Christmas Tea Blanc

Advent calendar, day 14.

Per usual, no additives, because the tea doesn’t need it. Served with German Pancakes for a really awesome Sunday breakfast

The dry leaf definitely smells like cough syrup. It’s the cherry flavoring, I’m sure. Anyway, I have learned not to put too much stock in their dry leaf scent because it always turns out okay once the water hits. I will say this, though – the pink flowers in this blend and the white tea leaves looked absolutely beautiful while steeping. I’m not a particularly visual person (auditory learner, don’t know how to accessorize a room to save my life) but I had to stop and watch for a while just because of how pretty it was.

Yup, the steeped tea has a beautiful clear, pale yellow liquor and a slightly more natural cherry scent. Taste wise the cherry is at the forefront ant it surprisingly a fruity, bright pie cherry flavor. I excepted the spices and more of an almond cherry, but I prefer this so I’m not complaining. I guess there’s a hint of cinnamon trailing behind the cherry notes, but again, it’s more like pie filling than anything else.

As it cools the white tea becomes a little harsh/astringent but that may be the effect of the nuts becoming more prominent in taste as well. Either way, I prefer this more when its warm but there isn’t much left to drink up now.

Eh, it was good for a one tea bag attempt, but I’m not really clamoring for more.

My daughter came to join us for Thanksgiving dinner today and brought a gift with her. She said this was part of my Christmas present but that I needed to open it now because it was something for DURING the holidays.

It was the adorable Dammann Freres coffret with two tins of Christmas tea! I made the white tea after lunch because I wanted to share it with her and she really does not like black tea….at all!

This is very fragrant and right away evoked memories of Noél a Londres by the same company, just with a white base. SQUEEE! After the tea is gone, I will have to repurpose this beautiful box and the tins!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24998856@N06/8209475645/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24998856@N06/8209475451/in/photostream/

Haha, oh, wow. Flashback to childhood, white milky liquid penicillin. At the hospital they always said, ‘Oh, no small child can swallow pills this big,’ but I very happily did, seeing as the option was that terrifying milky-thick, fruit-flavoured stuff. I’ve sort of gotten over artificial banana to some degree, but artificial cherry? Never. One sip of Dr. Pepper and I start to cry, begging for mercy.

This is just me and my freaky hangups, though – I gave a collection of DF’s Christmas teas to my friend when she came to visit me right before the holidays, and she allegedly loved this one.

Anyway, this isn’t necessarily artificial – it’s pretty much what candied cherries, or cherry preserves taste like – there’s sweetness and that hint of bitter almond. Both in the nose and in the cup, the cherry/almond combination is what comes through most noticeably. It’s a nice flavour idea for Christmas, and the dry tea is really gorgeous.

Just not for me.

[From my epic Instant-Thé order to Rome, October 2013.]

Day 14!

The dry tea is so very pretty. New colour scheme for my house maybe? Ha ha. The dry sachet smells of delicious cherry candy and maybe some vanilla, or at least something creamy.

I made this to brave out shopping with me. Wasn’t even shopping for me. My brother keeps texting me with his shopping list. I have been done my list for a month now. I hate holiday shopping. And the roads are super bad today, winter bad. Guh! Anyway, my contigo mug kept is super warm so I am drinking it now to de-stress from my outing.

Anyway, this one is sadly reminding me of soap. Like if you are staying at a kind of fancy hotel and they have delicious smelling little soaps in the bathroom. It tastes like cherry and lavender to me. It is definitely a very thick and creamy liquor. The cherry is sweet and artificial candy like.

Unfortunately I am not liking this one a whole lot. Well still almost half of the calendar to go so I am not worried, ha ha.

Dammann advent calendar, day 14. Yay, another one I haven’t tried! I am excited about the almond and spices, but perhaps not so much by the cherry. Well, I’ve had other cherry Dammann teas before and enjoyed them pretty well.

However, this is just a big nope for me. Very cherry candy. I drank about half the cup and couldn’t finish it. Just not my type of flavoring!

thank you missB Admittedly white and green teas are not often my thing. I find their tastes either beyond me or too vegetal for me to love. I picked this one today because a) it’s a quick sipdown and b) in my sickness i seem to be enjoying the lighter teas.

While i am a fan of this blend, it’s not one that i could drink all the time. This is a cherry tea, with the almond missing for me, but the spices being present in the background. I would enjoy this as an occasional cup in my cupboard for sure. Thanks missb!

Officially the most expensive tea I’ve ever purchased. It also came in the 2013 advent calendar, however I think I sent that mini package along so that someone else could try it, too. For future reference: even though the Christmas packaging is stunning, buy this in the plain 100g bags on Cadeau Vendomme in the future.

This is a gorgeous tea, and takes up a lot of space. Used 1.5 tsp for the cup just in case. It brews up a light yellow, and smells like honeyed cherries – an unusual yet breathtaking smell to me.

Drinking this is like art: it’s savored, taken in, and enjoyed fully. I normally shy away from cherry teas (too medicinal usually, and kinda yuck), however this one? Light and true cherry, with something sweet and gentle tickling my palate. It’s beautiful, and I’m really glad I tried some tonight.

day 14 of the advent calendar that APPARENTLY I’m drinking all 24 teas today.
the problem is that if you asked me, at the moment, I would tell you that all their xmas teas are cherry teas. they really like cherry teas. just think fruit cake I suppose.

I sang a fruit cake song in chorus when I was in 6th grade. i think i sang the part of cinnamon.

From yesterday, Christmas

The dry tea looks pretty and Xmasy. Red, green and white bits. My first sip was strange tho. It was almost medicinal cherry. Like those sore throat lozenges that leave the back of my mouth and throat feeling odd. I was hoping their white teas might sit better with my palate, but this one is actually worse than the blacks.