Flocons d'Épices

I really like the smell of this dry tea. I could wear it as a perfume with its citrus sweet spice notes. The orange is a sharp orange almost grapefruit flavour and the sweet aspects of this tea remind me of vanilla.

The tea is a nice copper colour, and smells of sweet spice over sharp bitter orange notes mixed with a hint of pastry from the tea base. The spice is more dominant than in the dry tea.

The sweet almost vanilla like flavour blends with the citrus notes, followed by cinnamon, nutmeg and more peppery spice. The tea has enough astringency to give the tea a thicker mouth feel and is otherwise sweet with a bit of malt. The spice becomes stronger as the tea cools, with the nutmeg making a stronger presence. A nice morning or afternoon tea, as the spice is warming but the sweet citrus creates a sense of brightness and alertness.

I bag in 10 oz for @ 4 min.

Day 2 of Dammann Freres advent calendar.

This tea is all cherry bubbilicious with hints of juicy fruit.

The smell of the dry tea is like the gum mixture as stated above. There is a sweet, citrus, but floral smell to the tea. The brewed tea is light and smooth. No astringency. I still get the cherry and juicy fruit flavours. I am getting sweet orange. I do not get much of the cinnamon or nutmeg. There is a sweet floral component to the tea. The tea is moderately thick and for some reason is reminding me of syrup (kind of like chokecherry syrup). Whatever is in this blend, it is pretty darn good.

I love French teas!

Advent calendar, day 2.

It’s funny how for the most part this has the exact same ingredients as Hot cinnamon spice by Harney & sons, but is completely different in taste.

For one, this actually tastes of citrus in equal parts with the spices. The Ceylon was a good choice as a backdrop because that always has a naturally bright orangey note to it. It’s such a sweet orange, too…a slightly spiced orange juice. It is very smooth without additives (I am thinking this is going to be a theme, and I like it!) and it really does evoke the sense of the holidays quite well.

Another winner for me!

Heh. So funny that I commented on this the other day with someone (yyz?) and now here it is, Day Two of the Dammann Freres 2013 Advent Calendar. Duh me.

This tea smells like Christmas to me, or at the very least, the holiday season. A hint of black tea with citrus (?) and another hint of clove. It’s got depth to it, and I’m just sitting here, sniffing it in. Just the smell alone is worth my getting more than this tea bag.

It’s still a bit hot for my tastebuds to really enjoy it, however this is a lovely tea. It’s sweet – sweeter than I was expecting – while full bodied. It almost smells like a green the more I drink it, even though it’s definitely a black. Zero astringency… smooth. Touch of black tea tannin in there to remind me, and the citrus lingers ever so slightly, even minutes after I’ve had a sip. A touch of Truvia lifts the citrus (and something else – cherry? fig?) to mouth-watering heights.

Yes, this is most definitely on my to-buy list.

Dammann advent calendar, day 2. Yay for christmas-y teas! From the description I think I was expecting some kind of typical orange-spice christmas blend, but I was pleasantly surprised when I sniffed the sachet. It smelled way more fruity than I thought it would! I think there is a hint of bergamot in this blend, and even though it only says citrus fruits I would swear there is fig in here. (Fortunately I don’t get cherry like Lala because I hate cherry flavor, haha).

Mmmm, this is lovely. I can taste the spices but they aren’t too spicy, they just complement the fruit blend very well. And that fruit blend! So much better than simple orange and spices. I do see where Lala is getting the “syrup” aspect from the texture, because it is thick and luxurious. That reads as fig to me, which adds to the holiday feeling. I could see restocking this one, definitely!

again with the cinnamon!
i think i knew which teas wouldn’t interest me from the advent calendar and saved them all for last cuz ie procrastinated. some that i expected to not like really did surprise me! but still a few of the teas were exactly what i expected. i gave it a go anyways :)

again i drank this one last night.
i bought chinese for the whole house to eat for new years eve dinner and we drank fancy beers until midnight. i was nice and relaxed and low stress.
i also finished the infinity scarf i was knitting.
i’m wearing it now. and it’s very comfy.
so that was the end to my year in a nutshell. and it was just as it should be.

Day 2 of the Dammann advent calendar! This smells quite citrusy when dry, mixed with other things I can’t pick out. The flavors are well balanced and the tea is smooth. No bitterness at all! It tastes fruity floral to me and those types of teas have to do something to really stand out for me to want to add them to my cupboard. Glad to have a chance to try this, but I’d pass on having this one join my stash.

Dammann Freres 2022 advent calendar Day 4. Ok. So. I understand that this is meant to be a gingerbread cookie-type tea. And perhaps that is the experience that others took away from this tea, in which case yay, I’m glad you enjoyed it! But I oversteeped by literally 45 seconds and ended up with something that tastes like one of those oranges with cloves stuck in it. And the thing is, the dry leaf smelled like that too, so I’m not sure how much of this was just about the oversteeping. I offered it to my partner, who rarely likes tea but does enjoy black tea from time to time, and he literally said that all he could taste was cigarettes because the clove was so heavy. Best case scenario is that the lesson here is to be very strict about steeping parameters with Dammann Freres teas, and this tea in particular!

This blend wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t special. I saw gingerbread on the bag of the bag/sample but it tasted like plain black tea to me.

Dammann Frères Advent 2021 – Day 8

This tastes like a super orange tea when had straight up, but when I add milk.. well, it still tastes like a lot of orange. However, the spices now come through, with strength, to create a bona fide dessert blend (it’s a total orange spice cookie). There’s ginger, but not as much ginger as I’ve seen in other DF blends; it’s sharing the heat agreeably with other spices, like clove and cinnamon. They’re a barky bunch but tasty; together, the citrus and spices give me a sense of “pine”, especially as an aftertaste.

I expect to see a few more similar"Chirstmas Orange" teas by the end of the advent, but I’d never pass up a cup during the winter months. This profile is festive and fleeting.