Noël à Prague

This is an enjoyable tea. The primary flavors I am getting are caramel and fruit. The fruit smell fits with papaya for me, but the taste may be closer to the Grand Marnier spiked plum jam I used to make each year. The black tea base lets the nice flavoring down, so next time I’ll try adding a bit of high grade black tea with some caramel and chocolate notes to see what happens.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – December Theme: Holiday Teason Tea #30

additional notes:  Penultimate steep session of one of my favorites!  Oh no!  IS there any source for DF teas in the US?  A much needed cup of reliable comfort today.  I kind of fell off track with counting the holiday teas I have been drinking, as my internet has been shaky recently.  Certain people in my life are making it a much tougher year in possibly the toughest year for most people in the world.  So I’m wishing you all the best of everything and happy holidays and as much enjoyment as possible in this final week of 2021!  I hope 2022 is a better time for us all.
Other holiday teas: Bird & Blend – Figgy Pud (31)
Angry Tea Room – Gingerbread (32)
Bird & Blend – Snowball (33)
Davids  – Sweet Potato Pie (34)
Also, I see no mention of a Bird & Blend boxing day sale which is odd?

This is another of my new DF teas from the group order. I picked this one mainly because I was curious about the vodka flavoring. I mean, how can a tea taste like vodka? Alas, it looks like I may never know because that’s one note I’m not getting from this one. What I am picking up on, though, is all prune. I know it’s an old lady kind of flavor, but I happen to love it, and it’s something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a tea before. Fresh plum, sure, but never prune. The caramel is the next strongest flavor, with just a tiny hint of cocoa in the background. I don’t know about the clementine either, but it may becoming through in the tart brightness I’d initially attributed to the prune. My one complaint is that the base seems a little flat—it could be that I need to go a little heavier on the leaf, though; I’ve been doing my standard 1 tsp/8 oz water but next time I might go up to 1.5. Even so, this is a delicious and unique tea, and I’m thinking it’s one I’ll want to restock whenever my next DF order comes around.

I think when we ordered this we expected more subtle blend. This is too strong for us. The scent is very strong and the flavor is definitely fruity and sweet. The scent in the empty cup afterward is also very sweet. The taste of the tea itself doesn’t really come through as much as we’d like. We’ll probably give this one another shot with hotter water, but it’s probably ultimately not going to be for us.

It’s almost time for my Dammann Freres advent calendar! I’m honestly just getting more and more psyched as the days go by…

Had this one cold brewed today; maybe it was the prep style or maybe it’s because I’m actually not sick anymore but regardless of the reason this tasted so different than that first time I had it. Not in a bad way; but like the orange notes weren’t nearly as strong and I really, really picked up on the sweet, dark, and almost ‘unrefined’ tasting cocoa notes. Sort of like baker’s chocolate, in a way? I think maybe some of what made it more bittersweet than rich/creamy was the vodka/alcohol undertones throughout the infusion though. Still don’t understand how they nailed that flavour so well.

Hooray for continued exploration and observation, though!

The tea that I brought with me on my trip to Italy, the tea that holds dear memories. This is the Dammann tea that I’m most looking forward to buy again. I was curious but sceptic when I decided to buy this because the flavouring is quite special… Vodka, prunes… But it smells delicious and it tastes delicious!

My tea consumption has really sucked over the last week, between my mom coming back into town for a few days and getting lazy with cold brewing tea. As a side note, my glass jug has been sitting in the fridge for nearly a week now, empty, waiting for a good scrub down, and haven’t had the chance to get a bottle scrub brush.

This is really juicy and bursting with prunes today. So unique and vibrant. No need for any additives. I know I haven’t given it the best rating in comparison to other DF teas, but it’s still worth trying out if you’re into prunes, which hey, I am, but not sure if I’d want a full 100g bag of this.

This tea came from Stephanie. She was talking about it in Steepster chat and it sounded amazing! Luckily she was sweet enough to send me a sample in my holiday package. I’ve been pretty impressed with Dammann’s teas, especially after doing their advent calendar this past year. This one has small black leaves and there are pieces of dried fruit and some flowers included.

Steeped tea smells of dried fruit and a touch of booze. Flavor-wise, it’s pretty subtle. I can taste the prune, and it’s dark and rich and yummy. There’s also a little bit of a booze note from the vodka. Perhaps a little bit of almost-bitter cocoa? Overall, it’s yummy, especially for a dried fruit lover like me.

WOW YUM! Also funny that both teas I drank today had heavy raisin/prune notes. This one is flavored that way, obviously, but tastes very natural. Plump and juicy prunes nomnomnom. It also really did sort of taste like vodka. And although I don’t get a chocolate note, it is naturally sweet tasting. VERY good. Dammann Freres FTW.