Dammann Frères

“You know that tea…?” Husband asked me last night.

EEK! Well, that was a good fifteen minutes steep, I think. And I didn’t even know what the base was at that point. Turns out to be a blend of Chinese and Ceylon, and as we know Chinese blacks can take a lot of abuse while Ceylon can really go either way. No adverse effects then.

This is a tea that Cteresa shared with me and I have to admit that I found it difficult to concentrate on it last night for some reason. It simply just failed to hold my attention for very long, so I’m writing this on a flimsy memory.

The base held up to the mishap very well, without a single bit of bitterness or astringency. The fruit flavouring was… well, fruity, obviously, but I couldn’t pick out each individual fruit. This may have something to do with my lack of concentration, but my immediate thought was that it was somewhat generic red fruit-y.

It’s a fairly classic flavouring, this, so I’ve had it and enjoyed it before from other vendors. Then, I definitely remember being able to ‘find’ each of the four red fruits in the flavour. Knowing what to look for obviously. I doubt I’d have been able to do so without knowing what they were in advance. I couldn’t do that with this one (at least not at that particular level of attention) and I’m not sure if that’s really a bad thing or a good thing.

It’s a shame when one can’t pick out the flavours, and one feels like the whole things is just a big muddle with a generic taste. On the other hand, when each flavour clearly stands out on their own, the tea can end up tasting a little bit unfinished. Smoothness is lost, and it’s just a cup full of edges and corners that don’t quite join up.

Pros and cons, really. The smoothness of this one rather suited me last night, though. I think precisely because I couldn’t concentrate on it. Edges and corners would have thrown me off completely, I think.

I just samples a whole bunch of teas (all from my mystery swap with Shmiracles). As I have a bunch to log now, my notes will be brief.

The dry leaves of this one smell like champagne. I’m really not so into champagne or most alcoholic beverages really. I do pretend to like them when the occasion calls for it or if I really just need the after affect (^^) but that’s about it. I brewed this one tea up anyway, hoping it might taste different than it smells. Oh, sure it does. It tastes like, like, well I don’t really know. Fruity, sure, but the rest? Something in there tastes nasty. Is that the chocolate or the bluebonnets? It doesn’t taste like either, its just a strange flavor mixed in with the fruity. But on the brighter side, it didn’t taste like alcohol (^o^)

When Cteresa and I were planning our small swap, she suggested that I try some of this one. I had never heard about it before so I went and looked it up.

Then I made this face: O.O

And then I’m afraid I resorted to pitiful begging to pretty please with a cherry on top have a sample. Or something like that. Okay, maybe not quite that much, but I definitely wanted to try it.

I mean, caramel, vanilla and red berries? That’s like, three of my favourite things to flavour tea with! It reminds me rather of the St Petersburg blend from Kusmi, only without the bergamot. And you know what, I can totally live without bergamot. Easy. And I’m actually quite fond of St P. So what I’m expecting here is something similar but better. St P got 86 points from me on Steepster. Let’s see if we can’t beat that.

Oh my word, the aroma of this one! It smells like cherries and creamy-sweet vanilla and sugar-y sweet caramel. It’s quite heavy on the caramel too. This is liquid sweets in a cup. The berries here are cherry, strawberry and raspberry, but I can only really find the cherry in the aroma. That herry flavoured number from Fru P that I’ve got is really coming in handy here, because the cherry aroma in that one is exactly the same as in this one. Perhaps there’s a wee bit of strawberry underneath, but I can’t really be certain.

Okay, so the aroma is definitely leaving St P behind in a cloud of smoke. So far so good.

The first sip gives me juicy fruit a-plenty. It reminds me at first of a 4 Red Fruits blend, but extra sweet. Although this is only three red fruits. But who’s counting.

The vanilla and caramel are both quite subtle at this point, but the vanilla comes out more as I sip and lends a creamy note. I’m now reminded more of some kind of red berry ice cream dessert. All we need now is the caramel, but I expect it’ll show up if the cup is allowed to cool off a wee bit more. This seems to often be the nature of caramel flavoured teas. They need to be allowed to develop a little more before the flavour really comes out to play. (And no, as I’ve mentioned before, your various tricks of adding sweeteners of various sort do not work for me. It makes nothing “pop” for me. Adding stuff just breaks the tea for me.)

