Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

This time with a bit of cream!

I’m not usually an Earl Grey fan. This one is nice (not bitter like some). The traditional orange/citrus flavors are there along with a nice black tea component.

Steepsterites, I started going through my dashboard, realized that I have way too much to catch up on, then realized that I have a lot of tea to log, and then realized that I have email from a week ago that I still needed to respond to, and then realized that it was already 1:30 AM.

When did that happen? It was 11:00 PM two minutes ago! I demand to know where all that time slipped away to. Probably somewhere on the island with Jack and Sawyer and Kate and Desmond. Mm…Desmond. But I digress. [Again.]

Anyhow, you’ll have to bear with me as I slowly, slowly, [or maybe not so much, because 14-odd days of logs is really daunting] try and catch up with what’s been going on in the Steepster-verse. I feel like I’ve finally nailed a decent rhythm so far as school goes, but I’ve got a bit of crazy week coming up and so I’m just letting you know I might be fading in and out a bit [not unlike AT&T’s wireless signal – I’m sorry but I couldn’t help it; their commercials have been driving me crazy]. Okay, on to the tea.

I’ve had some pretty bad Earl Grey in the span of my tea drinking experience. For me, most Earl Greys tend to fall in the middling to bleh range. Andrews and Dunham’s definitely doesn’t land with the majority.

Is this the best Earl Grey I’ve had? No. But it’s solid. The bergamot is visible, but not overwhelming, and I found the finish to be sweet. Overall, it was a very smooth tea, though I did notice it getting a little bitter as it cooled.

I don’t think that this is going to be an Earl Grey that knocks people over with wow factor [especially those drinkers that are more discerning in their Earl Grey tastes than I], but I also don’t think it would be disappointing. It’s one of those teas that I’ll enjoy drinking until it’s gone, but doesn’t scream for a re-order.

Auggy, I finally get it. BAKE-Y!

Let there be light!!!

This is the 1st tea that has actually screamed bake-y to me. Some have likened it to plain biscotti or perhaps an unsweetened baked good. I have to agree. Tannic and bready…but kind of crumbly bake-y like biscotti or shortbread would be. I like it. I’ve had several cups straight and a few with milk and sugar…both very good. Thomas Sampson makes a good breakfast cup in my opinion. The tea is hearty and seems to carry a decent caffeine buzz. I’m relatively unfazed by caffeine, so this means something. :)

I tend to drink black teas, such as this, in the AM and then move on down the milder chain throughout the afternoon and after I get home from work. Just as I was beginning to get a little sad about finishing off the last of my sample, I noticed something.

40 NEW SETS OF SERIES 2 HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE SITE!
AND……
SERIES 4 IS UP AND RUNNING.

Word.

I’m finishing up the last of this in my stash and I overdid it with the amount of Loose Leaf but not the length of steep…it’s still great. I wish I had a tin! I wish I had access to this brand locally…sigh…it will be missed…

It’s FINALLY happened…

I finally got to try this tea. I’m so happy right now I could pee…
ok…well, maybe not pee, but I’m pretty darned happy!!!!

Special thanks to Gretchen for this – got it in the mail today! YAY!

I have had BAD experiences with smoky teas and ok experiences with smoky teas. I can honestly say this is the BEST experience with a smoky tea – to date – for me!

Well done!
Great, great Cup!

Beautiful liquor and a light taste more reminiscent of a white tea than the usually grassy greens that I drink. The Jasmine scent was nigh overwhelming out of the tin, but the tea itself was more subdued and found a good balance between overbearingly flowery and a breezy whiff of posies. I think I like the Dragonwell green offered by Andrew & Dunham more than this, but the Jasmine green still makes for a great cuppa.

Well I’ve finally got the jasmine down to levels I can handle (I think), but it has an artificial quality to it, rather than smelling like the fresh blosoms. The green tea base has a bit of a harsh, bitter tang to it too, making me think that it wasn’t really that high of a quality.

I think I might throw out the rest of this sample, there’s really not enough left to be worth trading. :(

I toned down the steeping time and temperature in hopes of not feeling like I’m drinking a cup of jasmine soap. The result is much more drinkable but I’m still getting a bit of jasmine soap on the aftertaste, unfortunately. It’s not terrible but not great either and I think when I buy the Series 3 set I’ll pawn off this one on somebody else.

I’m sorry Takgoti, I tried to like it. :(

Whoot! I just recently got the package Takgoti sent me and this was one of the teas she included. I’m really excited about trying the Samovar ones, but I’m almost scared that I’ll end up wrecking them!

