24th and final day of the Dammann Freres advent calendar, finishing only nine months late! I appreciate that they wanted to end with one that’s on theme, and I appreciate that it’s an herbal so I didn’t have to worry about what time of day I drank it or whether I’d already had caffeine. As for the taste itself, though… I don’t know why but it didn’t taste like what it’s supposed to for me. I tasted the woodsy rooibos, a touch of bite from the ginger, and oddly enough cherry and marzipan reminiscent of the Christmas Tea Blanc. But there’s not actually any almond flavor in here, and I didn’t get any of the pepper or orange in the taste. I did get the orange in the dry leaf aroma, but somehow it didn’t transfer into the mug. Overall a bit of an uneventful blend to end on. I didn’t hate it, I just wasn’t too enthused about it.
I’m glad that I tried this calendar but I won’t be ordering it again. The packaging is absolutely gorgeous; I’m definitely going to turn it into gift tags for this year’s holidays. But the teas themselves lean heavily on a black tea base that I don’t love and they tend to favor bergamot, which I also don’t love. I noticed when I was posting tasting notes that a lot of these blends reappear in the advent calendar every year, which makes sense but is also a good indicator that I can expect the same pattern to repeat in the future. So this one is lovely but just not for me. I did really like a lot of the herbal blends, though, so I’ll be filing that info away.
