Noël à Prague

Mmmm, time for an order of DF teas. And I get to start with one of my favorites (#40). I love the blend of caramel and fruit and general deliciousness here. Not sure why these flavors go with Prague (I will always think of the almond-cinnamon-sugar spit-roasted pastries called trdelnik), but I had a great time in Prague so it’s nice to have a yummy tea to remind me of it.

This is another great tea from the awesome package yyz sent to me.
To me this is mostly caramel black. It’s quite sweet, and nice creamy caramel. I’m not sure I’m getting the boozy vodka from it, but I do agree that the flavors deepen as it cools
Not worrying about what it “should” and just accepting it for what it “is” – this could be my favorite caramel black tea. It’s really nice. I like it a lot. Thank you so much yyz for including this for me to try.

Day 17!

I can’t believe I am 17 days in already. I feel like I have travelled through France with all of these Noël teas.

This one smells deliciously, caramel and chocolate, very sweet.

In the brewed tea I am not getting any chocolate or cocoa taste at all. I do get dark caramel. I am unfortunately not getting any vodka taste. I would have liked to have added vodka to this tea but I am at work. There is a slight prune taste but it does not have the sweetness a prune has. I get a candied orange peel taste at the end of the sip. This tea liquor is very thick. We are back to the thick and luxurious Dammann tea again, yumm!

This one really does benefit from a longer steep time and from being allowed to cool to get the full benefit of its flavours. I steeped it for around 6 minutes this time with no ill effects. The tea has a thick slightly chalky texture on the tongue from the cocoa and the prune. At short steeps I find the flavour is dominated by the prune and clementine which reference some of the flavours found in really fruity ceylon with the citrus notes thinning out the plum/prune flavour. At longer steeps the flavours balance each other better. Caramel adds a richness to the tea and softens and dulls the fruit a little and the cocoa becomes more present in the blend. I do taste the vodka, but not as an alcohol/liquor taste but more as coolness added to the taste and a slight mineral note. I don’t find this to be an over the top sweet dessert tea, but a comforting, soft, sweet, sweet and slightly fruity tea. The Clementine note intensifies as it cools with the caramel being the second most dominant note underneath with the cocoa adding texture and depth. This tea grows on me every time I drink it.

thank you to yyz for this lovely cup… and after a loooooong day!

be wary when a prof brags that a course does not hold exams- what they may actually be saying (as in this case) ‘all the time i would expect you to be studying for exams you will instead be working your butt off in other ways times 2!’ fascinating, brilliant, exciting….. also exhausting! lol.

dragged my butt up the stairs and cast about in yyz’s envelope for a ‘feels right’ sample. ooh, christmas in prague? sounds good!

i did have momentary concerns. the dry tea has a heavy smoky component… not usually my thing. i skimmed over the ingredients- VODKA? hmm. jury was out on that one; i had no idea what effect that would have on a tea! lol. the only way to know was to boil the kettle and add h2o.

with water the smoke vanished. deep purple almost overripe but not quite plums…. stonefruit! like when you bite a bit too deeply and your teeth graze the pit. there is a hint of stone flavour in this blend!

don’t think i’d want to drink it every day, but a lovely experience and one i’d be happy to repeat from time to time.

this is a clever tea.

Another one of the wonderful samples from Dammann Freres’ advent calendar.

Smells really odd out of the package – like chocolate prunes? Then I looked at the ingredient list. Okay! This smells as it should. Steeped, I actually get the texture of prunes (interesting) and dark, bitter cocoa. A little bit of sweetness brings out the orange/clementine a bit more. Missing all of the caramel, however it’s still really yummy. Steeped for only three minutes, and I think that’s what I’ll do for the rest of these instead of the recommended 4-5 minutes.

Day 17 of the Advent calendar. Confession: I gave day 16 to my mom when she was in town because she LOVES figs. Given how spot on the flavorings have been I really wanted her to have a chance to try it. So, no note from me for that one.

With THIS tea, I actually was able to identify a smell before looking at the description! And it was a weird smell to get, too. But the dry tea bag really did smell JUST like prunes. Kind of grapey, kind of raisiny, the boyfriend is convinced it’s fig, but NOPE. It is definitely prunes. I am super proud of myself. :)

Steeped at the below parameters with no additives.

The steeped tea still smells pruney, but there is a sugary sweetness in there, too – most likely the caramel. Caramel and prunes are a weird combination, I won’t lie. I would never in a million years have put them together.

Flavoring is chocolate/caramel first and then…prune. There is a citrusy note to it, though, kind of like stewed prunes that my mom makes (and incidentally, are really good). The ingredients also said something about vodka flavoring, but I didn’t think vodka had any flavor, and I’m not picking up on whatever that supposed flavor may be.

This was pretty good – I still can’t reconcile why chocolate and caramel and prune were put together, but if anyone can do that kind of blend, and do it well, Dammann can. I’m going to be so bummed when I don’t have a new tea from them each morning!

oh damn gurrl this rulez!

i’m so so so glad i got the advent calendar. they took it down off their website now. but that’s okay. i will continue to order 100g bags from them. using the teas i got to taste this winter and the taste profiles/descriptions i’m sure i’ll make some good choices in the future.

also, i’m kinda a chocolate tea fanatic. so if you get me with one tea, you probably have me with all the chocos in your catalog.

Fruity caramel – very nice! This one surprised me since I was not really liking the dry leaf smell. Boiling water for 4 min produced a lovely sweet aroma and the first sip was very good. An enjoyable tea to add to my tea cupboard!

Delicious! When I bought my advent calendar this year, I took the opportunity to buy a few extra teas. My husband wanted the Christmas Tea since he loves cherry teas, I wanted Mon Petit Chocolat and this was my chance to add to the order (15 euros for shipping was too good to pass up – Thank you Dammann!!!). This was one of the teas I tried out of curiosity and I’m so glad I did because it has given me a chance to try different brewing times and see what I like best.

The dry leaf is all prunes and while I actually like prunes ( I can’t figure out why so many people in America have a grudge against prunes. They’re delicious once in a while, so sweet and thick), I can imagine it’s not a flavor too many people love. Brewed for 4 minutes at 195F, the prunes still dominated the flavor with caramel second, a sort of booziness, and a hint of chocolate last. It was very good but you would have to like prunes.

This morning, I forgot to turn on my timer and I let it steep for probably 6 minutes and suddenly I went from liking it to loving it! Just like that! The flavors are much more balanced and I get much more caramel along with the prunes. So good! The vodka (I could not have picked it out but I can recognize it) is light and so is the chocolate, but it’s there. The combination works really well. Definitely a winter, rainy day tea. So cozy and thick. And it gets even better as it cools.