It’s true for this as well. A little patience before sipping further and the caramel is there in the aftertaste.

Oh yeah, this is better than St P all right! I must shop at DF som time.

Sipdown, 165. Thanks to Shmiracles for this sample!

Got back, exhausted, from DC, and wanted a nice comforting tea. I asked for a sample of this from Shmiracles because even though I dislike cherry-flavored things, I trust Dammann to blend it right. Nevertheless, I was a bit hesitant to try this for a while.

Well I drank one cup of it, and then immediately decided: I want to have another cup. So I brewed up the rest of the package. There is certainly cherry in here but it is not CHERRY to me. This is actually one of those blends where I can’t quite suss out all the flavors. They are just there, and well blended, and I want to keep drinking. I do taste a flavor that reminds me of the Melange du Cherubins that I had a while ago… Dammann’s chocolate flavor. It is perhaps not the most chocolatey of chocolate flavors, but it is pleasant and nutty and slightly cookie-ish to me. So all in all, quite a tasty blend to me.

The boyfriend’s nose says (knowing nothing previously about the tea): smells like flowers… then chocolate… and maybe some fruit. Haha, I am training his nose at least, even if he doesn’t drink the tea!

Sipdown, 162.

This is a lovely floral green oolong. It is similar in feel to a magnolia oolong, but the florals are lighter and less thick. Reading the description again, I think this is actually not a scented oolong but just one that has natural osmanthus-like florals to it, and that’s exactly what it seems like. The florals are very “oolongy” which is to say that they seem inherant, not added after picking through a scenting process. It just has so many natural floral notes that it seems like it could have been scented.

It reads as very spring/summer to me, which is appropriate given the weather (warm, rainy). Fresh, green, vegetal, with a hint of butteriness and lingering sweet floral flavor. A very lovely tea.

My Internet dropped off today at work so I never got around to posting a note for this one. This will be short, but thankfully I have enough of this for a proper note later. Of course, thanks again to Shmiracles for this sample!

I love florals but I’ve never really been into osmanthus. But I’m also pretty sure I’ve never had a osmanthus green oolong, and this one is super delightful. It really seems floral only in the way that green oolongs are floral, not like added florals. It’s sweet and buttery and just lovely. A really treat.

and the rest of this gets set aside for whomever wants to pull it from my swap box. I’m doing my best not to keep teas around that have fallen out of favour or just make me happy to be drinking them. if it’s a chore, it’s not worth it. I drank nearly all of the 100g bag, so there’s not a lot left but i just.don’t. wanna.

backlog from yesterday! I’m nearly to the bottom of this 100g bag and after all that, i’m almost over this one lol. I am still enjoying it but on the whole, i think i prefer the caramel version from TeaG…. I’ll still keep drinking it to finish it off but if the bag had been any larger, i think it would have become a struggle. dropping the rating a little due to the lack of sustainability for me :)

backlog from yesterday. Today is operation sipdown with a side of getting the house more organised and throwing things out that i didn’t get to when we moved. I’m also supposed to have board game night tonight and a bridal shower for a friend tomorrow. I pretty much want nothing to do with any of that lol. I just want to sit on the balcony, drink tea, read and watch the sun sigh still enjoying this one, though not upset that i’m almost through the 100g. In the grand scheme of things, there seems to be only a few teas that i ever really want 100g of in the house, and even then i’d rather have small sizes and order more often heh

App logged because my internet hates me right now. It’s enough to say that since I pulled this one out for a swap last night, I wanted it this morning. It was just the right out of sweet for me today.

i have not been successfull lately with wok in drinking up my teas, so i’m trrrrying to take out some of the teas that i’ve been hoarding and drink them up as treats to incent me to go to work. Today it was this tea… get up and go to work sil…you can have caramel deliciousness…no i know the bed is safe and far away from the whiney people but you can do it…and so i did.

I’m not sure that this is my FAAAAAVOURITE caramel/toffee tea but it IS pretty good. And still enjoyable…and i should probably compare this one and TeaG’s version soon…together…even if they’re not quite the same thing. :)

last of the backlogs from friday. My second tea for travelling. It’s sweet delicious caramel taste was just what i needed. We had a blast on friday night, driving out to detroit and then seeing friends for the first time. We got to hang out at the pub, listen to great music and have some great laughter before tucking in for the night. go go impromptu road trips!

