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I’m supposed to be drinking more of my oolongs so that they don’t age too much before I consume them, but my problem now is that I don’t want to drink oolongs right now. A lot of them are very spring-y to me, and now I want rich black teas. So I decided to drink this one—decidedly NOT old, so it doesn’t really help my purpose—because caramel, yum.

I brewed it at a hotter temp today just to see how it would behave, and it was definitely still delicious, although the oolong was more present and slightly more vegetal. I’m happy to let the oolong lurk in the background on this one and just provide butteriness, so I will probably keep future steepings at 195°F.

Dammann Advent Calendar, Day 2

Which is going to be funny looking on the page for this if anyone looks at the dates posted, because it was apparently day 2 last year as well.

I cheated a bit with this one. Namely, this is the same blend as what is sold as “Nöel en Alsace” as loose leaf. I like to save the wrapped sachets from the calendar for traveling if I happen to have the loose tea (and at this point, I often do), so this morning I actually drank some of my Nöel en Alsace instead of this tea.

I love this tea. Why on earth did I only rate it 88 originally? My rating on Alsace is higher, but I’ve bumped this one another couple of points anyway. Love the friggy fruit blend here. I think there might be a hint of caramel in this blend as well {love}. I am sad my cup is empty.

Dammann Advent Calendar, Day 1

It was funny finding this as the first tea in the calendar, since I had requested (and received) a sample of it with my previous order.

I feel pretty much the same way about this tea that I did the first time I had it, which is to say, it’s ok. I don’t love it, I don’t hate it. It’s a fruity green tea on a pretty grassy sencha base. I don’t really care too much for Dammann’s sencha base, and I don’t have a lot of green teas by them. I mean, I don’t really care for nearly any flavored green tea these days. But I do still like them cold brewed, so I will have to remember to cold brew my last sachet of this (from the order). I will say that I left some of this in my cup and it got quite cold, and it was a nice tasty fruity green, and the fruit was even fruitier.

I didn’t drink any tea over thanksgiving at home, mostly because my parents do not own any type of kettle and I get annoyed boiling water in a saucepan. When I came home, this is the tea I immediately wanted this morning.

I’m kind of obsessed with it? At this point I think I could drink it every morning and be happy. Bergamot and rose and chocolate and almond cookies… yum. It’s basically everything I have ever wanted in a tea. If you asked me to create a dream blend of flavors, this would be about it. When I first drank it I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but now I love it.

MOAR CARAMEL TEA!

This is one of Dammann’s new blends for this fall, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it. Salted butter caramel, mmmmm.

This tea is INSANELY caramel smelling. It is almost overpowering. It is also insanely caramel tasting. Once again, distinct from some of my other caramel teas, and not just because this is on an oolong base. I can definitely taste the slightly salty buttery notes in this. It tastes like an amazing soft salted caramel. I think this particular oolong really adds to the butteriness. Normally I might prefer caramel on a black base to make it really rich, but the oolong works here. It really makes it taste like a lightly-cooked caramel, almost a caramel sauce. Very delicious. So glad I have this one! And all of the caramel teas. :D

I have been trending toward black teas lately (and flavored blacks at that), so I’ve decided to drink an oolong every day (during the week at least) to make sure that I don’t let them age too muc, since they are much more likely to suffer with age than the black teas.

Today, after my rose oolong, I grabbed this one. Man I forgot how mind-blowingly good this is. It’s totally one of those teas that I can’t even imagine how they made it this good. The score is well deserved.

This was crazy rosey and delicious today. Rose-scented green oolongs are not impossible to find although I wouldn’t say they are common, but I will definitely have to keep one around. This one is extremely well done: the rose is thick and luscious, but it doesn’t cover up the orchid notes of the oolong, either. Definite winner.

Here are some short reviews since I have been really bad about tasting notes lately.

I had this one again and it was SUPER almondy. Definitely very good. I think I should keep the temp on the lower side, though, because it was edging toward bitter at times. I also think that, for me, my ideal almondy tea is not just powerfully almondy but also has an all important bakey-ness too it, like a cookie or cake. Just almondy ends up feeling kind of thin, and like it has nothing behind it; I have found this to be the case in several teas now, and it is also true of this one. I mean, this is super delicious, but it also feels like it’s missing something. Maybe I need a punch of vanilla with my almondy teas. Basically what this comes down to is that this tea is super similar to Fauchon’s La Naissance, but Naissance has those cakey notes that round it out and make it just a bit better, for my tastes.

Sometimes you just want one of your most favoritest teas to start the day.

I was surprised to find that I actually found the similarity stronger between this one and Amore (DF) than I had notice before. I guess there is more almond in the Amore than I realized. Anyway, this was full of almondy and rosey goodness, and it makes me very happy.

I wanted to try this one again after having Saint-Valentin from MF, since I believe they are fairly similar teas. This one has almond and chocolate listed in the ingredients, where as that one sticks to only bergamot and florals.

The almond isn’t really a distinct flavor, and I wouldn’t necessarily call this tea super chocolatey, but the chocolate notes are there, and I think the almond and chocolate come together to make some cakey goodness.

Of the two, I think I prefer this one for that reason, but they are both delicious (if you love bergamot and florals, which I do!).

Side note: my office is freezing and my throat is feeling sore. Should have stayed at home but the internet wasn’t working!