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“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...” Read full tasting note
“On Saturday I peeped into my mailbox, and there was a Tiger in there!!!!!!! Ricky was kind enough to send me some Series 4 :) I gave the tiger his own little area in a nice basket in the tea...” Read full tasting note
“Gosh. We have fleas. Or rather the kittens have fleas. Not many, I think, but I have seen a number of live ones. Killed them on sight, of course, but the thing about fleas is they jump. And when...” Read full tasting note
“Another tea I’m at the end of. I really appreciate it that Ricky was willing to part with some of his stash when I missed out on ordering this limited edition tea. Thanks man! :D I had this tea...” Read full tasting note
China is such a great, big, humongous place we decided it was only fitting to celebrate the Chinese New Year with a great, big, humongous tin of Yunnan Tea! Ring in the Year of the Tiger with some of the strongest tea on Earth. If this stuff doesn’t put fur on your hide and make your mug growl you’re brewing it wrong. The history of tea begins in Yunnan, and you’ll see why this is the granddaddy of them all when you brew up a cup — it’s strong and smooth, spicy and sweet, rich and earthy. It has a thousand stories to tell, so listen up!
The labels on the tins were lovingly hand printed in Minneapolis by Aesthetic Apparatus, and each tin comes with a feisty tiger sticker to adorn the surface of your choosing. There are only 50 of these in the whole wide world so get one while you can.
Brew this Chinese black tea in boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes. Enjoy a few more infusions, lengthening the brew time just a bit with each one.
Andrews & Dunham knows that nothing beats a perfect cup of tea, and a great tea needs no explanation. We love the romance of tea. We love that tea might just be the healthiest thing you’ll ever drink. But if the tea you’re drinking doesn’t taste fantastic, you’re missing out. Only a few teas meet our mysterious, rigorous standards and we’re proud to offer them to you. We’re always looking for that perfect cup, so you don’t have to.
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!
On Saturday I peeped into my mailbox, and there was a Tiger in there!!!!!!! Ricky was kind enough to send me some Series 4 :) I gave the tiger his own little area in a nice basket in the tea cabinet so he wouldn’t hurt Florence and Marco Polo (Thomas Sampson and Jackee Muntz acted all brave but I could see it in their eyes that they were a little scared – what with that blue tongue and pointy teeth!).
He brewed up so dark and strong! Almost like coffee! I was frightened out of my wits! Imagine my surprise when I took a sip, and found out he’s just a pussy cat!!!! A bit feisty (I am definitely getting some pepper!) but purrrrrringly smooth and sweet. I of course used some milk, him being a cat and all. A little sugar too. Very very delicious!!!
2nd Steep – 6 min It’s Grrrrrrrrreat! (Tony the Tiger humor! Please forgive me!)
just a little lighter in body and taste, and no pepper. Thoroughly enjoyable.
The Tiger is now curled up in the basket in my tea cabinet. (There is enough for at least one more pot!!) I saw Florence furiously knitting him a toy, and Marco Polo somehow produced some catnip (most likely from his vast spice travels around the world). I was totally SHOCKED to see Thomas Sampson and Jackee Muntz huddled over the basket talking “wickle puddy tat You so cuuuute awwwwwwwww!” baby talk to the tiger! NOW I’ve seen EVERYTHING!
LOL, that’s was great! I must of gave you the cub, because I have a raging roaring tiger. Well at least the first time I had it. Today it was a bit weaker, I must have used less tea leaves. Tiger has a little pen? Aww.
Ricky – The milk tames the tiger :) (Do not try in Zoo or on Safari!)
So that’s why they were snarling and growling at me when I tried it!
LOL…too funny!
Aww, I love a good Tea Ninja Surprise!
an expert storyteller who understands the feelings of her characters well = you!
Gosh. We have fleas. Or rather the kittens have fleas. Not many, I think, but I have seen a number of live ones. Killed them on sight, of course, but the thing about fleas is they jump. And when they’ve jumped, they’re gone.
Have therefore been on a super-detailed hoovering mission in the lounge and in my room. When the boyfriend comes home, he will find himself nagged into doing his room as well. Under the furniture. Not just around it. Every nook and cranny and all the cracks between the floor boards. Kittens acted kind of like if getting rid of them involved that sort of racket for hours on end, they would rather prefer the fleas, thank you.
I’ll do the rest of the house tomorrow and am considering a second dose of Frontline even if it hasn’t been four weeks yet since the last one…
I’m knackered now. What better in this situation than a tea that says GRAWRRRRR!!!!
I have even deliberately steeped it twice as long as I normally would have, and it does indeed both roar and growl.
Funnily enough, getting twice the steep has made it change character altoghether. Where’s the hay? Yunnans always taste heavily of hay, so why is the hay suddenly missing?