Flavoured tea of the day from this morning and soooo good! I somehow hit the perfect sweet spot with this one for a travel mug and it was gone before the break in our session today. I’m really glad i picked this one up!

this was one of my other teas from today. I had a much less eventful day than yesterday but i still didn’t get much tea drinking done. I’m kind of hoping that tomorrow will make up for it since i have something waiting for me at the post office, a near future date with cavocorax to swap some things AND at probably 2-3 more packages coming in the mail in addition to my butiki order. and i’m contemplating a couple orders tonight haha.

Still loving this one, though i much prefer it in a mug to my travel mugs. there’s something lacking when i can’t inhale the delicious aroma while drinking it!

farewell delicious tea. I’ll think of you often on my imaginary trips back to france in my mind :) I still enjoy this one, in part because the flavouring doesn’t overpower the tea base. Loved it! will miss it!

whoops…totally didn’t realise i’d had this before..but thank you dinosara for sending this my way. I love this version from damman, especially since it’s not a super sickingly sweet caramel toffee tea. the black base isn’t lost and this is a delicious, delicious tea. On my must order list!

Backlog and sipdown from last night. I wanted to compare this one against the toffee from palais de the’s toffee. Sadly i don’t recall much in terms of comparing the two since it was a super late night. I have a vague recollection that the damman freres version was slightly smoother and more about the black base, while the palais version was more about the flavour, with the base taking a bit more of a background. Either way both are delicious so it would likely come down more to which i could get my hands on here in canada more easily :)

thank you shmiracles I had this one about a zillion years ago today. It is divine! I absolutely love this one! the black base is nice, and smooth and just serves to complement the wonderful buttery caramel goodness that is this cup of tea. i really have nothing more to say than this week has been full of delicious!

This is a perennial favourite at my house for many reasons. My wife and I discovered this at an all-night bistro on the night we met, and the taste and aromas added to the magic of that night – neither of us had ever tasted anything remotely like it.

Dammann Frères recently sent us a package of it as a gift for the tenth anniversary of that night. They are a wonderful company, and their teas are of an exceptional quality.

The strawberry aromas can seem over the top at first, and one expects a very fruity cup but the tartness of the rhubarb and mild hints of vanilla mellow it. The black tea is mild and produces a pleasing reddish liquor. It is pleasant chilled in the summer, and wonderful hot with a drop or two of milk. No sweetener necessary.

I drank this tea (#15) and the next one at the end of last week, and thought of just backlogging some notes on then, but I would never give up the opportunity to drink some of my favorites again. :)

Love love love this tea. My favorite caramel black tea. I have to add that “black tea” modifier now because the Oolong caramel au beurre salé from Dammann is also too amazing (and soon I will get to it!). This is one of the few single-flavored teas that I still crave regularly; most of the time I want complexity, and rarely go for my single-fruit or single-floral teas, but this one is too delicious to ignore.

Welcome back into my cupboard, lovely. Giant fresh tin of buttery caramel and toffee deliciousness? Yes please. So happy to have restocked this one!

This, like Fleurilége, was a sad sipdown but not too sad, because it will be reordered very soon. The saddest sipdowns are for the teas that you can’t get any more of, ever. Now I just have to keep working hard on sipdowns because I am still 13 teas away from 100 teas in my cupboard and my DF order. It’s taking forever.

Easily one of my favorite teas, this morning it held it’s own against a speculoos, nutella and maple-syrup drenched waffle. Deliciously caramelly to the last drop. See you soon, Caramel-Toffee!

Morning pre-work (pre-toothbrushing! :D) tea. This worked a bit better because I used my single walled DavidsTea Perfect Mug, so the tea cooled faster and I could pick it up earlier with the handle. Still had to gulp it a bit at the end, but so it goes. It is worth it for the energy boost I get pre-class.

It’s kind of awesome having the “burden” of sipping down some of your favorite teas. If I sipdown this tea, it comes off my cupboard number, but it’s not too sad because once I get down to 100 I am restocking it immediately. This morning’s cup was particularly delicious. If I have to have this horrible schedule at least I will have my fave teas every morning.