Mélange des Chérubins

I was thinking about stashbusting again this morning but I don’t think I have any black teas with just the right amount of tea in them for one cup. So I thought about teas I have had for a long time, and this one came to mind. I bought my Dammann teas a little over a year ago in Paris so I feel like I should probably drink them up (gives me an excuse to order more!). This tea is the closest to being finished of all of them.

Mm, it’s more delicious than I remembered (I guess that speaks well to the aging properties of these teas). Hazenutty, chocolatey, with a hint of citrus. A hint sweet, and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel. Really delightful. Dammann uses such great bases to their flavored teas, and it really makes a difference. Love it!

SIPDOWN #2 for the day! GONE!

I’ll miss this one…smells more like chocolate than it tastes but it’s yummy regardless. There really isn’t a flavor that stands out in front of the others – they all blend well!

Advent calendar day 11.

No additives, brewed at below parameters.

Holy wow chocolate. There was definitely orange in the dry leaf (and a nutty chocolate note there too) and that orange made it really seem vastly different from Harney’s Florence, even though they both are primarily chocolate and hazelnut.

The first sip of this was ALL chocolate. The scent was nutty and slightly citrus, but chocolate was pretty much it on taste. As with most of these teas, it’s pretty much all flavoring with no tea notes. Although, as it cools….maybe I get a hint of the tea more? OH, and orange does come out in the aftertaste.

Hmm, now there’s hazelnut first, then orange, then chocolate. WOW! This one is so fun because it literally changes with every sip! If I had gone on initial impressions I think Florence would have won hands down but this? This is a chameleon tea and I’m loving the surprise factor.

Oh, and since it is the 12th already – everyone else with the advent calendar, was your 12th day empty? It must have slipped into the column below (I could feel two bags so I pulled out the one on top) but now I’m not sure if it’s the right tea or not and I don’t want to post any spoilers if it isn’t. Sigh. Guess I’ll have to be patient and wait and see!

Paris has come to New Jersey! Dinosara was the kindest, most generous world traveler ever, and sent me some of her Paris teas from Mariage Freres and Dammann Freres! I didn’t know where to start! I bet she thought I was kidding when I said I was going to do eenie meenie miney moe to decide, but that is what I really did! (but I said "catch a Frenchman by the toe! instead of a monkey. Monkeys are for Chinese teas!)!

So, the Frenchman chose this one!

Divine Decadence! I taste a nutty, chocolatey tea taste, and then PING the orange on the end of the sip. It’s really delightful, round, and yes, decadent. It’s amazing how sweetly satisfying it is sans additions!

I did my first steep at 3 minutes, and there was a little thinness. For my second steep, I put in a little more leaf, took it to four minutes, and yes. There it is. French Perfection! No bitterness, no astringency, great flavor. I love it.

I must say, though, it certainly makes me not want to work! It’s making me dreamy! I want to sit on a park bench and read and watch the world go by when I sip something so lovely. Ah!

I think, after what happened friday and yesterday, we all need a bit of a calming cup. The actual drama bit wasn’t particularly nice, but I appreciated the things that were brought to light afterwards. It was very informative.

So here’s my calming cup. This one came to me from Dinosara. It has blood orange, chocolate and hazelnut in it. That sounds like a rather wonderful combination, doesn’t it? I can’t believe it was allowed to sit and be almost forgotten in my cupboard. (I think it’s because of the french name. I don’t speak french, so it doesn’t stick in my head.

I shared it with the boyfriend, who thought it smelled like christmas. I can sort of see where he gets that from, but personally I think it just smells like sweets. It’s very heavy on the chocolate and hazelnut in the aroma. Like a melted chocolate bar. I’m not sure I can find any orange in the aroma, because I can’t work out if what I’m smelling is really just another aspect of the hazelnut.

With the aroma being so thick and heavy, it’s almost a surprise to take a sip and find it not having the texture of aforementioned melted chocolate bar. Instead I find the orange is coming through here on the first half of the sip and then the rest of it being all hazelnutty astringency. I’m not sure about the chocolate, though. I can’t really peg it down but I feel like it’s there somewhere. Or rather, I feel like there would definitely be a difference if it wasn’t there, if you know what I mean.