I have to say that I’m a little disapointed at how small and broken up the leaves are – thought that could have happened easily enough in the mail, I suppose. The scent of the tea is a little ‘green’ but mostly it makes me think “Mmm, jasmine soap…wait-!” Sooooo maybe not the most auspicious beginning, but let’s move along.

I have to say that I think it’s too perfumed for my tastes. The taste-recognition part of my brain keeps sending me ‘jasmine soap’ which I like well enough – just not to drink. The green tea base strikes me as a tad bitter aswell, unfortunatly. I’ve got more leaf to experiment with so maybe I’ll reduce the length of the steep next time.

Wah! Steepster ate my review of this! So let’s start over again, and try to organize my thoughts… I’m going to have to remember to Ctrl+C my reviews before I click the submit button!

Anyway, the moral of the story is not to drink tea at 11:30 pm. After I had that Yellow Peach late last night, I was incredibly dizzy for hours afterwards. It was fairly awful. It’s sort of funny, because I was at a restaurant earlier in the day, and they had tea from Ito-En on the menu! There was genmai-matcha, matcha, shiso sencha, and some sort of flowering jasmine. I actually declined having the tea because I thought it’d be too late with the caffeine and all. Silly me then drinks a fully caffeinated cup a few hours later. I’m my own undoing.

So I woke up this morning a bit groggy from the antics of last night, and seeking something simple and easy to drink. Scanning takgoti’s box of wonderful tea, I pulled up this one. Thomas Sampson, aka Assam tea from Damn Fine Tea! Yay! I’ve been craving this one a bit since I had Harney’s Assam Golden Tips. I like the strength of Assams, and I figured this one would be no different.

The dry leaves smell like black tea, with a slight hint of cocoa and a bit more depth than something like a Ceylon. It took me forever this morning to try and rid the plastic of my IngenuiTEA of the Yellow Peach smell, but I finally succeeded, and steeped this baby up. The water immediately began to darken, and the tea swirled around as it opened. The leaves aren’t the largest, but they do open a fair amount!

On the pour, I was a bit surprised at how dark this was. The smell coming off of the infusion is rich and deep, with some cocoa notes, and a bit of a malty-like smell. On the first sip… mmm, this is pure Assam. If you don’t like Assam, you won’t like this, but if you do… I’m finding it really hard to come up with concrete things about this tea, concrete tasting notes. Everything in my head is very abstract and vague, as Assam sort of just tastes like itself. But I’ll try, anyway.

There’s a definite pronounced maltiness, especially when the tea is piping hot. It’s not as smooth as the aforementioned Harney Assam, but it has a lovely kick. Almost beer-like. Not really bitter, but more full-bodied, I’d think. This gives way to a nice sweetness as the cup cools down. There’s also this baked quality that I can’t really wrap my head around, but I’m going to try.

It’s sort of like when you dip a rather plain biscotti (not double-chocolate hazelnut or anything like that) into a cup of espresso for a long time, and then eat it. You can still taste the baked qualities of the biscotti, but the flavors have been overwhelmed by the bitterness of the espresso, so the biscotti itself doesn’t actually taste like a biscotti, but rather, like a general baked good taste. Not sweet, but more of something out of an oven with flour. I can’t describe it really, and it’s not there the entire time for me, but it does pop up. I’m thinking that this is what Auggy is referring to when she mentions her mistake cookies.

But anyway, this is a pretty solid black tea. Thomas Sampson doesn’t knock my socks off or wow me or make me want to have his babies. But it’s pretty kickass and yummy for a morning pick-me-up!

Another old friend is done. Goodbye old friend. You were a damn fine Earl Grey.

Celebrating my ordering of the new Series 5 (with an OOLONG! YAY) from Andrews & Dunham with a cup of their Earl Grey. Bumping the rating slightly because it’s such a good, solid Earl Grey. Yum.

So, I finally got the Zarafina I ordered some time last century. (Or maybe the beginning of the month, I forget which.) It was very, very used. To the point where I was worried it would still work when I took it out of the box. But I got it all cleaned up, figured out how it all went together, and then thought about what I should baptize it with.

I decided that an Earl Grey would be good, and opening my cupboard, the A&D tea darn near fell on me. Right then. A&D Earl Grey it would be then.

So I looked at all the dials, read the instructions twice, and just jumped in. And it worked fine!

And the tea was good, as usual. Yummy. The bergamot was bold, the tea was lovely and just – YUM. I love this tea. If you like an Earl Grey that is loud and lovely, this is for you.