It’s drier now, more wood-y than hay-y, and it reminds me a bit of dark chocolate and not-too-strong coffee. It has never done that before. I think I quite prefer it this way.
(I’ll trade you all the fleas we’ve got for one piece of dark chocolate.)
Well I do have more than enough dark chocolate (if there is such a thing) and my current collection of fleas is not overly impressive. So from a supply in demand perspective this seems like a good trade, I can’t, however, shake this nagging feeling that I’d be getting screwed.
By me??? Would this face lie? :D
You can give a second dose of Frontline as long as it’s more than 7 days apart from the first dose. But I don’t think you want to give them a third dose within the same month. As for the fleas in the house, you have to fumigate, spray everything, and/or pour powder all over the carpet. The thing that worked best for me was a product called Flea Stoppers. Not sure if you can get it in Denmark, but it has a year money back guarantee and worked perfectly. Don’t just treat the kittens. You have to treat your house too or they’ll just keep coming back. Another good trick is to vacuum all the floors every single day for 30 days. Throw out the vacuum bag every day too ‘cause it’ll be full of fleas and their eggs. It’s a pain, but it usually has pretty good results. Good luck with the fleas. I understand how much of a nightmare it is. :(
We got a lot of fleas in our house after a possum had babies under our outbuilding in the backyard. I didn’t want to use pesticides because my godson is a frequent guest and he is autistic and we all keep a pretty “green” environment around him. We set up and light in the dark house at night with a bowl of water under it. The fleas hop to the light and fall in the water and drown. It took several nights, though, and we still did the uber-vacuuming.
For the yard, we spread diatomaceous earth to cut their little flea exoskeletons so they die of dehydration. We can’t use pesticides out there because we have a pen full of two kinds of box turtles! But it worked, hallelujah, because I HATE FLEAS! :). Best of luck getting rid of them!
The Flea Stoppers carpet powder may not be technically “green” but it’s left in the carpet for about a week. It doesn’t hurt you or your animals, and it works fast.
I used a flea powder that I’m not sure killed the fleas, but did kill a vacuum cleaner!
The flea problem isn’t very large, really, they’re not completely flea riddled. But I need to get rid of them now or it will become large. I shouldn’t think large amounts of toxins should be necessary at this point. Considering we haven’t had the kittens for more than a month or so, I imagine they must have brought a flea or two with them when they came which we didn’t see. Those have gone through a life cycle here now and we’re getting the next generation. Flea eggs and cocoons can hibernate and survive for years so I thought it’s also possible that they were already here when we moved in, but I expect if that was the case it would have been a much much bigger problem.
The box of Frontline says that I should wait four weeks, because apparently there’s very little safety documentation on the product or something like that. Very reassuring, when you think about it!
No carpets here, though, so I’ve only got the cracks between the floor boards to worry about. I have a (danish) lead on a spray which I will look into, but as we have very few internal doors, I can’t really use anything that is super-noxious, because we can’t seal off the rooms until the fumes are gone.
We have one of those bag-less hoovers, so at least changing the bag straight away is not a problem. I always empty the container after use anyway. (That thing has been saving me a FORTUNE on hoover bags since we moved in together! It’s awesome!)
Advantage! That stuff works and is safe on kittens.
Frontline is more or less the same thing. It’s just a different brand.
I think the main difference is that Frontline is also protecting against ticks, which I gather from this review (http://www.epinions.com/review/Bayer_Advantage/content_70366367364) Advantage doesn’t.
Good luck with your flea slaughter! I’m battling what I hope is a small infestation from the lousy neighbor cat who rolls all over the door mat outside. My indoor cats have no idea what to think right now!
Ours are indoor cats too, but where we got them from they had been allowed to go outside. I don’t dare let them do that here, I’m to afraid they’ll get hurt in traffic. So, once we get rid of this lot, we shouldn’t have the problem ever again, hopefully. At least we don’t have to check them for ticks. :)
Another tea I’m at the end of. I really appreciate it that Ricky was willing to part with some of his stash when I missed out on ordering this limited edition tea. Thanks man! :D
I had this tea with milk – maybe a bit too much milk as if took away some of the spicy notes. It did lessen the bitterness that comes with most black teas and it sweetened the flavour a little bit. I got a rather mild resteep out of the leaves (@5:30) that tasted more like a light Ceylon than a Yunnan, so I’d only call this tea ‘okay’ for multiple steeps.
I was just given a shock by running water. Sigh. Today has just been one of those days. I deserve an early tea break.