This is not nearly as sweet as I was initially expecting, but apart from the very initial disappointment about this, I have come to decide that it’s probably for the best. If it had been sweet, I think it would quickly just have become rather cloying.

As I made a large pot to share with the male of the household, I used all the leaves I had been sent. Had I not done that, I might have used the rest in an experiment involving vanilla. (Lately I find that it’s all sorts of fun adding vanilla black to… everything.)

Day 11!

Hmmm. I am reluctant to say I am disappointed…

The dry tea sachet smells lovely. It is dark chocolate, sweet orange, and nuttiness. Maybe hazelnuts. Reminds me of Nutella. I am not a huge chocolate tea fan or a chocolate with orange fan, but this smell is very good.

The smell of the brewed tea is odd. I am not getting any of the chocolate-y, nutty notes. I get a strong sweet Ceylon tea smell. Maybe a hint of orange.

The taste of the brewed tea is what is disappointing. I am not getting much out of it. I can definitely taste the Ceylon part of the base. There is a bit of sweetness from a citrus. There is maybe a light nutty note, but hard to discern what kind of nut it is. I am not tasting any chocolate or orange. I may not have steeped for long enough. I did my usual 2 minutes, although it was probably around 2 min 30 sec by the time I got the tea bag out of the cup. The only problem is I am at work so I threw the teabag directed into the garbage so I can’t even try to resteep.

As the tea cools to about luke-warm temperature, there is a bit more of a thick orange flavour. Maybe some chocolate, but not quite. I think I am just trying too hard to taste these flavours.

I guess I can’t like all of Dammann’s teas, but I am not sure if this one is really their fault. After reading some reviews on this one, I am in the minority.

Day I-have-zero-idea-what of the Dammann Freres advent calendar.

This is delicious. Reminiscent of a far away nutella meeting up with a more-present orange that had a party in my tea cup. Smooth and perfect as-is.

Tea of the completely wrong time of the day…..I don’t usually drink tea in the evening, so lets hope I can go to sleep later…..

Tea 21 of 24……..This is from Dinosara from her world travels, and I feel so lucky to have a chance to sample the teas she brought back from Paris. Thank you! I usually find blood orange to be overpowering, but in this tea it is perfectly balanced with the chocolate and the tea base. I could not detect the hazelnut as a standout flavor, but I do think it was kind of the flavor that smoothed all the other flavors together, rather than being able to taste each on its own. I am definitely much more impressed with the flavored teas from Dammann Freres than the flavored ones from Marriage Freres.

angel tea!
and this is a tea i will probably buy a tin’s worth of.
i’m adding it to my shopping list for later.
this tea has everything i love in it.

i meditated today. a whole big 15 min too.
that never happens.
i really want to maintain a practice this coming year.
i guess IF i was a person who had new years resolutions, that would be one of them yup.
2014 2014 2014

We’re going to a seafood place for lunch today. My partner invited me to celebrate my teaching certificate (I passed in June but nevermind). When he asked me if I’d be interested in going to the restaurant this weekend, I thought he wanted to celebrate our one year anniversary, which was yesterday, but that was putting too much faith in his ability to remember any date that isn’t crucial to a video game. FINE.
I needed something comforting today, something that’d be just about me. I toyed with the idea of preparing a cup of rose scented tea (sweet revenge, he hates roses – try and kiss me now, darling) but my kindness will be my downfall. I retreated and picked Mélange des Chérubins for a sweet treat before our food orgy (seafood is my favourite food and I fully intend on demanding to be rolled all the way back to my house after the feast).

This is a pleasant tea (not mindblowing though). It’s warm and well-rounded – I was pleased to find the blood orange cutting into the sweetness of the chocolate. It’s a tea I could happily sip while doing my lesson prep as it doesn’t ask for too much of my attention. Not a favourite but I’m happy I have it.

And now I’m off to meet my lobster!