisane from Two Leaves and a Bud. I also got brave and brought a Puerh, Numi’s chocolate one. It had a coupon on it, and who can resist four boxes of sale tea? I need to lower the top shelve in the tea cupboard to convert it to housing for tea, which will make one and two-thirds shelves in the cupboard for tea.

Backlogging
Shared a pot of Yunnan with the husband and takeout Indian chicken tikka masala, saag paneer, and baingan bhartha. The Yunnan stood up to the strong flavors and spiciness of the food and still tasted smokey. 2nd steep: 5 min.

I wanted to try the Yunnan again today even though I was quite unsure of how it would go with breakfast. It went surprisingly well. I wasn’t able to really taste this cup as well as the previous ones due to some slight nasal-throat things I have going on due to the cold dry weather and heat running a lot. Don’t worry, I haven’t gotten sick.

The eagerly awaited A&D DFT Yunnan arrived today!

The husband brought it up. We didn’t wait until I’d rescheduled his eye dr appointment tomorrow. We didn’t wait for the husband to take a shower. We didn’t wait until we were ready to drink it. We opened it up within moments of it entering the apartment.

The tin was wrapped in brown paper instead of in a bed of shredded zig-zags. I liked the art better on this tin than tins from Series 1. This tin opens like a mini paint can lid. I had to open it with a flat screw driver and bang it closed with it. I do not like that about it but am hoping it becomes easier to open and close with time. In the meantime, I’m keeping a screwdriver over the stove in the misc. cabinet. Oh, and we got two Series 4 stickers in our box. Anyone else get two?

The tea leaves were dark brown with golden yellow brown and ash gray mixed in. They smelled smokey and like something else that I can quite put my finger on right now but am hoping will come to mind when I’ve smelt the tea more. It smelled strong, bold, and good but not what I was expecting.

After putting a huge pot of chilli on to cook, the husband pushed to try the new tea tonight even though it was after 7pm at the time and it’s a black tea. So we steeped up a pot. The wet leaves were a dark brown of two shades and smelled smokey, like burning paper in a good way if that is possible. The tea was deep brown in color. It smelled smokey, rich, and full.

Sip sip. Sip sip.

It tastes smokey, no surprise there. But yummy smokey. I thought I wouldn’t like a smokey tasting tea. It also tasted ashy, non-cigarette ashy though, unctuous, and bold. The surprise was no bitterness or dryness. More notes on taste will comes as I drink more of this tea I’m sure. It’s unlike any other tea I’ve had. The husband also liked it but wasn’t as surprise he liked it or as into it as I was.

We steeped a second pot for 5 min. I was expecting it to be watery and need a pinch of fresh leaves to keep the taste strong enough. It was not at all. It was as full of flavor as the first steep but muted, less smokey. I think I liked this steep better. I also drank the end of this steep as I started to eat my chilli and was surprised that it held up to the chilli and complimented it well.

I decided to steep the leaves a third time to see what happen since the second steep went well. I steeped for 6 min this time. It was watery with nearly no tea taste. I threw it down the drain.

In conclusion, A&D’s Yunnan is a damn fine tea, I look forward to drinking it again quite soon, and it’s possibly better than Series 1’s black teas.

One word. Delicious!

Even when it’s 86 degrees out! :D My tins almost empty!!!

It’s been so long since I had this; I had to bring it into work today to have some! I always think, “ew, that’s the smokey blend” and my taste buds shrink up a little bit in anticipation, but then my brain calms them down by reminding them that it’s okay, the smokiness just adds to the awesomeness of the blend, so don’t be afraid!

True enough, this is such a great morning tea with a smokey note that doesn’t overpower the rest of the blend. I really enjoy this one!

I got my Damn Fine Tea order last night (YAY!!) and of course had to immediately try one of them today. As a strong black tea lover, Caravan was my first pick. I didn’t look at the description before I brewed it, so I wasn’t expecting the smoky scent & flavour. Normally I have a pretty negative association with smoky notes (especially when it comes to food), but I don’t have much experience with it in tea. I have to say, I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this! It’s exactly what I needed today, and the brewing time of just over 4 minutes was perfect for my oversized mug. Just a tad more time and I think I would’ve had to add milk to tone it down, but I adore the way this cup turned out.

There’s no weird or bitter aftertaste, and overall this is a really nice blend. This was a great start for my introduction to A&D Damn Fine Teas! If I like either of the other two teas in series 3 as much as I like this one, I’m pretty sure I’ll be a fan for life!

Wow, this is a really great tea. I am so glad to have gotten my hands on it! It isn’t as strong as other yunnan provence teas i’ve had. But because of that , I think it is perfect. It isn’t so strong that it will turn you off after one cup, instead the leaves keep bringing you back for more and more. It is smooth, flavorful, a bit earthy, a bit sweet and a lot of yumminess :)

I’m disappointed in myself for drinking this up over the winter, it makes a wonderful iced tea.

Made a pitcher of iced Yunnan. Interesting, but not as good as hot Yunnan. It has a sort of tangy/sweet taste, but there’s also a sort of dry bitterness.

I tried this iced. It’s interesting. Much more bitter than I expected, but not too bitter or unpleasant.

Probably not a good idea to drink a thermos full after 6pm, unless you abhor sleeping.

I stupidly decided to see what this would taste like if I made it a little strong, so I preceded to make a strong thermos full and drink it between 6 and 8. Consequently I did not sleep very well. It seems, however, that it does get a little bitter but overall the taste remains constant.

Received my A&D package just today and had to try the Yunnan (I got #43 of the 50). Somewhat more strong and robust compared to Rishi’s Golden Yunnan, not quite as sweet, and a lot darker and somewhat more frothy.