Takgoti was lovely enough to send this to me so I’m very excited I get to try it because I? Was totally not on the ball and ordered no Series 4. The dry leaf smells lovely – earthy but fresh. The leaves are pretty cute, too – short and brown but with fuzzy gold bits popping through everywhere. I kind of want to coo at them. (Please note, it is only just past noon but it has been a long day.)
The color of the tea matches the dark parts of my desk which the office supply place says is a cherry finish but it’s not really because if it was, part of it wouldn’t have peeled up when I got tape stuck to it. But anyway, the tea matches my desk nicely (though I imagine that it would react differently to tape). Oh and the smell is so nice. Rich and fuzzy and stout and sweet like figs and brown sugar.
Wow this tastes good. Sweet with a little coffee-like edge of sort-of-acidity. Not so much that it isn’t smooth (because it is), but just enough to make it energetic. It’s not quite chewy but definitely closer to chewy than it is to light-bodied thinness. I could see perhaps putting a splash of milk in it to make even richer but it’s sweet enough with the raisin/fig/brown sugar taste that I think adding sugar would be overkill (that’s not to say I still won’t give it a shot though).
This is a good tea for me today. Bracing enough to help me make it through the rest of the day but with an edge of sweetness to show that it is a nice tea and really just doing what is best for me by standing me up, dusting me off and sending me back into the fray. Good kitty.
ETA: 2nd steep @ 5mins. Oooh, smooth. The tiger is calm and purring as he sits beside me. Lovely. Very similar flavor as the first steep but without the not-quite-acidic edge to it.
3.1g/8oz
This sounds… sooooo good. :) I love the cooing note! I’ve felt like that about tea as well. I’ve even patted some fondly, which I’m sure would look ridiculous to an outsider.
Hehe! Yay! I’m glad I’m not the only crazy tea folk. I have been known to pet Downy Sprout. Sometimes the leaves are just too lovely to ignore.
One word. Delicious!
Even when it’s 86 degrees out! :D My tins almost empty!!!
I’ll do a full tasting note later, but I got to try this tea today! A&D also has damn fine shipping as well as damn fine tea, so it arrived on Saturday. I didn’t find the box until Sunday evening (oops!) and then tried it this morning.
Nice, smooth, and flavorful. Not too powerful. I can see myself enjoying this tea a lot!
I don’t know when mine will get here. Maybe today? I wish they would post up the tracking numbers online. I mean they do ship with it….
Sounds great already judging from your rating.
Ooh, I hope mine gets here today!
Wait, didn’t you order series 3 or was it 2?
Who? Me or Shanti? I’ve got Series 2-4, but only got 4 this time around…
I ordered series 2! Jackee Muntz and Thomas Sampson!
What day did yours ship? Mine is still not here yet. It shipped on Wednesday. So I thought it would be here on Sat (my last A&D order was here in 3 days) or today. But it was not and I was a little sad because I was looking forward to it being in the mail. Perhaps it will be here tomorrow. I’m glad to hear it good though.
Sorry! The comment was meant for Shantea, but it’s also cool to know what everyone ordered :). Ohhh… mine was shipped Friday. So I should get it today or tomorrow. That’s exciting =]
I try to live my life with no regrets, that being said, I regret not having purchased this tea. I love this tea! Ricky thank you so much! I have experimented with a few different infusion times, so bare with me.
The tea leaves smell delicious, slightly sweetened, smokey, with a slight earthy note. The first time I had it I did a strong brew. Hot, no additives, five minutes. The liquor is very dark, brassy color. The tea tasted smokey and earthy up front, which mellowed into a sweeter, richer tea. Absolutely delicious.
I was able to get three more infusions out of this spoonful of tea. Brew times lessened to keep similar flavor without a burnt, overdone flavor. 4 minutes. 3 minutes. 3 minutes. 2.5 minutes. The liquor color remained roughly the same, the flavors did not intensify or stifle out, each infusion had a new balance of flavor. There was shifting in the front-runner flavor between the smokey and the earthy, but it was always followed by the sweet, strong mouth-feel of the caramel note.
I decided I would write my rating today, so one more spoonful, three more infusions.
First infusion, hot, no additives, 3 minutes. Though the tea is still rich, the earthy flavor is lesser and the smokey flavor is a little more prevalent with a lesser brew time. This alteration in flavor does not hinder the sweet caramel flavor that this tea follows up with. The second infusion (3 minutes) I think added a little more of the earthy-ness and less of the smokey (in comparison to the previous infusion of these leaves). The final infusion (3 minutes) yielded a taste sensation similar to the first time I had it with a five minute infusion: balanced smokey and earthy notes with a sweet rich tea with a stronger mouth-feel than expected.
I have one more spoonful left, I am saving it for a special occasion. Again, Ricky, I cannot fully express my gratitude, thank you, this tea was fantastic!
It’s taken me a while to get around to logging this one. I was a bit worried, even though I love me some Andrews & Dunham, because this is a big ol’ tin. Luckily, I don’t have anything to worry about.
I’ve taken to steeping my black teas a lot shorter lately, thanks to something that Teaman said, and I think I’ve been better for it. Black tea tends to go bitter on me rather easily. The first couple of times I had this I steeped it around 2 minutes, but I’ve found that 3 minutes also works well and gives me a bit more flavor, so I like it here. At 4 minutes it was a little much for me, but I’ll try 3:30 soon to see how that goes.
Okay, now that parameter-talk is out of the way, the tea. I enjoy this tea. It might be the first time that I’ve gotten a distinct black pepper note from a Yunnan before, and it was subtle enough that I didn’t find it off-putting. It actually gave it a little spicy bite that I enjoyed. I also got sweet, malty flavors and a hint of smokiness. Overall, it makes for a very pleasant, balanced tea.
Next up, I’ll be trying it with milk and sugar for poo and chortles. I think that I’m going to enjoy making my way through my big ol’ tin!
ETA: Pictures! [x4!] Beginning here: http://bit.ly/b7Bvp3
I’m with you on the short steep times. For any black other than something really light (e.g. some Nepals, Nilgiris, and Dawn) I almost always prefer under 4 minutes even with milk. 4 minutes seems like when the harshness starts coming out more.
Yep, I tend to do 3-4 for my first steep because I’m afraid it’ll get bitter. If I realize it doesn’t get bitter, I go for a longer steep on the second go.
Glad to know I’m not alone on steeping times! I tend to aim for 3 minutes for blacks, unless the packaging specifically says something else… and even with that I normally end up back at a 3 minute steep time after I’ve tried the company’s recommendations once.
Yay for all of us wimpy wimps! Or, rather, AWESOME PEOPLE.
I’ve found myself quite happy around 2 minutes as of late. Very few teas can hold up to longer steep times for me.
About to tealog the Tiger and I was skimming through tealogs I missed on its page. I’m also in agreement on the lighter steeps for strong black teas. I’ve been liking my Tiger at 3 min 30 sec, but haven’t tried him any lower than that. After reading your tealog, I’m going to try him bumped down next time I have him.
Many thanks to Ricky for sending me some of this extremely limited tea! I’ve been holding off reviewing this one for a while because I wanted to make sure I’d have ample time to give it my complete, undivided attention as it deserves. Unflavored blacks are my favorites, and from what I hear, this is quite good!
This is a very dark tea. One could easily mistake it for a cup of coffee if their nose wasn’t working right. It doesn’t smell anything like coffee, though. It smells sweet and smokey, almost like a BBQ but without the meaty-ness (I’m a vegetarian and I’ve never had BBQ’d anything, so my description might be a bit off – forgive me!).
The fist sip was very smokey and it had a slight honey taste to it. As I take other sips and hold them in my mouth longer, I can taste some caramel – wonderful, wonderful caramel. This is a very bold tea, no doubt about it. It’s not for the faint of heart. This could certainly stand up to some cream and sugar and I imagine it’d taste divine.
This was my first A&D tea, and it was quite yummy. Thanks again, Ricky!
P.S: Rawr.
DY-NO-MITE!!! Ooops, that’s not British!! ;)
I make my tea and drink it in front of the computer at work, so my reviews at work are very stream of consciousness rambling! At home, sometimes I pick up the laptop, sometimes I’m too involved in whatever I’m doing, but I do think of my reviews too if I don’t have my computer handy :)
LOL @ Ms. Jacqueline’s DY-NO-MITE!!! :D
Decadent? Not really “stunning,” but that’s all I got atm. And yes – I do think in terms of tea reviews whilst drinking. Otherwise all my notes would be “Tea good” or “Tea bad” and that doesn’t really help myself or others. I also can’t say that I’ve forgotten a word, but I remember cracking myself up about some thought and then forgetting what was so funny when I take the time to write the review. Ugh – I hate that.
I forget random words all the time I thought it was my ADHD. :)
i actually type little notes in the body of the email as i take pictures and email them to myself to post at night when i get home (i use my bberry to take pictures and email to myself)
lol @ JacquelineM!! :)
BRILLIANT! This cup of Tiger was absolutely brilliant and brilliant was the word I’d forgotten, which does not begin with a D or a DE. lol I was looking out the passenger window in the car driving past the highway on ramp yesterday when I thought about something else using that word and remember that was it, the word I was going to use to describe the Tiger and had forgotten. I’m surprised I remember it at all.
Horray for remembering!!!! Funny how things come to you when you are least expecting it!! :)
Yeah really, I know, right?